From The Vanderbilt Republic :

From 1975 to 1979 the Khmer Rouge shattered Cambodian society, butchering millions to reduce Khmer culture to “Year Zero”. Specifically targeted for torture and eventual slaughter were the nation’s artists and intellectuals; given the scale of this devastation, a near-extinction of Cambodia’s master artists resulted.

Traditional Cambodian arts teaching is oral, and a direct connection between teacher and student has carried the nation’s arts through millennia. Pol Pot’s nationwide persecution of culture brought an entire way of life to an end in four short years.

What exists today in Cambodia grows from the ashes of unimaginable tragedy.

But thanks to the ongoing efforts of Cambodian Living Arts’ teachers, staff, board, and wide network of supporters, an exciting traditional arts renaissance is fully underway. The next generation of Cambodian artists are embracing their national heritage, renewing what Pol Pot once sought to eradicate. What remains is to communicate this rebirth to the world.

From The Vanderbilt Republic :

From 1975 to 1979 the Khmer Rouge shattered Cambodian society, butchering millions to reduce Khmer culture to “Year Zero”. Specifically targeted for torture and eventual slaughter were the nation’s artists and intellectuals; given the scale of this devastation, a near-extinction of Cambodia’s master artists resulted.

Traditional Cambodian arts teaching is oral, and a direct connection between teacher and student has carried the nation’s arts through millennia. Pol Pot’s nationwide persecution of culture brought an entire way of life to an end in four short years.

What exists today in Cambodia grows from the ashes of unimaginable tragedy.

But thanks to the ongoing efforts of Cambodian Living Arts’ teachers, staff, board, and wide network of supporters, an exciting traditional arts renaissance is fully underway. The next generation of Cambodian artists are embracing their national heritage, renewing what Pol Pot once sought to eradicate. What remains is to communicate this rebirth to the world.