The Denial of Female Power in Cambodian History Trudy Jacobsen
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Revising accepted perspectives in the history and geopolitical organization of Cambodia since c. 230 C.E., this is the first study to address the place of women in the longue durée of Cambodian history. Women had a ‘high status’ in pre-modern Southeast Asia; this is LOST constantly stated, especially in relation to discussions on the status Jacobsen of women today in the region. Why, then, is it that the position of women in Southeast Asia today is far from equitable? Few studies have examined how or when – let alone why – this change came about. GODDESSES In a narrative and visual tour de force, Trudy Jacobsen examines the relationship between women and power in Cambodian history. The Denial of Female Power Here, she seeks to describe when and why the status of women changed and what factors contributed to these changes. Although in Cambodian History Cambodian women have been represented at different times as LOST GODDESSES ‘powerless’ in Western analyses, the author argues that they have continued to exercise authority outside those areas of concern to Western constructs of power. Trudy Jacobsen is an ARC Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University. In Lost Goddesses, Trudy Jacobsen argues vigorously that high born and ordinary women played far more important roles in Cambodia’s past than other historians have been willing to suggest. Moving confidently across millennia of history, and drawing on an impressive range of sources, she has written an enthralling, path- breaking and persuasive book. – David Chandler, Monash Asia Institute GENDERING ASIA a series on gender intersections www.niaspress.dk Trudy Jacobsen Jacobsen_cover.indd 1 14/3/08 14:15:46 LOST GODDESSES Jacobsen_prelims.indd 1 27/3/08 12:41:50 GENDERING ASIA A Series on Gender Intersections Gendering Asia addresses the ways in which power and constructions of gender, sex, sexuality and the body intersect with one another and pervade contemporary Asian societies. The series invites discussion of how people shape their identities as females or males and, at the same time, become shaped by the very societies in which they live. The series is concerned with the region as a whole in order to capture the wide range of understandings and practices that are found in East, Southeast and South Asian socie- ties with respect to gendered roles and relations in various social, political, religious, and economic contexts. Gendering Asia is, then, a multidisciplinary series that explores theoretical, empirical, and methodological issues in the social sciences. Series Editors: Wil Burghoorn, Gothenburg University, Sweden; Cecilia Milwertz, NIAS – Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, Denmark; and Helle Rydstrøm, Linköping University, Sweden. Contact details and other information (including members of the international advi- sory board) can be found at: http://www.niaspress.dk. Working and Mothering in Asia Images, Ideologies and Identities Edited by Theresa W. Devasahayam and Brenda S.A. Yeoh Making Fields of Merit Buddhist Female Ascetics and Gendered Orders in Thailand Monica Lindberg Falk Gender Politics in Asia Women Manoeuvring within Dominant Gender Orders Edited by Wil Burghoorn, Kazuki Iwanaga, Cecilia Milwertz and Qi Wang Lost Goddesses The Denial of Female Power in Cambodian History Trudy Jacobsen Jacobsen_prelims.indd 2 27/3/08 12:41:51 Lost Goddesses The Denial of Female Power in Cambodian History Trudy Jacobsen iii Jacobsen_prelims.indd 3 27/3/08 12:41:52 Gendering Asia, No. 4 First published in 2008 by NIAS Press NIAS – Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Leifsgade 33, DK-2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark tel (+45) 3532 9501 • fax (+45) 3532 9549 email: [email protected] • website: www.niaspress.dk © Trudy Jacobsen 2008 All rights reserved. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Jacobsen, Trudy Lost goddesses : the denial of female power in Cambodian history. - (Gendering Asia) 1. Women - Cambodia - Social conditions 2. Women - Cambodia - Political activity - History I. Title 305.4’2’09596 ISBN-13: 978-87-7694-001-0 Typeset by NIAS Press Produced by SRM Production Services Sdn Bhd and printed in Malaysia Jacobsen_prelims.indd 4 27/3/08 12:41:52 This book is dedicated to the women of Cambodia in the hope that greater knowledge of their past can make for a better future. Jacobsen_prelims.indd 5 27/3/08 12:41:52 Jacobsen_prelims.indd 6 27/3/08 12:41:52 Contents Preface xi Glossary xv 1. Introducing the Goddesses 1 Framing women and power in Cambodia • Principles for a methodology covering 2000 years • Reading the past in the present 2. Devi, Rajñi, Dasi, Mat 17 Mythological role-models • Queens among men • Deconstruct ing Jayavarman II • Women, ‘matriliny’, and marriage • Beyond the elite 3. Behind the Apsara 42 A fall from grace? • The kanlong kamraten an • Women of the palace • Social strictures and daily life 4. Goddesses Lost? 74 Patron princesses, querulous queens • Life at court • Beyond the palace walls 5. Hostages, Heroines and Hostilities 109 The reign of Queen Ang Mei • The misogyny of Ang Duong • The Cbpab Srei • Revisionist (female) histories 6. ‘Traditional’ Cambodia 131 Love and marriage • Women in public and private • Female power in the spiritual realm 7. Cherchez la femme 148 Exoticism and ‘encongayment’ • Emancipation and exploitation • The (failed) institutionalisation of midwifery • Education and exhibition • Constructing a ‘traditional’ Cambodian identity 8. ‘Liberation’ 181 Sex in the Sangkum • Private spaces, sacred places • The Khmer Republic • Fine lines: Mobilisation and morality Jacobsen_prelims.indd 7 27/3/08 12:41:52 Lost Goddesses 9. Into the fields 218 The gender-neutral state • Obedience and obfuscation • Gendered punish- ment • The triumph of ‘tradition’ 10. Picking Up the Pieces 238 The People’s Republic of Kampuchea, January 1979–April 1989 • The State of Cambodia, May 1989–September 1993 11. Contemporary Conspiracies 259 Locating women in contemporary Cambodia • Male culture and double standards • Complicity in the foreign quarter • Advocating women’s rights (or not) 12. Goddesses Found 284 Bibliography 291 Index 321 viii Jacobsen_prelims.indd 8 27/3/08 12:41:52 Contents List OF Figures 1.1 The spread of Indian and Chinese cultural influences in early Southeast Asia 3 2.1 Early Cambodia – ‘Funan’ and ‘Zhenla’ 18 2.2 Durga as the Slayer of the Buffalo-Demon 21 2.3 Preclassical ‘Cambodian’ polities, c. 700 24 2.4 Genealogies of Vyadhapura, Aninditapura, and Śambhupura 26 2.5 The marriage alliances of Jayavarman II 29 3.1 Classical Cambodia 43 3.2 Gauriśvara, a dual form of Śiva and Uma riding the bull Nandin 44 3.3 Antecedents of Yaśovarman I, Mahendradevi and Jayadevi 51 3.4 Relationships between kings and kanlong kamraten an 55 3.5 Relationships between the people listed in inscriptions of the Mahidharapuran kings 58 3.6 Woman in childbirth and attendant midwives 61 4.1 Middle Cambodia 76 4.2 The heartland of Middle Cambodia 77 4.3 Neang Preah Dharani 79 4.4 Me Penh 82 4.5 Women of the palace 91 5.1 Cambodia in the nineteenth century 110 5.2 Genealogy of Ang Chan and Ang Mei 111 6.1 Photograph of Mhek Noun, c.1910 139 7.1 Cambodia and the expansion of French Indochina 149 7.2 Monument at Wat Phnom depicting the return of Battambang, Siem Reap and Sisophon provinces, represented as submissive women, to the Cambodian king in 1907 156 8.1 Queen Kossamak 183 8.2 Cartoon depicting a woman who is ‘bigger’ than her husband 194 8.3 Girls and young women in the Jeunesse Socialiste Royale Khmère 203 ix Jacobsen_prelims.indd 9 27/3/08 12:41:52 Lost Goddesses 9.1 Yuvea jun neung yuvea neary [Revolutionary male and female youth] 221 9.2 Mass wedding organised by ‘Angkar’ 225 9.3 Huot Bophana, taken before her execution 226 9.4 Chan Khem-Saroeun and infant, Tuol Sleng 227 10.1 Villagers, Kompong Speu, 1989 239 10.2 Rural women selling food by the roadside, Kompong Speu, 1989. 240 10.3 Cover of Meun Thalla, Vijjea apram satrei khmei [Manual on raising Cambodian women] 247 11.1 Number of women in high political office, 1993–2001 261 11.2 Cartoon in Khmer Women’s Voice Center Magazine 277 11.3 Postcard on sale in the central post office in Phnom Penh, December 2005 279 12.1 Statue of Preah Dharani, Phnom Penh 289 x Jacobsen_prelims.indd 10 27/3/08 12:41:53 Contents Preface met Peou a little before midnight in a Phnom Penh nightclub. She was hovering nervously near the door and appeared not to know anyone in the teeming crowd of predominantly male aid workers, diplomats Iand tourists, and scores of young Cambodian women. At first I didn’t realise what was different about her. Then I saw that unlike the standard srei bar uniform of t-shirt and miniskirt or jeans, she was wearing a white, collared blouse, buttoned almost to the neck, such as schoolgirls wear, and a sampot, a skirt made from patterned silk or cotton. Usually sampot are ankle-length, but Peou’s had been cut to just above the knee and neatly hemmed. When Peou discovered I spoke Khmer, she began telling me excitedly about herself. She had come from Kompong Speu province that day at the suggestion of her mother’s cousin in order to find work in a factory. She had found none, but had met a very nice older woman in the market who invited her to stay at her house with other girls from the provinces, some of whom were coming to this nightclub and had suggested Peou come too in order to meet a foreign man who would marry her and take her overseas. Wanting to appear unprovincial, Peou had altered her sampot into what she perceived as a more fashionable approximation of the Western miniskirt.