At Wat Reach Bo in Siem Reap, the sound of monks giving their afternoon prayer duels with the nearby pounding of drums.
Inside an old wooden building, which houses the NGO Cambodian Living Arts’ Heritage Hub, five women in their 20s are rehearsing with Khmer traditional drums, or skor. In the sweltering afternoon heat, sweat pours down the women’s faces as they strike the drums with either their bare hands or with sticks, and clap, dance and cry out. Their expressions are hard – even war-like – with smiles breaking out here and there.
Known as Medha, meaning “sagacity”, the band is taking on gender imbalance in traditional Khmer music – especially in the instrument perhaps seen as the most masculine.
Over the past five years, the Heritage Hub has been working to preserve various traditional art forms. However, for manager Song Seng the mission is not only to preserve the legacy from previous generations but also to create new forms of art to be passed on. That’s why last year he initiated a project to sponsor innovation among local artists.
“While outlining the project, we also considered the social issue related to art,” Seng said. “Then, the issue of domination by men in playing drums came up.”
According to the manager, a woman playing skor goes against the generally held conventions of their physical beauty.
“People believe that playing drums, either with sticks or hands, will cause a woman to grow muscle, and according the local stereotype, she will be considered unattractive,” Seng says. “Meanwhile, many think that women could not play drums well because the drums are too heavy for them.”
