Remembering the spirits who return to this material world

Pchum Ben – the Festival of Ancestors – is, along with Khmer New Year, the most important in Cambodia’s Buddhist calendar. No matter how busy people are, they will spend time preparing food and going to the pagoda with family and friends.

“The word Pchum in Khmer means ‘to meet’ or ‘to gather’,” explains Phal Lean, an elderly monk at Puok pagoda, which is situated 10 kilometres from Siem Reap city. “And the word Ben refers to the balls of rice. So, in other words, Pchum Ben means to collect food to give to the monks.”

The monks, who are intermediaries between this world and the next, fulfil a vital role at Pchum Ben, the 15-day festival that marks the time when the spirits who are residing in hell – the pret spirits – return to the world of the living in order to receive offerings from their relatives.

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