George Chigas

Scholar of Cambodian literature and culture who recorded oral histories and photographs of Cambodian American life in Lowell, Massachusetts.

Creator details
Roles	Oral historian; Scholar; Author; Educator
Based in	United States
Subjects	History & Remembrance; Literature & Storytelling; Migration & Diaspora; Language & Literacy

George Chigas is an American scholar, translator and writer of Cambodian literature and culture who taught at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. He translated the Cambodian verse novel Tum Teav into English, and his work in Lowell's Cambodian community since the 1980s is kept in photographs, interviews and writing.

Education

Chigas earned a bachelor's degree in classical studies from Tufts University in 1980 and studied multicultural education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1989. He earned a master's degree in Asian studies from Cornell University in 1997 and a doctorate in Southeast Asian languages and cultures from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, in 2002.

Career

In 1985 Chigas began working with the Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association in Lowell, first as a volunteer and then on its staff. He also managed the Angkor Dance Troupe. In 1987 he wrote an 84-page paper on Cambodian traditional crafts and religious ceremonies and recorded an oral history interview with Venerable Sao Khon on literature and folklore. In 1988 and 1989 he coordinated a Southeast Asian exhibit at the Whistler House Museum.

In the late 1980s he helped resettle refugees through Lowell's International Institute. He then worked at the Philippine Refugee Processing Center in Morong, Philippines, and in 1989 he visited the Khao I Dang and Site II refugee camps on the Thailand-Cambodia border.

From 1998 to 2001 Chigas was associate director of the Cambodian Genocide Program at Yale University.

At UMass Lowell, as an associate teaching professor, Chigas taught Cambodian language, literature and cultural history, coordinated the Asian Studies minor and directed the university's international partnerships for Cambodia. His research centers on Cambodian literature and culture and on genocide and survivor literature. In June 2015 he spent a month in Phnom Penh leading four UMass Lowell students in an exchange with students of the American University of Phnom Penh. In 2017 he took part in the Southeast Asian Digital Archive at UMass Lowell, a project led by S. J. Kim that received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Creative Economy Initiatives Fund.

He is now an emeritus associate teaching professor in the Department of World Languages and Cultures. As of 2026 he lives in Siem Reap, Cambodia. That year he moderated a Center for Khmer Studies lecture on the costume and dress shown at the Baphuon temple.

Tum Teav

Chigas first took up Tum Teav as a graduate student, after his Khmer literature teacher told him that the story was essential to understanding Cambodian culture. He spent more than four years on the translation. Tum Teav: A Translation and Literary Analysis of a Cambodian Classic (2005) translates the 1915 version of the romance written by Venerable Preah Botumthera Som, and the translation runs to 252 pages. He calls it the tragic love story of Tum, a talented novice monk, and Teav, a beautiful young girl.

Photographs and collections

Chigas has photographed Cambodian community life in Lowell, and the George Chigas Collection holds his photographs of Cambodian sites and ceremonies in the city. The UMass Lowell Library keeps two collections of his work. The Southeast Asians in Lowell Collection, 1987-1989 includes his 1987 paper, the Sao Khon interview and his photograph "The Craftsman: Carving." Photographs of Refugee Camps in Southeast Asia holds digital scans from his own photographs, in three series. The first, from the Philippine Refugee Processing Center in 1989, shows Khmer New Year celebrations with performances, games, a parade and traditional rituals. The second, from Khao I Dang, shows food distribution, dance and music performances and job training. The third, from Site II, shows food sellers and views of the roads.

Works

• Oral history interview with Venerable Sao Khon (Recording)
• Chigas, George. Southeast Asians in Lowell Collection, 1987-1989 (Collection)

• Chanthy's Garden, poems (Loom Press; 1987 in the library guides, 1988 in his faculty profile)
• Cambodia's Lament: A Selection of Cambodian Writing (1991)
• Wind and Rain; Dreaming of Sugar Cane; and Waiting for E.S.L. Class (1992)
• Resolute Heart: Selected Writing From Lowell's Cambodian Community (1994)
• The Emergence of Twentieth Century Cambodian Literary Institutions (1999)
• Three Brothers (1999)
• "Cambodian Survival Literature: Questions of Definition," The Bridge Review (1999)
• Review of Cambodian Shadow Theater by Pech Tum Kravel, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies (1999)
• "Putting the Khmer Rouge on Trial," with D. S. Cook, Bangkok Post (October 31, 1999)
• "Cornering the Khmer Rouge," Bangkok Post (March 19, 2000)
• "A Litmus Test for Hun Sen," Bangkok Post (March 21, 2000)
• "The Politics of Defining Justice After the Cambodian Genocide," Journal of Genocide Research (2000)
• "The Trial of the Khmer Rouge: The Role of the Tuel Sleng and Santebal Archives," Harvard Asia Quarterly (2000)
• Cambodia (2005)
• "Cambodia's Lost Literary Life" (2016)
• "Bearing Witness to Cambodia's Horror, 20 Years After Pol Pot's Death" (2018)

See also

• Angkor Dance Troupe
• Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association of Greater Lowell
• Center for Khmer Studies
• All creators

References