Creator
Ith Pen
Cambodian bokator master who founded a school in Kampot and later documented the art's techniques.
Ith Pen was a Cambodian master of Bokator, the Khmer martial art, who founded the School of Bokator in Kampot province in 1995.[1] He taught there until 2013 and then turned to documenting and researching the art's techniques and history. He died at the age of 84.[1]
Life and teaching
Ith Pen was a veteran soldier as well as a martial artist.[1] He learned Kun Lbokator from masters in his village and later trained others there.[2] For decades he passed his skills from one generation of Cambodians to the next. From the school's founding in 1995 until 2013 he trained generations of well-known practitioners, among them the action star Sam Tharath. After he retired, he kept working on documenting and researching Bokator.[1] His student Sen Somat inherited the school. Sen Somat remembered him as a skilled traditional healer who treated villagers with generosity.[1]
In his later years he ran the Meanrith Keila Club in Kampot with Master Sen Sam Ath, and he helped supervise training by correcting techniques.[3][2] Sam Tharath said that some original Bokator lessons and forms were lost with his death.[1] His funeral was held in Kampot city, with officials of the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts attending.[1]
UNESCO nomination
Cambodia's nomination of Kun Lbokator to UNESCO named Ith Pen as one of nine masters who represent the tradition. These masters have trained many apprentices, and most of them teach for free or for small fees within their communities.[3][4] Practitioners have also formed clubs to carry the art on and make it more widely known.[3] In a letter supporting the nomination, Ith Pen asked that the Kun Lbokator he had learned and passed on to his students be added to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. He wrote that listing would make it known across the world and help it last.[2]
Works
- Bokator (Tradition)
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Khmer Times, Bokator master Ith Pen dies at 84
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, letter of consent from Kun Lbokator bearers (PDF)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, Kun Lbokator nomination file (DOC)
- ↑ UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, Kun Lbokator nomination (PDF)