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They remember their roots

Cambodian immigrants find a sense of belonging as they come together to celebrate their homeland's New Year with prayer and feasting.

By SHADI RAHIMI
Published April 16, 2006

ST. PETERSBURG - Silver pots of rice clanged among the rhythmic chanting of monks. Barefoot children giggled, running across colorful knit rugs. Perfumed women, draped in sequins and satin, knelt before an altar to whisper prayers.

Their hands folded, they lit incense and asked Buddha for luck in the New Year, which began Thursday in Cambodia but was widely celebrated Saturday in the United States.

Hundreds of Cambodian immigrants gathered in a St. Petersburg banquet hall to celebrate the Cambodian New Year with feasting and prayer.

"We do all of this for the new spirit to come in and the old spirit to go out," said Paulina Saing, 41, a Cambodian refugee who lives in Kenneth City.

The festivities are both religious and secular. In the morning, Buddhist rites were observed. Later in the day, the gathering turned into a party.

While Cambodia is overwhelmingly Buddhist, many immigrants have converted to Christianity since their arrival. Some came for the evening party. Others skipped Saturday's events, choosing instead to celebrate Easter.

"To me it's a day for remembrance," said Rany Kuch, 37. "When New Year comes, I remember what people would do, how they would come together. But I do not participate because I'm Christian."

While the way that Cambodian immigrants celebrate the holiday has changed after decades in the United States, most have one terrible experience in common: escaping the terror of the Khmer Rouge regime, which ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979.

"They killed everyone and made children like me work in concentration camps," said Sinatra Ath, 35, who lives in St. Petersburg.

Ath was living in the Battambang province when the Khmer Rouge completed its conquest of the country. Between 1975 and 1979, an estimated 7.1-million people were killed.

Cambodian refugees began trickling into the Tampa Bay area in the late 1970s. Many were sponsored by families or churches that gained converts in people like Kuch, who no longer goes to temple or worships "idol monks like I used to," she said.

She converted to Christianity after fleeing with her mother and sister. Like most, the three escaped by running through minefields and hiding in jungles until reaching a United Nations refugee camp in Thailand, she said.

They now skip the traditional celebrations to attend Christian church services during the New Year, as does Sara Im, 50, a Largo resident.

Im said she first considered converting after seeing the kindness shown by the church that sponsored her. Her mother remains a devout Buddhist. Im doesn't view converting as rejecting her past.

"It's not leaving the past behind," she said. "It was a long process. In the old belief, we did not have a savior, you have to do everything on your own; you don't know where you're going after your life. There was no assurance."

Now, in Cambodia, more Christian churches are cropping up than ever before, said Piseth Sok, 36, a Christian convert.

An immigrant who lives alone in St. Petersburg, Sok attended the New Year party at the Lithuanian American Hall at 4880 46th Ave N., because, he said, it is the only place for those without family to meet other Cambodians.

"I tell people, "If you don't know anybody, and you don't have a family here, just wait until New Year,"' he said. "Everyone will be there."

Saturday morning, the banquet hall was filled with the sounds and smells of the spiritual celebration: the steady chanting of the four monks seated cross-legged on a stage; the loud laughter of friends and family members reunited; the sweet scents of incense and warm, sticky rice presented in silver bowls as offerings.

"All year long, the Cambodian people grow rice, and during this season, they harvest the crop," said Komar Svay, 67, of the Cambodian Buddhist temple in St. Petersburg. "Now it is time to celebrate."

[Last modified April 16, 2006, 00:42:15]