Archive note: This text comes from the old archive of Nomika Epilekta and is preserved with care for historical and informative reading.

The Khmer are otherwise extremely friendly, very courteous, modest and, usually, rather indirect. That last point is of course somewhat relative: they are indeed indirect compared with us Greeks, and Europeans generally, but compared with Thais and Vietnamese they are rather straightforward, even indiscreet, and clumsier in their flattery.

The smile is a great environmental asset in all these countries. It is part of the image you receive whenever you go out, and it compensates for a great many things, such as the ugly architecture, which increasingly covers over the French one, hardship, dirt, or begging. Of course, no smile in the world guarantees the wonderful things it promises, not even real courtesy or respect. Yet in superficial to non-existent contact with people in the street, in shops and in restaurants, the smile truly creates a pleasant feeling that those who have experienced it cannot forget. Especially if, after Southeast Asia, you suddenly find yourself in Greece with its grim and permanently angry faces, you may fall into a manic-depressive crisis... Truly, a “smile” campaign in Greece would do no harm, since it is now close to becoming the homeland of institutionalized malice.

On this point the Khmer are smarter than we are. They know that they cannot expect anyone’s love and compassion unless they themselves behave in a lovable way. So, then, we do have something to learn even from them, the “servile” ones, since that is how every polite person is described in Elladistan.

The Cambodian smile seems warmer than the rather standardized and painted-on Vietnamese one. It comes closer to the Thai smile, but is still happier and more “innocent,” more convincing. As in Thailand, moreover, the smile is also a class phenomenon. The people smile; the higher ranks are rather sour, and sometimes even grim, like us.

According to the prevailing view in Indochina, the Khmer are a people with ultra-conservative values in theory and nonsense in practice. Here too, however, the matter is class-based, because the ruling class seems to insist more on conservatism and supposed puritanism, while the poor classes are much more unbuttoned.

Here we have already entered the fields of “class struggle” in Cambodia. I put it in quotation marks because the Khmer fully accept the existence of enormous differences between classes as a natural phenomenon; and if Karl Marx had tested his theories in such a country, he would certainly have disowned them with disgust himself, if he had not meanwhile committed suicide... I said “natural,” but extreme class differences in Cambodian society are probably regarded as a “supernatural” phenomenon, since social contempt, even physical disabilities, are attributed to bad “karma,” that is, to sins in a previous life.

The class character of everything is deeply rooted in thought and even in language, which means it will not be easily eliminated unless there is first a linguistic reform roughly like the one the Social Democrats carried out in Sweden, where they abolished formal “you” and now say informal “you” to everyone, even to the prime minister. Formal “you” is now used only for the king; if you use it in conversation with an ordinary mortal, it signals sarcastic and aggressive behaviour. Perhaps, then, linguistic reform should come first, and legal and economic reform afterwards...

Thus one of the most difficult chapters in the grammar of the Cambodian language is learning how to say “you,” or at least the polite “you,” because different pronouns are used depending on who is speaking to whom, the age of the speakers, their social standing and so on. In addition, most verbs, especially those expressing ordinary actions of daily life, such as “eat,” “walk,” “see” and so forth, differ according to social class. You use one verb when the king eats, something like “dines,” and another when a poor fellow eats, something like “wolfs down,” let us say... We can understand this even better if we think in Greek that a human being dies, while an animal croaks. Finally, all these differ according to gender as well. Even something as elementary as yes or no is different for men (“ba” - “bate”) and for women (“ja” - “jate”).

The Cambodians are a beautiful and, deep down, good-natured and lovable people with a simple, almost childlike psychology. As in almost the entire third world, their culture, apart from being class-based, is also purely rural, which is visible everywhere. They wake at dawn and sleep early at night; when they eat at table, they behave literally like pigs, with incredibly noisy chewing, constant burping and hiccups, throwing leftovers and chewed bits on the floor, and so on. If someone is a little squeamish, it is best to avoid eating with them... Like all rural populations, in matters of quality of life the Khmer are interested in quantity rather than quality: for example, large but badly built houses instead of smaller but better ones, and lots of money in the bank but a miserable way of life. In addition, they are extremely prone to superstition, folk cures, magic, spells and the evil eye; they firmly believe in ghosts and the like. As soon as they hear that I have diabetes, they rush to bring me various practical remedies usually based on sweet fruits and herbs, in other words just the thing for a suicide...

Thus the president of the Court of First Instance in the city of Pursat once told me, and meant it seriously, that if any robber attacked me in the street, I should recite a sacred phrase seven times, which would certainly force him to leave.

This phrase, if anyone wants, or rather has time, to try it, comes from the sacred Indian language Pali of the Buddhists, and is as follows:

Poto Patang Nyak - Nyak Tang Arahank Poto

A trial will convince you. At most, the robber may take you for an escaped inmate of the asylum and flee in terror, which of course would be the desired result...