Let's see how it's really done, original Khmer-style!
Madame Ling Lebrun of Kep, California, and France (here at her Kep home about to depart for a short journey to Phnom Penh, 6 January 2015)
Scott Neeson, the former Hollywood film executive very much at home with the 1,200-plus children of the Cambodian Children's Fund he founded in 2004, here at the former dump site ("Smokey Mountain") of Stung Meanchey (Cambodia, May 2013)
The krama goes on a safari! Great to see the former Hollywood-mogul-turned-Cambodian-children advocate Scott Neeson on holiday for once (Sunset / Erindi Private Game Reserve, Namibia, Feb. 2015)
Ms. Nak of Kirirom, May 2015
THIS is how it's done! Visal as seen at Brown Cafe on 11 Dec. 2011.
World renown artist Linda Saphan-Pirozzi with daughter Italian-Cambodian-American beautiful Sothea Saphan-Pirozzi wrapped up in family love and their kramas in their Greenwich Village home (Photographer: John Pirozzi, NYC, 20 Nov. 2010).
Sothea Pirozzi with her Oum Theary Seng showing off their kramas in Greenwich Village (Photographer: John Pirozzi, NYC, 20 Nov. 2010)
Theary Seng meeting with NomiNetwork (Co-founder Diana Mao and prolific blogger Stephen Bauer) Kramas at Starsbuck (NYC, 20 Nov. 2010)
Khmer woman in Kien Svay (Photo: Heng Sinith, Oct. 2010)
The very cool, highly acclaimed cinematographer Rithy Panh in classic Khmer krama showing how it's done (Bophana Center Phnom Penh, 2010)
Walk in beauty - in your krama! Reasmeiy Angkor and her absolutely adorable son of Long Island, NY at the beach in August 2010, and wrapped up in family love (and krama sling) at home. Growing up escaping the bombs, landmines, and gunshots of the Khmer Rouge Regime and the Vietnamese invasion/occupation along the Cambodian-Thailand borders in the 80s, my mak (mother) used to carry my baby brother Ravi with a krama and later my youngest brother David in Camp Site II. I watched all the elders use the krama for many different tasks including bathing, sheltering themselves from the hot sun when walking or working outside, or using it to kangaroo their baby in the front or on carrying them on the back. So when I became a mother not too long ago, I continued the tradition because no matter where I go in the world, the Krama will always be a part of my life. It is beautiful, useful, and the true fabric of every Khmer soul. Much love and blessings to all Khmer around the world for keeping our tradition alive. Walk in Beauty, Reasmeiy Angkor.
The vivacious Mona Kem campaigning for her father in the traditional krama in Rattanakiri, 2003.
Still vivacious, now deputy director of CNRP public relations, Monovithya Kem in Kampong Cham (Aug. 2014)
Wearing krama, Theary. Off to talk about the Khmer Rouge era with my former student Lara Finkbeiner to Ann Arbor middle schoolers (Charles Sullivan of University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Dec. 2011)
Thavry Thun breezily wrapped in a classic krama, exceptional student of and photo sent in by Charles DiBella of Kampot, 2010.
Timothy Chhim of New York City donning the krama on his visit to his native Cambodia (Dec. 2010). Krama has been a part of my life. My mother, God rest her soul, used it as my tiny hammock to swing and comfort me when I was then a baby. She would use it to shield her and shade me from the scorching sunrays. Krama dried our sweats and tears. I used krama to bathe in a pond, a river or just to wear at bedtime…it could comfort my heart and protect my lung. During my last trip to Cambodia, the krama helped me in the electoral processes, it warmed people’s heart, and calmed their spirit and it could make me look “attractive.” I also used it at work… and to play with my grandchild… and I can go on… Last, but not least I find women with krama beautiful and sexy, too. So will you start wearing a krama? Try it. Thanks Theary Seng for creating the Kramanation.
Norith Neang (Photo: Roland Eng, Veal Sbov, Nov. 2008)
Villagers comforted by their kramas recount the loss of their land to Vietnamese encroachment in Memot (Kampong Cham province), 5 Dec. 2010
2 friends, Chhay Chenda and Meghan, in their kramas shopping at the Russian Market, July 2010
Very suave, Balazs Maar! I first met Balazs when he interned with the ECCC Victims Support Section in Feb. 2008; recently he left the Victims Support Section as a consultant, the last UN staff to be there (!). Here at Metro Cafe (Phnom Penh, 26 July 2011)
Mr. Kimsong who has lived in Stockholm, Sweden since 1974. Here at a cafe in the Stockholm's posh Riddargatan neighborhood, 30 Oct. 2010.
Former Liberian Commissioner Pearl Brown Bull wrapping Theary Seng in Khmer krama, African-style. (With Ugandan James and Sierre Leonean John, bottom photo). Sando, Sweden, 24 Oct. 2010.
