De rituel local à patrimoine national, réflexions sur l’expression rurale d’un théâtre au Cambodge

Abstract

The lkhon khol is a Cambodian theatre that belongs to court arts and that is, in its ritual form, traditionally staged in a village in the surroundings of Phnom Penh, as part of the worship of tutelary spirits of a delimited territory. Managed by local authorities (troupe chief and Buddhist monastery), the theatre is also linked to a broader authority (the royal court until the 1970’s, then the ministry of Culture from the 1980’s onwards). The troupe and its practice of theatre have gone through many changes during the 20th and 21st centuries which, without altering the ritual character of local performances, engaged the rural population and administrative or religious authority figures related to this troupe in a dynamic of redefinition of rural theater as a cultural patrimony. This article offers to follow the conceptual reconfigurations (religious, socio-economical and political) encountered by this local theatre in order to discuss the articulation of territorial, patrimonial and authoritative spheres that infuse the theatre’s practice.

Keywords

• Lkhon khol
• Theater
• Heritage
• Cambodia
• Ritual