A Cambodian wedding, as shown above, will be reenacted at the Lowell Folk Festival. Ponleur Cheath (this photo), a traditional Khmer wedding band, will also perform. Courtesy photos

Music for a Marriage

Traditional Cambodian wedding ceremony will be a centerpiece at Lowell Folk Festival
By Kathleen Pierce, kpierce@lowellsun.com
Article Last Updated: 07/22/2007 06:58:13 AM EDT

LOWELL -- Weddings have taken place during the weekend of the Lowell Folk Festival, but never with the fanfare that's on tap this year.

In traditional Cambodian pomp, members of the Angkor Dance Troupe will reenact a Khmer-style wedding that would typically last three days. This includes more costume changes than you'd find in a Mariah Carey show, symbolic gestures that would make a curmudgeon misty and music that takes Cambodians back centuries.

Throw in Ponleur Cheath, an in-demand Khmer wedding band that doesn't quit, and we've got ourselves an early contender for the most multifaceted act this year.

"It's really a show, a fashion show," said Duey Kol, logistics coordinator for the festival, who helped pull the

performance together.

The Lowell band is one of three traditional wedding bands that are booked every weekend. Their music, called phleng kar, is seldom still heard or taught outside Cambodia. Of the seven members, lead Phan Bin, who plays tro sao (stringed lute), is in his 70s. A 17-year-old

bell player rounds out a sound that can be haunting to the uninitiated yet spiritual to natives.

"It takes me back to a time of the ancient world. A lot of people never get to hear this kind of music," said Kol, a Thailand-born Cambodian who now lives in Lowell.

In a swirl of vivid color and eloquence, a 30-person procession will take over the Market and Lee street stages next weekend giving festival-goers a taste of a real Buddhist-inspired sacrament, sans monks. The mock ceremony will include such rituals as the blessing of the strings around the bride and groom's wrists and a holy haircutting that signifies a husband and wife's new life together.

All the while music will resonate through the cobblestone streets, keeping time with the polka and gypsy jazz reverberating nearby.

"It has tradition and religion tied together, so the music is better appreciated if there is a ceremony that takes place," said Kol.>

No simple affair, Khmer weddings retell the myth of the marriage between the first Khmer prince, Preah Thong and Naga princess Neang Neak. A foreigner exiled from his homeland, the prince fell in love with the Naga princess, one of a mythological race of supernatural beings. For a wedding gift, the princess's father did one better than Tiffany's. He swallowed a part of the ocean and out came the land of Cambodia.

A traditional Khmer wedding lasts from three days to an entire week.

Three is considered lucky for Cambodians because of the three jewels of Buddhism: the Buddha, the Sangha (brotherhood of monks), and the Dharma (Buddha's teachings), said Kol.

"A Cambodian's life is their wedding. A proper Khmer wedding is very colorful and filled with ceremonies and celebrations," she said.

Forget Vera Wang; the threads the dancers will be wearing during the ceremony will be sewn on early in the morning. And costume changes will be made several times.

To condense three days into one hour, the group will perform the groom's processional, cleansing ceremony, knot-tying ceremony and the honoring of the mother -- a part of the ceremony that is as teary as it gets, said Kol.

"Everyone cries."

Ponleur Cheath performs Saturday at the Market Street Stage from noon to 1 p.m., Lee Street Stage from 2:15 to 3:15 p.m. and Sunday at the Lee Street stage from 2:45 to 3:45 p.m.