Literature

I am happy to share with everyone that Wat Phum Thom pagoda has made great progress because of the dedication of our communities and monks. In June of 2011, an additional 15 students will be ordained as monks to introduce and preserve the culture and religion of Dharma. Please see the attached recent photographs of the school progress. It is on the way to completion, and I would like to appeal to all world Buddhists on behalf of Wat Phum Thom pagoda for generous contributions to helping poor children and also helping preserving Theravada form of Buddhism in South Vietnam.

Thank you,
Khmer Krom Children

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  School

13 Years ago, late venerable Ly Sang came to Phum Thom and established the Wat Phum Thom temple, resided there as the abbot and later went on to try to create the first Khmer language classroom in the province. This was in Binh Phuoc province, South Vietnam. Although Lok Ta (Khmer word for revered monk) Ly Sang passed away without seeing the fruit of his labor, his legacy and great devotion to the preservation of Khmer language lived on. Today, thanks to his work, Wat (temple) Phum Thom host a thriving number of students attending its Khmer language class each evening. Sometimes the small temple class would be completely packed, with all the rows occupied and every spaces and chairs crunched in so closely together that one could not escape a vivid conjuring of a huge centipede moving with its long stretch body of rows and all the students as its great many limbs .

June 26, 2009---Ven. Thach Ne and Thach Sathoul of the Pothivong temple in Saigon are embarking on a grand mission on a small local effort, step by step, they are bringing back Khmer literacy and teaching Khmer Krom children in Binh Phuoc province to learn their native Khmer language and the language of Buddha, Pali.

For majority of the students who come to learn at the Wat Phum Thom (វត្តរាជចាក់មហាគេតាក់វណារាម) pagoda, this would be their first time ever at seeing what Khmer writings looks and sounds like.

Where as before, they passed writings on the wall off with a mystical glance now they are making out the spelling and can scribble copies into their notebook and pride themselves on the ability to pick out the characters of the alphabet.

Lesson 1: Grade 1, Provided by KhmerSchool on YouTube

YouTube these days have a plethora of information, video information that is. These information ranges in all topics and category; how-to's, tech talks, music videos, and tutorials.

In recent months there have also been an increase in diverse contents from different people as well, cultural specific contents are becoming more available and YouTube continues to be enriched by these different contents.

Searching for topics on Khmer Language for example, I found several uploads by different authors on learning how to read and speak the language. Starting from the elemental, alphabets to higher level reading.

Here for example, video tutorial uploaded by KhmerSchool teaches viewers about the vowels of Khmer alphabets. This is part of a series of lesson with 23 parts.

I encourage all Khmer Language students check out these videos. It is very helpful. You can also visit this website goCambodia for comprehensive reading lessons

The Somdach Choun Nath dictionary is one of the most comprehensive and standard Khmer dictionary available today. The Cambodian Buddhist Institute has published digital version of the dictionary for public use and is free of charge to download.

The dictionary is an excellent tool for student learning Khmer language and pronouncing the words correctly. You do need first have a basic skill in reading Khmer. This dictionary also have a good repository of Pali/Khmer words that are commonly and uncommonly used and are generally explained in good detail on proper usage of each term.

You can download from the Khmer Buddhist Institute by clicking the download link below.