UKS Culture Show 2008: Tum Teav (3/9)

Organization: UCLA United Khmer Students
Event: UKS Culture Show 2008: Tum Teav
Date: April 19, 2008
Location: Freud Playhouse, UCLA

Tum Teav is a classic tragic love story that has been told throughout Cambodia since at least the middle of the 19th century. It is originally based on a poem. It was popularized by writer George Chigas and has been a compulsory part of the Cambodian secondary national curriculum since the 1950s, akin to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet in western education. As with any oral tradition, pinning down the origins of the story is an elusive task. The story is believed to have originated in the 17th or 18th century and is set in Kampong Cham around a century earlier. However in some versions the king in question is purported to be the Rea-mea who reigned in the mid-1600s, coming to the throne through an act of regicide and subsequently converting to Islam.

The tale relates the encounters of a talented novice monk named Tum and a beautiful adolescent girl named Teav. From the first sight, Tum, the monk, was in love with Teav, a very beautiful young lady. It is reciprocated and Teav offered Tum some betel nut and a blanket as evidence of the feelings she had for Tum and prays to Buddha that the young monk will be with her for eternity. Tum was very pleased to accept the offers, to see she felt the same way he did. He initially spends some time in Teav's home despite her being 'in the shade' (a period of a few weeks when the daughter is supposedly secluded from males and taught how to behave virtuously), and wastes no time in abusing the mother's hospitality by sleeping with her daughter. Teav's mother is unaware of this event and has alternative plans, intending to marry her daughter off to the governor's son (she dropped the idea when her daughter was chosen to be with the king, but resurrected it as soon as she learned that her employment at the court wasn't leading anywhere). She feigns illness as a ruse to lure Teav to her village whereupon she tries to coerce her into taking part in the wedding ceremony. Tum turns up with an edict from the king to stop the ceremony, but on arrival instead of presenting the order, he gets drunk, announces he is Teav's husband and kisses her in public; his behavior gets him killed, and only after that does the governor discover the king's letter. Teav commits suicide.

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• ucla
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• khmer
• students
• 2008
• culture
• show
• tum
• teav
• cambodian
• folk
• tale