ខ្លែងឯក (Khlaeng Ek) | Singing Kite
The khlaeng ek is a very special instrument unique to Cambodia. Possessing a large body which some Cambodian people liken to a woman’s ovaries, it produces mournful sounds while flying as wind passes through its bamboo resonator. In the past, farmers would build the instruments after the harvest, raising them into the sky above the rice field and allowing their sounds to fill the air through the night. Skilled kite-makers can produce resonators yielding numerous distinct pitches and tones; we can imagine rice fields as a veritable symphony of sounds.
Today, few people possess the knowledge and skill to build the kites. During the Khmer Rouge period, kite flying was banned, and it was subsequently dangerous to fly kites in many places because of the pervasiveness of land mines in the rice fields. And yet provincial kite-builders and the Cambodian Ministry of Culture are striving to revive the practice, hosting an annual Kite Competition and striving to incentivize the transmission of this skill.
In Kampong Thom, a province situated between Cambodia’s most famous cities of Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, I visited a kite-maker known as Ta Khlaeng - Uncle Kite - to learn about his craft. Our journey is documented below.
