Cambodian Culture Day, which was hosted April 29 by the College of Education, featured traditional Cambodian music, ancient artifacts and cooking lessons by special guest Narin Jameson.
The event celebrated and showcased special pictures and stories from Lehigh’s partnership with Caring for Cambodia, a non-profit charitable organization that works to help pave a better future for children in Cambodia.
The event opened with a slideshow of photos from a trip taken by a Lehigh students who traveled to Cambodia to experience the culture and help children in-person. This program helps teach students to work in a foreign country, and they learned about how to take these programs and make them sustainable, enlarging its impact to other parts of Cambodia.
Pictures on the screen at the event including sweeping views of Cambodia, the country’s capital Phnom Penh, children feeding cows early in the morning before school, Global Citizenship students enjoying tuk-tuk rides in Siem Reap, children at recess and students in Caring for Cambodia classrooms.
The special guest, Jameson, is the author of “Cooking the Cambodian Way: The Intertwined Story of Cooking and Culture in Cambodia.” Jameson wrote the cookbook to share her personal recipes, a keepsake and written record of her heritage. All of the proceeds of the cookbook go to the Caring for Cambodia organization, and help to support the children and their educations.
“Cambodia is one of the oldest cultures in the world,” Jameson said. “If we don’t keep it alive, it will disappear.”
Jameson, who was born in Cambodia and lived there until age 37, was compelled to visit Lehigh to share her story. She said she feels showing her recipes to the younger generation will help to preserve her culture. Her cookbook contains her mother’s recipes as well as what she learned from other cooks in Cambodia.
Event attendees were shown how to make the traditional foods and also had the opportunity to taste. Jameson used spices and ingredients such as dried shrimp, garlic, pounded coriander, French shrimp, peanuts, corn oil, coconut milk and chocolate.
“We planned for up to 100 people to attend the event,” said Chelsea Cooper, a graduate student and event coordinator. “We didn’t think we would have quite this many.”
This was the second year Lehigh hosted this event. The goal was to spread awareness about Cambodia, its culture and its children.
Ovie Ojeni, ’18, said although he wasn’t familiar with the Cambodian culture, he was curious about it.
“I tag myself as a global citizen, so naturally I want to get more informed about these cultures,” Ojeni said. “I heard about this organization from a few friends. It is a different type of Asian culture that is very exotic and different.”
Ojeni said it was nice to learn about a country that isn’t always spotlighted.
Learning about Cambodian culture is important for any college campus, because there is often a Cambodian student population on campus.
“If we are saying we are an inclusive school, we should be embracing the Cambodian culture to make these students feel like they are at home,” Ojeni said.
The Caring for Cambodia organization is present on campus and hosts fundraising events to increase appreciation of and knowledge about Cambodian culture.
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