Last week, King Norodom Sihamoni inaugurated the renovated Preah Vanarat Ken Vong library, Cambodia's largest repository of manuscripts, located in the Wat Ounalom pagoda.
The library is part of a project run by the École française d'études asiatiques (EFEO), which has preserved tens of thousands of Cambodian manuscripts. It serves as a research and conservation centre for Khmer manuscripts, accessible only to researchers. To date, more than 125,000 pages of manuscripts have been collected and preserved, perpetuating the legacy of the venerable Preah Vanarat Ken Vong.
Originally built in 1920 as a monastery for monks, Wat Ounalom was later used as a Buddhist institute from 1992 to 1998. The Fund for the Preservation of Cambodian Manuscripts (FPCM) project was not initially based at Wat Ounalom, but was moved there in 1999.
In 1992, the Venerable Preah Vanarat Ken Vong entrusted the repair and inventory of these manuscripts to the EFEO-FEMC team. By 2021, the centre had considerably expanded its collection of manuscripts, in particular from the Cambodian monasteries of Kampong Cham province, considerably increasing the number of texts conserved.
The centre is directed by Olivier de Bernon and Leng Kok-An, head of the manuscript preservation department, plays a key role in the acquisition of new manuscripts from Cambodian monasteries.
In 2024, the building deteriorated and was renovated thanks to funding from the family of the late Chea Chanto, former governor of the National Bank of Cambodia.
The Preah Vanarat Ken Vong Library has an important history linked to the preservation of Cambodian manuscripts. It bears the name of the late venerable abbot Preah Vanarat Ken Vong, who played a crucial role in collecting and safeguarding a vast collection of manuscripts after the devastation of cultural heritage by the Khmer Rouge regime.
Historical context
After the fall of the Khmer Rouge in 1979, many historical manuscripts were left abandoned as the population struggled to rebuild their lives. The regime had systematically destroyed much of Cambodia's cultural heritage, including religious texts and historical documents. It is estimated that up to 80% of all manuscripts were lost during this period.
Collection efforts
In this difficult environment, Preah Vanarat Ken Vong began collecting surviving manuscripts from various pagodas across Cambodia. His efforts led to the creation of a major repository of around 3,400 manuscripts at Wat Saravan, making it one of the largest collections in the country.
Cultural significance
The manuscripts collected by Preah Vanarat Ken Vong cover a wide range of subjects, including history, religion and cultural practices. They are mainly written on palm leaves and bark paper, reflecting traditional Khmer literary forms dating back several centuries. This collection is considered essential to understanding Cambodia's rich history and cultural identity.
Today, the library continues to serve as a centre for the research and preservation of Cambodia's literary heritage. It highlights the efforts made to recover and conserve what remains of the country's historical documents and manuscripts.
The legacy of Preah Vanarat Ken Vong and his library is a testament to the ability to preserve cultural heritage in the face of adversity, ensuring that future generations can access and learn from Cambodia's rich historical narrative.
École française d'Extrême-Orient
The École française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO) was founded in 1898 in Saigon, Vietnam, and has since established several institutions in Cambodia, including the Conservation du site archéologique d'Angkor, the École de Pali, the Phnom Penh National Museum, the Royal Library, the Buddhist Institute and the Vat Poveal Museum in Battambang. EFEO researchers began working on Cambodian manuscripts at the beginning of the twentieth century, mainly on the canonical and commentarial texts of the Pali canon that were accessible in Phnom Penh at the time.
Cambodian Manuscript Fund
The Fonds pour l'Édition des Manuscrits du Cambodge (EFEO-FEMC) was set up under the aegis of the École française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO) in 1990 with the aim of systematically inventorying and photographing preserved Cambodian manuscripts. The work of the EFEO-FEMC was funded from the outset by the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and carried out in consultation with the Cambodian Ministry of Cults and Religion and with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts. Since 2012, the work of the FEMC has continued independently of the EFEO, with the approval and financial support of the Cambodian government and the advice of Professor de Bernon.
The main Cambodian members of the EFEO-FEMC team are Mr Kun Sopheap, Mr Leng Kok-An, Mr Thaong Yok, Mr Ly Sovy, Mr Yun Polbo, Mr Ros Soksambo, Mr Vann Narith, Mr Suon Kosal and Mr Tom Saroeun. Since its creation, the EFEO-FEMC has visited more than a thousand monasteries, mainly in Phnom Penh and in the provinces of Kandal, Kompong Cham and Siem Reap. Just over a hundred of these monasteries still had a collection of manuscripts. Long-abandoned palm leaves were often found wrapped in orange cloth, sometimes hidden in places such as false ceilings unknown to the current occupants of the temples, having survived thanks to the faith and courage of the people who took the risk of protecting them during the regime of Democratic Kampuchea. In Siem Reap province, only one large manuscript library remains, at Wat Thipadey (Vatt Dhipatī), although surveys conducted in 2020 as part of the Khmer Manuscript Heritage Project revealed a number of less complete manuscript libraries that still exist in Siem Reap.
EFEO-Preah Vanarat Ken Vong Library
The project has also worked on the main collections that were once part of the library of the Buddhist Institute and are now held by other institutions in Phnom Penh. The most important of these are the manuscripts saved and collected by the Venerable Preah Vanarat Ken Vong. In 1992, two years before his death, he entrusted the restoration and inventory of these manuscripts to the EFEO-FEMC team. The resulting collection of more than 125,000 pages is by far the largest in the country and forms the EFEO-Preah Vanarat Ken Vong Library, now housed at Wat Ounalom.
In 1996, the EFEO-FEMC team discovered Cambodia's only major manuscript library spared from the destruction of war and the Khmer Rouge - Wat Phum Thmei Serey Mongkol (Vatt Bhūmi Thmī Sirīmaṅgal) in Kampong Cham province. When the 50,000 scattered folios were fully restored in 1998, two-thirds of the resulting 1,210 manuscripts were found to be complete, making this collection an essential tool for the identification of other texts. In 2002 and 2003, smaller parts of the collection of the former Buddhist Institute held by the National Museum and the National Library were also restored and inventoried as part of the project.
During the conservation work, each palm leaf folio was dusted and cleaned, and oiled where necessary, before being assembled to recompose the fascicles, manuscripts and manuscript bundles. It was sometimes necessary to re-ink the folios in order to obtain clear images.
Once they had been photographed, the manuscript fascicles were tied with combined silk and cotton cords, and the manuscripts were bound between wooden covers surrounded by protective wrappings of woven bamboo and cloth. These traditional cords and wrappings were made by elderly men and women in workshops set up by the project. The EFEO-FEMC project has also donated display cases for preserving the manuscripts.
Alongside this important conservation and preservation work, the EFEO-GFC project has published the first and last volumes of the encyclopaedia, the Encyclopaedia of the Khmer Language.
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