The relation of natural environment and cultural activities in Southern Khmer

Abstract

The Khmer in Vietnam stand out with cultural activities imbued with ethnicity. Notable cultural activities such as Du Ke theater arts (in the Mekong delta) and the Phuoc Bien worship ceremony (in Soc Trang province) are formed by Khmers who made use of living space, natural materials, and geographical conditions in their process of renovating the Southern wild land. Based on the fieldwork, observations, interviews old-aged Khmer people living in Tra Vinh and Soc Trang provinces, the author clarifies the effects of the natural environment on the cultural activities of the Khmer ethnic group in the Southern region through the above two festive activities, contributing to the understanding of ethnic cultural identity of Vietnamese in general and Khmer in particular.