The Story of Cambodian Characters Resembling People
Letters, like living organisms, transform themselves and society.
A Southeast Asian nerd designer's Khmer script tracker

Cambodia is a place that has been somewhat overlooked by the public.
How much impact would the existence of a unique script have on the daily lives of distant strangers? "A Journey Through Khmer Script" is a kind of report arguing that writing is a product of society, revealing the history and culture of its users.
The English word 'character', which represents a character in literature, also means 'letter'.
Khmer script is the most 'characteristic' of all the scripts in the world.
Khmer script resembles a person.
The names of each part of the letters are also related to the body, and each of the 33 consonants symbolizes a part of the body.
This book introduces the story of Khmer script, which resembles a person, as a cycle of birth, growth, adulthood, middle age, and old age, comparing it to a person's life.


Author Noh Seong-il speaks of ‘people’ through Khmer script.
Rather than a story about Cambodia surrounded by outsiders' frames of underdeveloped economic conditions, famous tourist destinations, a country of foreign workers, and Orientalism, it draws out the unvarnished stories of several Cambodians themselves, bound together by the theme of Khmer script.

When I was young, I once dreamed of becoming an archaeologist.
In Egypt, in the middle of the Amazon jungle, an Indiana Jones-like archaeologist discovers ancient civilizations and solves mysteries of the past.
I woke up from my exciting childhood dream without even realizing it, but I still harbored a desire to experience the charm of Angkor Wat, which had always appeared in adventure movies and news reports, with my own whole body.
One day, while I was being pushed around by the fast-paced crowds of the big city of Seoul, I suddenly felt like leaving everything behind and running away.
And without hesitation, I booked a flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia.
--- p.21

If you want to share your heart, any tool for communication doesn't matter.
If you can communicate through words or writing, then use that. If not, then use pictures or gestures.
Even at Bayon Temple, hundreds of years later, their lives were being conveyed to me, even though I couldn't understand a word of their language.
--- p.43

After discovering the old Khmer script, none of the temple's outstanding sculptures or architectural elements caught my eye.
I stood next to the pillar for a while, observing the letters here and there and taking pictures.
My eyes were drawn to the cute, round shape, which felt completely different from the neat and sharp Khmer script I had encountered on street signs and billboards in Siem Reap.
--- p.53

The Khmer script, which contained deep thoughts about humanity and the world, was cut off by the modern tragedy of the Khmer Rouge and was unable to be conveyed, becoming a 'script without foundation'.
Mr. Kokan is preserving the tradition by collecting pieces of Shastra from the ruins where all intellectual assets have disappeared.
“My dream is for all Khmer people to understand the meaning contained in the Khmer script and read it without misunderstanding.” Mr. Kokan’s eyes were intense, as if they were sucking someone in.
These words seemed to be the reason why he, who had been pulling a rickshaw, was able to quietly pursue his research, which he had begun through self-study, for 30 years.
--- p.139

The neo-imperialist approach of 'discovery-occupation-exhibition-possession' is being criticized by many today.
However, the term 'Indochina', which refers to the Southeast Asian region, still wraps the region in fantasy and mystery like a pretty wrapping paper.
For some, it is neither India nor China, but merely the 'hyphen (-)' of Indo-China.
How did the people of Southeast Asia, who were thus stereotyped, preserve and nurture their cultural uniqueness during the imperialist period? --- p.155

Before visiting the Killing Fields, things that had been disappointing or regrettable only then began to make sense to me.
Why does Cambodia have to rely on the tourism industry with its underdeveloped infrastructure, why does the economy continue to be poor and why do books continue to be produced with low quality?
After learning about the sadness of Cambodia's modern history, I was overcome with shame.
This is because I remembered being disappointed when I was in a bookstore and judged too easily that the book design was not good.
On that day, when the rain was pouring down relentlessly, I met Mr. Bu Meng, a survivor who was still sitting in Tuol Sleng, the site of suffering, and telling the story of the past tragedy.
And I bought a book that told his story.
He silently signed the front page before handing me the book.
The hand holding the pen seemed to be asking for his name to be remembered, for the painful history to not be forgotten.
--- p.221

The Khmer Rouge also left deep scars on the National Library.
For the Khmer Rouge, who massacred intellectuals while dreaming of a peasant utopia, libraries, the treasure trove of knowledge, were nothing less than a ‘social evil.’
The soldiers took all the books out of the National Library and burned them, and used the empty space as living quarters for Khmer Rouge soldiers.
This incident clearly revealed the tyranny of the Pol Pot regime, which suppressed the power of thought and humanity and ruled society through fear and violence.
--- p.230

How did the Khmer Rouge hate knowledge so much? Beyond taking the lives of those who preserved their nation's knowledge and memories, they destroyed the books and even the writing instruments that recorded those memories.
Khmer lead type, which resembled a person, suddenly became a bullet, a tool to take life.
Just as a life that has perished cannot be revived, a record that has disappeared cannot be returned.
Most of the records of Cambodians before the Khmer Rouge have been lost, but it is heartbreaking to know that there are people who live on, gathering data from the ashes of civil war and remembering history.
--- p.245

In the mobile age characterized by real-time communication, Cambodians actually do not use Khmer script very often.
Even though they have their own unique characters that best express their language, the input method is complex and time-consuming, making it a suboptimal option in terms of usability.
What does the future hold for the Khmer script, long a beloved communication tool imbued with the spirit of the Khmer people? Will it gradually fade away, diminishing in usability? Or will it experience a renaissance, perhaps fueled by a reform of the script or the emergence of a groundbreaking keyboard? Having survived years of colonial rule and the Khmer Rouge crisis, the Khmer script now stands at a crossroads.
--- p.251

Wasn't it the Khmer community, where nature and humans circulate in harmony and perfection, that the ancient Khmer people longed for when they created their writing system?
The essence of Khmer philosophy was contained in the Khmer script.
As the Niakmo prayer suggests, Khmer people form a community by forming bonds with their mother, father, neighbors, king, and teacher.
Perhaps they dreamed of an ideal community where they all help each other and circulate within the Dharma, sustaining life.

--- p.280