IKAT PIDAN
An ikat pidan (“peeDAAN”) is an ikat silk “tapestry”, traditionally with Buddhist imagery.
Much divergent information has been published about Cambodian ikat pidan. Several of my readers, very confused, asked me to clarify its use. I did extensive research, and recorded what I discovered in A Pocket Guide to Cambodian Silk (available at www.Amazon.com). I’ve repeated it here.
SUMMARY: In the Cambodian tradition, ikat pidan are never used in the temple. They’re used in the monastery attached to the temple, in the main hall - the sala bun - as decoration, and sometimes as a teaching tool. They’re never hung over the head of a Buddha statue, or put on the statue itself. They’re never used in weddings, funerals, blessings, or secular ceremonies. Pidan are now made as tourist-ware; how they’re used as tourist-ware should not be confused with their traditional use. Because Cambodian pidan are Theravada Buddhist paraphernalia, anyone wishing to study them, the patterns in them, and their traditional use must talk to a senior Cambodian monk to obtain correct information.
For more detailed information on the use of Cambodian ikat pidan, please read on.
Many books state that a pidan is hung from the ceiling over the statue of the Buddha in the main hall of a Khmer Theravada Buddhist temple. This is a different type of pidan – not an ikat pidan. It is usually plain. It catches anything falling from the ceiling over the statue. I put a photo of one in A Pocket Guide to Cambodian Silk.
In 2014 the National Museum of Cambodia in Phnom Penh, in conjunction with The Tokyo Club and the Japanese NGO Pidan Khmer, exhibited ikat pidan. Included in the exhibition was a videotaped interview with a monk in Takeo Province describing its use. He said that it is borrowed from the temple and hung by all four corners from the ceiling over the bed of a person who is dying, so that the last thing he sees is Buddhist imagery. After he dies, his family returns the pidan to the temple.
In response to requests from my readers for more information, I interviewed Pra Ratana Visuk Sithong Heng. The second-highest-ranking Cambodian monk in the United States, he was trained by Preah Maha Vimaladhamma Pin-Sem Sirisuvanno (the Abbot of Wat Bo in Siem Reap, and one of the world’s foremost authorities on the Angkorian civilization and Khmer cultural practices). He confirmed that an ikat pidan is never hung over the head of a Buddha statue. Or put on the statue itself. Or hung on a wall in a temple (Khmer vihār, Sanskrit vihāra (वीहार)); at a wedding ceremony, funeral, blessing, or secular ceremony; or on a wall in the room in which a person is dying.
He went on to say that it is not a pidan that is hung from the ceiling over the bed of a person who is dying, but a painting called a “pra-but” (see the photo below). This differs from what the Takeo monk said. It is possible that a pidan is hung over the bed of a person who is dying in Southern Cambodia, but a pra-but is hung over the bed of a person who is dying in Northern Cambodia. In fact one of my readers sent me a photo of an old ikat pidan in which the top of the design is along the weft edge (like a pra-but); the top of the design in most of today’s pidan is along the warp selvedge edge. The design in the old pidan was like the design you see in the pra-but below, which would indicate that its use was to be hung over the bed of a person who is dying.
The pra-but is only hung after the dying person is too ill to sit up. He can look up at the pra-but, reflect upon the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha, and chant if he is still able to. This is a very old custom. The pra-but is borrowed from the temple only by families too poor to purchase one. Many people now die in the hospital instead of at home, and hospitals will not allow families to bring in pra-but.
Pra Ratana Visuk Sithong Heng reiterated that an ikat pidan is never used in the temple. It is used in the monastery attached to a temple in a way that keeps the pidan safe from rats, insects, flood, etc. It’s hung from the ceiling, or high up on a wall, in the sala bun (the room in which the monks eat and chant daily, also used for services too small to be held in the temple). In the sala bun the pidan serves as decoration and, depending upon the design, as a teaching tool. But it may serve another function entirely – keeping the floor clean. The pidan may be sewn onto a cloth backing and then hung by all four corners from the ceiling, so that the backing catches dust falling through the thatched roof and helps to keep out nocturnal insects attracted to the candlelight. He went on to say that using pidan in the sala bun is a rural custom, and reiterated that pidan are never used in the temple (vihār).
Ikat pidan are now made and sold as tourist-ware. I hung one on a wall of our California home as the backdrop for our Buddha altar. This is a non-traditional use of a pidan. Because pidan are Theravada Buddhist paraphernalia, anyone wishing to study them, the patterns in them, and their traditional use must talk to a senior Cambodian monk to obtain correct information.
But, where did the word come from? In Through the Eyes of a Queen – the Women of the Royal Court at Angkor I included a chapter entitled, “Linguistic Research – Rocket Fuel for Traveling Back in Time”. Because a pidan is part of the Cambodian practice of Theravada Buddhism I reasoned that the word came to the Khmer from Pali, not Sanskrit. And, sure enough, it’s not in Saveros Pou’s Lexique de Sanskrit-Khmer-Francais (Sanskrit Utilise au Cambodge) (2013). I thought I could easily trace the word “pidan” (which is an English loan word from Khmer) back to modern Khmer, then back to Pali, and then back to Sanskrit.
I hit a snag right away. I could not find the word in modern Khmer. I found “pidan” in Robert Headley’s dictionary, but it means, “ceiling”. I looked in Franklin Huffman’s dictionary; “pidan” is not there, and “ceiling” is spelled, “pitan”. (Both scholars used the Chuon Nath dictionary.)
So I followed my instinct. In The Pali Text Society’s Pali-English Dictionary (online) I found pidhāna – “cover”. I traced this back to the Sanskrit pidhāna (पिधान) – “covering”. The English loan word “pidan” is pronounced with a long “ā”, and in English the “d” is aspirated (“dh”), so the only difference between the English word and the Pali and Sanskrit words is the final short “a”. In the “Linguistic Research…” chapter of my book I explain how a final short “a” sometimes accidentally drops off the end of a Sanskrit word written in the Devanāgarī script (the “a” is an implied vowel, so is not written and is sometimes accidentally ignored). The same thing can happen when a Pali word is written in the Devanāgarī script. My research indicates that “pidan” came from the Pali word, pidhāna (“cover”).
Another scholar theorized that “pidan” came from the Sanskrit vitāna (“awning, canopy or cover”). I think this is far less likely. Again, because pidan are used in Theravada Buddhism, the word must have come to the Khmer from Pali.
Below is the photo of a pra-but mentioned in paragraph 8 above.
Above, a pra-but at Wat Bo in Siem Reap, Northern Cambodia. The Buddha is in the bottom panel, the Dhamma is in the middle panel, and the Sangha is in the top panel.