The Woman Who Sang in Freedom

My grandmother, whom I often called Lok Yeay Qim. A pure-hearted woman, one who taught me values beyond the surface, who showed me that silence and grace were never a woman’s weakness. I often watched her, her delicate voice singing Theravada Buddhist mantras her love and devotion to the spiritual world ever present.

Throughout my childhood, I would sit and ask her to recite Khmer legends to me one of the most well-known being the story of the Weeping Princess, Neang Kongrey. A girl who knew nothing of her mother's cruelty, who loved a man she never should have met, and who cried herself to death when he left, her grief so consuming it carved her body into a mountain that still lies across the Tonle Sap today.

That story came to reflect the lives of women who shed their tears in silence, carrying a quiet devotion to the roles expected of them. It was the first time I understood what devotion was.