Tradition: ‘Troddi’, a New Year's folk dance with mysterious origins

‘Troddi’ is a very popular Khmer folk dance, most often performed on the occasion of the traditional Cambodian New Year ‘Chaul Chhnam Thmei’ to chase away the bad luck of the previous year and wish for good things in the new year. This ritual was also practised during rain-making rites when long periods of drought struck a locality.

In fact, no one knows exactly when and where the ‘Troddi’ dance appeared in Cambodia. According to some, this rite could be linked to the popular belief that if a wild animal entered the village, it would bring them bad luck, so the villagers would gather, spray all kinds of perfumes and spread coloured pigments on the animal. It may have been during this ceremony that the ‘Troddi’ dance was created, with performers representing different animals such as the deer, the bull and the peacock, who would come before the villagers to be sprayed with perfume and daubed with colours. In this way, the villagers knew that if a real animal came, no harm would be done to them. From then on, the dance was performed every year.

However, according to certain documents, the ‘Troddi’ dance originated from the ‘Samre’ ethnic group, who lived with the Khmers in the ancient land of ‘Sovannaphum’ (land of gold) when it was not yet influenced by Indian civilisation (from the 1st century onwards).

The dance then became part of the heritage of the Cambodian people. It is interesting to note that a small number of ‘Samre’ still live today in the northern part of Lake Tonle Sap.

In the past, the ‘Troddi’ dance was performed every New Year in front of the monarchs and royal families to wish them a happy new year. This would also explain why the ‘Troddi’ is still very popular, particularly in the province of Siem Reap and in the vicinity of the former capital ‘Angkor Wat’, built from the 9th to the 13th century.

The number of dancers varies, but there are usually 16, including four main dancers, two women and two men, a stag representing the forces of evil, a ‘Dangdol’ (person carrying a musical instrument), four ‘Kanhche’ (person playing the clown here and there), two giants, two monsters, two drummers, a hunter and others.

AKP