CAMBODIANS BURN U.S. DOLLAR "HELL MONEY"

One recent morning, Suon Sokhum, a colonel in the Cambodian Army, was shopping for gifts for his ancestors.

Qingming, the annual festival to honor the dead, was coming up, and throughout the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia, people burn offerings to provide for their ancestors in the spirit world.

At a stall on the southern fringe of one of the city’s oldest markets, he browsed votive wares ranging from traditional red candles to glossy Lexus sport utility vehicles made of cardboard, finally settling on several sets of paper clothing and four neat stacks of replica $100 bills.

Col. Suon Sokhum paid for the presents in local currency, the riel, but said he would never consider offering riel to his ancestors. They, like ghosts and spirits throughout Cambodia, prefer dollars.

“It’s too small,” he said of the riel, which trades around 4,000 to a dollar. “I want a bigger note. If we give the big note, the ancestors can get a lot of money. If we give them small money, they will need so many notes that they’ll go crazy carrying them around.”

So on the holiday this week, along with cardboard cars, cellphones and other supplies their ancestors might need, Cambodians burned millions of fake United States dollars, much to the chagrin of the government.

The government has been trying to wean the economy off dollars, which are used here in tandem with the riel. Riel are usually used for small purchases, and dollars for most other things.

And the biggest holdout may be the spirit world, where the dollar is king.

“It’s an indication that no one, even the dead, apparently, thinks the riel is regarded in high esteem,” said Sophal Ear, an associate professor of diplomacy and world affairs at Occidental College, in Los Angeles, who has studied dollarization in Cambodia.

He said he had vivid memories of burning spirit money with his family as a child. “It’s a kind of wire transfer to the afterworld,” he said.

At the Kambol graveyard on the outskirts of Phnom Penh last weekend, the air smelled of smoke and roasted pigs, and charred bits of dollars and the occasional euro littered the grass.

“The dollar is valuable, so that’s why we pay in U.S. currency,” said Heng Panhawat, a clerk for a law firm, as he and his children tossed stacks of American currency, a fake jade bracelet and a paper iPhone 5 into the flames.

“When I was young, we just paid respect to ancestors with gold paper and did not burn paper money, but now society has changed,” he said. “When something is valuable on the market, we buy it and burn it for the ancestors.”

Pablo adds:

To read the complete article, see:
In Cambodia, the Ghosts Prefer Dollars (www.nytimes.com/2016/04/09/world/asia/cambodia-qingming-festival-ghosts-prefer-dollars.html)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web