The Press-Enterprise
Dancers
perform during a 2010 Cambodian new year celebration at the Temple of
the Khmer Buddhist Society in San Bernardino. Frank Bellino/Special to
The Press-Enterprise
More than 2,000 people are expected to celebrate the Cambodian new
year this weekend at the Temple of the Khmer Buddhist Society of San
Bernardino.
The crowd for the festival has been growing steadily for the past
several years, said Rasmey Sam, executive director of San Bernardino’s Asian-American Resource Center, which is cosponsoring the event.
The Cambodian-born Sam said that in the past many Inland Cambodians
traveled to Long Beach – home to Southern California’s largest Cambodian
community – to celebrate the new year.
“Now people don’t have to go to Long Beach,” he told me. “In fact, people from Long Beach come here.”
The Inland area’s Cambodian population is smaller than Long Beach’s.
But while the number of people of Cambodian ancestry in Long Beach is
falling, the number in the Inland Empire is rising rapidly, according to
U.S. Census Bureau estimates.
In a 2005-07 census survey period, there were just over 6,100
Cambodians in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. By 2009-11, there
were more than 10,500.
That reflects the rapid growth in the overall Inland Asian American
community. The number of Asian Americans in the Inland area nearly
doubled between the 2000 and 2010 censuses, to 260,000 people.
This weekend’s new year festival features a performance Saturday by
Phan Raskmey Pich, who lives in Cambodia and is in San Bernardino
visiting family members, Sam said.
The celebration is from 12:30 to 10 p.m. Saturday and noon to 8 p.m. Sunday, Sam said.
The Venerable Sokha Chan, the chief of monks at the temple, is
scheduled to open the celebration at 1:10 p.m. Saturday. Sam, Mayor
Patrick Morris, San Bernardino County Supervisor Josie Gonzales and
Assemblyman Mike Morrell, R-Rancho Cucamonga are among the others
expected to speak.
The temple is at 1595 Hardt St. For more information, call 
909-383-0164 .
909-383-0164 .
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