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Demaz Tep Baker was born in Cambodia and came to the United States in 1976, basing herself in the Washington, D.C. area. After a few years in private industry, she joined the federal government. At the same time, she went back to school at nights and obtained her bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Demaz retired from the government in 2004 but was soon re-hired by another agency where she has been working until the present day. She is an avid tennis player, loves to cook and entertain friends and enjoys reading.



As a young child growing up in Cambodia in the 1950s and 60s, folk tales told orally were a much cherished source of entertainment and relaxation. Television was virtually non-existent and literacy was low, so gathering families and communities together to hear a story teller was a popular past-time for both children and adults. A gifted story teller would quickly attract many listeners and sometimes a single story would be told over the course of several nights. Over the past decade, Demaz has sought to compile and write down the stories from her childhood, so that they will live on for future generations. The stories in this book are largely written from memory and translated from Cambodian. A special thank you goes to William Nathaniel Harben, who relayed the story, “Battambang” to Demaz. Mr. Harben heard this story while visiting the province of Battambang during his tour as a foreign service officer in Cambodia in the early 1970s.



Demaz is also passionate about preserving and sharing other aspects of Cambodian culture. She formally teaches Cambodian cooking classes, which she began ten years ago at the Arlington Adult Education Center. For the past three years, her cooking classes have been held at her lovely home in Annandale, Virginia. These classes have evolved into a Cambodian cooking club where people meet, cook and enjoy the fruits of their labor. She is the author of a forthcoming cookbook called, A Taste of Cambodian Cuisine, to be published in 2009.



Demaz has two children, Justin Baker, who also lives in Annandale, Virginia, and Anne Carney, who lives with her husband and daughter in Cambridge, Massachusetts.