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| By
: Moul Jetr, Picture by : H.P. Rajana. |
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A short
drive outside of Kampong Cham Town, on the road
to Phnom Penh, stands an ancient temple which has
now been incorporated into a modern one. This is
Wat Nokor, which was built in the 11th century.
The reason behind the building of this temple has
become a well known legend among local people.
Once upon a time, a very young farming couple living
in Toul Sbov, now known as Kampong Cham, had a baby
son.
When the boy was just three months old, the couple
took him with them to work as they tilled the soil
in their small orchard to plant more crops. Because
they had to work so hard, they left the boy under
the shade of a pnov (Malabar orange) tree. As the
hours passed, birds came to eat the ripe fruit,
and
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Wat Nokor
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the boy became
covered in droppings. One of the birds dropped a large
piece of fruit on his head, and the cut it made started
to bleed.
The boy's parents returned and immediately took him to
the river to wash him clean, but the mother was young
and tired, and while she was washing him she dropped him.
A huge fish rose out of the water and swallowed the child
whole. There was nothing his horrified parents could do
but watch and eventually they were forced to return home.
The fish swam swiftly down the Mekong to the sea, eventually
reaching the waters off China, where he was caught in
the nets of Chinese fishermen.
Ministry of Religions and Cults.
When the fishermen cut open the fish's belly, they found
the child still alive and took him immediately to their
king.
The king adopted the boy and called him Chao Prom. He
educated him and trained him in the arts a young prince
should know, but he never kept his origins a secret. |
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A remaining lintel at the 11th
century sandstone temple of Wat Nokor.
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When Chao
Prom was a young man, he came to his adopted father
to beg a favor. "I would like to take a ship
and try to find my native village," he told
the king. "If that is your wish, I will give
you men and one of my best boats, along with my
blessing," the good king said.
After a long journey, Chao Prom eventually moored
his ship at the port of Kampong Cham. There he fell
in love with a beautiful widow.
Eventually, he could resist her no longer and they
were married.
One day as he lay his head on his wife's thigh,
she parted his hair and saw a small scar.
"What happened to you?" she asked.
Chao Prom related the story of how he was found,
and the widow began to weep.
"What makes you so sad?" he asked. "Please
do not feel pity for me!"
"I, too, have a story," she sobbed, and
when she had finished, the couple knew that they
were in |
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fact mother and
son and had committed a great sin in marrying each other.
To atone, the mother ordered Chao Prom to build a stupa
for her ashes in preparation for the day she died. She
also ordered that, after his death, a statue should be
built of him sitting in prayer facing the direction of
her stupa to stand throughout Buddha's era of 5000 years.
The widow eventually died and the stupa was built.
Prom became a teacher and when he died, his students honored
the promise and built the statue of Ta Prom, exactly as
the widow had ordered.
And so he was frozen in stone for the centuries, praying
to his mother in atonement for their sins.
And that, according to the people, is the story of Wat
Nokor. |
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Suite
B8, Regency Square, InterContinental Hotel, 294 Mao Tse Toung
Boulevard,
Phnom Penh, Kingdom of Cambodia.
Tel: (855) 23 213 133 Fax: (855) 23 213 033
E-mail:
editor@leisurecambodia.com |
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