|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Khmer
tales, Volume 6, Buddhism Intitute, Ministry of Cults and
Religions. Retold by : Moul Vongs
|
|
Many hundreds of years ago, a man
called Dambang Kra-nhounh (Rosewood Stick) staged a
coup in an ancient kingdom and proclaimed himself the
new king. But this region was very unstable and filled
with men who lusted after power themselves. Seven years
and seven months after he became king, he was himself
deposed by a man called Ponhea Krek, and he and his
whole family murdered except for one wife, who was pregnant.
|
|
|
The wife fled
to the villages and tried to disguise herself as an ordinary
peasant, but Ponhea Krek ordered his soldiers to hunt
her down and kill the unborn potential heir to the throne.
Eventually, a soldier found her and cut her belly open,
but the child was already powerful and hid up under his
dead mother's ribcage so the soldier could not find him.
The soldier decided the woman had already lost the child
during her rugged journey and reported to the king that
he was dead. The child waited until the soldier had gone,
then crawled out and sat, defenseless, on the ground next
to his mother. He would surely have been killed by dogs
or perished in the hot sun, but a huge bird swooped from
nowhere perhaps at the behest of a god who took pity on
the baby and stood over him to protect him with wings
outstretched. An old hunter called Kohe was walking home
after a rest and saw the bird. "What is it doing
here, just standing all by itself like a sentry?"
he asked himself. When he approached, he saw the child
and his dead mother, and decided to take the boy home
and raise him as his own. He called the child Baksei Chamkrong,
which means 'bird that waited and protected'. Seven years
later, Ponhea Krek visited his royal astrologer to find
out the current situation of his kingdom and determine
his future. "The boy is still alive," the astrologer
said. "He is a threat and will become king one day
if he lives, but you will be able to tell him by the strange
fingerprints he has. They are like perfect circles on
each of his ten fingers." The king immediately ordered
that every seven-year-old boy in the kingdom be brought
to him and fingerprinted.
Kohe brought his young charge, too, and the soldiers realized
immediately that he was the one they sought, but Kohe
took inspiration from the giant bird who had led him to
the boy in the first place, and with the strength and
power of the baksei, he whisked the boy away through the
crowds and the soldiers lost them. They fled the city,
crossing a big river at Roka Korng to Lovea Te and then
to Vihear Suor, near present-day Psar Prek Pneuv on National
Route 5.
Eventually they reached Samrong Torng. Thick jungle
meant few people made it to this mountain except some
hermits and meditating monks and Kohe decided they were
safe. He, too, became a hermit. Eventually, Ponhea Krek
died of disease without leaving a successor. In a panic,
his mandarins remembered the boy and searched him out
to take the throne.When he was safely made king, Baksei
Chamkrong ordered a pagoda and a statue of the Buddha
built at he and Ta Kohe’s former haven.
He renamed the place Phnom Eisei Sethi, which translates
as "the temple of the hermit succeeding in everything"
as Ta (Grandfather) Kohe had prayed for as long as the
young man could remember that he should be king.
Prosethi means success, so the mountain was renamed
Phnom Prosethi the mountain of success. And it is still
known by that name even today, located just east of
Psar Prek Pneav in Kandal province off National Route
5.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Previous
Article |
Next Article
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
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 |
|
|
|
Read
Leisure By :
