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Retold
by: Prak Chan Thul.
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Once upon a time there
was a powerful king named Preah Bat Soriyavong who
lived on Phnom Chisor, a mountain between Phnom
Penh and Takeo province. He built five temples and
four large ponds there, one at each corner of the
mountain.
Phnom Chisor is 700 meters high, and is to this
day flanked by four large ponds called Tonle Om,
Tonle Sgnuort, Tonle Pratrun and Tonle Trun. It
was at these serene pools that King Bat Soriyavong
spent most of his spare time, taking pleasure in
their beautiful design and clear waters.
The king had just one child - a daughter called
Neang Khmao. By the time she had grown to the age
of 16, she was the most beautiful girl in all the
palace. One day, Neang Khmao asked her father for
permission to visit Tonle Pratrun. The king agreed,
but insisted that she should be accompanied by a
large group of his subjects. |
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At the same
time, there was a wise and handsome man who had
just resigned from being a monk, who also decided
to visit the cooling waters of Tonle Pratrun. His
name was Bandit Srey.
The moment Bandit Srey saw Neang Khmao strolling
beside the lake, he fell head over heels in love
with her. But he knew by the entourage she was with
that he must be the king's daughter. Bandit Srey
thought to himself, "I am so lucky to meet
such a perfect girl, yet I am just a poor farmer.
How can I be fit for the daughter of the king?"
But just as Bandit Srey had these thoughts, his
love for the young girl seemed to grow and grow,
until it became unstoppable. "I will get killed
if I ask for her hand in marriage," he told
himself.
Just then, Bandit Srey had an idea. He remembered
the magic that he had learnt when he lived at the
pagoda, and picking up a nearby leaf, he blew into
it to make magical music. The music went straight
to Neang Khmao's heart. "I have heard all kinds
of music in the palace, but none of them attracted
me like this," she thought to herself.
So the princess searched for the source of the leaf
music, until finally she found the handsome young
man who made it. As soon as she saw Bandit Srey,
she too, fell in love. They chatted together on
the shore of the lake for many hours, like two little
birds singing to one another. When at last evening
fell and it was time to part, they said good-bye
and set off for home with grief in their hearts.
The princess returned to the palace full of sadness.
She could neither eat nor sleep. Her servants wondered
what had happened - was their mistress sick?
Months later, the memory of the handsome young man
with the leaf music had faded a little, and Neang
Khmao had all but forgotten about Bandit Srey. So
once again, she asked permission from her father
to visit Tonle Pratrun, to see if she could find
her lover again. This time, servants from the palace
followed the princess, and discovered her affair
with a common farmer. They thought they would be
executed if they kept this secret from the king,
so they decided to tell him. The king was furious,
and commanded the palace soldiers to behead his
daughter.
But Neang Khmao's mother, the queen, beseeched her
husband to save the life of their lovely daughter,
and to just abandon the princess in the forest.
The king eventually agreed, and so Neang Khmao was
abandoned on the Western side of Phnom Chisor. The
king built two temples for her made of bricks and
stone, each four meters wide and ten meters high.
Now, Neang Khmao faced two pains: abandonment by
her family and separation from her lover.
Around this time, another monk called Keo had just
returned home from a tour of learning Buddhist knowledge
to stay in a pagoda in Takeo province. The monk
became famous throughout the district for his wisdom
and knowledge of Buddhism. News reached Neang Khmao
of this wise, holy man, so she invited the monk
to her temples in order to ask him about her fate.
One look at the monk's characteristics, and the
princess had fallen madly in love with him. She
forgot Bandit Srey completely, since the monk was
more handsome than her former lover. "Out of
sight, out of mind," she thought.
Neang Khmao described her problems to the monk pitifully,
and pretty soon they became romantically involved,
just easily as she forgot about poor Bandit Srey.
The monk tried to return to his celibate state and
forget about the beautiful princess, but he was
only human. He was in love with Neang Khmao.
Before too long, the princess asked Keo to resign
from the monkhood to be with her. He just couldn't
stop loving her, and so he decided to marry her.
The couple lived together for the rest of their
days in the temples on Phnom Chisor.
In the Khmer language, Neang means a woman, while
Khmao means black. Black symbolically denotes bad
in Cambodian culture. Prasat is the term for temple.
So that is how the two temples on the Western side
of Phnom Chisor came to be known as "Prasat
Neang Khmao."
These days, many people visit Prasat Neang Khmao
for pleasure. They believe the story of how the
temples got their name is just a fairy tale, and
many still go there during festivals and holidays.
Prasat Neang Khmao is located 55 km south of Phnom
Penh on National Route 2, 23 km north of Takeo town.
It can be easily reached by taxi, motorcycle, or
by the bus to Takeo town. |
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