រឿងប្រាសាទនាងខ្មៅ - NEANG KHMAO TEMPLE - [Cambo Page - ខេមបូ ផេក]

NEANG KHMAO TEMPLE

If we make a journey from Phnom Penh to Takeo, getting into Rovieng commune of Sarnrong district, we will find an ancient temple on the left side of street in the east. This temple is called Wat Prasat Neang Khmao. This pagoda is named on the basis of two temples situated close to each other, called Prasat Neang Khmao in the west of the Buddhist Temple, right at the west entrance of the pagoda. These two temples were made of stones and bricks, in the size of 4 square meters and 10 meters high with the narrow top of its lofty tower. The tale related to this temple is as the following:

A long time ago, there was a king named King Sorya Tevong, stayed in Chiso Mountain. The king built five temples with four ponds dug at all directions of the temples. King Sorya Tevong had a daughter named Neang Khmao. The distance from the top to the foot of the mountain was 700 meters and there were four rivers at the four directions: TonIe Om, TonIe Snguot, TonIe Sdok and TonIe Protron, where King Sorya Tevong always visited. When his daughter grew up at the age of 16 years, she was the most beautiful girl in the kingdom.

One day, the princess wished to enjoy at Tonle Proton, she went to salute her father for the permission. The king permitted and ordered the royal servants to accompany her in the afternoon. Meanwhile, there was a man named Pundit Srey who had just resigned from the monkhood. He was a very handsome man with knowledge of magic. He resided in a village in the west of Chiso Mountain near a route to Tonle Proton. With his boredom, Pundit Srey went for a walk near the route. He saw the princess with her companions coming down the mountain and instantly fell in love with the prince at the first sight.

Pundit Srey thought: "Today I am very lucky to see a perfect lady. But I'm only a son of the poor family; how can I marry her. She doesn't match me, since she's not an ordinary citizen, but she is the princess of King Sorya Tevong. What shall I do?" The more Pundit thought, the more he loved the princess. He thought to himself, "If I ask her to marry me according to the law and tradition, surely, it'll be not appropriate. It'll be my misbehavior, thus the king must punish me to death."

His love for her was growing too much, so Srey Pundit decided, "although the king punishes me, I would rather die for her." By thinking so, Pundit recalled the magic skills he had studied. He picked up a leaf, and rolled it. He recited the magic and blew it to make beautiful sound and then he climbed up a tree to blow it in order to make the sound louder. This charming sound attracted the heart of Princess Neang Khmao. She became confounded for a while, and then she woke up and thought, "I'm a daughter of the king. I always listen to music every day, but no sound of music has made me very shocked as this does." She could not help her temptation and lost her tongue, "Gee, what a sound! I must seek and see who's blowing so beautifully." Then she went to look for the sound alone.

When she saw the beauty of Pundit Srey, the prince loved him stronger. They chatted in the way that a maiden and a young fellow loved each other. They both promised to meet again and then were separated. After meeting Pundit Srey, the princess seemed so sad and unhappy as well as very quiet. Someday later, she went to her father for permission. Again, the king permitted and offered the companions to accompany her. Where she arrived at the place where she promised with the young fellow, she told her servants, "Wait for me here. I'll go over there for a bit affair." Then, the princess walked toward Pundit Srey. They both were very happy and excited to meet again as expected. Her servants were very curious; they went to peep at her. The misbehavior of the princess made them afraid that the king might punish them to death. They decided, “We must inform the king.”

After they arrived at the royal palace, the servants told the king what they had seen. The king was very furious. He called in the executioners and said, "Take my daughter to put to death." But the Queen implored, "Your majesty, please forgive her. If it is her fault, please don't put her to death; just exile her from the palace." The king agreed on his wife's request. He ordered the chief of an army to construct two temples 3 Yojanas (Yojana is an ancient unit of measurement equivalent to about 16 kilometers) from the royal palace.

The royal officials built the temples as the king's order. Then the king ordered his daughter, Preah Neang Khmao, to live there in the temples, situated in the west of Chi so Mountain. Since then, the princess was depressed for being exiled alone By her father and separated from her sweetheart who she had not seen and heard nothing. At that time, there was a monk named Phikkhu Keo wo had left his home to study magic. The monk had highly educated and later he returned to his hometown and stayed in a village (in Takeo) where the water was very scarce, so the villagers dug a pond for him. Since the pond belonged to Phikkhu Keo, it has been named Sras Keo up to now. When he stayed there longer and his reputation was spread out to all villages.

Keo.When she arrived at Phikkhu Keo's place, she came in to respect the monk as the tradition. After she had seen the monk clearly, she was attracted by his beauty handsome, lovely and greater than Bandit Srey, the princess no longer remembered him and felt in love with Phikkhu Keo. After she told the monk everything about herself, they both seem to have close relationship with each other as if they had met before. The description of her sorrow made the monk so sympathetic towards the princess and talked to her in a consolatory manner. After the princess had heard the pleasant words from the monk, she hoped, "I won't be sad any longer".

Since then, the princess had fresh complexion and was as beautiful as a nymph. While Phikkhu Keo tried to do meditation to forget her, but he could not. Sometime later, the princess went to ask for the monk again to pour holy water on her body for happiness. That time she showed much closer relationship to Phikkhu Keo and said, "Please make peace and quiet in your mind." When hearing her words, his face was getting upset. This behavior showed the princess that the monk was sad because of her, too. Thus the princess felt deeper love for him.

After she came back to her temple, the princess could not eat and sleep well. She ordered her servants to prepare an elephant to invite the monk to her temple. While seeing the servant come to invite him, Phikkhu Keo was very happy and hurriedly got dressed to depart. The princess prepared a variety of exotic food for him. When he arrived, the princess offered the food to the monk by herself. Phikkhu Keo saw lots of food, but unable to eat, the princess was getting very sad. And despite a loss of her reputation, she said to the monk, "Please resign from the monkhood."

The princess offered plain clothes and jewelries and Phikkhu Keo agreed on her request. He resigned from the monkhood, becoming a layman, and shared happiness and pain with Preah Neang Khmao in the temple forever. According this legend, the temples have been named Prasat Neang Khmao ever since. Long later, the Buddhist believers were happy to build a pagoda there, and so the pagoda has been called Wat Prasat Neang Khmao up to now.

“Love is blind”

- The End-