រឿងភ្នំដាភ្នំបុរី - PHNOM BOREI AND PHNOM DA - [Cambo Page - ខេមបូ ផេក]

PHNOM BOREI AND PHNOM DA

There was once a king setting in the royal palace in Champasak capital, or Bassac, in the upper reach of the Mekong river. He had a daughter name “Ak-or”. The princess was incomparably the most beautiful. Because she was so sexually obsessed that she was head over heels in love with a miserable man, disregarding the privilege of the royal family.

The king then ordered the princess and her lover placed on a raft to be set adrift down the river and on to the vast ocean. On the raft, the king had rice paddies, rice, sesame, corn, beans, salt, and fish paste stored as food together with many utensils. After many days, the raft arrived at a mountain- that was the Phnom Borey- at which no soul had already reached.

Ak-or and her husband were very excited to be able to survive by reaching the shore. They unloaded the stuff and other belongings and settled at the mountain. They started to grow crops and roamed the forest to cut down trees for firewood and to build a shelter. After settling for a while, Ak-or started to felt sad because she was concerned about how their life would be, and because she felt very homesick and nostalgia for the privileged and prosperous status she once enjoyed. So every night before going to bed, she always burned candles and incenses to worship forest spirits and infant fairies which took care rivers, lakes and land so they would take care of and help them to lead a prosperous life.

Thanks to the power of the daily prayers, it was not long that there was an invisible holy man, who appeared in her dream and said: “As of today, you must not be worried. I am the holy man, who will help you to live a happy, prosperous and renowned life here. You need not see me in person”. After having heard the holy man’s advice, the Princess awoke and told her poor husband about the dream.

Since that day, the princess had her husband going out to fetch fire wood in the forest as usual. The man collected sandalwood which produced fragrant scent, carrying home and piling them up with the only aim of using them as firewood without any knowledge that they were the valuable trees. One day, Ak-or looked at the pile of fire wood and found out that they were valuable sandalwood. She smiled and told her husband to go and fetch the same wood as many as he could. And the husband tried to do as what his wife had told. One day, the man came across many pieces of gold in the forest, and he said to himself: "These stones look very nice and different from the others. I will take home tree pieces for my wife to use them as a 3-angle fireplace". He then placed the stones in the basket and carried them home without knowing that they were gold.

The wife recognized that they were gold, but did not tell her husband. She just reminded him: "When you com" across such red rocks, just keep collecting them". The husband continued to do as told. One day, the princess had an idea. She thought that the sandalwood and the gold kept piling, so she wanted to rise aloft a flag, hoping that ships from other territories which were on a business journey might see it and go ashore to make inquiries. At this thought, the Princess and her husband did not wait any longer. It was not before long that there were merchants from Slat Lanka arrived in seven ships bringing cloth and other supplies and put them on sale on the shore. Approaching the mount of Phnom Borey, the ships spotted the flag, which showed that there was life and which could be a sign of making an offer to do business. They then headed for and docked at the site.

The captains of the seven ships got ashore and saw the Princess Ak-or and her husband. They paid the courtesy to the couple. The Princess Ak-or invited the ship captains to barter cloth and other materials for her sandalwood. They agreed, and she also showed them her depot of gold. The ship captains persuaded her to exchange cloth for gold, but the Princess Ak-or did not agree, saying: "If you want this gold, please go and get 100 goldsmiths and another 100 men and women for me first". The ship captains were very pleased and sailed back home.

Back in their hometown, the ship captains managed to enlist 100 villagers who could do goldsmith's jobs and another 100 men and women as had been told. When the number of people was enough, they hurried back to the Princess Ak-or's. The ship captains handed those people to the Princess Ak-or, who in return offered gold to all the seven ships which sailed back to their native land. The Princess Ak-or and her husband got some residents from Slat territory to help in the digging and transport of more gold from the mountain, and the others to melt gold laminates to produce a variety of jewelry such as bracelets, rings ...

When a large amount of stuff was produced, there were always traders from other territories arriving in their ships to do the barters. And 5-6 years later, more and more people from outside came and asked to be allowed to settle and do business there, while men and women who had for long time settled there started to expand their family units. Villages started to grow up, and every resident revered the Princess Ak-or and her husband as the landlord and the patron of all business transactions there.

That was why the Princess Ak-or took the lead in getting her husband to style himself as a king to rule the territory by the name Preasbat "Saingkba Chak" with the Princess Ak-or as the Queen. Preasbat Saingkba Cbak assigned his officials to particular groups and clusters among the locals. Moreover, the king ordered his soldiers to erect a barrack with stone and brick walls to become a big surrounding area, and named it "Borey" - literally city where all the subjects and villages were treated as town residents and properties. The mountain area has since called "Borey".

After having erected a decent city as intended, Preas bat Saingkha Chak and the queen Ak-or, in a thankful gesture and in memory of the holy man, who promised to help them, ordered the building of a pleasant, small temple on the eastern mount, which is today known as Phnom Da temple, to dedicate to the holy man for his assistance.

To recap, as the legend puts it Phnom Borey was built by the King Saingkha Chak and the Queen Ak-or. 

- The END -