រឿងភ្នំយ៉ាតនៅប៉ៃលិន - PHNOM YAT IN PAILIN - [Cambo Page - ខេមបូ ផេក]

PHNOM YAT IN PAILIN

Before talking about this story, we wish to introduce readers to know a little bit about Pailin region because it is very far away from the capital and the tradition is very different. In the previous times, villagers in Pailin were Burmese who came to settle down there and to dig up precious stones existing in the ground and along the valley of this region. According to its history, these Burmese had migrated to settle in this area since B.C1876. At the beginning, the Burmese did not pay tax to the Government. Even if the land belonged to Cambodia but this area was occupied by

Siam and Siam government did not pay attention to those villagers. Later on in 1881, those villagers had the internal conflict, and it was spread out to Siam government in Chan Bun (Chanborak) province. Therefore, the Siam government assigned a taxation supervisor to levy tax on the villagers who came digging the precious stones. That taxation supervisor was named Mung Khunty. He was the group leader of those Burmese who traveled and found out that place. The cause was that Mung Khunty took gems to Bang Kok and he contacted the English consul there to bring him to meet Siam King. Then the Siam King nominated him as a taxation supervisor and the leader of all Burmese too. He was given the title as Luong Moniyuthanea. It was Luong Moniyuthanea who had built a lot of monasteries in Pailin region. Until in 1904 when Siam government handed over Battambang Province, Mlouprey, Stoeng Treng to Khmer King. Under His Majesty Samdech Preah Sisowath, Pailin territory was administered by French who had nominated a head of delegate in province in order to manage and impose taxes on the exploitation of precious stones.

Then a road was constructed to connect Battambang town. And that road still exists up to now. At that time, the taxes were collected; no infrastructures were built for the local villagers at all. Until Sangkum Reasniyum Regime, Pailin town had been improved very fast. If we failed to go there for two years, and when we went there again, it would be very surprised. Beautiful buildings made of bricks and cement such as schools, information department, markets was seen. The houses at the market were built in good order like the others in the big towns. Thanks to this good arrangement, it has attracted more tourists to visit there. Therefore, the desire to know about its history has been increased more and more. Our description here is to address such a desire. Generally in Cambodia, when talking about the history of one place, there may be a legend related to it. If any place is originated very far away, its legend is too long to believe. While any place has just occurred recently, its new legend is also mixed with a lot of the reality coming along like Pailin region due to the region had just existed during 1881. Its legend is similar to the reality but it is just mixed up with general belief such as Indra, God, Ghost, Demon and Neakta. The legend of Phnom Yat will be told as follows:

Once, there was a married couple, whose names of husband and wife were the same. They both were called Yat. They made their living by digging precious stones in Pailin. When they got old, they could not work hard as they used to do while they were young. They both went to take meditation in a mountain (now known as Phnom Yat). Later the villagers called this mountain Phnom Yat taking the name after the names of that man and woman without thinking of its meaning.

It was just easy for them to call and easy to be noticed. Because there were a lot of high mountains in Pailin region. Therefore, these mountains had been called by their appearance.

At that time, some of villagers, who had often taken the precious stones to sell in Siam, had much money. They had bought some guns and rifles to defend their properties and villages. When they were bored, they used their guns to hunt for animals frightening Neakta in the forests.

Later there was a Neakta who was so powerful. He transformed himself to meet with grandfather Yat and grandmother Yat and said to them, "Please tell those hunters not to shoot their guns any more. The sound of their gunshots has scared all Neakta to run away and separate from their children. So please stop shooting. We will help them to find out precious stones with good quality. But if they become rich, please remember to build a pagoda on the top of this mountain, and they must play peacock music at very Buddhist day.” After saying Neakta disappeared at once.

Ta Yat and Yeay Yat (old man and old woman whose name was Yat) told this story to all of the villagers. The villagers agreed to follow Neakta's wish forever. This is the story related to Phnom Yat.

Another story related to the name of Pailin is very different. Villagers said that the word "Pailin" is derived from the word "Pheleng" as a story related to this word is told that: Once there were hunters who pursued wild animals. They tracked far away until they reached to Pailin region as it has been called now. At that time, it was a jungle with some open spaces where a water cannel was called as streams namely O'tung (pelican stream) and so on. Nearby the bank of pelican stream, the hunters saw the otters were swimming in the water.

When the otters saw people coming near, they had run away. The hunters came to see the place where the otters had played; they saw many small stones glittering. So everyone took one piece to show their relatives at the villages.

When they arrived at their village, the villagers (the Burmese who had come to live in Chan Bun province, Siam country) recognized the value of the precious stones. They cut and polished the stones and saw that they were very beautiful. Seeing its value, they went to the hunters for more stones. The hunters thought that it was a good way for their business; they made their efforts to get the precious stones there very often.

Due to their frequent traveling there, the hunters called that place Phe Leng (otters play), taking the name after the otters they saw from the beginning. But because the hunters had lived in Siam, they spoke it slightly in Siam accent: PHE (strong) to PHE (weak) and LENG to LEN or LIN, and so it was pronounced PHELIN. Up to this region occupied by the French, the name was written in Roman, based on its sound and morphology: PHAI-LIN. Afterward, in order to make it easier for writing, the hyphen had been omitted so PHAI-LIN was written as PHAI-LIN and later on because this word is pronounced without "H" sound in French language, then this letter "H" was also omitted. Therefore, the word "PAlLIN" has been found up to now. This illustration is more likely to be an origin of the place (Monograph) than a legend for the interest of more research, but some parts of the story may be regarded as a legend because it is also related to demons and ghosts or Neakta. We hope that if anyone who has been aware of more history related to this region, please send us for further better modification.

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