CAMBO Time

  Wat Sampov Pram is situated on Bokor Mountain. Nowadays it is put by the government into one of the most amazing tourist destinations to get fresh air at the sea. It lies along Kamchay Mountain in the former Koh Toch commune, Kampot district, Kampot province. But now this mountain is demarcated as a city, which is particularly administrated from Kampot province. Today this new city is renovated to be a modem one. A road bending up and down along the mountain side crossing the valleys toward the top of the mountain has been paved and tarred smoothly. Cars and Buses can easily go along the road, except long trucks since the road is so bending. The road up to the mountain from the divided road of National Road No.3 (Kampot-Veal Rinh) is approximately 32 kilometers long. Since the road is too bending form the foot to the top of the mountain, the cars and the buses cannot be driven fast. Before, Bokor was a place to get the fresh air for European people who were our colonist. This cit...

  The mountain whose name the Cambodian capital city , namely the present-day city of Phnom Penh, was named after, originated before the construction of the royal palace with a story which tells that in 1372 AD there existed an old lady named Penh who was very wealthy and lived close to the banks of the four-fronted river. Her house was built on a small hill to the east of a small mountain. One day, there was a heavy rain causing a vast flood. Grandma Penh went down to the dock and saw a big Korki tree (Hopea Odorata) floating towards the riverbank. Because of the confronting tides, the tree was staying afloat close to the bank. Seeing this, Grandma Penh ran to call the neighbors to help pull the tree out. The neighbors tied the tree with a rope and pulled it in gradually until it reached the top of the riverbank. When Grandma Penh cleaned the mud from the tree with a wood bar, she saw four bronze statues of Buddha in the hole in the tree, while another, made of stone, was in a sta...

  A long time ago, there was a narration of a poor farmer in the remote area. He had a daughter called Neang Kolyan Ney who was sixteen years old that year. She was it beautiful girl with clear skin that attracted not only the fellows in the village but also the millionaire to be in love. One day when Neang Kolyan Ney and her friends got together and left for digging up tubers for her family’s living, Mrs. Sem, matchmaker, came to her house and asked her to get married with a millionaire from her parents. However, her parents said, “We don’t mind, but my daughter still says that she does not want husband. Therefore, you should be back and wait for my information later as long as I could convince her about this.” As for Neang Kolyan Ney went to dig up tubers in the forest, she could not find a lot; therefore, she walked far from her friends. Suddenly, the sky darkened and seemed to rain. As tiredness and heaviness, she decided to empty the water in her bamboo flask away; however, no...

  In Rakchey commune of Ba Phnom district, Prey Veng province, ther is a village lying about three kilometers to the west of Kok Sandaek village. It is called “Kampong Khsach Sar (white san jetty)”. In the previous time, Kampong Khsach Sar was the downtown for the office of Ba Phnom district. As this place had frequently flooded, the office was moved to Sangkat Chheu Kach. Kampong Khsach Saris adjacent to the edge of a huge lake which has water in all seasons and has lots of fish. In rainy season, Khsach Sar Lake is filled with wate ans it looks like Tonle Sap Lake in dry season. But in dry season, the lake becomes smaller. Before 1950, Kampong Khsach Sar was quite a big market where people lived in happiness and prosperity. However, because of insecurity in that time, some market dwellers moved to live in Kok Sandaek village and some others to Peam Ror village. Today Kampong Khsach Sar is an ordinary village as others. The name of Kampong Khsach Sar comes from the folktale narrate...

  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 settlin...

The novel tells the story of Bun Thoeun (ប៊ុនធឿន) and Vitheavy (វិធាវី), whose parents have arranged for them to marry since they were young. After Bun Thoeun’s father loses his boat in a storm transporting rice to Prey Nokor, his family lose their livelihood and become poor.  “Mrs. Nuon (យាយនួន), mother of Vitheavy, prefers money over honor and cancels the engagement. Instead she arranges a new marriage for Vitheavy with Naisot (ណៃស៊ត), who is a rich man. Naisot is bad-tempered and immoral and uses his money to do anything he wants.  After becoming engaged to Naisot, Vitheavy falls ill, and pines for Bun Thoeun. However, she dares not argue with her mother over the engagement. As her health worsens, Mrs. Nuon takes her daughter to t Siem Reap, but Vitheavy’s spirits remain low.  When Vitheavy coughs up blood, her superstitious mother takes her to a fortune teller/healer, who tries various methods to try to cure her. However, it does not work and Vitheavy’s condition wors...

The novel Sophat was written by Rim Kin in 1938 but not published until 1942 due to a lack of publishing facilities in Cambodia at that time. The book depicts both the repression endured by Cambodian women at that time and the ripple effects that this treatment could have on all of society. Girls and young women who became pregnant outside of marriage were made to feel ashamed. Like the mother of this story’s title character, they and their children were often abandoned, their existence denied. This tale begins with the abandonment of a pregnant young woman by the well-to-do, high-ranking father of her unborn child, who goes to Phnom Penh for work. She is left to deliver her baby alone, without any support from relatives. Unable to care for the child, she leaves it with an orphanage. Before she leaves her son, she gives him a name: “Sophat.” When she learns that her former sweetheart has left her for another woman, she is so utterly devastated by the betrayal that she soon falls ill an...

In Ponror commune, Rolea B'ier district, Kampong Chnangprovince, there is amountain higher than any others nearby. If welook from the distance, this mountain looks like a woman lying.Like other mountains in the neighborhood, there are any smalland big trees growing on it, but it are strange on the side of themountain, there are many maams (aromatic herbs). The peoplenearby do not eat maams there because it isbelieved that thismountain is made up of the dead body of Neang KangRei, a femaleGiant who was Puthisen's wife. And they have regarded maamsin that place as vulva hair of Neang Kang ReiIn addition, along the foot of the mountain, there is a stone mortar and a stone pestle:Since the ancient time, it is not known who made them. It is believed that anyone who gets there must take the pestle to pound onto the mortar so that they do not get sick because of the environment and are in good health and happiness. (This is thegeneral belief of the residents living there since ancient...

Once upon a time, there lived a King named Atith Vongsa - the superior King to other 101 kings-and her Queen named Pimpea, along with his other 6 thousand concubines, ruling in the capital city of Tep Borey. All of his 6,000 concubines didn't even bear a child for him. Fearing that the nation could disappear, the King's prominent servant commented the King that, "Your Majesty, you're the King of the Nation. I fear that our Nation might vanish when you pass away as we don't have any king to succeed." The King commanded Queen Pimpca to organize flowers in honor of gods and asked them for a male infant. The Queen followed his royal command. With her powerful rite, Indra's palace was shaken; he used his divine eyes to witness the event. He then in canted magical words so that Buddha could be reincarnated as a male baby of Queen Pimpea. After the ten-month pregnancy passed, a golden-skinned prince was born. He was named "Prince Sovann Kumar" by the pa...