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 city was ordered to be built by Mr. Fran Cois Marins Baudoin, a Resident Superior to Cambodia and was officially inaugurated in 1925.
Khmer Holistically Place- Wat Sampov Pram In Bokor Mountain
In that time, considering that the French people built this place for their shelter to get cool and pure fresh air, His Majesty King of Cambodia immediately thought of Buddhism, so he ordered to have a monastery erected with land on the top of the mountain with many big pieces of rocks. The strange thing is the at that piece of rock looks like a slab with 10m long and roughly 10m high. The five oddly-sculpted rocks are shaped like the sailing boat. Seeing the shape of the five rocks like the sailing boats and the monastery was constructed near those rocks, so it was called “Wat Sampov Pram (Five sailing boats monastery)” After naming so, it was invented as a tale which was extracted from the existing myth of Preah Thorng and Neang Neak. The story goes as follows:
Long time ago, there was a Khmer prince whose name was Preah Thorng. The background of this prince was that he was dissatisfied with his father who obliged him to respect and obey his younger brother, so he left his royal palace with his faithful men and then arrived at the sand beach with a Thlork tree (Parinari annamensis) growing in the centre of the sand. The prince and his men stopped their journey there and took a rest under the tree. Getting up early in the morning, he strolled along the beach to get fresh air alone. Walking further and further, he heard the human noise. Then he went closer and saw Neang Neak taking her servants to play at the beach, too. He immediately fell in love with her and tried to persuade her to marry him. She agreed and asked Preah Thorng to hold her tail in order to her world to pay respect to her father.
After he was in the naga world for seven days, he then asked his father-in-law to come back to the human world. The naga king prepared valuable things for the five boats to accompany his son-in-laws to reign on the earth. The five boats opened their sails and began their journey until they got to seashore on the border of the country. The boats anchored one after another to disembark properties and the servants carried them to a place of high land for creation of the city.
These five boats were later reserved for the king to go somewhere for his pleasure. The five hundred men accompanied Preah Thorng and Neang Neak to build a royal palace, leaving the empty boats behind. Long time later the sea receded farther and farther and the soil piled up making the boats stranded on that shore. As time went by, the boats became hard stones to bury the bodies in the ground remaining only their sails as seen nowadays.
This is the tale that the residents invented to match with the real situation of a monastery on the top of Boko Mountain. Actually, according to a study, the pagoda in not very old, but fairly new one which was built in 1924 by His Majesty Preah Sisovath Monivong, king of Cambodia when the administration of the French colony developed Boka area into a resort to get the cold weather similar to Europe. At the time, that French administration provided the king of Cambodia with a place to build his palace on the mountain top; therefore, the king decided to build this pagoda on the land adjacent to five oddly-sculptured rocks, where a small, but beautiful temple and little stupa wercon ructed in front of it and named” ‘Wat Sampov Pram’ adapting the land of five ‘oddly-sculptured rocks, which looks like the five sails of boats there. Nowadays, Boko is an interesting place for tourists to relax on their holiday. Therefore Wat Sampov Pram becomes a well-known resort.
Long time ago, in Khmer kingdom there was a king named Preah Bat Bayong, who had a royal palace in Dangrek Mountain. The king had a wife named Neang Sak Kraob. She was the most beautiful woman with smiling face, and white complexion like an angel. The good fragrance of her body could be smelled around 16 kilometers. Then, this great fame was publicized to Siam king. This king sent a spy to find out and finally they knew that the queen was really a beautiful and faithful woman. The Siam king made a bad scheme to catch her to his kingdom for the great honor of his country. When Preah Bat Bayong knew this trick, he immediately took his wife, group of ladies- in- waiting, servants, officers and all soldiers to leave the palace by the junks toward the southeast in the nighttime. Before leaving, the king raised his both hands on the head and prayed to God, "May I achieve three wishes 1. Have a safe journey on the waterway, 2. Be not caught up by Siam soldiers 3. Find a good residence....
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...
At Vi hear Thom Pagoda in Ba Phnom province, there were two novice monks, one of whom was called Tum, while the other was called Pich. They loved each other like brothers. And they usually made taok (containers) for sale. Tum was handsome and eloquent, as well as [possessing] skillful knowledge of magic, while Pich was good at playing a reed wind instrument. The windy season came, they both became bored. They said goodbye to their master in order to take taok (containers) for sale in a distant place. They walked until they arrived in Tbaung Khmum province. Everywhere they went; people were attracted to the appearance and voice of Tum. In the meantime, Nor, who was the maid of Teav, passed by that place holding a water jar. She heard Tum chanting. She stayed still and listened to him. Then, she rushed to fill the jar with water and went back to tell Teav about it. When Teav was told about what Nor had admired about Tum she begged her mother to invite him to do the chanting at home...
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