If we travel from Phnom Penh by boat or ship along the Tonle Thorn (Mekong River) to Phnom Dei Chral (Dei Chral Mountain) and then turn to Krauch Chhmar port in Krauch Chhmar commune, Kampong Cham province, and glance northeastwards from Prek Prasap District of Kratie province at the north bank in Chambak commune, we will see a very high mountain lying by the river bank. This mountain is called "Phnom Sopor Kaley (Sopor Kaley Mountain)," which is a sacred mountain. The tale of this mountain has been narrated as follows:
Once upon a time, there was a crocodile named Sopor Kaley with a huge build and was magically the most powerful of all among which no crocodile could challenge. This crocodile lived in a pit called Anlung Samlei (Samlei Pit), which is now called Anlung Samlei village in Stung Trang district, Kampong Cham province; it's about 20 kilometers from Sopor Kaley Mountain.
At the same time, in Moha Leap commune, Koh Sotin District, Kampong Cham Province, there was also a crocodile named Neang Orai living in Tonle Toch (Small Mekong River) nearby Moha freap Pagoda. This crocodile was brought up by a novice. The crocodile always ferried his master across the river to anywhere the master wanted to.
This crocodile was extremely huge; the length of her head was 7 Hats (In Khmer measurement: 1 Hat = the distance from finger tips to elbow), and she could metamorphose into a human being. One day, when she metamorphosed into a human being, she heard people talking, "Neang Orai is not as huge as Sopor Kaley living in Anlung Samlei.”
After hearing this information, Neang Orai metamorphosed into a crocodile as usual and swam for many kilometers along the Tonle Touch to challenge a magic power with Sopor Kaley. When she reached Pky Moreach harbor, Neang Orai met an old couple rowing a boat across the Tonle Thom. Suddenly, Neang Orai came up with an idea, "If I'm still a crocodile like this, this old couple will not allow me to ride a boat with them since they are really afraid of crocodile, so I must metamorphose into a novice in order that I'm given a ride". After a moment of thought, Neang Orai immediately metamorphosed into a novice and took a ride on a boat with that old couple. Neang Orai, who metamorphosed into a novice, did not allow the old man to row the boat, but she asked the old couple to sit at the front part of the boat and hold the post of oar in order to protect themselves from falling off.
This novice started rowing the boat as hard as she could. With help from Neang Orai's tail flapping the water, the speed of the boat was becoming faster and faster. They took a haft day to reach the place where Sopor Kaley lived.
The novice, who had metamorphosed from Neang Orai, asked the old couple, "Which bank do you want to dock the boat?" They replied, "We want to dock our boat at the right bank". When the boat reached the river bank, Neang Orai helped drag the boat up to the bank. The old man said, "It's better to keep it here." The novice replied, "No, we should not keep it here". Then, they continued to drag the boat up to the cliff and moored it with a chain to a past set on the bank because the novice thought that during the competition the river waves would aggressively hit the bank; therefore, the boat would possibly move away.
After that, the novice (Neang Orai) showed her magic power to metamorphose herself from the novice into a crocodile and quickly crept into the water and swam towards her challenger, Sopor Kaley. When both crocodiles faced each other, an aggressive bite with wonderful magic power of both challengers took place. While biting, both challengers apparently stood up from the water, creating huge waves hitting the river bank so noisily. At that moment, a big crowd of people came to see the competition.
After a long bite, Neang Orai, who had stronger power, pierced the Sopor 's stomach with her teeth and Sopor Kaley died immediately. The remains of Sopor Kaley had become a mountain called "Sopor Kaley Mountain". It was named after Sopor Kaley. After that, this mountain became very sacred. All the time when people came to learn the magic knowledge at that place, there would be evils or ghosts came to haunt them by metamorphosing themselves into a ball of gold as big as a coconut or into beautiful ladies sitting next to and embracing those learners while they were meditating. If any learner desired to take this thing, these ladies would fatally break the neck of that person.
After swimming the competition, Neang Orai returned to her permanent residence. For a long time later, while ferrying the novice, her master, across the river, Neang Orai encountered a rival that came to harm her. A moment, Neang Orai thought of means to safeguard her master. As she could not find a safe place for her master, Neang Orai decided to swallow his master into his stomach and started biting with the rival.
The rival escaped right away while losing the bite with Neang Orai. After the fight, Neang Orai belched her master out. Unfortunately, the master had died and Neang Orai was really sad about that.
While the public was cremating a corpse of the novice, Neang Orai came from the water and crept into the burning fire and died there with the novice, her master.
- THE END –
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