CAMBODIAN Temple Stories
Phimai Temple
(
Norkor Riech Seyma Province )
The
tale said there was a son of Khmer king named Preah Chintra in
Angkor Thom. The astrologer told when the prince grew up and was
mature, the fiancée was not born yet and was beginning at the stage
of mother's pregnancy in the north. Preah Chintra left the royal
palace to have a look. The prince took a long walk and arrived at
Phnom Rong, Prasat Krom, he saw two farmers, husband and wife who
were ploughing the field and planting rice with pregnancy. At that
time, the sun was very hot, the prince saw a rainbow umbrella shape
in the sky shading the wife of the farmer from the heat.
Having
seen the strangeness, Preah Chintra walked to and asked to be a
servant by telling the wife of the farmer that " If you gave
birth to a male baby I would regard him as my friend but I would
treat as my wife if it was female one ". Preah Chintra served
the farmers until the baby was born and named Or Phoem. Or Phoem had
played with Preah Chintra since she was young and called him brother
since then. When she was 16, Preah Chintra told the truth to Or
Phoem's mother that he was the prince and he would go to take bride
price for marrying to Or Phoem. Preah Chintra said good bye to Or
Phoem's parents and left for Angkor Thom to bring the bride price.
Or
Phoem was special because of her lovely fragrant hair. One day, she
came down to have a wash in small river, her three hairs fell off
her head and floated down the stream. At the end of the small river,
there was a king named Prommea Tott walking in the woods and washing
himself. He saw the three hairs floating and sticking on his body.
Because of the most fragrant hair, king Prommea Tott was most
interested, he ordered soldiers to look for the owner of the hair at
the upper part of small river. They saw her and took her with force
to the king. King Prommea Tott brought Or Phoem until they reached
Neang Yom district where is now called Neang Rorng district by
Siamese.
She
missed Preah Chintra so much that she just sat with thought and
sorrow and forgot about rice and water. At night, she escaped and
hid herself at a place called Plai Bat. King Prommea Tott found and
took her to another place in Norkor Riech Seyma. As for Preah
Chintra, after arriving in Angkor Thom, he described the story to
his mother and arranged engagement present that were valuable in
order to ask for Or Phoem in marriage. When he arrived and saw Or
Phoem's parents crying with sorrow because they lost their daughter,
they both told Preah Chintra about event. After that Preah Chintra
and the others took a journey to find Or Phoem.
Preah
Chintra traveled and arrived at a small river where he threw silver,
gold, precious crystal and bracelet and commanded all soldiers and
people who accompanied him to go back to the capital. But only he
himself continued finding Or Phoem. The place when Preah Chintra
threw gold and silver was called Plai Meas river which is called
Plai Moth by Siamese at the moment. King Prommea Tott forced Or
Phoem to get married to him but she always asked for a delay because
she hoped that Preah Chintra was looking for her. Preah Chintra
walked and walked to find her until he got to the country of king
Prommea Tott and met her there.
The
place when Preah Chintra and Or Phoem met each other was called Vi
Mai or Pi Mai but later it became Phi Mai till now. Preah Chintra
and Or Phoem had several separations and at last, Or Phoem was
determined to be a female Brahman with white dress in order to look
for Preah Chintra. Later day, she got to a country on foot at the
time the daughter of the king in that country was bitten by a snake.
A lot of doctors treated her but she did not get better at all. The
king, father, announced to look for a competent person to cure his
daughter and the king would offer her as a wife.
Or
Phoem asked for a permission to cure the king's daughter until she
was well again. Then the king decided to build a pagoda near Royal
Palace so that the female Brahman could stay. As for Preah Chintra,
he went to find Or Phoem in all forest and villages till he took a
rest in that pagoda. The prince could not recognize Or Phoem but Or
Phoem recognized her husband well. She tried to ask her husband
background because she wanted to experiment her husband's mind. He
told her that he was looking for his wife Or Phoem.
The
female Brahman asked Preah Chintra, " If your wife died or not,
would you get married again? " " Although she has already
had a husband, I will still love her " replied the Prince,
" If I do not live with her I will be alone until I die. "
After taking experiment of Preah Chintra's heart, the female Brahman
knew that Preah Chintra still loved her so she told the truth that
she was Or Phoem. From then, she resolved to leave from being a
female Brahman and Preah Chintra took her to throne in Angkor Thom.
Nowadays, there seen a bed in which her mother stayed for getting
warmness when giving birth to her, a loom when she began weaving and
a cow stable. After that, she built Phi Mai temple and Prnom Rong
temple in order to worship for gods that helped protecting her and
her husband from trouble. |
