Statues of the King and Queen in the story above found in Wat Phnom Sampeau
Long ago, the area where we were standing was all part of a large inland sea, and the crown prince of the land fell in love with a beautiful girl that he eventually married. The king, however, already had another bride picked for his son and forced him to leave his first wife (though the prince lied and said he’d come back) and to marry this more suitable Long Haired Girl. The first wife is heartbroken, and goes to the edge of the sea to throw her self in, when she notices that in a nest of crocodile eggs, there’s a human baby. She takes the baby home and raises him as her own, and he grows into a strong and magnificent young man. The boy, however, can’t help but notice his mother crying all the time. Eventually, he confronts the mother, and she tells him about the prince, who married and deserted her, and who by this time had become the new king.
Ship /Sail (Capsized leaning to the right) and Crocodile Mountains
The boy was furious, and searched the king out the next time he visited the province, stopping him in his boat and asking him why he didn’t come back for his mother. The king refuses to speak with him, so the boy jumps into the water, transforming himself into a huge crocodile. He thrashes around the water, threatening to sink the boat. The rest of the passengers on the boat then thrown cages of chickens and ducks off the side to appease the croc-boy, but to no avail. He tells the king that he will sink the boat unless he comes back to the boy’s mother. The king refuses again, and his wife, the Long Haired Girl - as wicked as she is beautiful - steps up to save her husband. The Long Haired Girl lets her hair down over the edge of the boat, soaking up all the water, and killing the crocodile boy. When the crocodile boy died, his tail trashed around and his two nostriles splash water, creating three lakes. (Most of the story copied from cajolable.com)
You can see the Crocodile, Ship+Sail, Chicken Cage, and Duck Cage mountains in the regions around Battambang. The lakes in the region are missing, but our excellent guide, Phalla, seems to remember them from his childhood. There's a lot of irrigation for rice farming, so perhaps all of the water has been drained into the patties.
We found an excellent guide, Phalla, who took us to two contrasting temples around Battambang. It's a small town that's a nice contrast to Phnom Phen (Big City) or Siam Reap/Angkor Wat (Tourist Hell), where we'll be heading to next.
0 comments:
Post a Comment