1. The origin of the Khmer New Year (Chol Chnam Thmay) ceremony
Name of narrator:
Dear | |
Location of recording | Ke Sach Town, Ke Sach District, Soc Trang Province |
Date recorded: | 15:30 April 15, 2013 |
Category: | legend |
More specifically about the narrator : 40 years old, Khmer, male, married. Occupation: Khmer language teacher for monks at Paly Secondary School of Southern Culture - Soc Trang province. Education: University; currently studying for a postgraduate degree. Knows many Khmer books from Cambodia. | |
Background: On the afternoon of the first day of Chol Ch'nam Th'may, in Mr. Danh Men's family's living room, a nephew was sitting watching Khmer music. Mr. Men and I sat across from each other on the sofa in the middle of the house, no one in the family was there. The atmosphere was quiet, there were many books in the house. In front of Mr. Danh Men's house was Po Thi K'sach pagoda, where the New Year's celebration was taking place, the sound of Khmer music wafted in from outside. Groups of people went to the pagoda to offer rice to the monks. I asked him to tell me the story of Chol. Khmer ch'nam th'may | |
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Mr. Danh Men (DM) paused for a moment, mumbled, "I don't know what word to use to make it Vietnamese?" Then he turned to me and said, "The other day, when I was reading in a Cambodian literature anthology, I saw someone use a word..." He continued to pause to think, his eyes looking up at the ceiling. | There was once a man called Ka binh Maha-Prum, who was a talented man, …. |
I remind: is it called the dark god? high? | |
DM: yes, called the supreme god, yes | He is very good at preaching. |
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meaning he is very talented in preaching, | about religion and life for everyone to hear, including mortals and gods. But later there was a boy called Tho-Ma-Bal who also understood about worldly affairs and religion. |
DM: In Brahmanism, there are three sets of scriptures: the Vedas, the Sutras… (pauses to think). I said: “You can just speak in Khmer.” DM: In Khmer, it is called the Tray Wet, which are the three important sets of scriptures. | |
With his cleverness in speaking, Tho-Ma-Bal took those three sutras and taught them to everyone. With his cleverness in speaking, people increasingly liked to listen, including the devas (who had previously listened to Ka-Pinh Maha Prum's teachings). God Maha Prum heard of the young man Tho-Ma-Bal's reputation and thought: "This boy is quite good. Someday... Come down and try it out" | |
A bit slow and hesitant | Then Maha Prum came down to test Thomabal's ability: "Now I hear you are a smart person, everyone listens to the Dharma, including the gods who used to listen to my Dharma but now they have abandoned listening to your Dharma. Now I will ask you three questions, if you can answer them, I will cut off my head, otherwise, vice versa. Those three questions, he The question is: first ask the fate of |
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People, Khmer people call it Key Puc Saray…. (inaudible), where is the morning? Where is the noon, where is the evening? | |
Thomabal could not answer immediately, so he promised to wait 7 days, then a week to answer Kabinh Maha Prum's question. But in those days, if he could not find the answer, he was so sad, so scared that he looked for a place to escape, to run away. But because he was so sad, after 6 days, he was too exhausted, so he ran away to find a way out, so he ran away. Because he was so tired, he rested under a palm tree. While sitting under the palm tree, he saw a pair of "...Pri" birds (can't hear clearly), equivalent to the Vietnamese eagle. The female and male were talking to each other, the female Pri asked: "What will we eat tomorrow?". The male Pri replied: "Tomorrow, we will have Thomabal meat to eat." The female eagle asked: "Why is there Thomabal meat to eat?" The male bird said that this boy lost the riddle set by Kabil MahaPrum. The female eagle asked again, "What is the riddle?" The male eagle just thmuo (Khmer) again, the female eagle just asked "according to you, what are those three things?" The male bird just said: the charm of a bright person is in the face. so people must wash their face, morning |
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noon is on the chest so when hot people often take water to pat on the chest to cool down, evening is on the feet so before going to bed people wash your feet to make them clean for bed. | |
I added, "What is fate, teacher?" Mr. DM turned to me and said: If you want to know more, the other day I heard a song that explained the profound meaning of why in the morning the fate is on the face, at noon on the stomach and in the evening on the legs. If we say the good meaning of it is just washing the face or doing something, but when I heard this (that is, the document he was talking about), I found it too philosophical. [He turned to scold his child who was playing music too loudly] and went to find that document... | |
He took the document and explained it to me. He said: People interviewed teachers at the Royal Buddhist University of Cambodia and the Buddhist University in BattamPoong about the profound meaning of the three things about fate, I just listened and wrote them down. But when I heard what people said, I found it right, because in terms of culture, the other day, Mr. Pham Ngoc Duong (?, a person teaching a graduate program in Tra Vinh) said that in addition to talking about | The first meaning is the face, which is connected to your mouth, so why wash it? It means that in the process of brightening your mouth and face, you have to communicate with people, so before you say anything, you have to be pure, which is also true to the three teachings of Buddhism: "body - mouth - mind". Your mouth must be clean to communicate and talk with others, so it must be washed. As for the second meaning, its chest is associated with |
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What culture happens every day, we have to talk about its symbolic meaning. So I think this is probably related to symbolic meaning, but doing is different, but what is the symbolic meaning that lies deep within that doing? I nodded in agreement with Mr. DM. | heart, then your heart must be pure, a good heart, a heart with morality and life. Just now it was the mouth, now it is the "mind". And finally the leg represents the human body, the "body". |
Then the god Maha Prum cut off his own head and gave up. His seven daughters brought his head to the top of the mountain. Tu Di | |
I asked: what is the meaning of the story? what is this | DM: The meaning of this story is to sing praise people |
Me: But why New Year's Day? | DM: I also find this strange but haven't found out yet, maybe it's related to religion. Brahmin |
2. The legend of the areca flower in the Khmer wedding ceremony
Once upon a time, there were four young men who became very close friends. One day, the four friends discussed with each other that they needed to find a talented Taoist to learn magic from so that in the future they could rely on each other and help others when needed. At that time, the four discussed very carefully and came to an agreement.
The next day, the four of them parted ways, went to find the Taoist priest on their own and found him as they wished, then asked to study magic in different distant places.
One young man learned the magic of fortune telling and was very good. One young man learned the magic of archery and was very good. One young man learned the magic of diving and another young man learned the magic of bringing the dead back to life.
Days and months passed, and soon the four young men's learning of magic was successful. Finally, all four disciples bid farewell to their master and returned home.
On the way back there is a big river called STUNG, that STUNG is called EKA NETI, next to STUNG there is a very big banyan tree, that banyan tree is called NI CROT tree with many leaves and branches, under the tree is a clean place that does not need anyone to clean.
Talking about four young men who, when saying goodbye to their master, returned and met each other at the NI CÔT tree at the same time, very coincidentally. Meeting each other in such an unexpected way, all four of them were extremely happy because they had been apart for a long time.
At that time, the four friends sat together and told each other about their joys and sorrows and their situation in learning magic. After finishing, each friend congratulated each other and was happy, because they understood that all four of them had learned different magic.
Along with the story: There was a king named PRE BAT ME HA NU in the kingdom of CRE ME. The king had a princess named KHE MA RI. When the princess was twelve years old, the queen passed away and the princess lived with her father until she was sixteen.
One day, the princess asked her father to go for a walk with her maidens. While they were walking, an eagle called CRUT flew from the mountain HÊME PEL to hunt for prey. CRUT, seeing that the princess was more beautiful than the maidens, descended to catch the princess and flew away.
Four friends, after learning the news, wanted to know how talented each friend was in magic, so they agreed to test the skills they had learned to see if they had any results.
First, the friend who learned the magic of fortune telling began to tell his fortune: Today a wild animal hunted down a very valuable object and brought it to us, but before we received that very valuable object, there was a big quarrel, and then everything was settled.
As soon as the divination ended, the eagle CRÚT, who had just carried the princess, flew past the four friends and was about to fly over STƯNG. The friend who knew magic shot an arrow and hit CRÚT right in the body, causing CRÚT to let go of the princess from his paw and let her fall in the middle of STƯNG.
The friend who had the magic of diving, saw this and immediately jumped into the STUNG and dived down to hug the princess's things and save her to the shore of the STUNG. The last friend who had the magic of transformation, saw that the princess was dead, and urgently used the magic of transformation to save the princess from death.
The princess was very beautiful, all four friends wanted to marry the princess, arguing with each other about their achievements in saving the princess when she was in trouble.
The dispute could not be resolved, so it had to be brought to an À CHAR called PRE PÔ THI SÁT. This À CHAR was highly talented in reconciling events fairly, and was respected and trusted by many people. After the event of the four friends was presented, PRE PÔ THI SÁT asked all four people to tell the reason why the event had happened from beginning to end. After each person finished telling the story, PRE PÔ THI SÁT understood the reason, then agreed to reconcile the event for the four people as follows:
PRE PÔ THI SÁT analyzes that division among people will bring bad consequences, causing many troubles. What people need most is solidarity, knowing how to help each other, sympathizing with each other to find happiness in life. PRE PÔ THI SÁT educates these four friends to show what should be done and
should not be done by people in society. PRE PÔ THI SÁT affirms to resolve the event as follows:
- The young man who had his fortune told was confirmed to be the father, because he knew the events that happened before the time of his appearance.
- The young man who was brought back from death is confirmed to be the mother, because this person has the example of giving birth to a child (rebirth).
- The young man who shot the arrow was confirmed to be the elder brother because he knew how to protect and take care of his younger brother.
- The last young man who dived into the STUNG to save the princess was confirmed to be the husband because he embraced the first princess' body.
The event resolution part of PRE PO THI SÁT was carried out by four friends in unison. At the same time, PRE PO THI SÁT instructed the young man to learn the magic of diving with princess KHÊ MA RI, to take areca flowers and decorate them into three bundles, the first bundle was decorated with areca flowers and 21 young areca fruits to symbolize the father's merit.
The second bouquet is decorated with areca flowers and 12 young areca nuts to symbolize the mother's merit.
The third bundle is decorated with areca flowers and 6 young areca nuts to symbolize the brother's merit.
Princess KHÊ MA RI died in STUNG and was later resurrected, and was confirmed to be the daughter of the country. Thus, the second bunch of areca flowers was recognized, and 12 young areca fruits were determined to symbolize the merit of the mother, the country. At that time, PRE PÔ THI SÁT determined to take 12 taels of silver, the value of the areca flowers, and then give these 12 taels of silver to three young men who had merit in saving princess KHÊ MA RI. It means that the young man dived into the water and the princess paid back her parents and brother, and was instructed to add two more people from today to remember and preserve the merit of these three people forever.
Finally, PRE PO THI SÁT offered flowers to bless the young man and princess KHÊ MA RI's marriage, so they became a couple and lived together happily for a long time.