The legend of Phnom Penh

[Kung-fu Hillbilly]

Have you ever heard about the legend of Phnom Penh?

September 3, 2019

It dates back to the 14th century. At that time, the capital of the Khmer kingdom was still Angkor.

The story says that an old Lady called Lady Penh Or Grandma Penh (Daun Penh) is the one who founded Phnom Penh. She was a rich widow who was living in a village named Chaktomuk which literally means “the Four Faces” because of its location at the four-arm confluence of the Upper & Lower Mekong River, the Tonlé Sap and the Bassac.

After some big rain and flooding, one day, she was looking for firewood next to her house when she discovered 4 bronze Buddha statues inside a big floating Koki tree trunk washed-up on the banks of the River.

With the help of all the villagers, Lady Penh decided to raise a small man-made hill and to build on top of it a temple (Wat) to house and to protect the sacred statues. Later on, this temple grew famous and soon became a pilgrimage place. Based on the villagers’ beliefs, people would come to pay respect to the Buddha images and to pray there to make their wishes come true.

The village itself became larger and got to be known as Phnom Daun Penh, which literally means “Hill of Lady Penh”. The word “Daun” was dropped over the course of time … that’s how Phnom Penh was born!

This century-old temple built by Lady Penh is the famous Wat Phnom, located north of central Phnom Penh. “Wat Phnom” literally means “Hill Temple”. It is the “point-zero” used to calculate the distances between the Capital city to the provincial towns of the Kingdom.

http://urban-tales.com/blog/

[Kung-fu Hillbilly]

.
Here's another legend. A soldier runs down Monivong with gun in one hand and guitar in the other.

[SternAAlbifrons]

^^
Great find Kung Fu.
That is one of the most poignant April 17 photographs i have seen.

Young cool dude, with his beloved electric guitar..
... he almost certainly never played that guitar again.
His youth ended on that day.

[John Bingham]

You can see the Monument aux Morts on the left.

[SternAAlbifrons]

Hey 'billy, any chance of getting the photographers name?
He needs a Credit for this for sure.
And any background if possible.

How about the April 17 photographers, heh?
Everybody's mind, and lives, going through a turmoil of god knows what.
But these guys pick up their cameras, pack their lenses, stash as many rolls of Kodak as they can in their battlefield jackets.
Every other aspect of their lives neglected. No prep anything, no pack bags, no looking for escape routes or for places to hide.

Instead, they step out into that steaming April morning with nothing but madness all about - to focus solely and calmly on the frivolous act of taking some photographs...

[Kung-fu Hillbilly]

Hey 'billy, any chance of getting the photographers name?
He needs a Credit for this for sure.

Everybody's mind, and lives, going through a turmoil of god knows what.

You read my mind. I'm just looking through my history to find the page as he's a journalist with three other photos from that day posted also. It was an obscure website and I'm struggling to locate it, being the internet slaying master I am.

[Kung-fu Hillbilly]

This is him.

[Username Taken]

French photojournalist Roland Neveu

https://www.google.com/search?tbs=sbi:A ... hiwJ2wv&hl

[Kung-fu Hillbilly]

More from Roland Neveu

[icetiger81]

Good read, thanks for posting.