Tales from the Cambodian Khmer (Mythology Anthologies)

$14.99
by Samuel DenHartog

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Here is a world where rivers remember old vows, temple stones speak in carved relief, and the boundary between village shrine and royal court is thin as silk. The myths gathered here follow the Khmer imagination across centuries, from fields guarded by neak ta and araks to galleries where apsaras dance and kings claim the right to rule. We begin where the land itself is sacred, then trace how Indian gods, Buddhist compassion, and local spirits braided into a distinctly Cambodian tapestry of belief. You will meet a serpent princess whose marriage to a sea-born prince makes water and blood one lineage, a thunder-wielding Indra riding Airavata toward the monsoon, and a tortoise lifting a mountain so gods and demons can churn the ocean for nectar. In these pages, Garuda hunts the coils of Naga, Vishnu watches empires rise and fall, and the devouring face of Kala reminds builders and rulers that time never tires. Folktales and court epics sit side by side. Preah Ko Preah Keo tests a kingdom’s virtue, Vorvong and Sorvong wander toward restoration, and the Cambodian Reamker turns familiar heroes toward Khmer concerns of loyalty, statecraft, and sea roads. The result is a living atlas of belief, mapped in stories, rites, and places you can still visit. Shrines at fields and crossroads keep the old pacts. Bayon smiles with the mercy of Lokesvara. Causeways end in naga balustrades that pour the rivers forward. Written for adult readers who want myth with context and consequence, this collection pairs narrative with cultural notes to show how fire, rain, stone, and memory shaped a civilization. Read it to feel the weight of oaths, the charge of festivals, and the quiet power of a cosmology that made architecture, law, and daily bread part of the same sacred order.

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