December 23, 2010
About an hour outside of Phnom Penh, a small mountain has a royal property named Oudong on top with multiple royal shrines. You have to climb up many steps to reach the top. One shrine is a Buddhist temple where they claim to have a hair of Buddha inside. There were many women and a couple Buddhist nuns leading a prayer outside.
Click here to see video.
The other shrines held the former Cambodian kings’ cremated bodies inside, one shrine per king. The shrines were large with detailed sculptures on the outside, and clearly had a former heyday, even if they were rough, worn out, and unguarded now.
It is said that a giant 5-headed snake Hindu mythology calls Naga was going to come out of a hole and bring Cambodia great power, world domination, and prosperity. The Chinese heard about this hole when they visited Oudong and got scared. So, the Chinese built a Buddha on top of the Naga hole. The Chinese thought that the devout Buddhist Cambodians would never move the Buddha because you're not allowed to move Buddhas, as Buddhists. Our guide seemed both amused by the story and a little bit regretful at a lost opportunity for Cambodian power.
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