Preah Thong Neang Neak statue symbolises the birth of Khmer land, culture, traditions and civilisation of Cambodia. The statue is 21 metres tall on a pedestal 6.34 metres high (27.34 metres in total) is the largest copper statue in Cambodia and It weighs in total 60 tonnes and faces the sea.

History

Preah Thong ( Kaundinya I / Y Da) and Neang Neak (

Queen Soma Soma ( km, សោមា, ) was the ruler of the Kingdom of Funan and widely claimed as the first monarch of Cambodia (reigned c. 1st century). She was also the first female leader of Cambodia. She was the consort of Kaundinya I (also known as " ...

/ Y Ga) are symbolic personas in Khmer culture. They are thought to have founded the pre-Angkorian state of

Funan Funan (; km, ហ៊្វូណន, ; vi, Phù Nam, Chữ Hán: ) was the name given by Chinese cartographers, geographers and writers to an ancient Indianized state—or, rather a loose network of states ''(Mandala)''—located in mainla ...

. Much of Khmer wedding customs can be traced back to the marriage of Preah Thong and Neang Neak. According to reports by two Chinese envoys,

Kang Tai Kang Tai () was a Chinese traveller in the middle of the third century from the state of Eastern Wu. He is known for his travels to Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeaste ...

and Zhu Ying, the state of Funan was established by an Indian named Kaundinya. In the first century CE, Kaundinya was given instruction in a dream to take a magic bow from a temple and defeat a Naga princess named Soma (Chinese: Liuye, “Willow Leaf”), the daughter of the king of the

Naga Naga or NAGA may refer to: Mythology * Nāga, a serpentine deity or race in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain traditions * Naga Kingdom, in the epic ''Mahabharata'' * Phaya Naga, mythical creatures believed to live in the Laotian stretch of the Mekong Ri ...

. She later married Kaundinya and their lineage became the royal dynasty of

. Kaundinya later built a capital,

Vyadhapura Vyadhapura ( km, វ្យាធបុរៈ Sanskrit: व्याधपूर ''Vyādhapūra'') was an ancient city of the Funan civilization, likely in what is now Ba Phnum District in the province of Prey Veng, Cambodia. It was the capital ...

and the kingdom also came to be known as ''Kambojadeśa''.

History

See also

References

See also