Preah Botumthera Som
Encyclopedia
Literature of Cambodia
Cambodian or Khmer literature has a very ancient origin. Like most Southeast Asian national literatures its traditional corpus has two distinct aspects or levels:*The written literature, mostly restricted to the royal courts or the Buddhist monasteries....
. He is also known as Venerable Botumthera Som, Brah Padumatthera in French manuscripts, or often simply as Som. He is considered one of the best writers in the Khmer language
Khmer language
Khmer , or Cambodian, is the language of the Khmer people and the official language of Cambodia. It is the second most widely spoken Austroasiatic language , with speakers in the tens of millions. Khmer has been considerably influenced by Sanskrit and Pali, especially in the royal and religious...
.
Biography
Botumthera Som was born in a rural area of CambodiaCambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
, in the village of Kamprau, Prey Veng Province, as the sixth of seven boys.
In 1867, Botumthera Som was ordained as a novice monk at the Wat Kamprau temple. During his monastic life he learned to read and write, but he disrobed in order to help at the family farm after only two years as a novice monk.
In 1873, Botumthera Som became a monk again at Wat Kamprau and continued his studies. During that time he made great progress, learning how to compose poetry on his own and writing it using the traditional method, on palmyra palm leaves. As years went by, he was named the abbot
Abbot
The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery...
of the temple.
In 1911 Som wrote the novel Dik ram phka ram (The Dancing Water and the Dancing Flower).
In September 1915, at the age of sixty-three, Botumthera Som completed his best-known work, the palm leaf manuscript of Tum Teav
Tum Teav
Tum Teav is a classic tragic love story of the Literature of Cambodia that has been told throughout the country since at least the middle of the 19th century....
. His version of Tum Teav contains 1050 stanzas, including a 39-stanza preface in which Venerable Som gives the manuscript’s date of composition and identifies himself as the author.
Tum Teav is a classic tragic love story of the Cambodian literature set in Kampong Cham, Botumthera Som's village, Kamprau, is on the border of the former district of Tbong Khmom where Tum Teav takes place.
Botumthera Som died in 1932 when he was 80 years old.
Tum Teav
In 1935, three years after his death, another monk, Venerable Oum, copied Botumthera Som'sTum Teav manuscript on a new set of palm leaves. Oum's copy has two volumes and 187 pages.
Tum Teav is a story that has been told throughout Cambodia since at least mid 19th century. It is based on a 17th or 18th century poem of uncertain source, probably having its origins in a more ancient Cambodian folk legend. Nowadays Tum Teav has oral, literary, theatre, and film versions in the Khmer language
Khmer language
Khmer , or Cambodian, is the language of the Khmer people and the official language of Cambodia. It is the second most widely spoken Austroasiatic language , with speakers in the tens of millions. Khmer has been considerably influenced by Sanskrit and Pali, especially in the royal and religious...
.