Preah Botumthera Som
Preah Botumthera Som | |
---|---|
Born | Botumthera Som 1852 Cambodia |
Died | 1932 (aged 80) |
Occupation | Writer |
Language | Khmer |
Nationality | Cambodian |
Years active | 1911–1932 |
Notable works | Tum Teav |
Preah Botumthera Som (
Biography
Botumthera Som was born in a rural area of
In 1867, Botumthera Som was ordained as a
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
In 1911 Som wrote the novel Dik ram phka ram (The Dancing Water and the Dancing Flower).[2]
In September 1915, at the age of sixty-three, Botumthera Som completed his best-known work, the palm leaf manuscript of Tum Teav. 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
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's Tum 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 the 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.
See also
- Literature of Cambodia
References
- ^ Documentation Center of Cambodia – George Chigas, Tum Teav; A Translation and Analysis of a Cambodian Literary Classic
- ^ Larousse – Literature du Cambodge[permanent dead link]