(Written by Ty Theavy, edited by Louisa Lopez)
This pagoda is called Wat Koh Kong Knong. Wat means
monastery in the Cambodian language (Khmer). No monks live here
now. The villagers say there are horrible ghosts that have always haunted
it, even when the monks prayed.
It was founded in 1968, and only 3 monks lived here at
that time. When it was first built, it only had a temple and a dining
hall, with a roof made from Treak leaves. In 1972, the committee of the
monastery decided to build a library. The people say that the reason the place
is haunted is because the location of the library was the site of a killing
field in the Pol Pot regime. Currently it is used as the village's
graveyard.
The monastery was restored in 1992 by Acha Ngoun, who
has an adopted daughter called Uon, from Thailand. At that time, 13 monks
from Thailand lived here, but later on Khmer monks stayed here. However,
they could only stay here for one year because of the scary voices coming from
the demons on most nights.
However, some villagers say this is not true. In
fact it was because the villagers here were not able to support the monks with
enough food. This is because in 1979 there were only 10 families
here. Also the people of this area thought of themselves as Thai Kuang
Kang, especially as they spoke in the Thai language, and so did not think it
was very important to look after the Khmer monks.
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