The Temple of Wat Norkor Bachey

By Shane Rao

The Temple that we visited was called Wat Norkor Bachey Temple. It allows priests and monks to pray. In addition to praying, we saw the Buddist monks handing out red bracelets. The Temple was built to for the King to honor his death.

The story goes as this: The King of Cambodia at the time was told his first born son would be killed so he abandoned him, he was found and raised in the jungle. Once he became a strong man and leader he went and killed the king only to find out later that it was his father. He then felt guilt and built the temple as a way to honor him for killing him without knowing he was his dad, while also becoming the new King of Cambodia.

However, the temple is almost in ruins except for main praying part/main hall. The main hall contained painting and pictures of Cambodia and people. The temple smelled of incense with noises of bats that lived inside the temple. As we were wandering around, stray dogs wandered the temple with us on the outside of it. Although it is not as beautiful as it once was, it still holds a great meaning and significance in Cambodia and among its people.

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