KRONG SOPHEAKMIT

Long, long time ago, there was a king named Preah Bath Krong Spheakmit, who reigned in Champak Kipgdom, The king had a wife named Kesiny and two sons. The elder son was named Cheysen Kumar and the younger, Cheytot Kumar. King Sopheakmit had a younger brother, AkSopheakmjt, .who serveo as a lord, Afterward; AkSopheakmit planned to betray his brother to seize the throne and deployed his soldiers around Champak Kingdom.

At that time, a royal servant came to tell King Sopheakmit about his brother's betrayal plan to occupy the throne. "If I waged war against my younger brother," said King Sopheakmit, "many of my royal families, people and soldiers will suffer and die and therefore, I should escape from the royal palace tonight." Then, the king said goodbye to his wife and his two sons. Kesiny, who was a faithful wife, refused to stay in the palace. "My dear, though it is in the hardship, I agree to die with you," she said, "I cannot separate from you and I request that we take the two sons with us."

The mother carried Cheytot Kumar and the father held Cheysen Kumar. The king with a bag full of food escaped that night from his kingdom, feeling very painful in his heart. The king and his wife, as well as his sons wandered further and further and reached a river, and then they had a rest under a Tonleab (a kind of tree). The king said, "Four of us cannot cross this river at the same time in deep water, so I will take you to the other side first and then come back to take our two sons." The king then carried his wife to the other side and told his wife to stay there. While King Sopheakmit was swimming, there were two fishermen who were rowing the boat along the river, saw the two sons and then took them to their own home right away.

After getting his wife to stay at the other side, the king returned to his sons. Amazingly when the king arrived, his sons were not there, so he was shocked and he shouted for them in the forest until it was dawn in the morning, but his sons remained invisible. The king was sobbing and wailing so much that he became fainted there.

As for Princess Kesiny, she waited for her husband until the next morning. Accidentally, there was junk sailing along the river. The merchant of the junk, who saw Kesiny staying alone, went down to her and forced her to go with them. At that moment, Princess Kesiny was whining; her body was almost badly injured. Her heart was nearly broken into seven parts, since she was always missing her husband and sons.

King Krong Sopheakmit regained consciousness, relieved from the pain and went back to his wife, hoping to tell her the bad news of the sons. The king hopelessly swam across the river. Trudging out of water and walking to a place under a tree where his wife was to wait for him, the king didn't find his wife. He looked for her everywhere, but didn't see her. The king felt even more hopelessness after losing his sons and then his wife. He became more depressed, fell to the ground and lost consciousness again.

When the king woke up, he cried and deliriously talked like crazy. He continued his journey alone; his face was full of sorrow. He wandered and finally reached Takaksila Kingdom. He went into the park and slept on a lucky stone under a Raing tree (kind of tree). At that time, the king of Takaksila Kingdom had died seven days ago, he had no child at all , so the royal servants and officials held a pray ceremony with five royal sacred instruments in a white horse cart to search for a new king and the procession was accompanied by the music. This white horse cart went towards the park walked around the lucky stone and stopped, while seeing this event, the musicians started playing immediately. When he was awaked, King Krong Sopheakmit asked what happened. The royal servants and officials respectfully invited and assigned him to reign Takaksila Kingdom.

Talking about the two fishermen, who brought the two boys, they tried their best to raise the children until they grew up. The fishermen then took them to the king of Takaksila Kingdom to work as royal servants. The king was very kind to the two young boys, but did not know that they were his children. As for Cheysen, he clearly recognized his father but pretended not to recognize him.

The merchant, who abducted Princess Kesiny, was really willing to take her to be his wife, but, because the faithfulness and loyalty to her husband and the great divine power of the king made the merchant not able to come near her, on the contrary he was afraid and respected her.

At that moment the merchant went to do business at Takaksila Kingdom. The king asked him to stay one night to see the Royal Opera in the theater, and he ordered the two servants to guard the junk that night. At that time, Princess Kesiny was sleeping in the junk, dreaming that she happily met her husband and children and that there was two men giving lotuses to her husband and then he gave them to her. She put them on her ears, while her husband ate the pollen.

When she was awaked, she cried and thought of herself, "Tomorrow I may be able to reunite my husband and children." At midnight Cheytot sat sleeping, but Cheysen woke him up often. Cheytot did not want to be sleepy anymore, so he said to his brother, "Please tell me a folk tale." His elder brother replied, "I don't know any folk tale, but I know a story about the time when our families were separated."

"Who are our present parents?" asked Cheytott. Cheysen replied, "They are now our natural parents. Let me tell you what happened." "At the previous time, our parents were the king and queen at Champak Kingdom. Our father's younger brother, AkSopheakmit, who was his lord, seized the throne from him. Our father took both of us to escape from the kingdom overnight, through the fields, the jungles and then arrived at a river. Our father brought our mother to the other side. Not so longer after they left us, the fishermen rowed his boat past by and saw us, so they caught us to adopt until we grew up. Then, they sent us to th is king of Takaksila Kingdom." Cheytot asked, "What are our parents' names?" Cheysen answered, "Our mother's name is Kesiny, but I am afraid of telling about our father's name." Since his brother kept asking about the father's name, Cheysen agreed to tell him. "Don't speak out of his name," he told his younger brother, "Our father's name is Krong Sopheakmit, who is the king of this kingdom."

Preah Neang Kesiny, who was in the junk, heard what the both young men talked about; she realized that they must be her pitiful children. She hurriedly came out to them, weeping and wailing and then she embraced them tightly and said, "Cheysen, Cheytot, my dear sons, it is me, Kesinytevy, your mother. Don't leave me, my sons." Cheysen and Cheytot, after realizing that she was their natural mother, went to hold the legs of their mother who was full of shock and surprise. Meanwhile, the merchant saw such activities, he went back to tell the king of Takaksila, accusing the both young men of having sex with his wife.

The king then was absolutely furious. He ordered the executioners to kill the young men. The executioners tied them up with rope and cruelly beat them and took them out to be killed by the king's order. Accidentally, a clever Brahma priest, who saw the executioners taking the prisoners to be executed, went to the king. "Have you judged them properly?" asked the priest. "Not yet," replied the king. The king, then, ordered the executioners to get them back for the judgment and told a servant to take the merchant's wife to the court room. No sooner did the king see his wife than he was absolutely shocked.

The king went to embrace his wife, weeping and wailing so much. He felt extremely sympathetic towards his poor sons. They all were reunited and sobbed about hardship and long separation. King Sopheakmit enthusiastically met his wife and children. Finally, the royal servants, officials and all soldiers prepared a procession to bring the king, queen and their sons to the royal palace.

King Sopheakmit met his wife and appointed Cheysen a lord and Cheyteat a supreme commander in the kingdom of Takaksila. They all reigned that kingdom forever.

“Loyalty is worth more than money”

The END