សូមមើលរឿនង តាថេន និងចៅសន! THE STORY OF TAH TYEN AND CHOW SAUN Once there was a Buddhist novice who was called Tah Tyen because he was so lazy that he hardly worked at all. He spent most of his time wandering through the village begging alms for food and drink, and spent very little of his time at the monastery studying or working. One day, this shiftless novice met up with three other lazy rascals of the village. They decided that since they were too lazy to work, they would steal farmers’ chickens for their dinners and use Tah Tyen’s alms money to buy their sraa. Now, the good villagers soon lost patience with these pranks, and the monks would no longer tolerate Tah Tyen’s disgraceful behavior. (Buddhist monks are forbidden to kill animals, to steal, drink wine, or to eat after midday.) So the monks expelled Tah Tyen from the monastery, and the villagers refused to give him any more alms. Tah Tyen and his three friends were upset when they had no more money to buy sraa and nothing to eat. “Look,” Tah Tyen proposed to his friends, “we cannot stay here any longer. The people hide their chickens from you and they turn their heads away from me when I ask for alms. They do not trust us here anymore. We must move on to another village – one where the people do not know us. Besides, I’ve decided that I don’t like the life of a meditation monk anyway. So let’s prepare our umbrellas and our mosquito nets, steal some food and a few monks’ robes, and leave. If I wear my monk’s robe and the three of you walk behind me as if you are my novice disciples, then the people in the next village will give us a lot of alms. Then we can buy sraa and get drunk again.” The three rascals agreed with Tah Tyen. They gathered their belongings and left the village. That night they slept in the forest near a village in the next district. Early in the following morning, Tah Tyen, dressed in his saffron-yellow monk’s robe, took up his alms bowl and, with his three friends walking respectfully behind him, proceeded into the village. As they approached the crowded village square, the three men called out, “Oh, our teacher is truly the world’s wonder! He knows how to tell fortunes. He knows much magic that will cure all sickness. He asks nothing for himself. He only wants to help you. We are his faithful and devoted followers because we have seen his miracles.” All the people in the square who heard the three men believed them. The simple villagers felt very honored to have Tah Tyen in their town. They willingly filled his alms bowl with many riel and kak coins. In return, Tah Tyen chanted some prayers that he had memorized and performed a few magic tricks that he had learned. In a short while, the scoundrels found their arms full of all sorts of gifts from the pious villagers. Then, keeping their eyes devoutly downcast and their faces gravely virtuous, they bowed humble thanks as they made their way slowly back to the edge of the town. There the men changed their clothes and discreetly bought several flasks of sraa from a farmwife. They returned to the forest in high spirits and shamelessly drank all night. After a few days of gluttonous eating and drinking, they had nothing left. Once more they put on their stolen monastery robes and decided to try their luck in another village. They walked smartly along the road, laughing and joking as they confidently planned ways to trick another group of simple villagers. As they approached the outskirts of the town, they saw a beautiful purple-leaf mango tree branching splendidly over a large clearing. “Ah! I have an excellent idea,” Tah Tyen exclaimed. “Watch me closely.” He then carefully arranged his yellow robes around himself, sat down under the tree, and crossed his legs as if he were a meditation monk. “Now,” he told the other three men, “go to the village and tell the people that a very holy monk has just stopped to rest near their village. And tell them all the other fine things we talked about.” And so the three, dressed as novices, walked through the streets of the town calling loudly to passersby, “O dear brothers! A holy meditation monk is resting under that old mango tree near your village. He loves you all very much. That is why he is here. He can pray with magic and cure all your sickness. He can save you. He can bring you luck and success. You should pay respect to him with tea and sugar and rice. Hurry! Very soon he must be on his way again.” The people believed the impostors. They excitedly gathered all sorts of teas and fruit and, hoping for great miracles, eagerly rushed to the old mango tree. There they offered their gifts with much reverence to Tah Tyen and asked him to pray for their good luck and great riches. “From where do you come, most Venerable Sir?” one of the villagers asked. “I come from the capital, my dear man,” Tah Tyen solemnly answered. “But for along time I have been practicing my meditations in the forest. I never leave my forest now and I never speak to anyone. But just last night, I dreamed that a great evil will happen in this district. So I decided that I must come here to try to save you all.” The surprised villagers heard Tah Tyen’s prophecy of tragedy and were quite shaken. “Reverend Sir,” a young man asked, “are you sure that something terrible will happen to us? What you say makes us tremble. We have not heard about these dreadful things.” Tah Tyen lowered his eyes still more and answered gravely, “My very dear people, as I was sitting in meditation last night, I saw terrible things that will come to you in seven days. Seven days from now something very dangerous will happen. I see floods and waters and lightning and great thunder. And all of you and your entire district will be destroyed. I love you all so dearly that my heart is filled with sorrow for you. I have come here to try to save you and to destroy that evil thing that would harm you.” The villagers fell into a panic. Some started to run away. Some sank to the ground. A few found their voices and, trembling, asked Tah Tyen, “Venerable Sir, should we move our houses? We could run from here and then be out of danger. But where should we go? What people will take us in? Where will we find land to grow our food? What shall we do, most holy Reverend?” Tah Tyen raised his hand, “Let me sit in silence here and meditate. My meditations will tell us what to do.” Then Tah Tyen burned incense and candles. He drooped his head and sat with his eyes closed for a few minutes. When he rose up, he clasped his hands and, gazing beyond the people, announced, “Now I understand how to destroy such evil. But I need many things to do this.” “Oh, do not worry,” the relieved villagers said. “We will give you whatever you need. We don’t care about the cost. We only care about our lives. Please tell us what to do. We will do anything you tell us.” “Ah, my dear friends,” Tah Tyen replied. “I am a holy Buddhist monk. It is very hard for me to tell you how to destroy the evil ghosts that are going to bring such disaster upon you, because the ghosts like to drink sraa and they like to boil chickens and they like to eat at night. I am very holy and I am forbidden to touch sraa or kill animals or even touch food at night.” The villagers rushed to assure Tah Tyen. “O Venerable Sir, you must not worry about these things. You only tell us what to do and we will prepare everything exactly as you say. We must help you destroy the evil ghosts.” Tah Tyen praised the villagers for their good sense and understanding. Then he told them that it would be necessary to build a small shelter for the ghosts near the mango tree. The grateful villagers followed Tah Tyen’s instructions, and within a few hours a small cottage was completed. Next, Tah Tyen ordered the people to bring their golden statues of Buddha and all the jeweled ornaments from the temple to make an altar for the magic ceremonies. Then Tah Tyen and his three followers took a piece of cotton string and, chanting mantras, made a circle seven times around the cottage. “Do not touch this cotton string,” Tah Tyen warned the villagers. “It is a magic circle. You must stay outside this circle. If anyone comes within this circle or comes into the cottage, he will become mad and die instantly. Now, all of you go home! Hurry! Bring us a lot of sraa and boiled chickens for the evil ghosts. Leave everything outside the magic circle. Then you must go quickly away. If the ghosts see you, they will kill you.” The villagers gladly obeyed Tah Tyen. They hurried to prepare the sraa and chickens and warned their children, “Stay away from that cottage. Never go inside the magic circle. If you do not listen, a terrible beast will eat you!” That night when everything was quiet, Tah Tyen and his three disciples carefully crept to the string circle and took the chickens and sraa inside the cottage. They gorged themselves on the juicy chickens and got drunk on the sraa. And, the more they drank, the more loudly they talked and joked. A few evenings later, a buffalo boy called Chow Saun was taking his buffaloes home from the field. He happened to walk near the cottage and he heard the voices of the four scoundrels. He thought to himself, “That sounds like many people are drunk in the magic cottage. Who is in there? I must go see with my own eyes. My mother and father have told me that I will become mad or die if I go near the circle. But it does not matter. I must see what is happening in there.” Then Chow Saun walked slowly, slowly to the thatched wall of the cottage. He carefully picked up a palm leaf covering a window opening and he peeked inside. There he saw the four men sitting in filthy clothes, outrageously guzzling sraa and roaring with laughter. “Oh!” he gasped. “These are not monks. These are bad men! To eat chicken at night and to drink sraa like that! My parents must be mad. We must not trust people like this anymore. They just eat our food and get drunk. I must go and tell my mother about this!” Chow Saun forgot about his buffaloes and ran home. “Mother, Mother!” he called. “Where did you get such meditation monks? I just saw them eating chickens and getting drunk.” Chow Saun’s mother heard him but she did not believe him. She was sure that he had become mad because he walked into the magic circle. “Oh, my dearest son,” she cried, “The holy teacher warned us not to walk in the magic circle. Now you are mad. Who can save my son?” Chow Saun protested, “No, no, Mother. I am not mad. I have seen this with my own eyes. These four bad men came to cheat us and take our food and money from us.” Chow Saun’s mother did not listen to him at all. She clasped her hands and despaired, “Oh, my son is mad. What shall I do?” Their neighbors, hearing Chow Saun shouting and his mother wailing, came to see what the trouble was. The poor woman cried to them, “My son walked into the magic circle and he became mad. Please help me. What shall I do? My son is completely mad.” The neighbors were horrified. Then they told his mother that the only one who could possibly cure Chow Saun would be the holy teacher himself. Chow Saun became quite angry as he listened to them. He cried because he was so young that no one believed him. But his mother, fearing that he would die, ran quickly to the cottage near the old mango tree. She stood outside the magic circle and called to Tah Tyen, “O Reverend Sir! Please help me. Please come out! An accident has happened!” When Tah Tyen heard the woman’s calls, he quickly wiped his greasy mouth and put on his saffron-yellow robe. Taking his walking stick in his hand, he poked his head through the window. “What has happened, madam? You look so upset.” The distraught woman knelt down respectfully. “Sir, my son Chow Saun came close to your cottage and now he is mad and he says that all our people are mad.” “Mother,” Tah Tyen slowly replied, “I have forbidden your children to come to this cottage. If any child comes to this cottage, evil things will happen. Do you believe me? Tell me, dear woman, where is your son?” “He is at home, Reverend Sir, the woman sobbed. “Bring him here at once,” Tah Tyen ordered. “I will try to cure his madness for you. The evil spirits in him came from this holy ceremony cottage. So now you must bring him back to the cottage to save him.” The woman returned home and begged all her relatives to look for Chow Saun and bring him to the holy men. They found the boy hiding under the floor of one of the bamboo houses. They pulled him out and held him tightly. He cried and struggled against their grip. He pleaded with them and told them that they had been tricked. But no one believed him because he was only a small buffalo boy. And so they carried him, still struggling and crying, to the edge of the cotton circle around the ceremony cottage. Tah Tyen and his three disciples were waiting. As they took the crying boy into the cottage, Tah Tyen told the village men, “This poor boy is mad because a ghost is in possession of his body. I will mix holy water with magic herbs for the evil spirits. Then I will chant holy mantras and remove the ghosts from his body. Do not worry, he will be better tomorrow. Leave him now. Everyone must go home.” When the village men left, Tah Tyen and the other three men tied Chow Saun to the post in the center of the cottage. Then they beat him with large palm-leaf sticks and shouted, “Hey, you miserable sneaky monkey! What did you tell your mother?” Chow Saun stolidly answered them, “I saw you! I saw you all drinking sraa and eating chicken at night.” The imposters were furious. They beat Chow Saun again Even though he ached all over, he continued to cry out, “I did see you! I did see you!” And they beat him again. Chow Saun began to feel that it was useless to fight these four strong men anymore. He thought to himself, “They are all mad in the village. I am all alone. These thieves have me tied up. I cannot do anything. It would be better if I stopped fighting.” Chow Saun lifted this face and whispered, “Reverend Sir, please forgive me. The ghosts made me mad. They made me see mad things. Now I am better. I know now it was the ghosts tricking me. I did not see you drinking sraa. I will not say this anymore.” The imposters dropped their sticks, and Tah Tyen told the boy, “Of course, if you are no longer mad and if you understand that we holy men do not drink sraa, then we will untie you.” “Yes, sir,” Chow Saun agreed. “Yes, sir. Please untie me. I promise not to say anything bad about you anymore.” When they untied Chow Saun, they told him he could not go home right away. For causing so much trouble, he would have to work as a servant for seven days. The poor boy was so exhausted that he curled up in a corner of the cottage and felt soundly asleep. As he slept, the scoundrels made their plans. “We cannot stay here any longer,” Tah Tyen told the other three. “More people will begin to suspect us. Let us take everything – the sraa, the chickens, and the gold and jewels from the altar – and run quickly back to the forest.” The next morning when Chow Saun awoke, he found everything gone. The cottage was empty. He looked to the altar. The golden Buddha and the jewels were all gone. He got up and sadly went home. Some old villagers saw him and called out, “Saun, you are better now. How do you fee?” Chow Saun shook his head and quietly replied, “I do not feel good, my grandparents. And all of you will feel bad, too. You believed those rascal monks and you gave everything with them. If you do not believe me now, just come back with me to the ceremony cottage.” The old people called to the other villagers, and together they all walked to the ceremony cottage near the mango tree. Everything was gone, and the villagers could do nothing. Dr. Chantha Thun, 25/03/07 For centuries long, this story is still meaningful; it reflects the very Cambodian society plentiful of rascals and scoundrels who always try to cheat innocent and ignorant people. The ignorant who are not willing to listen to the truth –the truth is always considered poison.
Posted on: Thu, 08 Aug 2013 22:31:53 +0000
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