Heritage site
Preah Ang Chek Preah Ang Chorm
Preah Ang Chek Preah Ang Chorm (ព្រះអង្គចេក ព្រះអង្គចម) is a shrine in Siem Reap, Cambodia, that houses two golden Buddha images of the same names.[1] It stands across from the Independence Gardens in the center of town.[1] Devotees believe the two figures protect Siem Reap and bring luck to newly married couples, and a pinpeat ensemble plays for them every day.[1][2]
The statues
The taller statue is Preah Ang Chek and the shorter one Preah Ang Chorm.[1] Devotees call them two magical sisters who answer the prayers of those who bring offerings.[3] Officials of the Angkor Conservation office found the statues in 1950 in the forest near Angkor Thom. Experts then believed they had once stood in Angkor Wat and were lost when Angkor Wat was abandoned.[1]
History
Sem Tap, a former head of the committee that looks after the statues for the provincial Department of Cults and Religion, told the Phnom Penh Post their story in 2011.[1] In his account, the general Dap Chhuon, who governed Siem Reap and Kampong Thom, took the statues from the conservation office to his headquarters, and his troops prayed before them each day. Believers say the statues gave him the strength to lift both at once. When he later fled the king's troops, they say, the statues grew too heavy to carry.[1] After his fall the statues were placed in front of the provincial Department of Cults and Religious Affairs.[1]
When fighting reached Siem Reap in 1973 the statues were moved to Wat Damnak. Sem Tap said the Khmer Rouge took them after capturing the town and had them thrown into the Siem Reap River, where they lay in the silt until 1979. Residents then pulled them out and brought them back to Wat Damnak.[1]
In 1982 Pout Pon, head of the Buddhist monks in Siem Reap, and the provincial governor Nov Som paid for the present shrine, and it was enlarged in 2004 with money from the Minister of Commerce.[1]
Devotion and music
Sem Tap counted almost 300 visitors on an ordinary day and more than 800 on Pchum Ben, the Khmer New Year and the Water Festival.[1] Visitors burn incense and pray, and newlyweds come to ask for a good marriage.[3]
Sounds of Angkor calls the shrine's pinpeat the busiest in Cambodia. Teams of musicians take turns, and it plays from morning until evening on all 365 days of the year.[2] The ensemble is pared down to five instruments: the roneat ek xylophone, the kong vong thom gong circle, the samphor drum, a pair of skor thom drums and the sralai thom oboe.[2] Devotees pay the musicians ahead by the number of pieces and offer the music to the two deities.[2]
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