Wat
Wat Botum
វត្តបទុមវតីរាជវរារាម
Wat Botum (វត្តបទុមវតីរាជវរារាម, Wat Botum Vatey Reachavararam) is a Buddhist Wat south of the Royal Palace in Daun Penh, Phnom Penh.[1][2] Its history goes back to the founding of Phnom Penh in the 15th century.[1]
History
The Wat was first called Wat Khpob Ta Yang, after the pond of Ta Yang, a farmer who worked the land. It was built in 1443, in the reign of King Ponhea Yat, at the same time as Wat Ounalom; the two Wats stood north and south of the royal palace. When later kings moved the capital away from Phnom Penh, the Wat fell silent and stood abandoned in the forest for centuries.[1]
In 1865 King Norodom moved the capital back to Phnom Penh. He had timber brought from Oudong to build a new vihara (main sanctuary), monks' quarters and a hall, had moats dug on three sides and planted with lotuses. He renamed the Wat Botum Vatey Reachavararam, "the royal Wat enclosed by lotuses". In 1887 the king received a bodhi tree and relics of the Buddha from Sri Lanka and planted the tree in front of the vihara. On May 8, 1909, the relics were enshrined in a four-sided stupa 33 m (108 ft) tall, south of the vihara. Work on a new vihara began in 1937, and it was consecrated on March 20, 1942. At that time Wat Botum was a principal Wat of the Dhammayuttika order.[1]
Under Democratic Kampuchea (1975 to 1979), the monks were driven out and forced to leave the monkhood, and scriptures, texts and buildings were destroyed. The grounds grew over with grass and forest. From 1979 to 1989 Vietnamese troops were quartered at the Wat.[1]
In 1989 Samdech Non Nget came from Wat Langka to lead the monks, and Wat Botum became a Wat of the Mahanikaya order. From 1991 the Supreme Patriarch of the Dhammayuttika order, Samdech Bour Kry, also lived at the Wat. By 2018 it housed more than 400 Mahanikaya monks a year, 20 to 30 Dhammayuttika monks and 600 to 700 students.[1]
Religious life
As of 2025, Samdech Khim Sorn, third deputy head of the Sangha, lived at the Wat with other senior monks. On September 10, 2025, during Pchum Ben, Minister of Cults and Religion Chay Borin and his family made the third turn of Kan Ben (កាន់បិណ្ឌ, Kan Ben), the daily offerings to the monks, at the Wat.[2]