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THE TEN BASIC ROOTS OF KHMER MENTALITY

(translated from the original text entitled
"Proloeng Khmer" in Khmer language, 1973,1997)

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Original author: (the late) Prof. Sar Sarun

Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences

The University of Phnom Penh

Editing author: Khmer Aphiwath group
Publisher: Khmer Aphiwath group
Melbourne, Australia)

Translators: Kua Cham


{This translation is by no means accurate, because
the translators are not professionals.
Our urgent aim is to provide Cambodian youngsters born
and/or brought up abroad with the opportunity to
be acquainted with some writings of our prominent Khmer scholars who were
victim of our internal wars, and have unfortunately
passed away.}

BASED ON HISTORY:


The First root: MATRIARCHY
---------------

The Major root of Khmer mentality resides in the fact
that Khmer people valued and are valuing the practice
of "MATRIARCHY". This is the acceptance of female
person as leader or decision maker at all level of
human organization within Khmer society ranging from
family life to the governing of the whole
society.

This regime have started long back, the beginning of
Khmer history, which tells us that we once had as
ruling monarch, a queen called "Soma" or "Liev Yi" or
"Neang Neak". We were then at a period called
"Funan". Khmer history also says that after an
Indian prince named "Kaodinhya" or "Hun Tien" or
"Preah Thong" {respectively Indian, Chinese and legendary names},
had conquered the country of Funan and eventually got married to the Queen,
the prince followed behind her all the way,
during the wedding ceremony, holding her scarf's edge,
daring no way to distract himself with the surrounding.

Khmer ancestors also carved this legend on the walls
of Angkor in order to remind us of the origin of our
Matriarchy. On the other hand, nowadays, at any royal
wedding, the groom prince is required by common
practice, to hold the bride princess's scarf edge.

As for ordinary people, we also adopt "Matriarchy" as
one of the basic principles of social life. This is
manifested in coining the terminology for calling
many important social positions, in the formulation of
many popular educational maxims as well as in the
birth of some common social beliefs nowadays, as
follows.


A) In the family, Khmer people prefer to place female
title before male's:
- Mother and father, grandma and grandpa, mum and dad,
aunty and uncle

B) In the armed forces:
- Mother of the army (=chief of the army)
- Mother of the command  (=commander)
- Deputy Mother of the command (= deputy
commander)

C) In administrative systems:
- Mother of the county (commune? =county governor)
- Mother of the town (=mayor),
- Mother of the district (=district councilor)
- Mother of the block (of ten households
=representative of the block)

D) In educational maxims:
- It is better to have the father died rather than to
loose the mother, as it is better to face shipwreck
rather than having the house burned.
(This implies that the father is less important than
the mother)

E) In daily practices:
Clean husband + Corrupted wife = Corrupted
Bribe-free husband + Bribe-wife = Bribe
Husband's disapproval + Wife's approval=
Approval  (The wife is the chief of the family, while
the husband is a worker who keeps   looking to work
outside in order to get money back to the wife.
If the sum   is less than what is expected, he may
even be blamed by his wife. Khmer   wives do possess
this personality's characteristic of” Mother-wife",
while their Chinese counterparts have the opposite one of
"Slave-wife”, as in Chinese family practice,
it is the husband who controls the family's finance.)

The Second root: HIDDEN STRENGHT
---------------

According to the history currently under our
investigation, which is related to the destiny of our
nation, the Second root of Khmer mentality resides in
a hidden strength that keeps Khmer country from
perishing despite repetitive attempts from outside to
destroy us. We are now asking ourselves what is that
hidden strength of Khmer people?

Many academics as well as some ordinary citizens who
are concerned with the integrity of our nation in the
future, are in the process of looking for the source
of this defensive power.  For it is believed in
historical researches finding that Khmer country was
perpetually invaded, and Khmer people used to be
enslaved by Thai people for many years. During those
periods, Khmer successive capitals Angkor and
Longvek were subjected to terrible devastations.
All great sages and scholars were taken prisoner and
sent to serve in the invaders’ country. Why Khmer
land and Khmer country still subsist until now?

These case studies have proved that Khmer people have
got some hidden persisting factor, which constantly
gives rise to a defensive power, which in turn keeps
Khmer land and Khmer country from perishing.
That is why our ancestors had the reason to state in a
popular proverb  "Khmer territories will never
perish". This indicates that Khmer people have got
that potential strength deep inside Khmer spirit or
mentality, and that had been so clear to Khmer
ancestors that they got enough confidence to create
this proverb.

However, nowadays we don't know exactly what that
hidden strenght, which constitutes an essential part
of Khmer spirit, really is, nor do we know clearly
where it resides in Khmer identity.

For it is only when we have found this hidden part of
Khmer spirit that we are able to continue to preserve
our land and our nation from dangers.
Otherwise, we will have no more reason just to
believe the above-mentioned optimistic proverb,
for as have been argued so far, Khmer spirit and identity
are all about our culture and our civilization.

BASED ON GEOGRAPHY:

The Third root: SELF-PRAISE ATTITUDE
---------------

The Third root of Khmer mentality resides in the fact
that Khmer people have a fairly high pride and an
intrinsic preference for Self-Praise.
This is because Khmer people originally belonged to
an ethnic family called” Khmer-Mon".
And that "Khmer-Mon" ethnic family had long back
dwelled in the Indochina’s peninsula. But, at that
time this region was called "Sovanna
Phum (= Golden Country)" and had its area extended to
the common boundary with China.

For "Sovann" is a Pali word, which means
"Gold", and "Phum" is also a Pali word which means
"Land" or "Country".

In general, people living in this golden country
Sovanna Phum, naturally lead a joyful life blessed
by their natural richness, which slowly developed in
their unconscious mind a fairly high pride and a
preference for boasting. These people consist of three
ethnic groups: the Mon, the Cham and the Khmer. But at
that time they did not have clear land boundary
between their groups. They lived in tribal communities
and mainly practiced the trade of gold with people
from Portugal who traveled by sailboat mostly to trade
in the China Sea. People in this Golden Country did not
have other businesses to worry about than gold
trading. This gave birth to the development of an
attitude of boasting and unconsciously to the development of a
high pride. Amongst them, the Mon ranked first along
this line, the Cham the second and the Khmer were the
last run-up. Khmer people have been the most humble
amongst the three, but they were also trapped by the
same upbringing so convincingly that Khmer ancestors
tried to make this common attitude explicit in a
parable as follows.

- THE MON USE THE HEAVEN AS A SEAT
- THE CHAM JUST ONE PALM TO THE SKY
- The KHMER RISE UP INTO THE CLOUD THEN GO
  THROUGHOUT THE EARTH WORM'S SHIT

According to this saying, Khmer self-praise attitude
was as high as the level of the cloud but still lower
than the sky or the heaven. Also, they usually came
back to the earth quickly. This means that in general
they boasted but then came down to the reality. When
Khmer people talk between themselves, they did not
realize that they were boasting, because they had the
same level of boasting attitude and pride. But when Khmer
people talked with the Cham who had higher level of
boasting attitude, by then they started to get the
idea that the Cham liked boasting. Likewise, when the
Cham talked amongst them, they did not perceive the fact
that they were boasting people, because they were all
at the same level. But when they talked to the Mon,
only by then that they started to notice that the
Mon extremely liked boasting.

- The Mon kept on boasting more than anyone else
until they lost all land
- The Cham second to the Mon with respect to boasting
also lost all land- The Khmer boasted moderately and
thus retained parts of their land

However, we can by no means have this sort of optimism
that Khmer can retain for ever these remaining parts
of Khmer land, because at present Khmer country is
heading towards a catastrophic situation.

So why these three ethnic groups lost their land
completely or partially via boasting? The answer is
somewhat like this.

While they kept on boasting and enjoying their
natural resources, they forgot that surrounding ethnic
groups tried to take over their land.

The Thai who have the same root as the Chinese, as
they originally dwelled in a China's southern
province of Yunnan, came to be known at the Eight
century as they started to move southwards.
They used the chaos, which  happened after the Mongolian
invaded China at the Thirteen century, to  attack the
city of Sokhotey and took over all the areas initially
owned by  the Mon. They also conquered some Khmer
northern provinces beyond Danrek  mountain chain
along the river Semoun, such as Nokoreach, Surin,
Sangkeas, Kouk-khan, Sisaket, Burirum, etc., and in addition
extended their domination  over south-west areas down
to Malaysia, which all had been under the possession
of the Golden Country or Sovanna Phum peninsula.


During 1794-95, there were three aristocrats Khmer who
competed each other aiming to monopolies the state
power. Each one perceived himself as being superior to
the rest of them, because the were all the descendent
of a self-praising and unconditionally proud ethnic
race. One aristocrat named Ben  played trick to have
another one named Sous assassinate the third one named
Mou. Afterwards, he himself tried to kill the
assassinator Sous, but failed  because the latter had
strong allies. Ben, then asked for help
from the Thai  authority by facilitating Thai army to
invade Cambodia, and in return for  that help, Ben
agreed to leave some of Khmer provinces such as
Battambang,  Mongkolburi and Serisophan to be annexed
to Thailand.


So, what pushed Khmer aristocrats to go out of the way
fighting for power ?

At that time, the race for power based mainly on
self-proclaimed superiority  had been extremely
active, due to the commonly accepted tactic of relying
on foreign armed forces as support. Those aristocrats
deliberately placed on the  Throne a six-year-old
prince named Ang Eng who was the son of the prince
Otey  II and who was then a young boy with no ruling
ability. This was a maneuver  aimed at gripping the
state power by the aristocrats themselves.

We have come to understand via the above-mentioned
history, that in the past, foreign invasions into Khmer
country were made possible only because Khmer  leading
state workers were so stubborn at their self-conceived
supremacy that  made them ignorant of the country's
fate heading towards disasters.


The fact that Khmer people like boasting can be found
in lots of document elsewhere, for instance, in our
ethical poems such as "Father's Testament",  "Rules
for Children and Grandchildren”,” Fable for Children
and Grand-Children", "Conduct Rules for Men", etc.  All
these writings were aimed at awakening Khmer  people
from the dream of Self-Praise and irrational pride.
The following are some examples:


"Father's Testament"
DO NOT BOAST ABOUT YOUR STRENGHT...

"Fable for Children and Grand-Children"
A FROG BOASTS THAT IT CAN FIGHT WITH THE ELEPHANT...
A TOAD BOASTS THAT IT IS AS BEAUTIFUL AS
THE GOLD...
"Rules for Children and Grand-Children"
DO NOT BOAST ABOUT YOUR RANK...


At a conference of research on Letters which took
place in Chakdhumuk Hall  at the 9th November 1970, a
Buddhist monk argued that Khmer language has excellent
linguistic rules that are superior to those of any
human language  in the world". (Sic)

Also, in a book entitled "Khmer's character" written
by Mr. Bun Chanth Mol which  has just been published,
there are discussions about our people's preference
for boasting".

The Fourth root: AGRICULTURE
----------------
The Fourth root of Khmer mentality has been developed
based on Agriculture.  This is because from the
origin of Khmer ethnic race, the whole life of  Khmer
society has been relying almost exclusively on
agriculture.
Eventually,  Khmer people took agriculture as an
important source of their cultural  identity. This
means that all aspects of education have their root
in  agriculture. For in order to educate anybody,
Khmer people are inclined  to use agriculture-related
things and/or events as metaphorical ground for
their argument.

A) In the family domain

"WHEN YOU FARM, LOOK AT THE GRASS, (likewise) when
you marry your children look at their partner's root"

"START NOW TO FARM WHILE THE SOIL IS STILL WARM
(likewise) start now to court the girl while your
heart is burning"

"TRANSPLANTED RICE-PLANTS BRING ALONG THEIR (INITIAL)
SOIL(likewise) women can bring up their man"


B) In the military domain

"YOU FARM A FIELD WITH WATER (likewise) you fight a
war with food"

C) In the domain of country development

"AGRICULTURE IS THE BREATH OF THE COUNTRY"


D) In education in general

"DROP BY DROP   PALM-TREE FILLS THE TUBE"

"STRAIGHT UP ONES BEAR NOTHING INCLINING ONES BEAR
GRAINS"
"HAPPY FARMING PLANTING, TRADING W'LL GET
(people's) REGARD GOOD MEAL, GOOD WEALTH TO GET'S
NOT HARD THIS JOY IS SMART IT'S LONG-TERM ONE"
(from "Father's Testament",  verse in Crow's walk
rhyme)

"THINK OF AND WORK ON   ALL SEASONS (dry-season and
rainy-season) RICE GROWING RICE-FIELD SHOULD HAVE
SIGN    WHILE FRUIT-FARM SHOULD HAVE FENCE" (from
"Inherited Conduct Rules” verse in Bhramngit rhyme)

The Fifth root : BEING INSENSITIVE TO RULES
----------------
The Fifth root of Khmer mentality resides in the fact
that, due to geographical conditions, Khmer people are
less sensitive towards legal rules. So, what is  the
reason ? Khmer country is a place which is rarely
threaten by natural disasters that usually occurs in
other places, for example, in Japan or in European
countries, such as:
- Freezing winter
- Panic earthquake
- Volcanic explosion
- Savage tempest
- Large scale typhoon
- Large scale flood

Khmer country seldom faces such natural disasters,
almost never, except some small scale floods which
happen once upon decades. Furthermore, those floods
are not so savage. As for climate, it is so warm that
Khmer people can stay alive without clothes. Regarding
the earthquake, Khmer country never meet any
significant one other than soil trembling caused by
the bombing of B-52 bombers days and nights, which
destroyed many villages, inhabitants and farms.

Because Khmer country is rarely subjected to natural
catastrophe, Khmer people are less aware about the
nature and have little need to adjust themselves to
natural constraints. This exemption from natural
constraints has shaped Khmer mentality to be
insensitive to social and legal rules, unless there is
coercion. This happens in contrast to countries in cold
region whose people cannot  survive without
appropriate clothing.

However, people from that region that migrate into
Khmer country, will become mentally similar to Khmer
people after a sufficient period of time. Likewise,
Khmer people who go to live in  cold region, will also
change their mentality to become similar to the local
people in that region. This is the explanation of the
Fifth element of Khmer  Soul, based on geographical
conditions.



The Sixth root: BEING INACTIVE
---------------

The Sixth root of Khmer mentality resides in the fact
that Khmer people are inactive. Because Khmer people
live in a tropical country, they tend to have few
activities. Khmer artistic spirit dwells in a soft,
fanciful and romantic state, which is less energetic.
Khmer music tends to be sentimental and make people
sleepy. Khmer people move slowly.

They set off to the work place in a relaxed pace as
slow as to wander around during vacation. These
factors  have shaped Khmer mentality to value inactive
people more than active ones, and to like conservative
people more than progressive ones.

Examples:

Khmer admire people who work less but earn much rather
than people who work hard but earn little. Khmer people
admire a government official who just signs a document
and earns millions of riels at once, rather than
another one who works from morning till evening and
hardly earns what is needed to survive. In fact, they
should appreciate the latter that makes a sacrifice
and saves  national budget. Should a personnel in
education and an official in the custom office
simultaneously ask to marry the daughter of a family,
the former would  end with despair. Where does this
come from ?

Indeed, this is the unfairness of the society in
tropical country.

Shall we continue this life style, which is spoiled by
the nature ? Or shall we try to win over the nature ?
Shall we destroy this root of Khmer mentality  or not
?  The solution to this problem relies mainly on the
awareness of Khmer youngsters, but the right
awareness will be possible only after being educated,
in other words, after being enlightened. For if we lack
enlightenment, our awareness may unconsciously lead
into the wrong  direction. For being blind or ignorant
is a great evil that allows others  to easily do
business over our mind.

Examples:

In Khmer folk tales, Khmer authors also illustrate
this mentality by the  following events:

_ An ignorant man found two jars of gold hided under
the ground
- A senseless man usually has a wife with excellent
quality
- A stupid man most probably get sacred power
- An uneducated man get promoted to the rank of the
lord
- Kong Hean is made a Khmer hero by his own shit

Other examples: A Khmer old saying tells us that,

"A sage falls down into a hole, while a fool rises up
to the paradise "Based on the above argument,
shall we continue to keep this root of Khmer  mentality or not ?

The Seventh root: FUZZINESS ON COMMITMENT
-----------------

The Seventh root of Khmer mentality resides in the
fact that Khmer people are  inclined to be confused at
all important aspects of commitment.

This is because Khmer people live in a country in
which various seasons are not clear cut:
rainy season, dry season as well as cold season start
and end at fuzzy dates known to nobody. In contrast,
countries in cold region, they have their seasons
clear-cut. For example, in European continent:

- Spring from 21st March to 21st June
- Summer from 21st June to 22d September
- Fall from 22d September to 21st December
- Winter from 21st December to 21st March

Clear cut seasons have trained the mind of the people
who live in that region to have clear plan:

- When they work, they concentrate on working
- When they play, they concentrate on playing
- When they study, they concentrate on their study
- When they eat, they concentrate on eating
- When they take a rest, they stop all works

In France, it is almost impossible to find a
restaurant which is open beyond  AM 9 to PM 10 and
serves anything other than drinks.

Khmer country's fuzzy seasons have spoiled the
mind of the people living therewith fuzziness in all
aspects of commitment.

- Work and play mixed together
- Clash at work is similar to clash at home
- Study time and Break time mixed in the same period
- Time to eat lasts from morning, through midnight,
till the sun rise again
- Office's works and home's works mixed together
- Government owned car is also taken as personally
owned car  and used to carry the wife, to send the
children to school or even to carry the mistress
- Experts of organizing theatre play or of teaching at
school  happen to take over minister positions
(different people have talent in different areas)

In order to correct this root of Khmer mentality, it
is necessary to enforce a truly severe law,
and also have examples from the top, not from the bottom.


The Eighth root: EXTREMISM
---------------

The Eighth root of Khmer mentality resides in a habit
of being inclined  towards an ambivalent Extremism.
Khmer extremist thinking is not always oriented in one
particular direction. For when we come to like any
thing we tend to go out of our weight to stick on that
thing. But when we start  to dislike it, we usually go
extremely far in the opposite direction.
This is reflected in a popular expression as follows.

- The more loving the more hating

For example: In the story of "Tum and Teav", at first
Teav's mother loved  Tum so extremely that she asked
him to become her adopted son. But when  she turned to
dislike him she asked people to kill him in an
extremely  ruthless way.


- Teav's mother:
"CALLED UP OR-CHOUN, YOU HAVE MIGHT
WHY DON'T YOU, RIGHT NOW, USE IT
ARREST THAT TUM, STUBBORN SHIT
PULL HIM OUT WITH NO MERCY

ORDER YOUR MEN TO BEAT HIM
STAB AND KILL HIM URGENTLY
FOR HIS GUILT IS TOO HEAVY
TO BE PARDONNED ON THE EARTH"
(verse in Seven-Words rhyme)

- When we believe somebody, hundred and twenty percent
we believe, but if we stop to believe, that means
we will stop eternally.

- If you drink, then go as far as being carried by
others. But if you walk by yourself, then what does
drinking mean ?

- If you sin (by killing), go ahead to get your mouth touched with fat (meet)

- If you put your hand into the fish paste, go as deep
as having   your whole arm buried by the fish paste.

- If you want to cut, do not just feign

The Ninth root: TRUTH-WORD WORSHIPPING
---------------

The Ninth root of Khmer mentality resides in the fact
that Khmer worship  the so-called "Truth-Word". This
truth-word or the loyalty to what   have been said is
one of Khmer principal virtues, which has been found
via researches on Khmer literature, to have existed
since long time.

Some people believe that this virtue came into being
via the influence of Hinduism. For Hindu Bhraman who
were considered as God's agent and have a mission to
spread their religion, are believed to have observed
strictly  their words. This observance to what have
been said was taken as an excellent  virtue of
Hinduism and in addition as the essence of its
theology.

- The essence of the body is the purity or chastity
- The essence of verbal activities is the truth-word
- The essence of the mind is the courage


We can see this philosophy in the Khmer version of an
Indian legend called "Ramayana" in which, a King named
Preah Bat Tusarath did not dare to change  his
truth-word which had been spelled out by himself as a
promise to a woman  called Neang Kaikesi, that he
would leave the throne to the prince named  Preah
Phirut, if he wins a war with the Sun. In Part one of
"Ramayana", although the conflict was created by the
crisis of the throne in the city of Aiyutya, the way
to solve the problem prescribed that the truth-word
should win over the tradition. That was the reason
for Preah Ream, Preah  Laksmn and Neang Sita having to
quit the kingdom and to stay in the forest. In the
story of "A young weaver of palm-leaf basket", words
were also taken as  truth-word, i.e. a contract. For
example, when this weaver made a promise to  become a
slave to anyone who can save his life from the danger
of falling down  from the top of the palm-tree,
another person who passed by riding on an  elephant
completely believed him and started the rescue without
asking for real guarantee of that promise.
The four bald men who came next to the rescue  of the first two's,
after the elephant rider had himself been trapped by  the same danger as the
weaver,
also believed without real guarantee,
the  promise of the two's only because these letters had spelled
out their promise in words which the four balds took as truth-word.

In two folk tales entitled "A man and a tiger" and "A
man and a crocodile", we can see that both men who had
made a promise respectively to these wild  animals
that they would come back to be eaten by those animals
once they had  arranged the donation of their asset
inherited respectively from their family,  ultimately
did come back to the animals without thinking of any
tactic to get rid of their ill fate.  Also, in a story
named "Golden arrow", a king  who had made a statement
that he would kill anybody who created troubles to his
war plan, later on when he realized that it was his
own consort, the  queen who had made that mistake, he
bitterly forced himself to execute the  queen with the
golden arrow, in order to keep his statement as
truth-word.

Because of the existence in Khmer mentality, of this
kind of truth-word as  explained above, Khmer people
have formulated a proverb to express this value  as
follow:


"FOR HUMAN BEING THE WORD IS IMPORTANT
(i.e. we count on word),
AS FOR THE ELEPHANT THE IVORY IS PRECIOUS"

Khmer value about this truth-word have partially been
changed from a period called "The lord's tea spilling"
around the year 1845, due to the fear of being
maltreated by Vietnamese occupiers under a general
named Troeung Minh Yang. In one night this general
ordered his troop to behead four or five Khmer
citizens under the policy of the then emperor of
Vietnam named Ming Mang.

He then used the victims' head as supports to his
boiler in order to prepare  his tea. This lasted until
the French came into our country and had constantly
destroyed Khmer people's spirit so that Khmer became
very weak-minded (broken  until the base). Only by
then that Khmer people started to think of accepting  a
tricky way as one method of problem solving as
indicated in the following  saying. "DO NOT NEGLECT
THE CURVED ROAD, DO NOT FOLLOW THE STRAIGHT PATH"
However, this value of truth-word still subsists
nowadays and has been inherited  in its nearly
original form, by people in rural areas as well as in
mountainous regions where they still observe strictly
their words similarly to the practice of the ascetic
monk...These people also teach their youngsters that
a person  who does not obey his or her truth-word can
not live in the mountain.


The Tenth root : CHASTITY OR PURITY

The Tenth root of Khmer mentality resides in the fact
that Khmer people highly  value Chastity or Purity.
That is to say that Khmer essence is the devotion
to this chastity, especially by womanhood.
For Khmer women try incredibly hard  to preserve their
chastity including, of course, their physical purity,
i.e.  virginity. This happens along with Khmer men's
mental habit to accept as” Queen"  of their heart,
only a woman who is qualified with a fairly complete
chastity  which naturally includes bodily purity as
necessary condition. When a single  woman loses her
purity, she generally believes that her body has no
more worth,  i.e. has lost all the essence. Her life
becomes meaningless and she sometime  tries to end her
problem by suicide. This happens quite contrary to the
mentality of European women who tend to take this loss
of bodily purity just as a natural happening in their
life. Instead, they are inclined to value more on
the reality of their heart, which they take seriously as the essence of their
life.

Khmer people place more value on the quality of the
body than on the quality  of the heart. There are
people who believe that bodily essence has its root in
Bhramanism. For the Bhraman highly valued this essence
as principal quality  of Brahman hood. However, we
believe that this sort of value transfer has  been
made possible only through the fact that both sides
had initially got  a similar mental habit.

The existence of this value in Khmer mentality has
also been pointed out in  many writings of Khmer
literature as follows.

- In the story of "Ramayana", when Preah Ream took
refuge in a forest,  his wife Neang Sita also
accompanied him to the same forest.

- In the story of "Preah Vesantar", when Preah
Vesantar was exiled into  a forest, his wife Neang
Metri also followed him to the same forest.

Some people think that these stories are influenced by
Indian thought.
the compatibility of that influence with some existing factors in

However, we can make a reasoning which concludes that
the acceptance of any  influence of one country by
another, be it about belief, custom, religion or any
kind of institution as well as ideology, can be made
possible only through  the compatibility of that
influence with some existing factors in the country
that accepts it. From this reasoning, we can conclude that the
devotion to chastity by Khmer women had already existed before the Indian
influence. But this influence added more momentum to our mental habit, which
has  led us to be so fond of any story, which particularly praises this value.

For example,

- In the story of "Tum and Teav" which is purely a Khmer love story,
we can see clearly through the deed of Neang Teav, our Khmer
women's devotion to chastity. For when she learnt that Tum had been
executed  with a knife, Neang Teav also cut her throat with a knife to
follow   her lover.

- In the story of "Sophat", Neang Manyan who believed that
Sophat   was drowned, also drowned herself in a river in order to
follow   her sweetheart.

Now, can we prove this characteristic as invariant factor ?

In our society up to now, we have seen that along with the
rotation  of  Khmer soldiers from one place to another as required by different
missions  of the armed forces, which can be viewed as a series of coping
with various  dangers, the wives of these public servants always follow their
husband everywhere as well as devote themselves to support them from the
rear.   Although there are many factors to be considered, such as those  related
to
the family finance, the change of life style as well as the
change of habit,  Khmer women still prefer to take this devotion as their first
priority,  in order to preserve their chastity.

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