Cambodia's Legendary God of All People ——
The Queen Soma, which has been passed down in Cambodian folklore, is a goddess believed in by the Cambodian people. Together with an Indian prince, she established the Funan Dynasty, which became the first power in Southeast Asia.
The "Bunong" tribe settled in Kompong Som Harbor at a time when the status of women in society was high, with the men being responsible for hunting, fishing and defending themselves against wild animals, and the women being responsible for cooking, sewing and raising children.
Later, the chief of the "Bunong" tribe had many children, among which the youngest daughter was named "Soma", who was born with beauty, intelligence and kindness, and often solved problems for everyone, cared for the elderly and children, and was very popular among the tribal people. So the tribe unanimously elected Princess Soma as the leader, thus, Princess Soma became the first queen in the history of Cambodia.
After becoming the queen of the country, Queen Soma utilized her intelligence to rule the country in a good way and made a lot of achievements. She led the tribal communities to defend themselves against foreign disturbances and established most of the boundaries of present-day Cambodia.
To commemorate Queen Soma's wise behavior, the quiet winding mangrove river in the former site of the Funan Dynasty was honored as "Soma Stream", and in 1993, this vast forested area was also named Ream National Park by the Cambodian government.
The word "Ream" comes from the people's belief in Brahmanism, in which there are three main gods, one of which is called Shiva, and in Cambodian it is called ព្រះរាម, and so it is named after the word "រាម" (Ream).
According to the Book of Southern Qi, there was another country named Mere (jiào) Kingdom south of Funan Kingdom (present-day Indian Sea).
The prince's name was Kaundinya I. he was tough and brave, and dared to expand the territory. One night, Prince Kaundinya I dreamed that the God of Heaven gave him a bow, and when he got up in the morning, he went to the temple under the sacred tree, and was indeed given a sacred bow.
Prince Kaundinya I decided to follow the instructions in the dream and led an army to sail towards the place where the sun rises, crossing the Derinday Mountains, the Grand Canyon of Krakatau, and finally reached and found a peaceful sea, where there are no storms, typhoons, or tsunamis, and Prince Kaundinya I named it the Bay of Funan.
On the north side of the Furnan Bay, they found another open, fertile and rich virgin rainforest. The Prince of Kaundinya I then organized his troops to lead his men upstream along a mangrove-wrapped river known locally as Soma Stream, through a large wetland covered by a birch aquatic forest, over Twin Dragons Mountain, and across the Silver Sand River, where they met up with the Queen Soma's forces near Silver Mountain for a fierce battle.
However, the troops of Funan Kingdom were unable to resist the onslaught of the army of Kaundinya I and lost the battle, and Queen Soma led her tribe to retreat to the top of Ream Mountain and continued to fight valiantly with the troops of Kaundinya I.
During the engagement, the Kaundinya I Prince fell in love at first sight with the valiant Queen Soma, and could not bear to use the brutal slaughtering tactics again. So he stopped declaring war, released the wounded, and ordered his troops to wait under the Silver Mountain. Whenever the silver moon was high in the sky, the Prince of Kaundinya I missed the Queen Soma on the mountain, and sang love songs to the Queen on the mountain. The young and beautiful queen was also touched by the prince's bravery and kindness, and wished more than anything that there would be no more fighting and death between the two countries. The two young man and woman, who had been fighting for peace, came together, and the warriors of both sides cheered for peace and laughed for happiness. The Prince Kaundinya I and the Queen Soma made a lifelong commitment to each other on the acacia platform at Linga Peak.
Under the joint rule of Prince Kaundinya I and Queen Soma, the Funan Dynasty grew stronger and stronger, and over the generations, their descendants opened up thousands of miles of territory and developed into the number one power in Southeast Asia.
Throughout the generations, the descendants of the Prince of Kaundinya I and the Queen of Willow Leaf grew strong and continued to expand their territories. They traveled north and were invincible until they penetrated deep into Siem Reap and discovered hundreds of square kilometers of fresh water (Tonle Sap Lake), which was sweetened with coconut milk and filled with fish and shrimp, so they named it Tonle Sap Lake.
They chose to settle down on the northern shore of the lake to raise their offspring, reclaim farmland, build water conservancy and construct agricultural land, giving birth to the wise and friendly Khmer nation. This Khmer nation absorbed Indian Buddhism as its state religion and derived the Khmer people’s own Theravada Buddhist culture.
(To this day, more than 95% of the population is Buddhist, making Cambodia the most densely populated Buddhist country in the world.)
After the eleventh century, a young, wise leader, Jayavarman VII, emerged in the country. After leading his troops to victory over the Champas, he organized the people to build palaces, reorganize the capital city, dredge the rivers, establish transportation, stabilize the boundaries, reorganize the tenants, popularize medical care, reform the religions, and boldly renovate the city, and named it Angkor, became the most flourishing and richest dynasty in the whole southeastern peninsula, and the neighboring tribes and ethnic groups called it the Angkor Dynasty.
From the Bunong tribe in the South China Sea to the Funan Dynasty, the people of the Bunong tribe gradually established their own country, giving birth to a wide range of Khmer people. Through generations of prosperity, the Funan Dynasty developed into the Chenla Dynasty, and then moved the capital to Siem Reap, creating the mighty Angkor Dynasty in Southeast Asia, and gradually evolved into today's Kingdom of Cambodia, it can be said that Ream is the birthplace of the Kingdom of Cambodia!
Ream has a rich history, but now it is more and more internationalized, with the heavy planning of SNC, the continuous improvement of infrastructure, more and more international enterprises stationed in the area, more and more international tourists visiting, Ream has a bigger stage for development, and it is believed that on the old site of Funan Dynasty, Ream will create the next world-renowned innovation, and promote Sihanoukville to become a world-famous coastal tourism city.
