Neak ta

[5] The cult of the neak ta contains primitive religious elements, such as lacking dogma and a priesthood, as it preceded both Hinduism and Buddhism in Cambodia.

[6] In the Angkorian period, the worship of the devaraja as kamraten jagat, protective genius linked to dynasties and places can be seen as new valorisation of the ruling king of his own neak ta.

[10] After the fall of Angkor, King Ang Chan I (1510-1560) also known as Preah Baromei is associated with the elevation of the most famous neak ta Khleang Moeung in Pursat.

[12] When the King Sisowath's Prime Ministry Thiounn drafted the initial blueprint for the territorial reform of Cambodia in 1908, he included among the role of the new state appointed religious adviser (preah dhammakar) the mission to "arrange ceremonial materials" to praise the village neak ta.

[19] However, some neak ta spirit cults grew in importance once again away from the control of Buddhist monks and lay specialists as it was observed in Kep.

Despite considering the possibility that the neak ta may relocate, the migration of Khmer diaspora outside of Cambodia has been particularly vexing in terms of territorial spirits who protect a certain place.

[23] While the achar is the ritual master of ceremonies for rites related to the neak ta, the Buddhist monks will only take part in the recitation of prayers and not as officiants.

Rituals associated with the neak ta may be simple blessing vows, formal ceremonies, or the monastic recitation of parittas protective verses either a prophylactic supplication or to counteract serious difficulties such as major illnesses, famine and accidents.

[26] The first type of rite is a vow or promise (ban sran) performed to gain a blessing for a minor undertaking or to find a missing object.

The second (bon banchan neak ta) is a more formal prophylactic ceremony designed to counteract more serious difficulties, such as major illnesses, famine, or drought.

[30] Ritual specialists kru khmer have traditionally used herbal remedies, astrology, fortune-telling, magic, sorcery, and talismans to both access the neak ta spirit world and to provide protection from it.

The anthuot is used in the invocation of the neak ta before leaving in search for the choar rung (saps) and precious wood khlemm chann.

[40] Neak ta spirits can also be solitary individuals (cah srok) "the old one of the country," indicating the archaic nature of their cult.

[41] A powerful neak tà called Toeuk Lic, for example, dwells in an Angkorian-period Buddha statue now placed at the foot of the cascade on Phnom Kulen.

It is known that ritual suicide and probable human sacrifice were linked to goddess cults practiced in the Indian Pallava kingdom of the seventh through ninth centuries.

In the 2000s, his statue was that of a man of previous era with square shoulders and a bushy moustache — his representation maybe denoting a trace of Siamese influence.

According to tradition, the propitiation of neak ta Khleang Moeung once involved the sacrifice of a male buffalo in each province of the kingdom.

It was broken up and thrown into a nearby pond during the Pol Pot era but has now been recovered and reconstituted[45] Sam Rainsy brought up the tale of Khleang Moeung, using the version of the story reported by French researcher Adhémar Leclère in 1914, and criticizing King Kan, whom Prime Minister Hun Sen is known to admire and who, according to some versions of history, was not of royal blood.

[48] Cults to neak ta have deeply influenced over time the way Hinduism in its various expressions and then Buddhism has been interpreted and practiced in ancient, modern and contemporary Cambodia.

Though for centuries Voat Phnom was a shrine to a Khmer neak ta called 'Preah Chao', it has recently fallen under a Chinese spirit worship.

The neak ta Leak in Prey Veng Province is of Cham origin and therefore associated to Islam though it rules over a Buddhist village, it forbids its protected kon chau from eating pork punishing those who would with stomach aches.

[60] With the development and education of Cambodia, many Khmers have stopped worshipping the neak ta and turned towards future-oriented, pragmatic ideologies that they see as 'modern'.

[18] The cult of the neak ta provides insights about the way people in Cambodia relate to the environment, as well as the notions of development, progress and civilisation that are now driving a certain peril to both culture and biodiversity.

While the religious respect that can be shown to elements of nature is disappearing, animal cruelty linked to blood sacrifices is also diminishing.