Sāstrā lbaeng or lpaen[1] is a genre of medieval Khmer literature[2] often made of fantastic adventure romances.
Portraying the Buddhist concept of karma, many of the sāstrā lbaeng were used by monks as texts to teach Khmer boys to read and write.
[7] Since 1980, purely secular sāstrā lbaeng have appeared whereas in the past the Buddhist background pervaded all elements Cambodian culture.
Many of the palm leaf texts documented in these films have since been lost, because they had been stored in canisters in non-climate-controlled offices in Cambodia.
[10] The literary elements of the sāstrā lbaeng include three parts: Sāstrā lbaeng were used widely in the monastery-based education of the laity, and even today traditionalist monks continue to chant versified romances based around the Buddha's past lives and the like, in a spare and stylized manner known as smot.