Phnom Krom
— The Mountain That Hanuman Threw —
A folktale from Siem Reap Province
A story about Phnom Krom, the mountain that rises on the shore of the Tonle Sap Lake.
One day, Hanuman, the monkey general, was given an important task by King Preah Ream. To heal the king's younger brother, Prince Preah Leak, who had been wounded by an arrow, Hanuman was to go and find a medicinal tree.
The king deliberately did not tell Hanuman that the tree was called "Chhoeung Krong Sva," meaning "monkey tree." He was being considerate: he did not want Hanuman, a monkey himself, to hear the name, think he was being mocked, and lose heart.
Without being told the name, Hanuman searched for the tree by guesswork and brought one back to the king three times. But none of them was the tree they needed.
Losing patience, Hanuman decided to cut off the entire upper half of Mount Trambat and let the king search for the tree himself. And the king found the "Chhoeung Krong Sva" right away.
Realizing he had not been told the name, Hanuman grumbled, "If you had told me from the start, I wouldn't have had to bring half a mountain!" The prince recovered safely, and the mountain was no longer needed. The king ordered Hanuman to return it to where it belonged.
But carrying the mountain all the way back was a very long journey. Hanuman, who disliked tedious work to begin with, simply hurled the mountain away with all his might.
The mountain flipped upside down in midair and landed where it stands today. Because its old summit ended up at the bottom and the cut-off middle became the new peak, the mountain came to be called "Phnom Krom," meaning "the mountain turned downward." It is said that the medicinal Chhoeung Krong Sva tree still grows wild on this mountain today.
The end.
About this story
Hanuman, the monkey general in this story, is a well-known Hindu deity. Cambodia's royal family is said to have originally come from India, and Indian gods and legends often appear in Cambodian folktales. Incidentally, Hanuman is also said to have been the model for Sun Wukong, the Monkey King of the Chinese classic Journey to the West.
In Japanese maps and guidebooks this mountain is usually written as "Phnom Kurom," but in our picture book we spell it "Phnom Kraom" to stay closer to the traditional pronunciation. Beyond the mountain stretches the Tonle Sap Lake, as vast as a sea.