Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
on the southern side of the passage between the
vihara
and the stupa is a statue of a smil-
ing and rather plump Madame Penh.
A bit to the north of and below the
vihara
is an eclectic shrine dedicated to the genie
Preah Chau, who is especially revered by the Vietnamese. On either side of the entrance to
the central altar containing a statue of Preah Chau are guardian spirits bearing iron bats. In
the chamber to the right of the statue (if you are looking at it) are drawings of Confucius,
as well as two Chinese-style figures of the sages Thang Cheng (on the right) and Thang
Thay (on the left).
Down the hill from the
vihara
in the northwest corner of the complex is a museum with
some old statues and historical artefacts, which can probably be skipped if you've been to
the National Museum.
Wat Phnom can be a bit of a circus, with beggars, street urchins, women selling drinks
and children selling birds in cages (you pay to set the bird free, but the birds are trained to
return to their cage afterwards).
Wat Ounalom
BUDDHIST TEMPLE
(Sothearos Blvd; 6am-6pm)
This wat is the headquarters of Cambodian Buddhism. It was
founded in 1443 and comprises 44 structures. It received a battering during the Pol Pot
era, but today the wat has come back to life. The head of the country's Buddhist brother-
hood lives here, along with a large number of monks.
On the 2nd floor of the main building, to the left of the dais, is a statue of Huot Tat,
fourth patriarch of Cambodian Buddhism, who was killed by Pol Pot. The statue, made in
1971 when the patriarch was 80 years old, was thrown in the Mekong by the Khmer
Rouge to show that Buddhism was no longer the driving force in Cambodia. It was re-
trieved after 1979. To the right of the dais is a statue of a former patriarch of the Thum-
mayuth sect, to which the royal family belongs.
Seek out the stairway to the left behind the dais. It leads up to the 3rd floor, where a
glass case houses a small marble Buddha of Burmese origin that was broken into pieces
by the Khmer Rouge and later reassembled. There are nice views of the Mekong up here.
Behind the main building is a stupa containing an eyebrow hair of Buddha with an in-
scription in Pali (an ancient Indian language) over the entrance.
Olympic Stadium
LANDMARK
