{{Short description|Royal Buddhist monastery in Cambodia}} {{Infobox religious building | name = Wat Vihear Suor | native_name = {{nobold|{{lang|km|វត្តវិហារសួគ៌}}}} | image = Exterior_view_of_a_pagoda_and_chadei.jpg | image_size = 300px | alt = | caption = | map_type = Cambodia | map_size = | map_alt = | map_caption = | location = Srey Santhor District, Kandal Province | coordinates = {{Coordinates|11.6685|N|105.0566|E|display=title}} | religious_affiliation = Theravada Buddhism | deity = | country = Cambodia | functional_status = | website = | founded_by = Baksei Chamkrong ''(legend)'' | year_completed = 15th-16th century }} '''Wat Vihear Suor''' ({{langx|km|វត្តវិហារសួគ៌}}) is a Theravada Buddhist temple located in Kandal Province, Cambodia. It was built on an older pre-Buddhist cult site<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j2QOAQAAMAAJ&q=%22vihear+suor%22|title=People and the 1998 National Elections in Cambodia: Their Voices, Roles and Impact on Democracy|date=2002|publisher=Experts for Community Research|isbn=978-90-806918-1-0|language=en|page=70}}</ref> belonging to the Angkor era.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Thun|first=Theara|title=Wat Preah Vihear Sour : A Popular Pilgrimage Site outside Phnom Penh, Cambodia|url=https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubccommunityandpartnerspublicati/52387/items/1.0394985|access-date=2021-08-10|website=open.library.ubc.ca|year=2020 |language=en|doi=10.14288/1.0394985}}</ref>
== Etymology == Wat Vihear Suor literally translates as the ''"Pagoda of the Heavenly Temple"''.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZhULAQAAMAAJ&q=%22vihear+suor%22|title=Journal asiatique|date=1993|publisher=Société asiatique.|language=fr|page=201}}</ref>
== Legend: a tale of two cities == The main cult of the temple of Vihear Suor seems to have been dedicated to the mythical king Baksei Chamkrong, literally “a king who is covered under bird’s wings”, referring to the legendary bird protecting the Khmer king and royalty. According to the Royal Chronicles, Baksei Chamkrong would be the founder of the line of post-Angkorian kings. As the legend goes, a King tried to escape Angkor to flee the enemy but was brought back on the wings of the Baksei Chamkrong to return to victory.
Another legend of Baksei Chamkrong is attested in ''Dav Ek'''s novel which would be contemporary since it dates from the reign of Chey Chettha III which could explain the date of its composition.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Mikaelian|first=Grégory|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pKQMAQAAMAAJ&q=%22vihear+suor%22|title=La royauté d'Oudong: réformes des institutions et crise du pouvoir dans le royaume khmer du XVIIe siècle|date=2009|publisher=Presses de l'Université Paris-Sorbonne|isbn=978-2-84050-597-6|language=fr|page=29}}</ref> Baksei Chamkrong is also the name of a temple mountain in Angkor Wat complex, conveniently connecting the Khmer monarchy with its Angkorian roots after its flight to Oudong.
According to this legend, the pagoda was built by Baksei Chamkrong, an 11th-century Cambodian king. It was constructed in gratitude for his escape from the forces of his predecessor, Punhea Krek, who wanted to kill him. One morning Krong was woken by the calling of water fowl, warning him that the king's troops were coming. After the death of King Punhea Krek, Krong was appointed his successor, and to remind his citizens of his plight at Krek's hands, he ordered temples built at several places important to him on his journey. A temple was then built on the hill where the waterfowl woke him in Vihear Suor.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Nguyễn|first1=Thế Anh|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ld-AAAAAMAAJ&q=%22vihear+suor%22|title=Notes sur la culture et la religion en péninsule indochinoise: en hommage à Pierre-Bernard Lafont|last2=Forest|first2=Alain|date=1995|publisher=L'Harmattan|isbn=978-2-7384-2898-1|language=fr|page=103}}</ref>
== History == Wat Vihear Suor has since its foundation been a monastery of royal significance in Cambodia.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Saroeun|first=Bou|title=Wat Vihear Suor: a king's sanctuary|url=https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/wat-vihear-suor-kings-sanctuary|access-date=2021-08-10|website=www.phnompenhpost.com|language=en}}</ref>
=== A royal sanctuary for the monarchy after the fall of Angkor === [[File:Stupa within a Buddhist pagoda.jpg|thumb|Buddhist sanctuary and ancestral ''stupa'' have been physically fused.]]
According to tradition, in 1525, Sdach Korn was buried at Vihear Suor, where one of the stupas still claims to hold his remains.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZhULAQAAMAAJ&q=%22vihear+suor%22|title=Journal asiatique|date=1993|publisher=Société asiatique.|language=fr|page=202}}</ref>
Theravada Buddhism probably came to the area during the 16th century. Srei Santhor, was one of the medieval capitals—and nearby Wat Vihear Suor is also of a royal foundation of early post-Angkorian date.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Giteau|first=Madeleine|url=https://publications.efeo.fr/en/livres/85_iconographie-du-cambodge-post-angkorien|title=Iconographie du Cambodge post-Angkorien|publisher=Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient|year=1975|location=Paris|language=French|pages=63–64}}</ref> Relative dating of sculpture and large stupas at Wat Sithor, Preah Vihear Suor, and Wat Yeay Bang suggests a workshop of artists, architects, and builders active under elite patronage between the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth century.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Polkinghorne|first=Martin|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324473989|title=Angkor: Exploring Cambodia's Sacred City|publisher=Asian Civilisations Museum|date=January 2018|pages=263|chapter=Reconfiguring Kingdoms: The end of Angkor and the emergence of Early Modern period Cambodia}}</ref> During the reign of Satha I (1576–1594), Longvek itself came under Thai attack. The king protected his capital by venerating the potent Buddha Kaya Siddhi image at Wat Brah Inda Deba and worshipping at the shrine of Khleang Moeung. To counter these supernatural defenses, two wizards disguised as Buddhist monks were sent to Cambodia by the Thai king, probably Naresuan (r. 1590–1605). Gaining the king's confidence, they drove Satha insane, convincing him that his problems emanated from the malign influences of the Buddha Kaya Siddhi and the previously mentioned Buddha of Wat Tralaeng Kaeng. Satha ordered both images to be broken and thrown into the river. The chronicles tell us that this caused not only the sacred sword of Khmer kingship, preah khan reach to rust but also a Buddha image at Vihear Suor, Srei Santhor, to crack and bleed among other ominous signs.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Harris|first=Ian|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KY4BEAAAQBAJ|title=Cambodian Buddhism: History and Practice|date=2008-03-11|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|isbn=978-0-8248-6176-6|language=en|page=34}}</ref>
In 1673, a battle broke out close to Wat Vihear Suor between the Khmer and the Vietnamese troops, which resulted in the capture of Chey Chettha III.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Phoeun|first=Mak|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=si11AAAAMAAJ&q=%22vihear+suor%22|title=Histoire du Cambodge: de la fin du XVIe siècle au début du XVIIIe|date=1995|publisher=Presses de l'Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient|isbn=978-2-85539-776-4|language=fr|page=385}}</ref>
=== An official chapel for the Royal Palace of Phnom Penh === At the beginning of the 20th century, Lunet de Lajonquière, described the sight before the damages later caused by the Civil War in Cambodia: {{Blockquote|text=“In the northern ''vihear'' is deposited a reduction of a ''stupa'' carved in a single block of lacquered and gilded sandstone; this piece, which measures more than 2 meters in height, rests on a pedestal.”|author=Etienne Lunet de Lajonquière|title=''Inventaire descriptif des monuments du Cambodge'', 1902<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lajonquière|first=Etienne Lunet de|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-DcoAAAAMAAJ&q=%22vihear+suor%22|title=Inventaire descriptif des monuments du Cambodge|date=1902|publisher=E. Leroux|language=fr|pages=170–171}}</ref>}} The royal importance of the Vihear Suor was confirmed when in 1930, adjacent to the Khemarin Palace on the north side of the Royal Palace of Cambodia, a small sanctuary named in honor of Vihear Sour was built within the compound the Royal Palace for private ceremonies of the royal family<ref>{{Cite book|last=Jeldres|first=Julio A.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4H5uAAAAMAAJ&q=%22vihear+suor%22|title=The Royal Palace of Phnom Penh and Cambodian Royal Life|date=1999|publisher=Post Books|isbn=978-974-202-047-7|language=en}}</ref> and it was restored in the 1950s by King Sihanouk.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Guéret|first1=Danielle|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jGCGwtYLLaAC&q=%22vihear+suor%22|title=Cambodge: art, histoire, société|last2=Guéret|first2=Dominique-Pierre|date=2009|publisher=Impr. nationale éditions|isbn=978-2-7427-7490-6|language=fr|page=101}}</ref>
In 1962, King Norodom Sihanouk made gave a historical speech during his visit to Wat Vihear Sour.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sihanouk|first=Prince Norodom|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SBAmAQAAMAAJ&q=%22vihear+suor%22|title=Principaux discours, messages, déclarations et allocutions|date=1962|publisher=Ministère de l'information|language=fr|page=492}}</ref> Wat Vihear Suor was a locus for various royal rites until the late 1960s, when some snang claimed that their powers had become severely limited by Sihanouk's absence from the country.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Harris|first=Ian|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KY4BEAAAQBAJ|title=Cambodian Buddhism: History and Practice|date=2008-03-11|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|isbn=978-0-8248-6176-6|language=en|page=58}}</ref>
=== The theater of the Civil War in Cambodia === thumb|Old and new structures blend together at Vihear Suor, while statues reflect a violent history. On June 9, 1971, at the beginning of the Civil War in Cambodia, communists rockets and mortar fire struck the surroundings of Vihear Suor, turning the pagoda into a strategic battlefield on the road to Phnom Penh as the violence escalated between the Khmer Issarak and the US-backed army of the Khmer Republic.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sobel|first=Lester A.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5UJI8ZTvQUIC&q=%22vihear+suor%22|title=South Vietnam: U.S.-Communist Confrontation in Southeast Asia: 1971|date=1971|publisher=Facts on File, Incorporated|isbn=978-0-87196-238-6|language=en}}</ref> At the beginning of May 1973, after being encircled for the three months in and around the pagoda of Vihear Suor, the important government garrison was forced to capitulate in front of the Issarak troops.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uG8nAQAAMAAJ&q=%22vihear+suor%22|title=Journal of Contemporary Revolutions|date=1974|publisher=San Francisco State University, International Relations Center.|language=en|page=8}}</ref> In November 1973, the Beijing Review celebrated the attacks of the insurgent troops on Vihear Suor, as a milestone in controlling the third strategic city around Phnom Penh.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qv8-AQAAIAAJ&q=%22vihear+suor%22|title=Peking Review|date=1973|publisher=Peking Review|language=en}}</ref> By December 1973, Wat Vihear Suor had become the siege of the only provincial capital in Cambodia under the control of the Royal Government of the National Union of Kampuchea known as the GRUNK forces, faithful to Norodom Sihanouk in exile.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vyy5AAAAIAAJ&q=%22vihear+suor%22|title=Far Eastern Economic Review Yearbook|date=1975|publisher=Far Eastern Economic Review Limited|language=en|page=144}}</ref> In February 1974, the Khmer police were ordered to withdraw from the administrative post of Vihear Suor to avoid loss of arms to the Issarak, as the governor of Kandal acknowledged that "the rebel grip has extended across the Bassac to the right bank and is tending to spread west and encircle the capital more and more tightly."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kiernan|first=Ben|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zR7hDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22vihear+suor%22&pg=PT146|title=How Pol Pot Came to Power: Colonialism, Nationalism, and Communism in Cambodia, 1930–1975|date=2008-10-01|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-14844-2|language=en}}</ref> In April 1974, C-130s of the United States army hauled rice from Phnom Penh to be rigged for high-velocity descent on Vihear Sour, however, the supplies were intercepted by the Khmers rouges, showing the growing control of the Khmers rouges over Eastern Cambodia.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bowers|first=Ray L.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gIK9nJERf3wC&dq=awads&pg=PA626|title=Tactical Airlift|date=1984|publisher=Office of Air Force History, U.S. Air Force|isbn=978-0-16-067698-7|language=en|page=626}}</ref> On November 20, 1974, the governmental position of Vihear Sur was evacuated by the garrison<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hamel|first=Bernard|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5aRuAAAAMAAJ&q=%22vihear+suor%22|title=Sihanouk et le drame cambodgien|date=1993|publisher=L'Harmattan|isbn=978-2-7384-1933-0|language=fr|page=270}}</ref> and by the end of 1974, a substantial arsenal had been assembled at the Wat Vihear Suor by the Liberation Army of Kampuchea.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Harris|first=Ian|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rh7HDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22vihear+suor%22&pg=PA214|title=Buddhism in a Dark Age: Cambodian Monks under Pol Pot|date=2012-12-31|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|isbn=978-0-8248-3561-3|language=en|page=102}}</ref> But in February 1975, the temple was badly damaged when the surroundings of the Wat Vihear Suor were the stage of heavy military conflict and the positions of the Khmer army were destroyed as T-28 aircraft bombed the area.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Service|first=British Broadcasting Corporation Monitoring|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LVTRAAAAMAAJ&q=%22vihear+suor%22|title=Summary of World Broadcasts: Far East|date=February 1975|publisher=Monitoring Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation|language=en}}</ref> While many pagodas in Kandal Province were dismantled by the Khmers rouges, Vihear Suor was an exception as it served as a rice storehouse.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Harris|first=Ian|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rh7HDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22vihear+suor%22&pg=PA214|title=Buddhism in a Dark Age: Cambodian Monks under Pol Pot|date=2012-12-31|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|isbn=978-0-8248-3561-3|language=en|page=105}}</ref>
=== The restoration of a historical pagoda of political importance === [[File:Ex voto of Hun Sen.jpg|thumb|An ''ex-voto'' in the shape of a ''bai sema'', placed inside the main temple, acknowledges the major donation of Prime Minister Hun Sen towards the renovation of the monastery.]] After the fall of the communist regime in Cambodia, Wat Vihear Suor was one of the most devastated historical buildings of Cambodia.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZhULAQAAMAAJ&q=%22vihear+suor%22|title=Journal asiatique|date=1993|publisher=Société asiatique.|language=fr|page=201}}</ref>
Already in the late 1980s, King Sihanouk began another restoration of the Vihear Suor chapel inside the Palace Walls.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Fuchs|first=Paul|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AQXgAAAAMAAJ&q=%22vihear+suor%22|title=Fêtes et cérémonies royales au Cambodge d'hier|date=1991|publisher=L'Harmattan|isbn=978-2-7384-0772-6|language=fr|page=57}}</ref> Wat Vihear Suor in Kandal province was later restored in the 1990s by King Sihanouk and Hun Sen,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bertrand|first=Didier|title=Khmer Studies: Knowledge of the Past and Its Contributions to the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction of Cambodia—Proceedings of the International Conference on Khmer Studies, Phnom Penh, 26–30 August 1996|collaboration=Sorn Samnang|year=1998|volume=II|location=Phnom Penh|chapter=Le role social et thérapeutique des mediums cambodgiens|page=1119}}</ref> the Prime minister and his wife Bun Rany topping the list of donors in its recent renovation.
The temple became important places of prayer during the election campaigns in Cambodia in the 1990s, as Prime Minister Hun and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ung Huot came to make propitiatory offerings during ''kathen'' festivals in 1996 and once more after the 1997 crisis.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j2QOAQAAMAAJ&q=%22vihear+suor%22|title=People and the 1998 National Elections in Cambodia: Their Voices, Roles and Impact on Democracy|date=2002|publisher=Experts for Community Research|isbn=978-90-806918-1-0|language=en|page=70}}</ref>
Today it houses a famous shrine to the ''neak ta'' Yay Tep, who occupies a small Buddha image standing midway between the two sanctuaries.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bizot|first=François|url=https://publications.efeo.fr/fr/livres/1_recherches-nouvelles-sur-le-cambodge|title=Recherches nouvelles sur le Cambodge|publisher=Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient|year=1994|location=Paris|chapter=La consécration des statues et le culte des morts|page=121}}</ref> Many snang associate themselves with the royal cult once again at this location.
== Architecture == thumb|left|Next to the religious constructions lies a large ''borey'' dating back to the Angkorian era. Almost all archaeological traces of the Angkorian period were demolished, due to the construction of many new buildings and Vihears on the ancient temples. In fact, Buddhist sanctuary and ancestral ''stupa'' have been physically fused.
The buddhist pagoda of Vihear Suor is among other pagodas in the area of Basan such as Wat Mae Ban, Wat Sithor, and Wat Ang Chonloeng, which have their own specificity that differs from that of other areas: the compound of these pagodas consists of two Vihears, placed on the same row or on the same platform.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Nhim|first=Sotheavin|date=2016|title=Factors that led to the change of the Khmer capitals from the 15th to 17th century|url=https://dept.sophia.ac.jp/is/angkor/publication/pdf/bunka/bunka29_03.pdf|journal=Renaissance Culturelle du Cambodge|volume=29|pages=58}}</ref>
The structure of the Wat Vihear Suor suggests a coherent configuration of the early Theravada complex, widely adopted at the beginning of the middle period, indicating that after the fall of Angkor, the Khmer court brought with it a resilient and historically motivated religious structure.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Thompson|first=Ashley|date=1998|title=The ancestral cult in transition: Reflections on spatial organization of Cambodia's early Theravada Complex|url=https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/31755210/The_Ancestral_Cult_in_Transition-with-cover-page-v2.pdf?Expires=1628579252&Signature=BUYzFMYfdmWJrsG-satqXeJ8Qjfdx~wkJIMA8WJUawvzGtAMEQKXzBzkIxNMGqppW2TW9yeJwloyFlyj~gCzQAEQkEpJDAFw3Fq0hWFkzMNwK2MeTBf5joN-D6Nm~Lb9Y9NsVQRzvnW9BZz92T0g2Bbf3Cmk4nalys1~ok4s58kCg1OGftPUW-q6GiaYUeTG-QUO8OMsPFC3uatFwm9Dr89yVbbGrLVRI2xfy0YIYMgO06AhF~KU1An2ZIzAgtyAt-Gr~yWFiDU1oSw0XYJqn54HT79M8Qu3R8c46w~H-M5cVa6QJR4cnt0rp8CktX4FMMA3LQ8VsSkGbrLi8sJV3w__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA|journal=Southeast Asian Archaeology: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference of the European Association of Southeast Asian Archaeologists|pages=284}}</ref>
The site also has several other constructions like a water reservoir (''baray'') which belongs to the Angkor period (9th-15th centuries).
== Decoration == A number of post-Angkorian statues can still be seen at Wat Vihear Suor.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Guéret|first=Danielle|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YH9wAAAAMAAJ&q=%22vihear+suor%22|title=Le Cambodge: une introduction à la connaissance du pays khmer|date=1998|publisher=Kaliash Éditions|isbn=978-2-84268-034-3|language=fr|page=210}}</ref>
== Practises == {{multiple image|perrow = 2|total_width=300 | image1 = Khmer_devotees_wax_a_neak_ta.jpg | image2 = Neak_ta_in_a_pagoda.jpg | image3 = Old_lady_selling_birds_at_pagoda.jpg | image4 = Medium_receiving_offering_next_to_smoking_neak_ta.jpg | footer = Cult of the ''neak ta'' through libations of the devotees and divination of the medium. }}
Wat Vihear Suor is a high place of Khmer spirituality where the most deeply-rooted pre-Buddhist chthonic cults mingle with the chanting of Buddhist monks.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bernon|first=Olivier de|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RkuBAAAAMAAJ&q=%22vihear+suor%22|title=យ័ន្ត និង មន្ត, khmer central|date=1998|publisher=Centre culturel français de Phnom-Penh|language=km-fr|page=88}}</ref>
=== The cult of the ''neak ta'' === Because of its strategic position close to Phnom Penh, on the way to Ba Phnom and territories under Cham influence, Vihear Suor has been regarded as a sacred place for the protection the capital of Phnom Penh and individual life, both in the belief of Buddhism and in the local spirit belief of ''neak ta''.
The ''neak ta'' of Wat Vihear Suor were offered animal sacrifices until quite recently. In the 1950s, ''neak ta'' Mno of Wat Vihear Suor received both a crocodile and a monkey as a sacrificial offering.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Porée-Maspero|first=Eveline|date=1951|title=Notes sur les particularités du culte chez les Cambodgiens|url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/befeo_0336-1519_1951_num_44_2_5189|journal=Bulletin de l'École française d'Extrême-Orient|volume=44|issue=2|pages=635|doi=10.3406/befeo.1951.5189}}</ref>
The cult of Preah Ang Thom at Vat Vihear Suor, in which the Buddha statue is said to harbor the spirit of Norodom Sihanouk, provides a nice example of spirit possession associated with the statue worship in contemporary Cambodia. The mediums or {{Transliteration|km|baromey}} of who sit at the foot the statue of Preah Ang Thom claim to impersonate an intended person, often deceased, as a means of bringing them home.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Hansen|first1=Anne Ruth|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OlpdDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22vihear+suor%22&pg=PA117|title=At the Edge of the Forest: Essays on Cambodia, History, and Narrative in Honor of David Chandler|last2=Ledgerwood|first2=Judy|date=2018-05-31|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=978-1-5017-1920-2|language=en|page=117}}</ref>
The local ''achar'' attribute retributive power to the Buddha at Preah Vihear Suor in case proper offerings are not made.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j2QOAQAAMAAJ&q=%22vihear+suor%22|title=People and the 1998 National Elections in Cambodia: Their Voices, Roles and Impact on Democracy|date=2002|publisher=Experts for Community Research|isbn=978-90-806918-1-0|language=en|page=69}}</ref>
thumb|An Angkorian sandstone lintel has been integrated to the shrine of one of the ''neak ta''.|left An ancient sandstone lintel and other fragments put them in the shelter of the ''neak ta'' have become part of the spiritual belief of the local people.
=== A rare fertility deity in Cambodia === As a rather exceptional manifestation of a {{Transliteration|km|baromey}} fertility deity in Cambodia,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Crochet|first=Soizick|date=2000|title=L'invisible guérison : Notes d'ethnomédecine en milieu rural au Cambodge|url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/asean_0859-9009_2000_num_5_1_1662|journal=Aséanie, Sciences humaines en Asie du Sud-Est|volume=5|issue=1|pages=13–39|doi=10.3406/asean.2000.1662}}</ref> a termite mound and a ''stupa ''are believed to be able to grant the wishes of sterile women who wish to have children.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZhULAQAAMAAJ&q=%22vihear+suor%22|title=Journal asiatique|date=1993|publisher=Société asiatique.|language=fr|page=189}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Chouléan|first=Ang|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Pa5AAAACAAJ|title=Les êtres surnaturels dans la religion populaire khmère|date=1986|publisher=Cedorek|isbn=978-2-86731-028-7|language=fr|pages=22–24}}</ref>
=== Buffalo race === Vihear Suor village is famed for its traditional buffalo races. During Pchum Ben, villagers stage this race to mark the end of the annual festival riding their buffaloes whose horns are draped with colorful clothes.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Safo (Mrs.)|first=Margaret|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2UtN3teHDxgC&dq=%22vihear+suor%22&pg=PA5|title=The Mirror: Issue 2,702 September 30 2006|date=2006-09-30|publisher=Graphic Communications Group|language=en}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
== Bibliography == * {{Cite journal|last=Thun|first=Theara|title=Wat Preah Vihear Sour : A Popular Pilgrimage Site outside Phnom Penh, Cambodia|url=https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubccommunityandpartnerspublicati/52387/items/1.0394985|access-date=2021-08-10|website=open.library.ubc.ca|year=2020 |language=en|doi=10.14288/1.0394985}} {{Buddhism in Cambodia|state=collapsed}}
Category:16th-century Buddhist temples Vihear Suor Category:Religious buildings and structures completed in 1996