The Story of Tum Teav
Lord Oar Choun
There was a wealthy family of a very powerful lord named Oar Choun. He had a son named Meun Ngourn. Oar Choun and his wife discussed that it was time for Meun Ngourn to get married and build a family of his own. They heard about Teav’s beauty. They believed that despite Yeay Phann’s widow status, she had raised Teav well and had many things in her possession, enough that they could become in-law without lowering their social status. They sent off elders and servants carrying many gifts to Teav’s house. They came to ask Yeay Phann for Teav’s hand in marriage for their son. Yeay Phann felt very happy. For one, she was poorer than Oar Choun. She was just an ordinary person with no power or social status. This marriage arrangement would boost her status greatly. Additionally, Oar Choun was a powerful lord of the land, only shorter than a mountain, that he always got what he wanted and that he would eliminate anybody who stood in his way. So she was afraid. She told the elders that she would ask her daughter first.
Once Oar Choun’s elders and servants were gone, she told Teav that she should marry Meun Ngourn. Teav refused. Yeay Phann became angry. She told Teav that refusing the marriage was just like rolling an egg against a rock, a comparison of her helplessness against the most powerful man in the region. Teav still strongly refused, telling her mother to marry her other daughters instead of her, knowing full well that she was her mother’s only child. Yeay Phann became angrier, reminding Teav of the old adage, “Num Minthum Chieng Neal,” the concept of “a cake cannot be bigger than the cup that holds it”—the tradition of empowering parents against their own children in a decision making process.