Pra Leong Mieda Tipatay: Spirituality of Matriarchy in Cambodian Folktales

Abstract

This study aims to explore the spirituality of matriarchy in Cambodian folktales published in 1997 by the Buddhist Institute of Cambodia. The Cambodian folktales contains eight stories-1) Trickery of Woman, 2) Two Friends, 3) The Lazy Man Who Has a Good Wife, 4) A Woman Lacking Femininity, 5) A Real Woman, a Real Mother, and a Real Father, 6) The Tricky Woman who Pulls out the Ginger, 7) Male Mountain and Female Mountain, and 8) Three Millionaires in Three Directions. The study of the spiritual of matriarchy in Cambodian folktales provides two main points-1) Women and motherhood are important in life in Cambodian society and culture, and it shows that women play an important role in families; 2) The characteristics of women according to the tradition of Cambodian society and culture indicate that there are two types of women: sacred and unfavorable.