Khmer Novels : Tum Teav

Khmer literature
...tales (stories of the former lives of the Buddha, found widely in Southeast Asian literature), while others draw on local folktales and legends. One of the best-known is Tum Teav, a tragic love story believed to be based on real events that occurred during the 17th century. The story was passed down orally and then eventually recorded in the 19th century by... http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-1082430/Tum-Teav

"Tum Teav is the tragic love story of a talented novice monk named Tum and a beautiful adolescent girl named Teav. Well known throughout Cambodia since at least the middle of the 19th century, the story has been told in oral, historical, literary, theatre, and film versions. This monograph contains the author’s translation of the Venerable Botumthera Som’s version. It also examines the controversy over the poem’s authorship and its interpretation by literary scholars and performers in terms of Buddhism and traditional codes of conduct, abuse of power, and notions of justice."
Tum Teav: A Translation and Analysis of a Cambodian Literary Classic.
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