The Old Man at Ta Phrom

This old man is famous and one of the most photographed person in Cambodia. He appeared in the front cover of a popular book. And he isn't even a political figure or a rich man. He is introduced to many people but the many people were not introduced to him.

We saw him on our first visit to Ta Phrom. At that time, we did not know who he was. Yet we were attracted to him because he looked so at home being there, as though he was the guardian of the temple. We smiled at him and he smiled back at us.

Since Ta Phrom was our number one favourite place, we returned the following day. This time, we were set to stay there for 3 hours. We each picked a spot near the Echo Chamber to wile away our time. Getting comfortable, we unpacked our lunch of buns, cakes and bananas.

The old man was at his usual spot, one of the doorways to the Echo Chamber, selling his wares. Again we exchanged smiles. We also offered him some bananas which he accepted gratefully. No words were needed. Just smiles and noddings of heads.

We were enjoying ourselves very much by just being there. The air was cooling amidst the ruins and old trees. It was the perfect place for us to read about Angkor. Time to time, we will break the silence by sharing an interesting piece of information from the book we were reading. At intervals, we will pause our reading to do some "people watching" or to "eavesdrop". These actions were punctuated with comments spoken in Cantonese or Bahasa Melayu.

It was during one of these intervals that we discovered who the old man was. It was amusing to see the people's reactions to this knowledge. All of them went, "Oh!" Most of them took out the book which had the old man on the front cover and snapped a photo with him and the book. A few of them gave him some money.

Who is he? Take a look.