The Legend of Yeay Mao

At the crest of the Pich Nil Pass on Route 4 dozens of spirit houses line the road. Many of the houses are maintained for Yeay-Mao, the deity who oversees the southern coastal region of Cambodia. When traveling Route 4, people often display bananas on their dashboard and offer then along with incense and some money, to Yeay-Mao at Pich Nil. The offerings are usually made with the prayer for safe travels.

There seem to be no two identical relates of the legend. In one of them, Yeay-Mao was the wife of a village chief in the area of Ream.

Her husband was forced by work to spend months away from her in Koh Kong. One rainy season she grew lonely for him and took a Koh Kong bound boat to meet him. On the way the boat was swept away in a storm, drowning everybody, including Yeay-Mao. But her spirit was powerful and through dreams and spirit possessions she made it known that she was overseeing the southern coast and protecting the fishermen and villagers. She required only their good behavior and occasional offerings of phallic symbols.

The main spirit house at Pich Nil is adorned with phallic symbols but why Yeay-Mao makes this demand is a matter of debate. Some people say that she was seeking this in her ill-fated trip and so still desires it. Others say that she was angry with males because she died trying to get to her husband and wanted a symbol of a severed phallus. Sidestepping the debate, some more conservative members of the community think that Yeay-Mao is now too old for phallic symbols and requires only bananas.

Phallic symbol offerings can still be seen on the beaches near fishing villages, usually in the form of a stick and incense stuck in the sand under a tree. Wat Khrom in Sihanoukville maintains a small but significant temple for Yeay-Mao.