(via measart):
dirk ashly knoedler
in a cambodian legend, the naga were a reptilian race of beings who possessed a large empire in the pacific ocean region. the naga king’s daughter married an indian brahmana named kaundinya, and from their union sprang the cambodian people. therefore still cambodians say that they are “born from the naga”.
the seven-headed naga serpents depicted as statues on cambodian temples, such as angkor wat, apparently represent the seven races within naga society, which has a mythological, or symbolic, association with “the seven colors of the rainbow”. furthermore, cambodian naga possess numerological symbolism in the number of their heads. odd-headed naga symbolise the male energy, infinity, timelessness, and immortality. this is because, numerologically, all odd numbers come from one (1). even-headed naga are said to be “female, representing physicality, mortality, temporality, and the earth.”
More of people trying to make sense of it all.
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I wonder whether this legend has anything to do with the Nagaland state in India’s Seven Sisters. When I was there last semester, one of my friends was really into Naga people and culture, and we went to a Naga church together. It was so fascinating because the people there were both more Asian and more Western than other Indians we met. I definitely want to go there whenever I go back to India; Cambodia is also on the top of my list of countries to go to next.
