Dragon Princess and the Mortal Man

The Preah Thong Neang Neak statue represents Cambodia's birth, culture, traditions, and civilisation. The statue is 21 metres tall on a pedestal 6.34 metres high (27.34 metres in total). It is the largest copper statue in Cambodia and weighs a total of 60 tonnes and faces the sea.

Preah Thong (Kaundinya I) and Neang Neak (Queen Soma) are symbolic personas in Khmer culture. They are thought to have founded the pre-Angkorian state of Funan. Much of Khmer wedding tradition can be traced back to Preah Thong and Neang Neak's marriage.

According to reports by two Chinese envoys, Kang Tai and Zhu Ying, the state of Funan was established by an Indian named Kaundinya. In the 1st century CE, Kaundinya was given instruction in a dream to take a magic bow from a temple and defeat a Naga princess named Soma (Chinese: Liuye, "Willow Leaf"), the daughter of the king of the Naga. She later married Kaundinya and their lineage became the royal dynasty of Funan. Kaundinya later built a capital, Vyadhapura and the kingdom also came to be known as Kambojadeśa.