Paem Buol Thmay is a Khmer Buddhist pagoda located in Soc Trang City’s Ward 4. The pagoda has its name because it was newly built compared with other Khmer pagoda and located near the Sung Dinh intersection (Paem Buol Thmay is the Khmer word for “new intersection”).
The pagoda was first built in 1964 with temporary materials. If compared to other Khmer pagodas, the old architecture of Paem Buol Thmay is somewhat simpler because the local Khmer community was quite small and poor at that time.
The pagoda started the construction of its sala (Khmer word for gathering place) in October, 2016 and it was inaugurated on occasion of the lunar New Year of the Dog (2018), with the total cost of about VND 2 billion.
According to Monk Abbott of the pagoda Đinh Hoàng Sư, the new sala’s architecture is a combination of Theravada Buddhism architectural styles from countries such as Thailand, Laos and Myanmar, especially the architectural style of Thai Buddhism. The sala’s architecture exudes the neatness with white paint background and yellow emulsion-painted motifs.
According to the pagoda’s management board, the main worshipping hall of the pagoda is expected to be rebuilt in the next lunar New Year with architectural styles matching with the sala.
DT (baosoctrang.org.vn)
