Fortune telling, a practice of predicting future, has been using through various forms for thousands of years; however, it’s still unclear when it was brought to Cambodia.
By reading Cambodian history books or watching movies reflecting society in the past, we can see in a royal palace at least one fortune-teller whom the king could consult with in different situation ranging from naming King’s children to war fighting.
There are a lot of fortune tellers, mostly are older women, in Cambodia that can tell people what will happen to them and what the solution to deal with their problems. Their methods of predicting future are different from one to another. Some of them reading future from a deck of card, reading palms, according to horoscope or date and time of birth, or simply looking at the people’s face and reading their aura.
Most Cambodians living in either countryside or in the city are familiar with the term “fortune telling”. In the present day, people go to meet fortune-teller to discuss important decision such as when they want to marry somebody or to make sure that they marry on the right month and on the right day.
Some people claim that they believe in science but when there is no solution from scientific method, they usually turn to a fortune-teller for suggestion and sometimes they said it worked.
Some fortune-teller said they have ability to foresee the future because they have communication with dead people’s spirits, mostly happen after they were unconscious for a period of time. Now, there are some of them guess or predict for their customers and charge for the service but some still only need donation.
by: Dara Saoyuth 19/01/2011