Eighteen century Wat Bo is the oldest Buddhist monastery in Siem Reap. It is located near river on Wat Bo road. The walls of the monastery depict a painting of Khmer Reamker – Cambodian version of Indian Ramayana story.
The living Buddhist monastery of Wat Damnak is located in Wat Damnak Area in the centre of Siem Reap. It used to be a royal palace during the reign of King Sisowath. Nowadays Wat Damnak is home to the Centre of Khmer Studies which is an independent institution promoting a greater understanding of Khmer culture. It contains the largest public academic library in Cambodia outside of Phnom Penh. The Library is free of charge and open to everyone from Monday through Saturday. Students, Buddhist monks, tour guides, high school teachers, and researchers come to the library and read or study in silence.
There is a small palace which the king stays in the garden; it is smaller if compare with the palace in Phnom Penh. The palace does not open for visitors but allows to be watched in a close distance. In front of the palace is the large level garden situated the riverside, and the grass looks like a green carpet, making a very comfortable feeling. In the garden, there are two pagodas with heyday incense such as Ya Tap Shrine and Preah Ang Chek pagoda. However, the objective of most tourists coming here is to watch thousands of bats hanging on the tree behind the pagoda during the daytime, which is a very rare phenomenon.
What this monastery an attraction is a recently built memorial for the victim of Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge regime that killed millions of people across Cambodia. A collection of victims’ bones is stored in a glass stupa.
