Two of the most influential and acclaimed fable to ever come out of Khmer literature are Kolab

Pailin and Tum Teav. These two stories have been referenced by many Khmers ever since it has been
engrained into our mind, in fact many school projects tasks involve the dissection and analysis of these
two stories. Many forms of media have been made from these two novels, including plays and poetry and
movies. They both centers around the romance of the male and female lead, however that's where the
similarity between the two ends. Tum Teav is more socially conscious and tells a tale of a chauvinistic
matriarch and her fight against her daughter's wises, while Kolap Paillin is much more romanticized with
the male lead being placed in many hollywood-esque scenarios. Another thing of note is the age of these
two stories, Tum Teav is much older and stem from a French translation of poem written by a Buddhist
monk who lived in the 1800's; Botumthera Som, which helped cement the tale into legendary status. On
the flipside, Kolab Pailin is a novel written around the time of World War 2 (1936 or 1943) by Nhok
Them and is considered part of the big 3 of modern Khmer; the others being Sophat and Phka Srapoun.
Both stories are generally kid-friendly and written for the masses, however there are moments of heavy
violence towards the climax of the plot, which are often censored but other times left in.

The plot of Tum Teav centers around the love of two of the main characters; Tum and Teav, that
blossomed from the beginning, and their fight to remian together despite many setbacks and obstacles.
The biggest plot point of the story are Teav's two arranged marriage organized by her mother into to gain
more political, societal, and financial notoriety. When one of those marriages gets dissolved by Tum, she
falls ill from stress and manipulates the female lead to agreeing with the second marriage. Unable to do
anything about it, Tum finds himself crashing the wedding party which resulted in his execution by the
hands of the guards. Teav then shortly commits suicide after finding her lover's cadaver on the premise.
The mother and all involved were later executed as punishment for the catastrophe.

Kolap Paillin centers around the the male lead: Chauchet; who was orphaned at the start of the story, and
his misadventures at his place of occupation which is the headquarters of a mining company. The female
lead: Khanneary, the daughter of the male lead's boss, initially seems extremely dismissive of the male
lead, and acts very condescendingly towards him because of his lower status. However, through hard
work and many showcases of his tenacity and abilities she grows to like him more and more. Around this
time, a new character; Balet, a government worker of high status, was introduced that seems to take an
interest with Khanneary. Although Khanneary liked him at first, she loses interest in him as she favors
Chauchet more and more. Balet gets jealous and forcefully tries to kiss Khanneary only to be rejected.
Furious, he schemes a raid of the residence with a band of thieves. On the night of the raid, everyone was
surprised by the sudden attack. Chauchet then comes to the rescue of Khanneary as she was being
assaulted by Balet and pushed out of the window, killing him. The couple then got married and the story
concludes here.

These two romance stories are from the same genre, but as you can see it plays out drastically different
from one another. Tom Teav has two leads, while Kolap Paillin is more focused on the male lead rather
than the female lead. In Tom Teav, the male character makes many mistakes and even pays for one of
them with his life. On the contrary, Kolap Paillin's main character makes almost zero mistakes and is
often the hero of many scenarios. Both are fictional fables, however Kolap Paillin is much more over-the-
top and romanticized while Tom Teav is more realistic. Another point of contention often discussed are
the two different male leads’ personality. Tum is very emotional, lovesick, and has almost no control over
himself. Chauchet, on the other hand, is more stoic, and perseverant. Finally, the morals of the two also
differ a lot. Tom Teav's ending note showcases the harsh and brutal nature of the chauvinistic society of
old, while Kolap Paillin's is about extreme jealousy. This is highlighted by the fact that Tom and Teav’s
relationship blossomed from the start and ends terribly, while Chauchet and Khanneary’s relationship is
gradual but they both stay together in the end. Both story however, has a theme of classism as the male
lead from both stories have almost no financial or societal influences while the female leads are from rich
and power families.