above image: the different levels of punishment in Nork

 Obscure Mythology Chapter 14: Nork

Cambodian hell or home of the damned.

     Welcome back. Today I went for something a little different. Up until this point I have been looking more at figures and myths and not places, so when I came across Nork, I had to share it. I grew up Catholic so the thought of going to Hell was always in the back of my mind. It was the fear of being sent into eternal damnation that made me a pretty good kid and what made organized religion like Catholicism so powerful. Did you know that back in Medieval times when a church or cathedral was being built the Catholic church would offer Sunday’s as a day of penance, meaning if you stayed after mass and helped to build the new church all of your sins for the past week or longer if you’d not been going to mass would be forgiven? All your sins, as long as you helped build the new church. It kind of made the fear of Hell a little less foreboding so it was stopped. I will not get into my views on organized religion, I am here just to share and research. Many people assumed it was the Catholic church that “invented” Hell, but most ancient myths had a special horrible place for bad people. As with the flood myth it seems as if Hell or a similar variation can be found in just about every civilization. I knew of the Norse version which just so happened to be called, Hel. Coincidence? Absolutely not. It was more than likely stolen from Norse Mythology to help the founders of Christianity describe their terrible awful place of eternal damnation. It should also be noted that not all underworlds were considered bad. In many ancient cultures, the Underworld was the place where all the dead went. There is one big difference between the Christian Hell and Cambodia’s Nork but I’ll wait until after I share the entry before I get into. Well, let me stop my ranting and introduce you to the Nork, Cambodia’s Hell.

Nork: hell, the home of the damned. Cambodia

This realm, which has eight levels, lies below the earth and the torment inflicted on sinners increases with the depth. The lowest hell is called Avichi. Each level is divided into sixteen separate hells with increasing levels of torture.  Spirits who have suffered torment appropriate to their sins are reborn. (The Dictionary of Mythology an A-Z of themes, legends and heroes, J.A. Coleman).

Just as many ancient myths had a Hell, they also had many different levels like Nork. I believe the Christian version started out multileveled but was later condensed into the Hell we envision today. Dante’s famous medieval book The Inferno, tells of the supposed layers of the Christian Hell but modern religious teachings don’t mention layers  when speaking of the Christian Hell. The one major difference that I was speaking of was the way the Cambodian’s incorporated reincarnation into their Hell. It is an interesting aspect and it keeps with the Eastern philosophies while still scaring people with horrible damnation and torture. I am uncertain if other Eastern philosophies have their own versions of pre-reincarnation Hells as well. Again, this is another reason why I do this kind of research, it opens up so many of doors to look into. The reason I chose Nork over many other deserving candidates was because of the way it incorporated both Christian and Eastern mythology. I’ve learned so many new things since starting this little adventure and I love sharing them with you the reader. I appreciate everyone who reads this and I’m glad that you’re sticking around to see what’s next. I have 12 more instalments of the A-Z mythology and then I will get back to my other stuff and believe me I have got a lot including my ground breaking new theory on the Voynich Manuscript, if you are unfamiliar with it I urge you to look it up and then be prepared to be wowed when I present my theory. Until next time, thank you for reading and as always: PEACE!!!!!

PS: while searching for images to go with this post I found out that nork is a derogatory term for North Koreans (sorry, not my intentions) and  another name for a woman’s breast! See what kind of fun stuff you can find while doing research?