Childhood of the pagoda child Tep Vong was born at Trapeang Chork village in the Chreav commune of the
Siem Reap municipality, and at the age of 10 went to study at Wat Reach Bo in the provincial capital of
Siem Reap. At the age of 16, he was ordained as a novice at the same temple but, because of family duties, only assumed robes for nine months. His preceptor was the abbot of the temple – the Venerable Hing Mao. At the age of 21, he was ordained as a
bhikkhu at the temple by the same preceptor. He was made
kru sotr – the second-ranking monk of the temple in 1956.
Surviving the Khmers Rouges Like almost all Cambodian monks, Tep Vong was forced to leave the monkhood during the 1975-9
Pol Pot regime. During those years, he was able to flee to
Vietnam according to some sources, but this claim is subject to debate. Later, during the Vietnamese-sponsored
People's Revolutionary Tribunal from 15 to 20 July 1979, Tep Vong accused Pol Pot himself of executing 57 monks, including three of his own nephews. Tep Vong was subsequently more merciful towards the
Khmer Rouge leadership, even comparing
Ieng Sary to
Aṅgulimāla, the ruthless brigand who completely transforms after a conversion to
Buddhism.
Re-ordination and restoration of the sangha after 1979 Tep Vong was the youngest of seven senior monks re-ordained at
Wat Ounalom in a state-sponsored ceremony on 19 September 1979 in order to create a core of ordained monks who could go on to ordain others and formally re-establish the Cambodian
sangha, which had been nearly destroyed by the
Khmer Rouge. Some questioned his seniority and even the validity of this ceremony. The new monastic lineage did not re-establish the distinction between
Mahanikay and
Dhammayut orders which had existed prior to their annihilation by
Pol Pot. Like most of the other monks ordained in the 19 September ceremony, Tep Vong had already resumed the life of a monk, probably in June, 1979. He represented the new
People's Republic of Kampuchea (PRK) government as a monk on trips to Mongolia and the Soviet Union that year. He also testified to having been put to hard labor during the nearly four years of the Khmer Rouge. Following the 1979 ordination, he was made
viney thor, meaning that he was in charge of discipline for the monkhood. At first, the oldest of the seven re-ordained monks, Kaet Vay, assumed the role of preceptor in the frequent ceremonies to ordain monks in the official lineage. For reasons of age, Kaet Vay discontinued this by 1981 when Tep Vong assumed this role. Instead of a Ministry of Religion, as existed before 1975, religious institutions in the
People's Republic of Kampuchea were under the authority of the
Solidarity Front for the Construction and Defence of the Motherland of Kampuchea, usually just called "The Front". Tep Vong was one of the original members of the Front's central committee and became its fourth vice-president in September 1979. In May 1981, he was also elected a member of the
National Assembly as a representative of the
province of Siem Reap and became the Vice-president of the National Assembly in July 1981. although the term is sometimes used to describe his position of leadership in the 1980s, which is more rightly described as "president" of the Cambodian Buddhist monks after July 1988 in a Communist context. On 8 November 1991, in an official proclamation signed by Sihanouk, Tep Vong was given the title
Samdech Preah Mahasomedhadhipati, and a week later, on 15 November was named sangaraja of the Mahanikay Order. Tep Vong became an
ex officio member of the Cambodian Throne Council on 23 September 1993. Tep Vong gave unconditional support for
Hun Sen's leadership through all those years and beyond the
1997 coup. When, in the turmoil of the 1998 elections, twelve monks close to the opposition locked themselves up in one of the buildings of the temple
Wat Ounalom, Tep Vong did not hesitate to request Hun Sen's help to deal with this situation. This led to virulant criticism and accusations against him from the opposition. In 2006, Tep Vong was "considered to be poorly trained in Buddhism and simply the mouthpiece of a Vietnamese-friendly government". In 2002, Tep Vong appointed Tim Sakhorn as an abbot while knowing that the latter was not legitimate, being from
Kampuchea Krom and not strictly a Khmer citizen. On 16 June 2007, Tep Vong was forced to
defrock Tim Sakhorn after the latter used his platform to promote nationalist ideology and was accused of immoral conduct, having women in his room. In 2003, Tep Vong issued a voting ban for the roughly 60,000 monks active in Cambodia. Under pressure, he rescinded that order in March 2006 so that monks could vote "for the development of the nation". In 2006, Tep Vong was elevated to the title of
Samdech Preah Agga Mahā Sangharājādhipati (), or Great Supreme Patriarch, placing him at the head of the two orders. He is the first monk in over 150 years to receive this title. ==Death==