Sak Yant

A sak yant (សាក់យ័ន្ត) is a sacred Khmer tattoo: a figure of a god or an animal set among lines of protective script, tapped into the skin by hand with a long needle. The script is Khom, the old letters kept for sacred texts, and the lines are mantras. Each design is believed to give its wearer protection or strength. This yant is Ganesh, Preah Kenes in Khmer, seated with a trident and a lotus staff. He is the remover of obstacles, and in the old story it was Ganesh who wrote down the Mahabharata as the sage Vyasa recited it, breaking off his own tusk to use as a pen. It was tapped in at the Federation of Khmer Sakyantra in Siem Reap on 4 October 2024. When it was done, Master Tevent Say blessed it at his altar with water and lotus petals. For the masters, this blessing is what activates the yant. The Federation was set up in Siem Reap in 2014 to record the old tradition and teach it to a new generation. Master Tevent Say began learning sak yant as a monk at the age of fifteen, and now teaches young apprentices there.