Khmer Script Tattoos: The Writing in a Khmer Yant
In short
The writing in a Khmer sak yant is Khmer script, អក្សរខ្មែរ (aksar Khmer). The words it spells are sacred phrases, mostly Pali or Sanskrit and sometimes Khmer, that ask for protection, strength or luck. Masters copy them from hand-written books, which is why we warn against script copied from the internet.
Which script is used in a sak yant?
A Khmer sak yant is written in Khmer script, អក្សរខ្មែរ (aksar Khmer), the alphabet Cambodians read and write today. In a sak yant, lines of Khmer letters frame the figure, circle the centre of the design or run in rows underneath it. If you can read Khmer, you will recognise the letters; the words they spell are another matter (see the next question).
Khmer script descends from the scripts of southern India and has been used in Cambodia for well over a thousand years: the oldest dated inscription in the Khmer language, from Angkor Borei, is from the year 611. A few things about it matter for a tattoo:
- Letters stack. When two consonants meet, the second is written small, underneath the first, as a "foot", ជើង (cheung).
- Vowels sit all around the consonant: above, below, before or after it.
- There is more than one style. Everyday writing uses a slanted hand, អក្សរជ្រៀង (aksar chrieng); a rounder, formal hand, អក្សរមូល (aksar mul), has long been used for titles, inscriptions and Pali texts.
What language is sak yant written in?
Mostly Pali or Sanskrit, written in Khmer letters, and sometimes Khmer itself. The letters are Khmer; the language they spell is often one of the two sacred languages of Indian origin that came to Cambodia with its religions.
The historian Michel Tranet, a former secretary of state at Cambodia's Ministry of Culture, told The Cambodia Daily in 2008 that Sanskrit arrived with Brahmanism and Pali with Buddhism, and that both appear in Khmer magic tattoos (The Cambodia Daily, 19 July 2008).
Pali, the language of the Buddha's teachings in Theravada Buddhism, is why so many yant carry it. Professor Soeung Phos, who taught Pali and Sanskrit at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, told the Phnom Penh Post in 2011 that Pali entered Cambodia in the 13th or 14th century with Theravada Buddhism, and explained why it ended up on the skin: "because people really believed in Buddhism, they even thought that Buddha's words would become magical if they tattooed them on their skin" (The Phnom Penh Post, 1 June 2011).
What do sak yant tattoos say?
In general, the words in a sak yant ask for what the design was made for: protection from danger, strength, courage, luck or love. Every sak yant is made for one of three reasons: a fear to protect against, a need to answer, and something missing to make up for. Read what each design means.
The words of a yant are sacred, and they are not explained letter by letter. Ask the artist what your design says before it is tapped. Chantha can tell you only its general meaning, or the meaning of each phrase. Do not trust AI too much here: it collects its data from all kinds of media, and with yantra designs only those who have learned them have clear knowledge.
Which sak yant are made only of Khmer script?
Several of our designs are nothing but writing.
- The Three lines Mantras, the most popular design at our ashram, because it holds a complete and full meaning for each person. Each line means something different: the first is for love, charm and luck in fortune; the second for protection, prevention, keeping away enemies who wish you harm, and good luck; and the third is the Four Elements Mantras.
- The Four Elements Mantras: the Water, Earth, Fire and Wind elements, written together in Khmer script.
- A single line of mantra, tapped down the spine.
- The year-of-birth mantra, tattooed according to each person's year of birth, for energy, power, protection and high fortune.
- The Necklace SakYant, arcs of mantra across the chest.
What does Khmer script look like in a yant?
In a Khmer yant the script is part of the drawing. It runs beneath Hanuman, crowns a seated figure on a lotus, frames a tiger or makes up the whole design. The same piece can mix script that forms shapes with script written in plain lines. See more of our work, by placement on the body.
Where the script comes from: the masters' books
Yant designs and their script are kept in hand-drawn books, and the art passes from master to student. In a yant, the written words are its Gatha, the sacred incantation, and a wrong Gatha makes a wrong yant. To write one, an artist must be able to read Pali, and must know the mantra, the yant or yantra itself, how to draw it, its meaning, its character, and clearly where it comes from.
Cambodia's older sacred texts were kept the same way, on palm-leaf manuscripts, សាស្ត្រាស្លឹករឹត (sastra sleuk rith), most of them in Pali and some in Khmer.
Scholars have studied Khmer tattoos alongside those manuscripts. In 1998 the French scholar Olivier de Bernon, of the École française d'Extrême-Orient, who spent years preserving and translating Buddhist palm-leaf manuscripts in Cambodia, showed a photographic exhibition of traditional Khmer tattoos in Phnom Penh under the title "Yantra and Mantra" (The Phnom Penh Post, May 1998).
Chantha learned the designs from his own teachers: read about Chantha and the masters who taught him, or about the history of Khmer tattooing.
Can I copy Khmer script from the internet?
No, not without someone who knows the art checking it first. People copy sak yant script from the internet believing it is right when it is not. Someone who cannot write or read mantras and does not know yantra is not an expert, and cannot tell.
Script is easy to get wrong when it is copied by someone who cannot read it: a stacked "foot" can be dropped, a vowel sign can land on the wrong letter, or a line can be cut to fit the space, and then the words no longer say what they said. Before you get Khmer script tattooed:
Have it read by someone who reads Khmer, and for a yant by a master, before it is tapped.
Know what it asks for, in your own language.
Ask where it may go. Some designs have fixed places, and those for the Buddha, gods or kings are not tattooed on the legs.
Can I get a word or a name in Khmer script?
Khmer script can spell any word or name, but a word written in Khmer is not a yant. A yant is a sacred design from a master's book, given with a blessing; a name in Khmer letters is lettering. If you want Khmer lettering, have the word written by a native Khmer speaker in a font that shows the stacked letters correctly, and check it letter by letter before anyone tattoos it.
