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Phnom Santuk Pilgrimage Festival in Phnom Santuk
Phnom Santuk, considered Kampong Thom's most sacred mountain, holds a seventh-century pagoda, large Buddha carvings, cave shrines, and a reclining Buddha sculpture reached via 809 steps or a paved road. Rather than one fixed festival, the mountain draws recurring waves of Cambodian pilgrims during Khmer New Year, Pchum Ben, and weekends who treat the climb itself as an act of merit-making.
Regarded as the most sacred mountain in Kampong Thom province, Phnom Santuk rises above the surrounding plains as a solitary hill crowned with a pagoda whose origins are usually dated to construction in the seventh century, making Wat Phnom Santuk one of the older active temple sites in the country.