The Naga's Treasure

By Michael Joseph

Prince Suriya never expected to become king. His older brothers were definitely more suited to the throne. Whoever became king had to make nightly visits to the chamber of Lord Naga, to please the protector of Angkor, who legend says appears to the ruler as a woman, and Suriya had always preferred the pleasures of men.

The serpent lord could see into the hearts of men and was charged by the great god Vishnu with the protection of Angkor, yet he had to act through the human king, by beguiling and cajoling them to follow his guidance. Lately it seems the great kings thought they knew more than the gods, and paid the price. Even the gods can grow weary of their tasks. Lord Naga longed for a man to come to him who would not only serve him, but also please him in the way no man had for hundreds of years.

The Naga's Treasure was inspired by a legend that has been passed on to us by Zhou Daguan, a Chinese emissary who visited Angkor in the thirteenth century and left one of the most detailed accounts of life in the ancient capital. In his writings, he related the following story that had been told to him:
“Inside the palace there is a gold tower, at the summit of which the king sleeps at night. The local people all say that in the tower lives a nine-headed snake spirit which is the lord of the earth for the entire country. Every night it appears in the form of a woman, and the king first shares his bed with her and has sex with her. Even his wives do not dare go in. At the end of the second watch, he comes out, and only then can he sleep with his wives and concubines. If for a single night this spirit does not appear, the time has come for this king to die. If for a single night he stays away, he is bound to suffer a disaster.”

This is a re-edited version of the book. The story has not changed but many typos and grammatical errors have been corrected.

Kindly note that The Naga's Treasure is more or less pure erotica, with explicit descriptions of sex between men. This book is intended for adult audiences only.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michael Joseph
• Release date: Aug 8, 2011
• ISBN: 9781466053557

Michael Joseph

Bangkok-based travel writer who occasionally makes a foray into fiction.

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This story is a work of fantasy fiction and so takes considerable liberties with the legends and history of ancient Angkor. It is inspired by actual events and stories that have been passed down, so a basic understanding of the cultural background may help make the story more enjoyable for those not familiar with it.

The religion that the West generally refers to as ‘Hindu’ is not really a single theology but rather a large multitude of individual religions based on a relatively common view of the cosmos, where the heavens are occupied by several gods, along with their associated consorts, demigods, servants, guardians, angels, and demons. There is a sort of hierarchy to these gods, with, at the top, a holy trinity of Brahma, the creator, Vishnu, the maintainer, and Shiva, the destroyer. Where the Greek gods had Olympus, the home of the Hindu gods is called Mount Meru, a five peaked mountain said to be over one million kilometers high.

Nagas are a race of gods generally depicted in the form of a giant serpent, with anywhere from one head to thousands. In South Asia, where Hindu beliefs first evolved, the head, or heads, of the naga are usually similar to that of the hooded king cobra, and in some Indian dialects, the word ‘naga’ is used for the name of the actual snake species. In Southeast Asia, nagas are more commonly shown with a dragon-like head, no doubt due to Chinese influences. They display powerful jaws full of teeth, a leonine mane, and sometimes rhino horns on their snout. In Cambodia, legend says that the Khmer people are the children of a marriage between a naga king and an Indian princess.

The specific legend which inspired this fantasy was passed on to us by Zhou Daguan, a Chinese emissary who visited Angkor in the thirteenth century and left one of the most detailed accounts of life in the ancient capital. In his writings, he related the following story that had been relayed to him:

Inside the palace, there is a gold tower, at the summit of which the king sleeps at night. The local people all say that in the tower lives a nine-headed snake spirit which is the lord of the earth for the entire country. Every night it appears in the form of a woman, and the king first shares his bed with her and has sex with her. Even his wives do not dare go in. At the end of the second watch, he comes out, and only then can he sleep with his wives and concubines. If, for a single night, this spirit does not appear, the time has come for this king to die. If, for a single night, he stays away, he is bound to suffer a disaster.

One last cultural note that may be useful is with regard to how the throne was passed down among Southeast Asian kingdoms. Unlike the Christian monarchies of Europe, where the crown was passed to the first-born son of the king and queen, the kingdoms of the East had no such rule of primogeniture. For starters, the king usually had many wives, often in the dozens or more, and of varying importance depending on their family connections. The first-born son may not have been the one with the best allegiances that would support his bid for the throne. As a result, the practice was for the king to designate his successor, who would take the title of ‘second king.’ As often as not, the second king was either a brother or some other close relative of the great king rather than a son. In many cases, the second king would take on the day-to-day administration tasks while the great king was off fighting battles to defend the borders.

Chapter 1

Prince Suriya swam to the far end of the bathing pool of the palace’s bachelor quarters. Most of the other men and boys stayed at the other end of the large stone-lined pool, around the platform with its stairs, and closer to the rooms where they slept. The prince liked to swim, as he liked almost all physical activity. He enjoyed the feeling of the water running over his skin. While many of the others preferred to keep their breeches on, Suriya was comfortable being naked, at least around the other single men of the palace.

At 22 years of age, Suriya was one of the oldest men still living in the bachelor’s precinct of the palace. Boys were not allowed in the inner court, where the king was the only man permitted older than the age of 13. Many were sent away to the provinces, as Suriya himself was. The little prince was sent to Lopburi in faraway Siam to live with his grandfather, who was governor there. He had only returned four years ago, since his grandfather felt he should be at court, where he could attain a better position. But Suriya had little idea of what kind of position to press for. Many of the young princes went into the army, where their royal lineage almost guaranteed they would become a general within two or three years. Suriya had done well in his training. His athletic build meant he could handle himself well, even in heavy armor, but he found he had no lust for war, or, for that matter, the privations of army camp life, even with the attraction of being around all those men.

Although the young prince’s tutors praised his intellect, he didn’t fancy the dry bookish life in the temple that some other princes pursued. He had thought that the king might resolve things for him, perhaps by appointing him governor of some faraway province, but for reasons he couldn’t understand, His Majesty continued to keep the young prince at court.

Suriya pulled himself out of the water onto one of the broad stone steps at the far end of the pool. The edges of the bathing pool were made of large blocks of stone that formed wide steps down to the water, which would rise and fall with the rains. He reclined against the block behind him, with his feet still in the water, enjoying the warm morning sun on his body. Suriya looked down at his body. His skin was still smooth and unblemished, an unvarying shade of dark brown from the sun. The swimming and other exertions he enjoyed had toned his muscles, which rippled beneath his taut skin. His cock lying soft against his leg was not the biggest he had seen, but it was nothing to be ashamed of. Suriya thought he shouldn’t dwell too long on his manhood, lest he becomes aroused, and so he closed his eyes to revel in the cool breeze blowing across his wet skin.

His rest was disturbed a few minutes later when a bright light pierced his eyelids. Opening his eyes and putting up his hand to shield them, Suriya could see the light was coming from the sun glinting off the Naga’s golden tower. The circular chamber stood atop a high stone pyramid about a hundred paces from the pool where the prince sat. It was the highest structure within the royal palace compound and the only building made of stone. The walls and roof of the chamber were covered in gold, and there were great doors on the eastern side. All around the outside, the walls were pierced by large openings, but they were always impenetrably black. Everyone in the great city of Angkor knew the story: The chamber was the home of Lord Naga, the serpent lord that Vishnu had charged with the protection of the great city. The king, and only the king, could enter the chamber, which he must do every night. If he ever missed a night, some great disaster might befall the city.

Suriya had seen his father, the king, enter the chamber every night, but what exactly he did there was a complete mystery. The gossip among his half-brothers was that the serpent lord appeared to the king as a woman, a different woman every night, some said, and the king had to please the woman before he would be released from the chamber. Suriya thought this story was possibly more wishful thinking than truth, but the king himself never said what happened in the chamber as far as he knew.

Suriya! The sleek brown form of Boh shot out of the water in one swift move to sit next to Prince Suriya. Boh, like all the men here, was a half-brother of Suriya and about three years younger. Like Suriya, Boh was naked. He was lean and wiry and almost never without a smile on his face. Boh was the closest friend Suriya had among the men and boys. His sunny disposition meant that everyone liked him, but he and Suriya shared something in common: They both preferred the company of men. Most, if not all, of the young princes had experimented with sex with another man, either with one of their half-brothers or one of the pages, who were always willing to satisfy the needs of a prince in the hope of some favor being shown in the future. There were few other outlets for the boys coming into the full bloom of manhood. While women were not barred from the