Huot Tat

Huot Tat was born on February 27, 1891, in Oudong. Entering monastic life at Wat Ounalom, Tat worked alongside Chuon Nath for over five decades to establish the Higher Pali School and the Buddhist Institute in Phnom Penh, promoting scriptural translations from Pali into vernacular Khmer.

Succeeding Chuon Nath as Supreme Patriarch in 1969, Huot Tat was a revered moral voice urging non-violence as civil war engulfed the country. On April 17, 1975, when the Khmer Rouge entered Phnom Penh, they took the 84-year-old Patriarch to Oudong. On April 18, 1975, he was executed at Wat Prang, the first major Buddhist leader martyred during the regime's campaign to eradicate Buddhism.