King Norodom Sihanouk cremated

King Norodom Sihanouk
(Image source Wikimedia Commons)

The remains of Cambodia’s highly revered King Father, Norodom Sihanouk, was finally cremated in the kingdom’s capital, Phnom Penh. Thousands of crowd joined the Royal Family and high government officials for the ceremony to bid adieu to the man whose assuring presence helped Cambodia recover from the strife, turmoil and violence which nearly destroyed the country for almost five decades.

The international community also paid their final respect to one of the world’s most iconic leaders. French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and Prince Akishino of Japan attended the cremation, while Buddhist monks offered prayers for the late king before the artillery gave their gun salute before fireworks display.

Dowager Queen Monique and King Norodom Sihamoni, who assumed the throne about Sihanouk abdicated in 2004, lit the memorial bonfire which was placed at the 15-storey-high purpose-built crematorium.

“Some of the former king's ashes will be scattered at the confluence of three rivers and the remainder stored in an urn in the royal palace,” reports BBC Correspondent Jonathan Head.

A report by the Associated Press describes the huge crowd that swarmed the capital: 

"The huge crowds who had been filing past the cremation site all day were kept away as the pyre was lit, and TV cameras were covered so the moment was private."

Assessing his acts when he was still king, Head writes:

"Sihanouk proved to be a masterful tactician as he confounded their expectations and drove a successful campaign for Cambodian independence in 1955."

Abdicating his post in favor of his father, he served as Cambodia’s prime minister before assuming the post as Chief of State. Although he did his best to modernized a society that reeled behind tradition and antiquity, Head however saw him as a rather "impractical" leader, who never "properly implemented" his plans.

"He tolerated no opposition and harshly repressed anti-government movements, until being ousted by a coup in 1970. He always believed he was indispensible, and some believe this led to his fateful decision to ally himself with the Khmer Rouge, in the early 1970s and in the 1980s."

The kin’s character was so hard to understand and it was so full of ambiguities. Thus, Philip Short was apt when he summed up the King’s legacy:

"An improbable mixture of rage and self-pity, acid and honey, brutality and sarcasm, passion and wit."

King Sihanouk died at the age of 89 in Beijing. Read a short but comprehensive detail about the life, reign and death of King Norodoum Sihanouk, which I wrote last year.

Bangkok Post: Millions bid farewell as Cambodian monarch makes final journey

King Norodom Sihanouk

Bangkok Post reports that Half of the country's population is expected to make the pilgrimage to Phnom Penh to pay their respects to King Father Norodom Sihanouk, demonstrating their reverence for him as well as their unease about what his absence will mean for the country's future.For wee ks, Cambodians have filed into the capital, ending a pilgrimage which for most is a once in a lifetime event. The streets along the riverside are jammed with traffic while in the parks outside the Royal Palace children dressed in white with black ribbons play and pray with their parents.

From a distance the palace gates _ adorned by portraits of the late King Father Norodom Sihanouk _ appear like an entrance to a castle in a Hans Christian Andersen fairytale. The palace is tastefully lit against the night sky, its spire pointing at the moon above and shrouded with smoke from the millions of incense sticks burning below.

Outside the gates women, young and old, weep. Men tend to be a little more reserved. Expectations are that half of the country's 14.3 million people will travel from all corners to pay their final respects by the time of the cremation in February.

Commemorations, the pomp and pageantry surrounding Sihanouk's funeral are likely to outdo previous efforts. Numbers will also be bolstered by this year's Water Festival, normally held at the end of November when up to two million people descend on the capital for the annual boat races. The festival itself has been cancelled but the holidays remain, offering villagers from the most isolated parts of the country a chance to pay their respects to the late king.

The last royal funeral was for Sihanouk's mother, Queen Sisowath Kossamak, who died in 1975 in Beijing where her son had lived in exile for five years following the Lon Nol coup. Her ashes were returned to Cambodia with Sihanouk with a dowdy Khmer Rouge escort.

The funeral for his father King Norodom Suramarit in 1960 was a much grander affair. His death was accompanied by a salute from 66 cannons followed by three days of official mourning.

The body was then transferred to the Preah Moha Montir Room, traditionally the resting place for deceased Khmer monarchs, for five months while local and international dignitaries, which included the Chinese premier Zhou Enlai, paid their respects before a lengthy funeral procession and lastly the cremation in the park outside the National Museum.

Sihanouk's final journey will follow a similar path. After a week of mourning his embalmed body went on display. Dates for the final procession and cremation have not been announced, although Prime Minister Hun Sen has said the cremation would take place in February.

You can read the complete story at The Bangkok Post. 

King Norodom Sihanouk’s body now in Cambodia, to be laid in state for 3 months

Millions of people show signs of respect to the late
King Norodom Sihanouk. In this picture, T-shirts
are printed with the king's face. 

While half the world is celebrating the marriage of Grand Duke Guillaume and newly-proclaimed Grand Duchess Stephanie of Luxembourg, Cambodia and her neighboring countries are still mourning the death of King Norodom Sihanouk. The country’s Father-King, who was highly-revered for his unwavering dedication to the Cambodians and to his duties as king and leader, was finally taken back to Cambodia, October 19.


His remains was greeted by more than one million loyal subjects who lined the streets in reverential silence to witness the return of the country’s much-loved monarch, reports Cambodia Daily.
“Cambodians of all ages stood silently on the roadside as the King Father, and the man who earned the country its independence in 1953, was brought to the Royal Palace, where his body will lie in state for at least three months,” the news said.

The last kingly funeral took place in 1960, after Sihanouk’s father, King Surawarit died in 1960, just five years after ascending to the throne.

The King Father had made it known that  he wanted a “quiet affair, with a quick cremation.” However, that would be a far cry from what is already happening, as hundreds of thousands of mourners are lining the streets after his return to make sure his passing would not be low key.
It has been a long held Cambodian tradition to keep a king’s body in state for several of months, during which prayers are said for the dead king, a period that serves both practical and spiritual purposes, said Ang Choulean, archeology faculty at the Royal University of Fine Arts.

The late King’s face is covered with a golden mask and while his body is nearing cremation date, always after a 100-day ceremony, it will be placed inside a golden urn. Tradition dictates that the king’s body will have to be seated upright in the urn, which is about 3 meters high, in the fetal position, to symbolize rebirth.

Cambodia's King Norodom Sihanouk dies

King Norodom Sihanouk dies

King Norodom Sihanouk, Cambodia’s highly revered king and one of the most iconic figures in the world, passed away October 15. He was King of the formerly French-occupied kingdom from 1941 until 1955 and again from 1993 until his abdication in 2004, after which he was accorded the title Father-King of Cambodia. King Norodom Sihanouk is the son of King Norodom Suramarit and Queen Sisowath Kossama.

Since his accession to the throne in 1941, he had held so many government posts that he was awarded by the Guinness World Record as the politician who held the most varieties of political offices. He was twice a king, twice a sovereign prince, once a president, twice as prime minister, and many more times a leader under various governments-in-exile, including holding the post as the puppet head of state during the reign of the Khmer Rouge, 1975-76. Most of the positions that he occupied were primarily honorific, including his last, as Cambodia’s constitutional monarch. He was the country’s effective ruler from the time the French granted the country’s independence in 1953 until he was deposed from the throne by General Lol Nol and the National Assembly in 1970.

The King died at a hospital in Beijing after suffering from a heart attack, although his health was already frail for several years, one reason why he abdicated in 2004.

According to BBC:

"His death was a great loss to Cambodia," said his assistant and relative Prince Sisowath Thomico. "King Sihanouk did not belong to his family, he belonged to Cambodia and to history."

His body is expected to be returned to Cambodia for an official funeral at the royal palace in Phnom Penh. King Sihamoni is flying to Beijing to accompany the late king home, a Cambodian government spokesman said.

A statement from China's foreign ministry hailed Sihanouk as a "great friend of the Chinese people".

The Daily Telegraph reports: 

The King “had suffered from a series of health problems recently, including cancer, diabetes and hypertension.

“Despite abdicating, the ex-monarch sometimes used his website to communicate with the outside world.”

King Norodom Sihanouk was born on Oct. 31, 1922. His father King Norodom Suramarit (1896-1960), was the son of Prince Norodom Sutharot. His mother, Queen Sisowath Kossamak (1904-1975) was the daughter of King Sissowath Monivong (1875-1941).

Early Years and Reign

Upon the death of King Monivong in 1941, Norodom was selected to succeed as king, bypassing his father. Educated at French schools in Saigon and in Paris, the Nazi-controlled Vichy government in France did this believing that the 18 year-old king could easily be swayed to the foreign side. However, after World War II, Sihanouk proved to be an able leader, launching an international campaign that sought the independence for Cambodia.

BBC writes:

"Despite being rebuffed by the US, whose policies towards Indo China Sihanouk was always scathing about, Cambodia won its freedom in 1953."

Cambodia eventually won over its independence without violence after almost 100 years of French rule. In 1955, he abdicated and handled the throne to his father, who reigned until his death in 1960. Sihanuk, meanwhile, served as the kingdom’s concurrent prime minister and foreign minister.

Political Turmoil

For the next 10 years, Sihanouk maintained Cambodia’s neutrality in international affairs. But at as the crisis in Vietnam worsened, Sihanouk became critical against the United States, accusing Washington-supported South Vietnamese troops of constant intrusions into the Cambodian borders. On the part of the Americans, Sihanouk was accused of supporting the Communist cause by letting North Vietnamese rebels to enter his kingdom.

In March 1970, while Sihanouk was on an overseas visit in the Soviet Union, General Lon Nol, then Cambodian Prime Minister, took over the government with American help. Sihanouk retreated to Beijing and in retaliation, secretly supported the Khmer Rouge guerrillas, who were emerging as a considerable fighting force.

BBC writes:

"When the Khmer Rouge moved into Phnom Penh in 1975, Sihanouk returned as head of state. He was criticised for acting as the chief apologist for the murderous Khmer Rouge regime and its leader Pol Pot."

However, Sihanouk’s action proved disastrous, even for his part. He became a virtual prisoner in his royal palace during much of Pol Pot’s regime. He said he was unaware of the Khmer Rouge's brutality, which included the killing of about one million Cambodians. Sihanouk’s family was also victim of the excesses of Khmer Rouge. In fact, five of his children, and at least 15 of his grandchildren all died in the hands of Pol Pot’s men. In early 1979, Vietnam invaded Cambodia and Sihanouk fled into exile in China.

Until 1981, Sihanouk held his government-in-exile in China and North Korea, holding firmly to his ideals to expel the Vietnamese from his kingdom. He refused to break with the Khmer Rouge who still held much military power. In 1982, he moved completely into opposition against the Vietnam-sponsored government. He was elected President of the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea (CGDK), which was composed of his own party, Armée Nationale Sihanoukiste (ANS), Son Sann's Khmer People's National Liberation Front (KPNLF), and the Khmer Rouge. The Vietnamese withdrew in 1989, allowing the establishment of pro-Vietnamese government under ex-Khmer Rouge cadre Hun Sen to run the People's Republic of Kampuchea (PRK).

Restoration to Power

Peace negotiations, where Sihanouk emerged as the leading figure, between Norodom’s party and the PRK started afterwards and lasted until 1991, after all groups decided to have a comprehensive settlement which was signed in Paris.

Sihanouk was noted cajoling and joking throughout the discussions, although he was also praised for his making his point throughout the negotiations. In fact, his performance was judged by many to be a triumph of diplomacy.

In 1991, Sihanouk was appointed president and in 1993, he was crowned, for the second time, King of Cambodia, after much twists and turns in the country’s politics. He retained this position until his final abdication in October 2004 due to ill health. He was succeeded by his son, Norodom Sihamuni.

As his final, Sihanouk eventually turned his back on the Khmer Rouge, accusing them as murderers, “calling for their leaders to face trial and seeking to exclude them from any role in government” BBC writes.

In his later years, often absent from his country to undergo medical treatment for cancer and a series of mild strokes, Sihanouk was seen less and less by his people.

But to the end he maintained their loyalty and was a vital force for unity in a turbulent part of the world.

He once said it would take a Shakespeare to do literary justice to his reign. "But the tragic hero is not Sihanouk but the people of Cambodia," he said.

Personality and Private Life

The King had two legal wives, Princess Samdech Norleak, whom he married in 1955, and Paule Monique Izzi, whom he married in 1956. She was born on June 18, 1936. The current King, Norodom Sihamoni is the his elder son by Queen Monineath. 

BBC writes of the King Norodom’s personality as “unpredictable, ebullient, mercurial, autocratic, [and] self-indulgent.”  He was married six times and fathered at least 14 children. He loved to play saxophone, an outstanding song writer, a film maker of certain capacity, “a bon vivant who loved French cooking and wines.” This manifested the King’s eccentric side, which he never fear of letting others see.

He once quipped jokingly: "Cambodians are all naughty boys, and that includes me."

All in all, BBC sums the King Norodom Sihanouk’s life:

"Yet beneath all the joking and indulgence was a master politician and leader who frequently changed allegiances but always tried to preserve the unity of his country and prevent it being gobbled up by the big power."