Norodom Sihanouk’s Legacy

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 15:38:01 GMT

Source: dinmerican.wordpress.com --- Monday, April 29, 2013
April 29, 2013 Norodom Sihanouk’s Legacy By Martin Stuart-Fox, Guest Contributor – 26 February 2013 No-one in the modern history of Southeast Asia has had such a continuous and lasting effect on the politics of their country than the late King Father ( Samdech Euv ) Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia (above). His cremation on 4 February in Phnom Penh brought to an end a career reaching back to his coronation on 3 May 1941. Since then, in one form or another – king, prime minister, head of government in exile, guerrilla leader, king again and finally King Father after he abdicated for the second time – Sihanouk bestrode Cambodian politics. Sihanouk’s cremation was an extraordinarily lavish affair. Rumours circulating in Phnom Penh reported that the current Cambodian strongman, Hun Sen, was “shocked” by the spontaneous outpouring of grief by the hundreds of thousands of ordinary Cambodians who lined the processional route when Sihanouk’s body was returned from China, and concluded that his government would gain popular approval by giving the King Father a right royal send-off. Whether this is true or not, Hun Sen’s order to conduct a full-scale royal cremation sent officials to scour the archives to find out proper procedures. The whole ceremony thus became an occasion to restore and celebrate Khmer traditional culture. No expense was spared in constructing the five-storey high central Phra Meru (within which the body was burned) along w ...