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Posted by: | Posted on: October 16, 2012
For sincere condolence, love and shared responsibility of Cambodian nation: special collection of news outlets regarding Somdech Ta King Norodom Sihanouk
For sincere condolence, love and shared responsibility of Cambodian nation: special collection of news outlets regarding Somdech Ta King Norodom Sihanouk
Cambodia’s Mercurial Former King, Norodom Sihanouk, Dies at 89
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| Cambodia’s former King Norodom Sihanouk greets his subjects at the annual crop-planting ceremony outside the royal palace in Phnom Penh on April 30, 2002 (Chor Sokunthea / Files / Reuters) |
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| Cambodia’s former King Norodom Sihanouk, pictured in July 1941 (AP) |
The former monarch, who died Monday in Beijing at 89, was at various times a playboy prince, a teenage King, an independence leader, an elected Prime Minister, an exile and, later, a peace negotiator
By Kay Johnson | October 15, 2012
Time Magazine (USA)
In the end, he couldn’t script a happy ending for Cambodia.
Filmmaking was a favorite hobby of Cambodia’s former King Norodom Sihanouk, and in his long, extraordinary life, he played enough roles to fill a Hollywood epic. The former monarch, who died Monday in Beijing at 89, was at various times a playboy prince, a teenage King, an independence leader, an elected Prime Minister, an exile and, later, a peace negotiator. Along the way, he found time to compose jazz tunes, throw champagne-soaked soirées and rub shoulders with the likes of Jawaharlal Nehru, Charles de Gaulle, Mao Zedong, Jacqueline Kennedy, Sukarno and Kim Il Sung. The part he loved to play most, though, was that of Samdech Euv, or Papa King, to the Cambodian people, known as the Khmer. “My people love and admire me and respect me so very much,” he once said. “They continue to believe I am a god-king.”
Though he cast himself as heroic, Sihanouk, like the country he once led and long symbolized, was most defined by tragedy. His carefully cultivated status as a benevolent and glamorous ruler wasmarred by his cooperation with the murderous Khmer Rouge, whose “killing fields” regime of the 1970s left 1.7 million dead. It was a decision that cost him dearly: he himself was held prisoner by the Khmer Rouge, who killed five of his 14 children. His passing is a reminder of a long-past era when Southeast Asia, not Afghanistan and Pakistan, was the focus of a protracted U.S. war. During the Vietnam War, Cambodia was carpet bombed by the Nixon Administration trying to root out “safe havens” across the border, an eerie precursor to today’s drone campaign in northwestern Pakistan.
The mercurial Sihanouk was a man of contradictions — an avowed Cambodian patriot who wrote mostly in French, a man who sought peace for his people, but whose decisions seemed to lead them, time and again, to disaster. “Sihanouk was certainly one of the most interesting leaders of the 20th century,” said Milton Osborne, author of the critical biography Sihanouk: Prince of Light, Prince of Darkness. “But I wouldn’t say he was one of the best leaders.”
Posted by: | Posted on: October 14, 2012
Former Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk passes away
Beings eventually disappear from this earth, no one is exceptional. Three characteristics Buddha exposed “Anica = impermanence, Dhukkha=decaying and Anatta=non-substantial, are omnipresently existing and no one can resist these natural forces. I am sad to hear that our Somdach Ta Norodom Sihanouk passed away at Beijing on 15 October 2012 at 2:25 am today. Of course, there are different views from Cambodians and non-Cambodians regarding the political leadership of King Norodom Sihanouk, but for me who have closely followed all political movements in Cambodia, the post Cold War positioned King Norodom Sihanouk and other world leaders at a critical angle in governing their country.
I am very sorry for one thing that our King Ta should not be undone is to be a witness at the current Khmer Rouge Tribunal.
PHNOM PENH, Oct. 15 Kyodo – Former King Norodom Sihanouk passed away in Beijing early Monday morning, government officials said. He was 89.
Nhiek Bunchhay, deputy prime minister and secretary general of royalist FUNCINPEC Party told Kyodo News that King Norodom Sihanouk who is in Beijing for medical check-up died of heart attack early Monday morning.
“I have just received information from Beijing and that I was told that His Majesty (the former King Sihanouk), he had heart problem and was sent to hospital where he passed away there,“ Nhiek Bunchhay said.
Prince Sisowath Thomico, personal assistant to Sihanouk told Kyodo News, “It is true that His Majesty passed away by heart attack in Beijing at 2:25 am (Beijing time),“ he said.
“Because of his heart is weak that is why His Majesty continued to stay in Beijing for treatment since January this year,“ he added.
Posted by: | Posted on: October 1, 2012
Political History of Vietnam and Cambodia
Op-Ed from University f Huston
Political History of Vietnam and Cambodia
* The following was a presentation given on November 8, 2008 for the World Affairs Council of Houston’s Global Issues in Depth – Portrait of Southeast Asia.
Immigration is as old as Southeast Asia’s history
- Human movements and colonizations across land and sea in Southeast Asia
- The early Homo populations settled in Southeast Asia and extended northwards and eastwards to China and Java by perhaps 1.5 million years ago.
- The movement of the anatomically modern humans that crossed the sea gaps of eastern Indonesia to reach Australia, New Guina and possibly the Philippines around 35,000 to 40,000 years ago.
- The Americans were reached more recently, perhaps about 14,000 years ago.
Source: A Cultural History of Southeast Asia: From Earliest Times to the Indic Civilizations,edited by P. Bellwood and I. Glover. Routledge Curzon Press, New York (2004).
Southeast Asia from prehistory to history
- Southeast Asia civilization was not a backwater stuck fast in the stone age
- Southeast Asia civilization is not a loan civilization of India or China
- But Southeast Asia is an imagined reality: Is Southeast Asia a jigsaw puzzle or a collage?
- “Glocalization” in Southeast Asia
Source: A Cultural History of Southeast Asia: From Earliest Times to the Indic Civilizations, edited by P. Bellwood and I. Glover. Routledge Curzon Press, New York (2004).