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Norodom Sihanouk
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King Norodom Sihanouk regular script (born October 31, 1922) was
the King of Cambodia until his abdication on October 7, 2004.
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King Norodom Sihanouk regular script (born October 31, 1922) was
the King of Cambodia until his abdication on October 7, 2004. He is now "King-Father (Khmer: Preahmâhaviraksat) of Cambodia," a position in which he retains many of his former responsibilities as constitutional King.
The son of King Norodom Suramarit and Queen Sisowath Kossamak, Sihanouk has held so many positions since 1941 that the Guinness Book of World Records identifies him as the politician who has served the world's greatest variety of political offices. These included two terms as King, two as sovereign prince, one as president, two as prime minister, and one as Cambodia's non-titled head of state, as well as numerous positions as leader of various governments-in-exile.
Most of these positions were only honorific, including the last position as constitutional King of Cambodia. Norodom Sihanouk's actual period of effective rule over Cambodia was from November 9, 1953 (full independence granted to Cambodia) to March 18, 1970 (Lon Nol and the National Assembly depose Sihanouk).
He is also credited as a film director, directing films such as An Ambition Reduced to Ashes and The Last Days of Colonel Savath (1995).
Names and titles
Since his abdication, Sihanouk's official Cambodian title is:
Preah Karuna Preah Bat Sâmdech Preah Norodom Sihanouk Preahmâhaviraksat
In Khmer:
The literal translation of the title :
- Preah ("sacred,")
- Karuna ("compassionate," referring to the Buddhist concept karuna)
- Bat ("foot", from Sanskrit , cognate to Latin pes, pedis, French pied)
- Sâmdech ("lord, prince, excellency")
- Preah ("sacred")
- Norodom (given name of Norodom of Cambodia, used as a family name by his descendants. from Narottam in Sanskrit meaning best in quality (Uttam) among men(Nar).
- Sihanouk (given name of Sihanouk; it is a contraction of siha-, "lion," from Sanskrit , cognate of singa- in Singapore; and -hanouk, from Sanskrit hanu, "jaws")
- Preahmâhaviraksat (preah, "sacred"; -mâha-, Sanskrit "great," maha- in maharaja; -vira-, Sanskrit "brave or eminent man; hero; chief," this Sanskrit word is cognate to many words in Latin like vir, viris, English virile; -ksat, "warrior, ruler," cognate of the Indian word Kshatriya).
The word "father" does not appear in the Cambodian title, but in Western languages his title is translated as "his Majesty King-Father Norodom Sihanouk," to distinguish from the title of his son the new King, which is "his Majesty King Norodom Sihamoni."
Despite the great ritualism surrounding the Cambodian monarchy, Sihanouk has always maintained close relations with the Cambodian people, and when addressing him, or talking about him, they most often call him , Sâmdech Euv, which literally means "Prince Dad," "My Lord Dad" (French: Monseigneur Papa).
Early life
King Norodom Sihanouk received his primary education in a Phnom Penh primary school. He pursued his secondary education in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam at "Lycée Chasseloup Laubat" until his coronation and then later attended Cavalry military school in Saumur, France. When his maternal grandfather, King Sisowath Monivong, died on April 23, 1941, the Crown Council selected Prince Sihanouk as King of Cambodia. At that time, Cambodia was part of French Indochina.
His coronation took place on September 1941. Norodom Sihanouk is well-known for leading what some have termed an extravagant lifestyle." He married his sixth wife, Monique Izzi, a young woman of French, Italian, and Cambodian ancestry, in 1952.
Leadership turmoil
Prime Minister
After World War II and into the early 1950s, King Sihanouk's aspirations became much more nationalistic and he began demanding independence from the French colonists and their complete departure from Indochina. This echoed the sentiments of the other fledgling nations of French Indochina: the State of Vietnam, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, and the Kingdom of Laos. He went into exile in Thailand in May 1953 because of threats on his his life by the French and returned until independence was granted. He returned when his struggles for independence met with success and Cambodia became independent on November 9, 1953. On March 2, 1955, King Sihanouk abdicated in favor of his father, taking the post of Prime Minister a few months later. Following his father's death in 1960, he won general election as head of state, but received the title of prince rather than King. In 1963, he made a change in the constitution that made him head of state for life. While he was not officially crowned as King, he had created a constitutional office for himself that was exactly equal to that of the former kingship.
When the Vietnam War raged, Sihanouk promoted policies that he claimed to preserve Cambodia's neutrality and most importantly security. He however quickly sided with his neighbors. In the spring of 1965, he made a pact with the People's Republic of China (China) and North Vietnam to allow the presence of permanent North Vietnamese bases in eastern Cambodia and to allow military supplies from China to reach Vietnam by Cambodian ports. Cambodia and Cambodian individuals were compensated by Chinese purchases of the Cambodian rice crop by China at inflated prices. He also at this time made many number of speeches calling the triumph of Communism in Southeast Asia inevitable and suggesting Maoist ideas were worthy of emulation. In 1966 and 1967, Sihanouk unleashed a wave of political repression that drove many on the left out of mainstream politics. His policy of friendship with China collapsed due to the extreme attitudes in China at the peak of the Cultural Revolution. The combination of political repression and problems with China made his balancing act impossible to sustain. He had alienated the left, allowed the North Vietnamese to establish bases within Cambodia and staked everything on China's good will.
On 11 March 1967, a revolt in Battambang Province led to the Cambodian Civil War. Sihanouk was outside the country in China.
Deposed as Prime Minister
On March 18, 1970, while Sihanouk was traveling out of the country, Lon Nol, the Prime Minister, convened the National Assembly which voted to depose Sihanouk as head of state. Emergency powers were given to Lon Nol and the Khmer Republic was created. Prince Sisowath Sirik Matak retained his post as Deputy Prime Minister. In 1941, the Prince had been passed over by the French government in favor of his cousin Norodom Sihanouk's leadership role.
After he was deposed, Sihanouk fled to Beijing and began to support the Khmer Rouge in their struggle to overthrow the Lon Nol government in Phnom Penh. After Sihanouk showed his support for the Khmer Rouge by visiting them in the field, their ranks swelled from 6,000 to 50,000 fighters. Many of the new recruits for the Khmer Rouge were apolitical peasants who fought in support of the King, not for communism, of which they had little understanding.
When the Khmer Republic fell to the Khmer Rouge in April 1975, Prince Sihanouk became the symbolic head of state of the new régime while Pol Pot remained in power. The next year, on April 4, 1976, the Khmer Rouge forced Sihanouk out of office again and into political retirement. During the Vietnamese invasion, he was sent to New York to speak against Vietnam before the United Nations. After his speech, he sought refuge in China and in North Korea.
The Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in December 1978 ousted the Khmer Rouge. Although claiming to be wary of the Khmer Rouge, Sihanouk again joined forces with them in order to provide a united front against the Vietnamese occupation. In 1982, he moved completely into opposition of the Vietnam-supported government, becoming president of the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea (CGDK), which consisted of his own Funcinpec party, Son Sann's KPNLF, and the Khmer Rouge. The Vietnamese withdrew in 1989, leaving behind a pro-Vietnamese government under ex-Khmer Rouge cadre Hun Sen to run the People's Republic of Kampuchea (PRK).
United States support
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Sihanouk's opposition forces drew limited military and financial support from the United States, which sought to assist his movement as part of the Reagan Doctrine effort to counter Soviet and Vietnamese involvement in Cambodia. One of the Reagan Doctrine's principal architects, the Heritage Foundation's Michael Johns, visited with Sihanouk's forces in Cambodia in 1987, and returned to Washington urging expanded U.S. support for the KPLNF and Sihanouk's resistance forces as a third alternative to both the Vietnamese-installed and supported Cambodian government and the Khmer Rouge, which also was resisting the government.
Restoration as King
Peace negotiations between the CGDK and the PRK commenced shortly thereafter and continued until 1991 when all sides agreed to a comprehensive settlement which they signed in Paris. Prince Sihanouk returned once more to Cambodia on November 14, 1991 after thirteen years in exile.
In 1993, Sihanouk once again became King of Cambodia. During the restoration, however, he suffered from ill health and traveled repeatedly to Beijing for medical treatment.
Sihanouk's leisure interests include music (he has composed songs in Khmer, French, and English) and film. He has become a prodigious filmmaker over the years, directing many movies and orchestrating musical compositions. He became one of the first heads of state in the region to have a personal website, which has proven a cult hit. It draws more than a thousand visitors a day, which constitutes a substantial portion of his nation's Internet users. Royal statements are posted there daily.
Exile and abdication
Sihanouk went into self-imposed exile in January 2004, taking up residence in Pyongyang, North Korea and later in Beijing, China. Citing reasons of ill health, he announced his abdication of the throne on October 7, 2004. Sihanouk was diagnosed with B-Cell Lymphoma in his prostate in 1993; the disease reocured in his stomach in 2005, and a new cancer was found in December 2008. Sihanouk also suffers from diabetes and hypertension.
The constitution of Cambodia has no provision for an abdication. Chea Sim, the President of the Senate assumed the title of acting Head of State (a title he has held many times before), until the throne council met on October 14 and appointed Norodom Sihamoni, one of Sihanouk's sons, as the new King.
Family
In his lifetime, Sihanouk reportedly has had several wives and concubines, producing at least fourteen children in a period of eleven years. According to Time (30 June 1956), however, his only legal wives have been Princess Samdech Norleak (married 1955) and Paule Monique Izzi (married 1955), who is a granddaughter of HRH Prince Norodom Duongchak of Cambodia and the younger daughter of Pomme Peang and her second husband, Jean-François Izzi, a banker. A profile of Sihanouk in The New York Times (4 June 1993, page A8) stated that the King met Monique Izzi in 1951, when he awarded her a prize in a beauty pageant.
According to Royal Ark's genealogy of the Cambodian royal family, however, Sihanouk has been married seven times, his consorts being:
(1) Neak Moneang Phat Kanhol (1920-1969, a member of the Royal Cambodian Ballet; married 1942, later divorced)
- HRH Samdech Preah Ream Bupha Devi (1943-)
- HRH Samdech Preah Krom Norodom Ranariddh (1944-)
(2) HRH Princess Sisowath Pongsanmoni (1929-1974; married 1942, divorced 1951)
- HRH Samdech Borom Reamea Norodom Yuvaneath (1943-)
- HRH Samdech Norodom Racvivong Sihanouk (1944-1973)
- Samdech Preah Mohesarra Norodom Chakrapong (1945-)
- HRH Samdech Princess Norodom Sorya Roeungsay (1947-1976)
- HRH Princess Norodom Kantha Bopha (1948-1952)
- HRH Samdech Norodom Khemanourak Sihanouk (1949-1975)
- HRH Samdech Princess Norodom Botum Bopha (1951-1976)
(3) Anak Munang Thach (married 1943)
(4) HRH Princess Sisowath Monikessan (née HRH Princess Sisowath Naralaksha Munikesara, 1929-1946; married 1944)
- HRH Samdech Norodom Naradipo (1946-1976)
(5) HRH Princess Samdech Preah Reach Kanitha Norodom Norleak (née Princess Devisa Naralakshmi, born 1927; married 1946 and "more formally" on 4 March 1955)
(6) Mam Manivan Phanivong (née Mam Munivarni Barni Varman, 1934-1975; married 1949)
- HRH Princess Norodom Socheatha Sujata (1953-1975)
- HRH Samdech Preah Anoch Norodom Arunrasmy (1955-)
(7) HM Queen Norodom Monineath Sihanouk (née Paule Monique Izzi, born 18 June 1936; married 12 April 1952 and "more formally" on 5 March 1955)
Books
See also
Further reading
External links
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