LTO Cambodia: Death of Sihanouk: Day 11, Waiting

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Death of Sihanouk: Day 11, Waiting

Mourners at the Victory Gate

Things seemed to be winding down in front of the Royal Palace today (25/10/12), at least when I visited the area mid-afternoon. Instead of usual thousands or hundreds of mourners crowding the street, there were only dozens. The kneeling rugs on the sidewalk opposite the Pavilion had been removed, the offering tables devoid of flowers and photos, the incense urns that had been so stuffed this week that they regularly burst into flames now contained only the red spines of spent joss sticks. Though some remained, many of the vendors selling Sihanouk photos, incense and candles and black ribbons had disappeared. Most of the streets around the Palace have been reopened and the tuk-tuks and motos had taken up their usual roadside spots. Pockets of mourners lingered - a small group sitting on the street in front of the Pavilion, a few at the remaining offering tables burning incense and signing the guestbooks, small family groups sitting in the park and under shade trees, and a constant cluster of mourners at the Victory Gate, loitering and talking, peering through the ironwork for any glimpse, some mourners seemingly waiting. Limited as it is, that gate offers the best view into the Palace area, facing the Throne Hall and across the gardens toward the Khemarin Palace. People want to get closer, to see the King Father to pay their last respects.

The King Father's body will reportedly lie in state for three months, and be available for public viewing part of that time, beginning perhaps as early as tomorrow according to the Phnom Penh Post.

The park opposite the Royal Palace Pavilion

Sothearos Blvd in front of the Royal Palace.

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Cambodia

Cambodia is Srok Khmer, the 'Land of the Khmer,' the primary ethnic group in the area since at least the Neolithic and an Indian influenced civilization with origins near 2000 years old. Centered on the lower Mekong and tributaries the Khmer people have dominated the region for millennia. From 2nd century AD Khmer kingdoms rose and fell, culminating in unification and the 500 year reign of the Angkorian Empire, the builders of the temples of Angkor near Siem Reap. The Empire stretched from Burma to the ocean. But by the 1400s Cambodia fell to centuries of change and decline squeezed between the expanding Siam and Vietnam. Colonized and by the French in the 1860s, independence 90 years later in 1954, a brief post-colonial 'golden period' under Sihanouk, coup in 70, civil war, fall to the communist Khmer Rouge in 75, 3 years 8 months 20 days of madness, Vietnamese rescue in 1979, occupation, low level war and international sanctions in the 80s, the UN, ostensive democracy and an adventure party destination in the 90s and now mainstreaming, tourism, rapid development, rapacious capitalism and NGOs, missionaries and other international busybodies aplenty.

Southeast Asia

As the term implies, Southeast Asia encompasses the southeastern corner of the Asian continent, loosely speaking, the area between India, China and Australia. It is made up of two distinct regions: the mainland zone, a bulbous peninsula jutting into the Pacific Ocean, bounded by China to the north and India to the west; and the insular (island) zone in the Pacific Ocean. The name 'Southeast Asia' is a comparatively recent invention, first coming into use into the 20th century and still a bit indefinite in definition. Mainland Southeast Asia is generally considered to include Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Burma (Myanmar) and peninsular Malaysia. The mainland is sometimes referred to as Indo-China though Indochina (Indochine) also designates the 19th/20th century French colonial conglomerate of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Sitting south of the Tropic of Cancer, most of mainland Southeast Asia lies in the hot, humid tropics and sub-tropics with a climate dominated by a monsoon cycle which divides the year into two distinct seasons: a dry season and an extremely wet monsoon season. Much of the mainland is mountainous and thickly jungled, with large river systems and wide, low-lying, flood-prone plains, much of which is, in modern times, deforested and blanketed with geometrical rice paddies. Several major river valleys including the Mekong River, the Red, Ma and Ka rivers and the group of rivers draining to the Chao Praya Delta played host to the rise of early civilization in the area. The Mekong River is one of the world's greatest rivers, the seventh largest on the planet, and since pre-history has been closely associated with the land of the Khmer.