LTO Cambodia: Death of Sihanouk: Day 16

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Death of Sihanouk: Day 16

Brief update, notes.

Mourning continues at the front of the Royal Palace. There are never less than dozens of mourners present, usually hundreds, particularly in the evenings. Last weekend there were thousands all day. More people seem to be arriving in large groups now, often trucked or bussed in from the countryside. As before, people sit in groups in the road opposite the King Father's portrait to mourn and pray, they make flower offerings at the front of the Palace and incense offerings at the urns on the park sidewalk, some sign the visitor books and take photos of themselves in front of the Palace. A large LED screen showing scenes of the funerary proceedings and a placard with an image of the King Father's coffin have recently been affixed to the face of the Place Pavilion.

There are fewer journalists this week and more tourists and beggars about. Security and crowd control is a little tighter and more organized. Away from the mourners the atmosphere feels a bit more mercenary now. Street kids are working the candle tables. There has been a noticeable increase in vendors, most selling lotus flowers, incense, portrait pins, Sihanouk photos and snacks. At least a dozen child vendors are hawking portrait pins in front of the Palace, some in the same pestering manner they work the tourist districts, for example, putting their wares in front of your camera when you are trying to take a photo (see above.)

Several streets around the Palace were closed again today, snarling traffic once again.

Tomorrow, October 31, would be the King Father's 91st (90th) Birthday.

Links:
Phnom Penh Post: A cremation fit for a King
Phnom Penh Post: A cremation fit for a King
Phnom Penh Post: Statue of Sihanouk set for Dragon Park

'Norodom Sihanouk - A Rock Star King' by Kevin Barrington
(An inspired response to the Gourevitch piece in The New Yorker - 'The Fantasy of King Sihanouk')

'Bill Moyers, Prince Sihanouk (and Me)' by Michael Winship

Cambodian Reflections: Local Specifics and Global Concerns by Brian Stoddart

Royal Palace Pavilion, 3:30PM, October 30, 2012

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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.