LTO Cambodia: Funeral of Sihanouk: Day 1, Procession

Friday, February 1, 2013

Funeral of Sihanouk: Day 1, Procession

Funeral procession of King Norodom Sihanouk, Royal Palace, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

The coffin bearing the remains of King Father Norodom Sihanouk

leave the Royal Palace by the Victory Gate, bound to be lifted onto the hearse and

begin the funerary procession around Phnom Penh.

February 1, 2013

Today, February 1, was the first day of King Father Sihanouk's funeral proceedings, a week long mourning period in which the King Father's mortal remains will receive their final treatment. A special crematorium and funerary complex has been constructed for the King Father over the last three months, located next to the Palace and in front of the National Museum, in the Veal Preah Man (Meru) Park. Today the King Father's coffin was moved from the Royal Palace, where he has been lying in state for three months, to the crematorium via an elaborate procession that circuited the inner city.

Just before 8:00AM, the coffin was first moved from the Preah Tineang Tevea Vinichhay (Throne Hall) and Royal Palace grounds, through the Victory Gate, straight up the road in front of the Palace (Preah Ponhea Yath Av.) to the area of the Preah Ong Dong Ar Temple on the riverfront, where the funerary procession and Royal Hearse awaited on Sisowath Quay Blvd. The King and Queen Mother followed and observed the coffin lifted to the hearse, after which they returned to the Palace. As the procession began to move at about 8:45AM, a cannon salute was fired from 12 artillery pieces lining the riverfront next to the temple. (I didn't count the shots but I would estimate about 24.) The procession consisted of more than a dozen vehicles and floats as well as thousands of mourners, family, dignitaries, military and representatives of ethnic groups clad in various traditional dress.

The procession traveled a 6 kilometer circuit, beginning on Sisowath Quay in front of the Preah Ong Dong Ar Temple and finishing at the Veal Preah Man crematorium. It began traveling north up the riverfront, turned west to Wat Phnom, semi-circled the roundabout and proceeded south on Norodom Blvd to the Independence Monument, tuned east on Sihanouk and continued to Sothearos Blvd, turned north and returned to the Palace area, arriving at the the front of Veal Peah Man crematorium at about noon. All businesses were closed along the entire route and people forbidden from standing above the procession on balconies and roof tops. Hundreds of thousands of mourners lined the way, but in my estimation the crowd was noticeably smaller and thinner than the crowd that showed for the return of the King Father's remains from China 3 months ago. A dress code was fairly strictly enforced by minders and police - white shirt/blouse, black pants/skirt, black arm bands or ribbons, no hats, etc.

As the returning procession passed the Royal Palace on Sothearos, it stopped at the Victory Gate where the King and Queen Mother rejoined the procession to the crematorium. A second cannon salute was fired at about 12:15PM.

Over the next two days the coffin will remain in place at the crematorium. Various religious ceremonies will be performed. The actual cremation will take place Monday, February 4.

King Sihamoni and Queen Mother Monineath, Funeral of Sihanouk, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

King Norodom Sihamoni and Queen Mother Norodom Monineath

Prime Minister Hun Sen

Funeral procession and coffin of King Norodom Sihanouk, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Coffin bearing the remains of King Father Norodom Sihanouk

Press at Funeral of King Norodom Sihanouk, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

The press

Apsaras at Funeral procession of King Norodom Sihanouk, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Traditional dancers wait for the proceedings to begin

Cannon salute at funeral of King Norodom Sihanouk, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

First cannon salute. Riverfront, Phnom Penh.

Funeral procession of King Norodom Sihanouk, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Procession mourners

Procession mourner

Frontispiece of the hearse

Neak Bun Chhay in Funeral procession of King Norodom Sihanouk, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Neak Bun Chhay (second from left holding flower,) in the funeral procession

Procession approaches Palace and the end of the city circuit.

Procession mourners (representing tribal peoples)

Hearse bearing coffin passing the Royal Palace at the end of the procession.

Animal float in Funeral procession of King Norodom Sihanouk, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

One of two animal floats

2 comments:

AnonymousFebruary 2, 2013 at 4:28 PM
I see the real King of Cambodia (Hun Sen) gets his face in the picture as usual.
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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.