LTO Cambodia: Veal Preah Man open to public

Monday, February 11, 2013

Veal Preah Man open to public

Now that Royal funeral is over and done, the grounds of Veal Preah Man (a.k.a. Veal Preah Meru), the funerary complex of the late King Father Sihanouk, is open to the public for the first time since it was constructed. The entire complex except the interior of the central crematorium was open today. I don't know how long it will remain open or the hours, but today the guard there told me that it would be open for at least the immediate future.

This entire complex was constructed specifically and exclusively for the funeral of the late King Father Sihanouk. Similar crematoriums were built for previous Kings of Cambodia (including Sihanouk's father King Suramarith in 1960) on this same spot, and then dismantled sometime after the funeral, leaving an open park. I don't know when or if this complex will be similarly dismantled, but assume it will. There was some talk before the funeral that it would be left in place, but it does not appear to be built to last. Much of the construction is just painted plasterboard and in my inexpert opinion wouldn't last long in the rain. If you want to see Veal Preah Man close up and in all its splendor, I think you should visit fairly soon.

If you happen to be touring Cambodia right now, or have any interest in Cambodian culture or history, this is a absolutely unique opportunity to see a fleeting bit of living Cambodia history.

It is located in on Sothearos Blvd between streets 178 and 184 in Veal Preah Man Park, next to the Royal Palace and in front of the National Museum

The Cambodia Daily: In Pictures, Cambodia Prepares for King Father’s Cremation
LTO: Funeral of Sihanouk: Final Touches
LTO: Funeral of Sihanouk: Day 4, cremation

2 comments:

AnonymousFebruary 12, 2013 at 1:45 AM
Thanks for all your great coverage of this! A taxi driver I spoke with sounded confident that it would all stay up until the Royal Plowing Ceremony, but it will be interesting to see what happens.
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Somongkol TengFebruary 12, 2013 at 7:15 AM
The latest announcement by Khieu Kanharith is that it will be disassembled soon.
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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.