Sihamoni, Khmer king … if only by duty

Former dancer and choreographer, Norodom Sihamoni is dedicated to his people, but he is bored.

12 March 2010
By Dominique Lagarde
L’Express (France)
Translated from French by Tout Louse Laut Rek
Click here to read the article in French

“Confined in his gilded [cage-]prison, he knows that he has no way of breaking up the stranglehold of a protocol that paralyzes his relationships.”

What does it take to be a Cambodian King?

… the [person] suitable for this position must be withdrawn enough to please Hun Xen, Cambodia’s strongman, he must be opposed to all political interference in the monarchy, and he must be clever and prudent enough to preserve the monarchy… [KI-Media note: Never mind that the first requirement contradicts the second one!]

In Paris on Friday, the French “Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres” (Academy of Humanity) inducted the Khmer king with great fanfare. The following is the portrait of the man who did not want to be king.

He was a dancer and a choreographer, he lived in the 15th district of Paris and traveled around in the Paris subway metro. Currently, he is the heir to the god-kings of Angkor. Norodom Sihamoni, who succeeded his father to the throne of Cambodia in October 2004, will return to France this week for his official induction, as a foreign associate, to the French ”Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres” (Academy of Humanity). On Friday 12 March, he will be welcomed under the cupola roof of the Institute of France, under great fanfare and in full regalia.

This is a strange destiny for this prince, who most likely, would rather not become the king. Dreaming of learning how to dance and music, at a young age, he was able to get his parents to register him at the Prague Conservatory, one of the most prestigious conservatories in Europe. He was only 10-year-old when he left Cambodia, and he was not that much older when he made his first made his appearance on the Czech national theater in a performance of Tchaikovski’s Nutcracker. In 1971, after receiving the first prize of classical dance, he appeared quite regularly at the Prague Opera, and he also started to take interest in choreography before finally writing a thesis on the dance culture of his country.

“Single man like Jean-Claude Brialy”

When they became the new masters of the “Democratic Kampuchea”, the Khmer Rouge put a brutal end to Sihamoni’s promising career. Using a fake telegram, the KR forced Sihamoni to return back to Cambodia to rejoin his parents in 1975, the latter were prisoners inside the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, located along the Tonle Sap river. He endured with them the imprisonment and the fear before finally being able to rekindle his fondness for art in Paris in 1981. He then taught dance at the Marius-Petipa conservatory, and founded his own troop, the Deba Ballet. He was also passionate about the traditional Khmer culture which was seriously hurt by the craze of the KR dictatorship. In 1993, he became Cambodia’s ambassador to Unesco. Nevertheless, he still moved around in the Paris using the subway metro.

It was not until October 2004 that his life turned for a change. His father, King Sihanouk, decided to abdicate and Sihamoni was unanimously designated as the heir to succeed his father by the Throne Council. Prior to leaving Paris, he would simply tell his dentist that he had to go away “for a long while” …

While leaving his throne, Sihanouk had a precise goal in mind: resolve his succession issue while he is still alive. There were about 60 candidates to the throne coming from three families. However, the one suitable for this position must be withdrawn enough to please Hun Xen, Cambodia’s strongman, he must be opposed to all political interference in the monarchy, and he must be clever and prudent enough to preserve the monarchy, the latter requirement being one of Sihanouk’s pet peeves. Sihamoni fulfilled these two conditions. Another factor that determined Sihamoni’s selection was the fact that, Sihanouk, who was married several times and had several offspring, wanted to show off his gratefulness to Queen Monineath for the hard time they spent together by choosing one of her sons as the heir to the throne.

Turning into a king at 51-year-old to fulfill his filial duty, the “single man like Jean Claude Brialy” – as his father would coined him [KI-Media note: Jean Claude Brialy is a well-known prolific French actor who, near the end of his life, announced that he was gay] – fulfilled his role with conscientiousness for the past 6 years: distributing sacks of rice to poor people during his visits to the countryside, defending the Khmer culture, or acting as a protector of the environment. But, he is bored. “Devoted to his people, wanting to do good, Sihamoni is not a happy man,” one of his French friends confided. “Confined in his gilded [cage-]prison, he knows that he has no way of breaking up the stranglehold of a protocol that paralyzed his relationships.” On the other hand, he, most likely, would not really want to take any risk either.