A peek into Cambodia's history: The Portuguese legacy

KI-Media Note: Along with our posting of the recent article on the Elephant Walk restaurant, owned by the de Monteiro family, several readers are wondering who this family is and why their last name features on one of Phnom Penh's street. Since our team includes one ever-curious member, the infamous Heng Soy, we asked him to do the research on this issue and here is what he came up with:

Foreigners in Cambodia

The Portuguese arrived in Cambodia in mid-16th Century and they established a Catholic mission (1553). They obtained a plot of land using a historical trick [whereby they asked for a parcel of land the size of buffalo hide, then] they would cut the hide into a very thin long strip to cover the largest space of land possible to be given to them as a concession by the local inhabitants. Later on, descendants of the Portuguese who were by then of mixed race but still preserving their Portuguese last names, continue to play a role in Cambodia’s history. Mainly at the beginning of the 17th Century, they tried to develop their influence after they were chased out of Sumatra by the Dutch. In 1596, Lavis Velo, a Portuguese man, killed a Cambodia king [Preah Reach Samphear]; in 1811, Joseph de Monteiro was named the king’s doctor and King Norodom’s translator was Bernard Kol de Monteiro. It was the Portuguese who let the world know about the ruins of Angkor in 1570, well ahead of the French.

(Source: http://www.cosmovisions.com/ChronoCambodge.htm)

Kol de Monteiro and his descendants

The genealogy of the Varman Dynasty noted (Source: http://www.royalark.net/Cambodia/camboa12.htm):

"H.E. Bernard Kol de Monteiro was Akkara Yumaraja, sometime Minister for Justice and Marine." His niece, Samrech de Monteiro married Prince Norodom Sotthavongs, the son of King Norodom.

Pierre Lamant’s paper "La Date de la Mort du Roi Khmer Ang Duong" (Date of Khmer King Ang Duong’s death) (1977) noted that Doudart de Lagrée, the French explorer and diplomat who secured French hegemony over Cambodia, indicated that Kol de Monteiro was King Norodom’s secretary.

As one of KI-Media readers noted, several of the de Monteiro descendants served under various Cambodian governments, including Kenthao de Monteiro who was the Cambodian Ambassador to Taiwan under the Lon Nol regime. Nadsa de Monteiro of the Elephant Walk restaurant is the daughter of Kenthao and Longteine de Monteiro.

Kol de Monteiro was the father of Pitou de Monteiro who was a former minister of Justice and Education and he also served under then-Prince Norodom Sihanouk. Kenthao de Monteiro was Pitou de Monteiro’s son.

The Portuguese left a permanent legacy in Cambodia in the name of our currency, the “Riel,” which was derived from the Portuguese old currency, the “Real.”

As with other foreigners who came to settle in Cambodia, most prominently the Chinese, the de Monteiro's success in Cambodia most likely stemmed from their willingness to fully immerse and adopt Cambodia’s customs and traditions through inter-marriages, even though they still maintain their original religious belief and last names (such as the de Monteiro, Seng, Ung, Tan, Ly, etc…).

Heng Soy's mysterious origin: If you are curious about Heng Soy's origin, some claims that he was born out of Chinese Feng Shui, while others adamantly believe that he was no other than a pit of the sleng fruit ("kroab sleng") spit out with disgust from the mouth of a CPP party member. Heng Soy's younger sister even wrote a convincing court affidavit claiming that she witnessed her older brother came out of a chicken egg at his birth. But, as usual, readers are invited to feel free to imagine Heng Soy's origin in any way they please: the more outrageous, the better. "C'est la vie!" he said.