Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
him to remain on the throne. But this time Sihanouk wasn't bluffing. He was plagued by
health problems, including cancer and hypertension. He was worn out by years of polit-
ical wrangling with Hun Sen, who had decisively edged him out from center stage. Frus-
trated and defeated, Sihanouk had decided to go out on his own terms.
His successor as king was Norodom Sihamoni, his son by Queen Monineath, a 51-year-
old, Czech-educated former ballet dancer who had served as Cambodia's ambassador to
UNESCO. The graceful ascension ceremonies, a paean to age-old Hindu and Buddhist
tradition, gave another brief respite from the contortions of Cambodian political life. On
October 28, under a full moon, Brahman priests offered prayers to the
devadas
. The next
day, Sihanouk and Monineath bathed their son with water taken from Phnom Kulen in
Siem Reap, the symbolic heart of Cambodia where King Jayavarman II first proclaimed
the independence of the Khmer Empire from Java in the ninth century. The new king,
clad in a white jacket laced with gold thread, was borne through the gardens of the Royal
Palace on a golden palanquin. Surrounded by silk-clad guards, Buddhist monks, and wo-
men carrying miniature silver trees, the king entered the royal throne room, where he was
greeted by the prime minister, Cambodian officials, and foreign diplomats.
After elaborate rituals in which the shaven-headed Sihamoni lit candles amid the min-
istrations of a Brahman
baku
, a vestige of Cambodia's Indic heritage, he addressed the
assembly. “As from this happy and solemn occasion,” he promised, “I shall devote my
body and soul to the services of the people and the nation, pursuing the exceptional work
accomplished by my august father, grandfather, and great-grandfather.” Palace heralds
blew three bursts on conch shells and fireworks burst above the city, casting a colorful
reflection on the churning confluence of the Mekong and the Tonlé Sap.
50
The coronation ceremonies gave an illusion of continuity, but in truth Sihamoni's
coronation marked a deep rupture. Sihanouk's abdication was a tacit acknowledgment
that he no longer had the energy for the political fray. For the CPP, this was a moment
of quiet victory. Since his return to Cambodia in 1991, Hun Sen and other leaders had
always seen Sihanouk as the greatest long-term challenge to their power. The king was
too symbolic to be challenged directly, and too revered by the party's rural base. And so
the party did the easiest thing, and simply claimed Sihanouk's legacy for itself.
In November 1991 it organized a lavish welcoming ceremony for Sihanouk. After
years of excoriating Sihanouk as a feudal reactionary, the CPP started asserting that it was
returned to its pre-1970 name of Sihanoukville and the boulevards of the capital regained
their Sangkum-era titles, including the only Mao Tse Toung Boulevard in the world out-
all modeled after those of the 1950s and 1960s. But while Hun Sen gladly adopted the
trappings of Sihanoukism—just as he adopted the trappings of democracy—he never re-
