Norodom Sihamoni

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Norodom Sihamoni, the Great
King of Cambodia

Reign	14 October 2004 – present
Coronation	29 October 2004
Predecessor	Norodom Sihanouk
Royal House	House of Norodom
Father	Norodom Sihanouk
Mother	Norodom Monineath Sihanouk

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Norodom Sihamoni (Khmer: នរោត្តម សីហមុនី, born 14 May 1953) is the king of Cambodia. He is the elder son of Norodom Sihanouk and Norodom Monineath Sihanouk. Previously Cambodia's ambassador to UNESCO, he was named by a nine-member throne council to become the next king after his father Norodom Sihanouk abdicated in the year 2004. Before ascending the throne, Sihamoni was best known for his work as a cultural ambassador in Europe and classical dance instructor.

1 Title
2 Life
3 References
4 Further reading
5 External links

[edit] Title

Before he was crowned king, his royal title was: Sdech Krom Khun (ស្តេចក្រុមឃុន), equating him to the rank of 'great prince.' As king, his title is: Preah Karuna Preah Bat Sâmdech Preah Bâromneath Norodom Sihamoni Nai Preah Reacheanachakr Kampuchea (in romanized Khmer); roughly translating to: His Majesty, King Norodom Sihamoni of the Kingdom of Cambodia. His first name, Sihamoni, comprises two morphemes from his parent's first names, Sihanouk and Monineath. He is the only ruling monarch who speaks Czech.

[edit] Life

Sihamoni was born in 1953. At the time of his birth and that of his younger brother, his mother, a Cambodian citizen of Italian and Khmer ancestry, was one of King Sihanouk's companions, though it was not known if she was officially one his concubines.^[1]^[2] (A granddaughter of HRH Prince Norodom Duongchak of Cambodia, Queen Monineath is a daughter of Pomme Peang and her second husband, Jean-François Izzi, a French-Italian banker.) The Royal Ark website entry about the genealogy of the Cambodian royal family states that Sihanouk and Monieath were married twice, once on 12 April 1952, when she was 15, and again ("more formally", according to the website) on 5 March 1955; she is described as Sihanouk's seventh wife.[1] King Norodom Sihamoni has 12 half-brothers and half-sisters by his father's various relationships; his only full sibling, a younger brother, HRH Samdech Norodom Narindrapong (born 1954) died in 2003.

He has spent most of his life outside Cambodia. As a child, Sihamoni was sent to Prague, Czechoslovakia by his father in 1962, where he, while attending elementary school, high school and Academy of Music Arts, studied classical dance and music until 1975. He is fluent in French and Czech, as well as being a good speaker of English and Russian. During the 1970 coup d'état by Lon Nol, Sihamoni remained in Czechoslovakia. In 1975, he left Prague and began to study filmmaking in North Korea, and in 1977 returned to his native Cambodia. Immediately, the ruling Khmer Rouge government turned against the monarchy, and Sihamoni was put under house arrest by the Khmer Rouge with the rest of the royal family until the 1979 Vietnamese invasion. In 1981 he moved to France to teach ballet and was later president of the Khmer Dance Association. He lived in France for nearly 20 years, but even then he regularly visited Prague, where he spent his childhood and youth.

In 1993 the prince was appointed Cambodian delegate to UNESCO, the UN cultural body based in Paris, where he became known for his hard work and his devotion to Cambodia. He had previously refused an appoinment as Cambodia's ambassador to France.^[3]

On October 14, 2004, he was selected by a special nine-member council, part of a selection process that was quickly put in place after the surprise abdication of King Norodom Sihanouk a week before. Sihamoni's selection was endorsed by Prime Minister Hun Sen and National Assembly Speaker Prince Norodom Ranariddh (the new king's brother), both members of the throne council. He was formally installed as king on October 29, though there has not yet been a coronation or enthronement.

As of 2007 King Norodom supports the International Parliament for Safety and Peace, an intergovernmental organization based in Italy (see[2]).

Sihamoni remains a lifelong bachelor and has no children, which means he does not have a direct successor. However, this is not a problem, as the king in Cambodia is selected by the throne council even when such a successor exists.

[edit] References

^ Vive la Reine Monique!
^ King's biography
^ The Weekend Australian, October 16-17, 2004

[edit] Further reading

Nožina, Miroslav, Jiří Šitler, and Karel Kučera. Royal Ties King Norodom Sihamoni and the History of Czech-Cambodian Relations. Prague: Knižní klub, 2006. ISBN 9788086938752