KHMER ANCESTORS LEFT EVERYTHING ON THE CAMBODIAN SOIL WHILE FORMER KING 
SIHANOUK ,MARRIED TO A FOREIGN WIFE WILL LEAVE EVERYTHING ABROAD ?
 

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

In Sihanouk's words: the Cambodian monarch's private archives 



This file picture taken on Feb. 24, 1995 shows King Norodom Sihanouk praying 
during a Buddhist ceremony at Wat Mony Prasittivong outside Phnom Penh (AFP 
photo / files) 
Wednesday, February 25, 2009

A 2500 year-old ancient tomb found in Cambodia 



The burial site at Snay village. Photo by Amakak.

Koh Santepheap newspaper

25th Feb, 2009
Reported in English by Khmerization

A pre-historic burial site has been found in northwest Cambodia. A Japanese 
team of archaeologists has just finished digging a 500 B.C pre-historic burial 
site in Snay village, Rohal commune, Preah Net Preah district in Banteay 
Meanchey province.

The excavations, which were led by Dr. Miyasuka who is a project leader and 
Prof. Yusino Riyasuda, from the Japanese Centre for International Research, 
began at the beginning of 2008 and were completed on 21st February 2009.



PARIS, Feb 25, 2009 (AFP) - In meticulously labelled boxes piled on shelves in 
an old Paris building lies the hidden story of Cambodia's King Norodom 
Sihanouk, his personal chronicle of 30 years of Khmer suffering and death.

After abdicating in 2004, the self-proclaimed "king-father" of the country, now 
aged 87, handed France his personal archives last January for safe-keeping at 
the National Archive.

"Rarely does a foreign head of state give archives to another country," said 
Olivier de Bernon, head researcher at the Far-East French Institute (EFEO) and 
the first to browse the "historically significant" papers.

"The archives were never in Cambodia, but came directly from Sihanouk's home in 
Beijing," said de Bernon. 

It took him two years, with the help of two researchers and an archivist, to 
sift through the king's 10,000 photographs and one million documents. An 
inventory of the "Sihanouk Fund" is to be published this year.

Destroyed by later regimes, no personal records remain of Sihanouk's first 
reign, coronation or childhood. The Paris archives cover the later agitated 
times that followed Lon Nol's pro-American coup which overthrew Sihanouk on 
March 18, 1970.

Among the gems are a photograph of Sihanouk's resignation speech as head of 
state of the Khmer Rouge regime on April 2, 1976 and pictures of North Korea, 
where he was invited by the country's founder, the late Kim Il-Sung.

Head of state turned political prisoner, Sihanouk spent 1976-79 under house 
arrest in his Phnom Pen palace with Queen Monique.

A one-time sympathiser of the extremist Cambodian communist movement nicknamed 
"the red prince" during the Vietnam War, it was the king himself who came up 
with the name "Khmer Rouge" in 1960.

But de Bernon said Sihanouk was never a supporter of the extremists, with five 
of his children and 14 grandchildren killed under the murderous Khmer Rouge 
regime, which left a total of two million Cambodians dead.

"The king was in Beijing from April to September 1975 and was only in power for 
a year under the Khmer Rouge before resigning. It was only in 1977, like many 
others, that he understood how the regime operated, and in fact high-ranking 
Chinese officials had to intervene to ensure he wasn't killed," said de Bernon.

Letters signed Zhou Enlai, Malraux, Arafat, Mandela or Reagan are among 
Sihanouk's letters.

One from actress Jane Fonda congratulates him for the Khmer Rouge victory and 
offers to take up their cause in the US.

"Sihanouk has a literary style that shines through in his letters, speeches and 
thousands of drafts," said de Bernon.

A workaholic with a wide variety of interests, Sihanouk wrote poems, songs and 
even recipes, and played the saxophone and piano. He could sing in a dozen 
languages, sometimes for four or five hours at a time, and shot dozens of films 
glorifying Cambodia.

Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2009 10:13:51 +1100
Subject: A 2500 year-old ancient tomb found in Cambodia
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]


Dear All, 
A Japanese team of archaeologists has just completed the excavations of a 
2500-year-old burial site in Preah Net Preah northwest of Cambodia. The site 
proved that our Khmer ancestors were very clever that they have built 
sophisticated reservoirs, advanced civilsation etc..Please read below.


A 2500 year-old ancient tomb found in Cambodia
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