Royal Rebel


Book Description

In June 2010, Soma moved to Cambodia to take care of her sick father, who had decided to move from California to his homeland, and stay for the remainder of his life. She established the first English-speaking radio talk show in the country and later became a Columnist for the Phnom Penh Post. As a direct descendant of King Norodom I, the Founder and Patriarch of the Cambodian Royal Family, Soma embraced her new title as a Princess of Cambodia. She learned to speak the language and became knowledgeable about the history and culture. She made it a project to educate herself about the political issues and started questioning the authorities. Her Phnom Penh Post columns annoyed the Government, and on October 29, 2012, she was accused of Incitement. Alienated by her Royal Family, friends, and colleagues, Soma was alone in the fight for Freedom of Expression. Only one man could save her.




Sihanouk


Book Description

In 1941 Norodom Sihanouk ascended the Cambodian throne, supported by the French with the intent that he be their puppet king. Milton Osborne traces the complete background leading to this event, and then follows Sihanouk's remarkable growth to political maturity: his transformation from a dilettante king to a vigorous and sometimes ruthless politician. Fully acknowledging his remarkable energy, the book shows how the early years of Sihanouk's successes turned sour as, unwilling to share responsibility, he gradually alienated politicians on both the left and the right. Convinced that he alone knew what was best for Cambodia, his repression of dissent became more vicious and led finally to his overthrow in 1970.




King Norodom's Head


Book Description

King Norodom's Head deals with sights in and about Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital city that are rarely - if at all - dealt with in guidebooks and other works about the city. This is not, therefore, a guidebook with walking tours of the town. The reader will find no detailed descriptions of the Royal Palace, the National Museum, or the Khmer Rouge's infamous S-21 detention-cum-torture centre, though all these places make appearances in the book. Rather, the reader will learn among other things like the whereabouts of the gold of King Ang Duong and of Madame Chum's infamous opium den, the story behind the mysterious Frenchman buried on Wat Phnom's hill, and the secret reason behind Jackie Kennedy's 1967 trip to Cambodia. Each chapter centres on a site that can be visited, someplace or something that can be seen and often touched. The hope is that together these chapters will give the reader an appreciation of a number of the more obscure or little reported places in the city and of the stories and history associated with them. If this book encourages visitors to spend an extra day or so in the city and if it inspires residents to stroll their city's streets more than they normally would, it will have achieved its purpose. 200+ maps/illustrations For sale only in the U.S., its dependencies, Canada, and Mexico




Dancing in Shadows


Book Description

This fascinating book recounts the remarkable tale of a career UN official caught in the turmoil of international and domestic politics swirling around Cambodia after the fall of the Khmer Rouge. First as a member of the UN transitional authority and then as a personal envoy to the UN secretary-general, Benny Widyono re-creates the fierce battles for power centering on King Norodom Sihanouk, the Khmer Rouge, and Prime Minister Hun Sen. He also sets the international context, arguing that great-power geopolitics throughout the Cold War and post-Cold War eras triggered and sustained a tragedy of enormous proportions in Cambodia for decades, leading to a flawed peace process and the decline of Sihanouk as a dominant political figure. Putting a human face on international operations, this book will be invaluable reading for anyone interested in Southeast Asia, the role of international peacekeeping, and the international response to genocide.




Phnom Penh


Book Description

Long neglected by Western travellers, Phnom Penh became Cambodias permanent capital in 1866. It has been home to Iberian missionaries and French colonialists, with a stunning mix of traditional palaces, Buddhist temples and transplanted French architecture. In the 1960s Phnom Penh deserved its reputation as the most attractive city in Southeast Asia. But after 1970 all this was to change, and a terrible civil war was followed by the Khmer Rouges capture of the city in 1975. Since the defeat of Pol Pot in 1979, Phnom Penh has slowly recovered, once again attracting perceptive travellers.







Britain and Sihanouk's Cambodia


Book Description

Diplomatic relations between Cambodia and Britain at the height of the Cold War provide unique insights into the overall foreign policies of both nations. King Norodom Sihanouk's strategy of preserving the independence and integrity of Cambodia through a policy of neutrality grew ever more challenging as the Cold War heated up in Indochina and conflict in Vietnam became a proxy war between the superpowers. Despite its alliance with the United States, Britain's diplomatic objectives in the region largely aligned with Cambodia's, and British criticism of US policy towards Cambodia was a problem in the alliance. British diplomatic records present a fascinating window into Cambodian decision-making, and the rationale behind Sihanouk's sometimes apparently irrational policies. The reports yield new insights into Sihanouk's efforts to sustain Cambodia's integrity vis-ˆ-vis its more powerful neighbours. Equally, a fine-grained analysis of British-Cambodia relations reveals much about the dynamics of British foreign policy in the period. Britain's ultimate dependence on its powerful American ally limited its influence in the region. After 1967, indeed, it ceased to have a strategic role. Over the period, British frustrations grew, even as it remained consistent in its foreign policy objectives and approaches.




Cambodia Captured


Book Description

This book accurately chronicles the creation of the French Protectorate of Cambodia through the accounts of the people who actually participated in its inception and in the context of the political intrigues of that time and place involving Cambodia, Siam, France and Great Britain. In the same decade of the 1860's two other related treaties complicated and then resolved the protectorate treaty. Drawing on the same historical context this new book commemorates the 150th anniversary in 2016 of the beginning of photography in Cambodia, presenting over 145 rare engravings, maps, and the remarkable first photographs captured at Angkor and Phnom Penh by John Thomson and Emile Gsell, decades before photographic film was even invented. On February 26, 1866 John Thomson arrived at Angkor Wat to capture the first photographs there. Four months later Emile Gsell's historic photographs at Angkor also marked the beginning of the French expedition, led by Commander Doudart de Lagrée, to explore the then uncharted Mekong River from Cambodia to the north of China, one of the great and most courageous expeditions of exploration in recent centuries. In the end, France captured Cambodia, Siam captured Angkor, King Norodom captured the crown and the throne of Cambodia and for at least a short time the independence of the kingdom, John Thomson and Emile Gsell captured the first photographs at Angkor, and Ernest Doudart de Lagrée was captured by duty, adventure and the affection of a little Cambodian boy named Chhun.




In The Shadow Of The Banyan


Book Description

A stunning, powerful debut novel set against the backdrop of the Cambodian War, perfect for fans of Chris Cleave and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie For seven-year-old Raami, the shattering end of childhood begins with the footsteps of her father returning home in the early dawn hours bringing details of the civil war that has overwhelmed the streets of Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital. Soon the family's world of carefully guarded royal privilege is swept up in the chaos of revolution and forced exodus. Over the next four years, as she endures the deaths of family members, starvation, and brutal forced labour, Raami clings to the only remaining vestige of childhood - the mythical legends and poems told to her by her father. In a climate of systematic violence where memory is sickness and justification for execution, Raami fights for her improbable survival. Displaying the author's extraordinary gift for language, In the Shadow of the Banyanis testament to the transcendent power of narrative and a brilliantly wrought tale of human resilience. 'In the Shadow of the Banyanis one of the most extraordinary and beautiful acts of storytelling I have ever encountered' Chris Cleave, author of The Other Hand 'Ratner is a fearless writer, and the novel explores important themes such as power, the relationship between love and guilt, and class. Most remarkably, it depicts the lives of characters forced to live in extreme circumstances, and investigates how that changes them. To read In the Shadow of the Banyan is to be left with a profound sense of being witness to a tragedy of history' Guardian 'This is an extraordinary debut … as beautiful as it is heartbreaking' Mail on Sunday




The Tragedy of Cambodian History


Book Description

The political history of Cambodia between 1945 and 1979, which culminated in the devastating revolutionary excesses of the Pol Pot regime, is one of unrest and misery. This book by David P. Chandler is the first to give a full account of this tumultuous period. Drawing on his experience as a foreign service officer in Phnom Penh, on interviews, and on archival material. Chandler considers why the revolution happened and how it was related to Cambodia's earlier history and to other events in Southeast Asia. He describes Cambodia's brief spell of independence from Japan after the end of World War II; the long and complicated rule of Norodom Sihanouk, during which the Vietnam War gradually spilled over Cambodia's borders; the bloodless coup of 1970 that deposed Sihanouk and put in power the feeble, pro-American government of Lon Nol; and the revolution in 1975 that ushered in the radical changes and horrors of Pol Pot's Communist regime. Chandler discusses how Pol Pot and his colleagues evacuated Cambodia's cities and towns, transformed its seven million people into an unpaid labor force, tortured and killed party members when agricultural quotas were unmet, and were finally overthrown in the course of a Vietnamese military invasion in 1979. His book is a penetrating and poignant analysis of this fierce revolutionary period and the events of the previous quarter-century that made it possible.