Norodom Sihamoni

Norodom Sihamoni (Khmer: នរោត្តម សីហមុនី, [nɔˈroːɗɑm səjˈhamoniː]; born 14 May 1953) is King of Cambodia. He became King on 14 October 2004, a week after the abdication of his father, Norodom Sihanouk.

He is the eldest son of Sihanouk and Queen Norodom Monineath and is the fourth monarch from the royal House of Norodom. Before his selection by a nine-member throne council as the next monarch, Sihamoni served as Cambodia's ambassador to the United Nations and UNESCO. He was educated in Czechoslovakia and was known for his work as a cultural ambassador in Europe and as a classical ballet instructor when he was still a prince. During his reign, Sihamoni has continued his cultural advocacy alongside supporting various philanthropic causes, while balancing his role as a constitutional monarch amid Cambodia's political developments.

Sihamoni was born on Thursday 14 May 1953, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, when it was still a colonial protectorate within French Indochina. The prince's birth at the time was viewed as a positive omen as Cambodia gained independence from France later in that year.

His given name "Sihamoni" comprises two morphemes from his parents' given names "Sihanouk" and "Monineath". As for "Norodom", this means Narottam in Pali and Prakrit, which translates to "the best amongst men". The name has a similar meaning in Khmer as well.

At the time of his birth and that of his younger brother, his mother Princess Monique who is of Khmer, French and Corsican descent, had been one of King Norodom Sihanouk's consorts after being a constant companion since the day they met in 1951 when she won first prize in a national beauty contest. The queen was granted the title of Neak Moneang and the name of Monineath at the time of her marriage to King Norodom Sihanouk in 1952. Furthermore, Queen Monineath is a step-granddaughter of the late Prince Norodom Duong Chakr of Cambodia, and the daughter of Pomme Peang and of her second husband, Jean-François Izzi, a Corsican banker.

Sihamoni has 14 half-brothers and half-sisters from his father; his only full sibling, a younger brother, Samdech Norodom Narindrapong, was born in 1954 and died in 2003.

The then-Prince Sihamoni first began his education in 1959, where he attended Norodom School, followed by Lycée Descartes School in Phnom Penh, developing a keen interest in the arts early on in his life.

In 1962, the young Sihamoni was sent to Prague in Czechoslovakia by his father to study abroad. There, he completed his early education at Majakovskeho Primary School and later at Ostrovni Elementary School. When he was in his preadolescence years, he starred in a production of Pyotr Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker at the prestigious Prague National Theatre, where he pursued private ballet and piano classes and was once even selected for a television rendition of Brundibár, a well-known children's opera. He then concluded his secondary education at the National Prague Conservatory and was regarded as an able student, getting high marks. Here, he further developed his interest in the performing arts, undertaking courses in this field and excelling at the top of his class. Furthermore, he attained great fluency in Czech. A movie directed by Vladimir Sís was shot about the prince in Prague in 1967, under the name The Other Little Prince (Jiný malý princ). The prince would occasionally visit his homeland for holidays of which when he did, he involved himself in Cambodia's arts and cultural scene, including starring in a film made by his father and performing ballet. During the 1970 coup d'état by Lon Nol that saw Sihanouk removed from power and a Khmer Republic being proclaimed, exacerbating the Cambodian Civil War, Sihamoni remained in Czechoslovakia.