The current king of Cambodia is Norodom Sihamoni (born May 14, 1953). He is the only current king in Indochina.

 

He was the eldest son of King Sihanouk and Queen Norodom Monineath.

 

Before ascending the throne, he spent most of his life outside Cambodia. As a child, Sihamoni was sent to Prague (Czechoslovakia) by his father in 1962. During the 1970 coup d’état by Lon Nol, Sihamoni remained in Czechoslovakia, where he attended all three levels of education – elementary school, high school and AMU – Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, studied classical dance and music until graduation in 1975.

 

After graduating in 1975, he left Prague and started studying filmmaking in North Korea and returned to Cambodia in 1977. Immediately, the ruling Khmer Rouge government turned against the monarchy, and put the royal family including Sihamoni under house arrest until 1979.

In 1981, he moved to France to teach ballet, he became president of the Khmer Dance Association. During his stay in France for almost 20 years, he regularly visited Prague, where he spent his childhood and youth. In 1993, he was appointed Cambodia’s delegate to UNESCO in Paris. There, he became famous for his hard work and devotion to Cambodian culture.

 

Having spent most of his entire childhood and youth in Prague, he is fluent in Czech. Besides his native Khmer, Norodom Sihamoni is the only ruling king in the world who speaks Czech fluently. The king is also fluent in French, English and Russian.

 

He was selected to become King on October 14, 2004, a week after the abdication of King Norodom Sihanouk. He was formally appointed as King on October 29, 2004. King Sihamoni and his parents, King Father Norodom Sihanouk and Queen Mother Norodom Monineath, specifically requested that the ceremonies not be lavish because they did not wish the country to spend too much money on the event.

 

October 29, 2014 is the 10th anniversary of the crowning of King Norodom Sihamoni.

 

Source: Internet

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