Thursday, May 14, 2009

--Norodom Sihamoni - Cambodia--



Norodom Sihamoni (Khmer: នរោត្តម សីហមុនី, born 14 May 1953) is the King of Cambodia. He is the eldest 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 2004. Before ascending the throne, Sihamoni was best known for his work as a cultural ambassador in Europe and as a classical dance instructor.
~
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 Monineath 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.[2] 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.
~
~
~


No comments: