12-6-17
A Long-Dead Cambodian King Is Back — and He Looks Familiar
Breaking Newstags: Cambodia, Hun Sen, Sdech Kan
Once upon a time in this remote corner of Cambodia, a bold young temple servant raised an army, overthrew an unjust king and saved a nation.
He could walk on water, make dragons do his bidding and shoot four arrows at once from the same bow. During his brief 16th-century reign, he invented Cambodia’s first currency, and he pioneered the concept of class consciousness three centuries before Marx.
So goes the unlikely legend of Sdech (or King) Kan, once remembered, if at all, as a minor usurper of the throne. Now he seems to be everywhere, thanks to Prime Minister Hun Sen — another common man turned near-absolute ruler, who has been so intent on identifying himself with the semi-mythical figure that some suspect he considers himself the king’s reincarnation.
At least seven statues of Kan have gone up across Cambodia in recent years, all with facial features strongly resembling Mr. Hun Sen’s. Most were commissioned by wealthy officials and businessmen to show fealty to the authoritarian prime minister, said Astrid Noren-Nilsson, a lecturer at Lund University in Sweden who specializes in Cambodian politics.
comments powered by Disqus
News
- The Debt Ceiling Law is now a Tool of Partisan Political Power; Abolish It
- Amitai Etzioni, Theorist of Communitarianism, Dies at 94
- Kagan, Sotomayor Join SCOTUS Cons in Sticking it to Unions
- New Evidence: Rehnquist Pretty Much OK with Plessy v. Ferguson
- Ohio Unions Link Academic Freedom and the Freedom to Strike
- First Round of Obama Administration Oral Histories Focus on Political Fault Lines and Policy Tradeoffs
- The Tulsa Race Massacre was an Attack on Black People; Rebuilding Policies were an Attack on Black Wealth
- British Universities are Researching Ties to Slavery. Conservative Alumni Say "Enough"
- Martha Hodes Reconstructs Her Memory of a 1970 Hijacking
- Jeremi Suri: Texas Higher Ed Conflict "Doesn't Have to Be This Way"
Trending Now
- New transcript of Ayn Rand at West Point in 1974 shows she claimed “savage" Indians had no right to live here just because they were born here
- The Mexican War Suggests Ukraine May End Up Conceding Crimea. World War I Suggests the Price May Be Tragic if it Doesn't
- The Vietnam War Crimes You Never Heard Of