Her Royal Majesty SISOWATH Kosomak Neary Rath Serey Wathana
Her Royal Majesty SISOWATH Kosomak Nearyrath Serey Wathana was the last great woman royal leader of Cambodia from 1955 to 1970. She was born on April 9th, 1904 as a princess daughter of King SISOWATH Monivong and Queen NORODOM Kapean Vimean Noroleak Devi. Her birth name was Princess SISOWATH Kosomak. She was a well-educated woman in that generation and had a talent in Royal Dance Art. In 1920, she married Prince NORODOM Soramrit and gave birth to her only son, later King NORODOM Shihanouk on October 31st, 1922. In 1928, her King father granted the formal title for her as “Samdech Preah Reach Thida Kosomak Neary Raksmey Ksattrey Trung Leaks Akka Thida Reachavong Varman Borom Pongsa Preah Thebdey Nearyrath Wiwathana Moha Ksatyany”. On May 02nd, 1951, King NORODOM Shihanouk, her king son, granted the respectful title to her as Samdech Preah Voreak Reachany Kosomak Reach Devi. In the early of 1950s, she granted the title to SIN Sisamut and SOH Mat to be Royal Nurses inside Royal Palace in Phnom Penh in which showed that she was interested in promoting and granting value to human resource of Cambodia. After the success of Khmer Independence in 1953, Cambodia was believed to be the peaceful island with the strongest solidarity of all Cambodian People. Since King NORODOM Shihanouk abdicated the throne to participate in politics and transferred it to his father, King NORODOM Soramrit; Her Royal Majesty also formally became Queen on March 05th, 1955. Social work was a part of Khmer Queen’s duty since Angkor Era, so Her Royal Majesty began getting involved in Cambodian Red Cross as a leader in 1957. She helped the poor by encouraging her son to promote the welfare for all citizens, especially the poor in the countryside. She usually went to celebrate the achievement ceremony with her son for completing the development of all infrastructures within Cambodia such as school, bridge, Olympic Stadium, factory, hospital, Independent Monument, etc. She was very pleased to meet her residents living happily every where through out the kingdom and sometimes travelled overseas with her husband to reinforce the diplomacy relations with foreign countries, especially France. She was very smart in promoting culture and literature of Khmer Nation. She was also a founder and conservationist for Royal Dance. She rediscovered the art of Royal Apsara Dance from the wall of Angkor Wat Temple and formed a group of women to perform this royal dance in which the first Apsara Dancer was her grand daughter, Princess NORODOM Bopha Devi. Her Royal Majesty worked very hard to find the proper way to conserve all Khmer Dance Arts and to make them more glorious and well-known to the rest of the world. Her husband died of serious disease on June 20th, 1960, so she was suggested to proceed managing the throne continuously without her husband and became a Woman King for Cambodia. She encouraged the promotion of the educational development (Khmer Literature), health care, and strong rule of law. For her excellent efforts from 1953 to 1970, she had received many awards of the honorable world recognition in playing important role in social, cultural and economic development from France, Kingdom of Laos, Yugoslavia, Singapore, Solomon-Ethiopia, Indonesia, Yugoslavia, etc. Unfortunately, the unstable political condition and the coup d’état simultaneously occurred in early 1970 for Cambodia; Her Royal Majesty was forced to stay only in her Phnom Penh’s mansion until May 1973. After that, she was released by the Khmer Republic Army to escape from Cambodia to Beijing on Dec 05th, 1973. She lived sadly in Beijing with her son seeing the bad situation of Cambodia. Because of the disappointment in her mind, she became sick from day to day until April 27th, 1975 she died in Beijing outside of Cambodia. Her ash was brought to put in preah chedi with her husband inside Phnom Penh Royal Palace by King NORODOM Shihanouk in the end of 1975 and this preah chedi can be seen inside the Royal Palace today. “Live useful rather than die dead!” “Heart died, Life becoming meaningless!” “Failure is the mother of success!”
By: POK Panhavuth
Symbol for Royal Family of Khmer Kingdom
Preah Chedi of King NORODOM Soramrit & Her Royal Majesty SISOWATH Kosomak Neary Rath Serey Wathana
