Creator

Sisowath Kossamak

ស៊ីសុវត្ថិ កុសុមៈ

Cambodian queen credited with choreographing the modern apsara dance and sustaining the royal dance troupe.

Sisowath Kossamak (ស៊ីសុវត្ថិ កុសុមៈ) was a Cambodian queen who revived the royal dance troupe and shaped its modern repertoire.[1] She took personal charge of the troupe and is credited with choreographing the apsara dance, drawing its poses from Angkorian temple reliefs.[2][1] She was queen consort from 1955 to 1960 and then queen until the monarchy was abolished in 1970. She died in 1975.[2]

Royal dance

After Norodom Sihanouk's coronation in April 1941, Kossamak, then a princess, set out to keep the ballet troupe alive and restore its former prestige.[1] Apartments were built in the Royal Palace for seven elderly women, former principal dancers, who agreed to pass their traditions and skills on to younger dancers. Training resumed, a troupe of 48 dancers came together, and women of the palace sewed replacements for at least 14 worn-out costumes.[1] By 1965 the company had 300 classical dance teachers and 500 students, drawn from all walks of life and not only from palace families. She also invited and supported the private troupes that had formed in the provinces and the city.[1]

Kossamak personally oversaw the removal of foreign influences from the costumes, props and choreography. She moved performances that had used one or two characters in small rooms onto the scale of a theater, and she divided the all-night performances of the Khmer epic, the Reamker, into sequences that could be danced on their own.[1] The ballets Ream Leak-Chhup Leak and Makara were fully revised in 1950. For Apsara, in which five dancers step down from an Angkorian bas-relief, she reproduced the hairstyles, jewelry and poses on the walls of Angkor Wat with strict care.[1] Accounts date the apsara dance differently: Wikipedia places her choreography in the 1940s, while the Angkor Database booklet dates Apsara to 1962.[2][1] She trained Princess Norodom Bopha Devi as the first apsara dancer.[2]

Some popular performance forms may also owe their survival to her, since she had them recognized by the University or the Conservatory.[1] The architect Vann Molyvann credited her with gradually renewing traditional dance technique and with modern staging and lighting. The booklet calls her "the savior of the choreographic tradition and the inventor of modern ballet."[1] The Royal Ballet often performed at the state functions she hosted, and she promoted the repertoire as a public emblem of Cambodian culture.[2]

Queen

In 1955 she took the throne alongside King Norodom Suramarit under the name Sisowath Kossamak Nearyrath, and she shared royal duties with him until 1960.[1][3] Her official title was Preah Mohaksatreiyani Sisowath Monivong Kossamak Nearirath Serey Vathana.[2] As queen she received foreign guests. A notable state visit was that of Chen Yi, who led a women's delegation from the People's Republic of China in November 1958.[2] After 1960 she served as the ceremonial monarch while Norodom Sihanouk was chief of state. Time magazine gives her title in that decade as "Supreme Guardian."[2][4] The German Wikipedia list of the House of Sisowath dates her queenship from June 20, 1960, to October 9, 1970.[5] Her political power was very limited, but she was highly respected and popular, and New Cambodge wrote in 1970 that she held "considerable moral authority over all Khmers."[2]

After the 1970 coup she had to leave the royal palace and was kept under house arrest in a wing of Khemarin Palace. The Khmer Republic government asked her to mediate between Sihanouk and the National Assembly, and her portraits were taken down from government buildings.[2] In 1973 she was allowed to go to Beijing for health reasons.[2] Encyclopedia.com says she left for Beijing with the royal family on November 5, 1973.[3] She died there on April 27, 1975, of apparent heart disease, and funeral ceremonies were held at the Silver Pagoda in Phnom Penh that September.[2][4]

Honors

  • Czechoslovakia: First Class of the Order of the White Lion (1963)
  • Laos: Grand Cross of the Order of the Million Elephants and the White Parasol (1963)
  • Singapore: First Class of the Order of Temasek (1963)
  • Malaysia: Honorary Recipient of the Most Exalted Order of the Crown of the Realm (1964)
  • Yugoslavia: Grand Star of the Order of the Yugoslav Star (1964)
  • Indonesia: Adipurna First Class Star of the Republic of Indonesia (1968)
  • Ethiopia: Knight of the Order of Solomon (1968)
  • France: Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour[2][6]

Works


See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 Angkor Database, Le Ballet Royal (The Royal Ballet)
  2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 Sisowath Kossamak, Wikipedia
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Encyclopedia.com, Kossamak (r. 1955–1960) (2025)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Time, Milestones, May 12, 1975
  5. ↑ Haus Sisowath, German Wikipedia
  6. ↑ Wikimedia Commons, Category:Sisowath Kossamak
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This page was last edited on 26 September 2026, at 23:48.