PUBLISHED : 18 NOV 2019 AT 15:57
UPDATED: 18 NOV 2019 AT 18:09
WRITER: REUTERS
PHNOM PENH: Cambodia's Princess Norodom Bopha Devi, a former minister of culture who helped revive traditional Apsara dance after the 1970s Khmer Rouge "killing fields" regime nearly wiped it out, has died at age 76, the royal palace said on Monday.
The princess died of natural causes in a hospital in neighbouring Thailand, Cambodia's Royal Palace said in a Facebook post.
The daughter of the late King Norodom Sihanouk and half sister of current King Norodom Sihamoni, Bopha Devi at age 5 became a dancer of Khmer ballet, a form of stylised dance created in the royal courts for entertainment and ceremonies.
Characterised by intricate hand gestures and elaborate costumes and headgear, the art form has been associated with Cambodian royal courts for more than 1,000 years, according to the UN cultural organisation Unesco.
A film of Bopha Devi performing the variation called Apsara dance in 1966 was directed by her father, King Sihanouk.
She was forced to flee the country when the hardline communist Khmer Rouge seized power in 1975, emptying cities and banning what they deemed decadent elite practices.
An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died of execution, starvation and disease in the period known as the "killing fields". Intellectuals and artists were particularly targeted, and Khmer ballet was nearly extinguished with the deaths of most of its teachers.
After the 1979 fall of the Khmer Rouge and a peace process that ended a decade of civil war, Bopha Devi returned to Cambodia in the early 1990s and helped to revive traditional Apsara and other Khmer dance.
She served as minister of culture and fine arts from 1998 to 2004.
"Cambodia will remember that thanks to the Royal Highness Norodom Bopha Devi, the Cambodian Royal Ballet has been enlisted as a part of the world heritage," her cousin Prince Sisowath Thomico told Reuters.
"What I hope now is that more people will take her legacy and continue her work and just to show how much the royal ballet means for the Cambodian culture," Prince Thomico said.
2 comments:
Ballet dancer, that's what the "royal" family is good at.
The leaches that suck Cambodians' blood. The sooner, they're all gone, the better it is for the nation of Cambodia. We don't need them.
It's called soft power. You charm people to help you. When I was newly arrived in USA, my neighbor noticed their pets seem to like me over everyone else. And I got a lot of help because of that. Sometime, they gave me too much, I dared not accept, and they wanted to give me even more. I would offer my body as a meatshield to protect my patrons. American girls were all over me to tease me. I told them I am not worty, am a loser. They loved me more.
You are nasty, angry and ungrateful, nobody will want to be your friend, and certainly won't help you. All you want is to take, take, and take. And you would rape them if you have half a chance.
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