Talk:Sisowath of Cambodia

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Etymology of name

What is the etymology of the Khmer name Sisowath (ស៊ីសុវតិ្ថ), and does it come from Pali? Is it related to the Lao ສີສວ່າງ (the first part of the name of the Lao king Sisavang Vong? 173.88.246.138 (talk) 07:35, 7 November 2020 (UTC)

A brief life of Sisowath

In 1896 Governor-General Rosseau, writing to Paris on the perennial topic of who should succeed Norodom, described the French favourite as “a man of limited capacity, but who seems to be quite in our hand.”

Opinions on Sisowath’s capabilities can vary, but there was no denying his unwavering pro-French stance. He was born in Bangkok (Finot) or possibly in Mongkolborei in Battambang province (the palace) on 7 September 1840. His mother died when he was eight years old, a circumstance which raises interesting but unanswerable questions about the upbringing of a motherless prince in the hot-house world of the western courtyard. His father had little time for paternal duties, occupied as he was with the war and then with rebuilding a country broken by half a century of conflict. He spent his early childhood in Udong, and after his topknot-cutting ceremony in 1854 he was sent with Sivotha to Bangkok. He seems to have had a lonely time there, and developed a profound dislike for Siam.

Up to this point he had been known as Ang Sor, but in 1857 Mongkut gave him the name Sisowath and the title Preah Keo Fa, marking him as the second-most prince of the kingdom after his half-brother Norodom. Next year he accompanied Norodom back to Udong, where the explorer and naturalist Henri Mouhot met him in 1859:

Another brother, a prince of 21, paid me a visit at night, unknown to his relatives, hoping to receive a present. He was very childish for his age, and wanted everything he saw; he was, however, gentle and amiable, and of superior manners.

Mouhot is mistaken about Sisowath’s age and apparently unaware that this mild prince had distinguished himself in battle against the Cham rebels the previous year.

Ang Duong died late in 1860, Sivotha raised his rebellion in April/May 1861, and when Norodom fled in August it was Sisowath, as Preah Keo Fa, who was left in charge of the king’s interests in Udong (ably assisted, it must be said, by his grandmother, Ang Duong’s widow). Five French soldiers from Cochin-china placed themselves at his service, and he sent them with a flotilla against the rebels. The expedition was successful, but the main rebel leader (not Sivotha, who was already in the territory of Battambang) escaped, and this event seems to have marked the turning point in the military struggle.

Norodom returned to Udong in March 1862 with a profound distrust of Sisowath, who had shown such ability and achieved such popularity, and in July 1863 he sent him into exile in Bangkok. In October 1864 he obtained permission from Mongkut to travel to Battambang for the funeral of one of his wives, and from there he sent letters to Admiral de Lagrandière imploring his help in organising an escape: “I love Cambodia,” he wrote, “and I wish to go and settle there…”

The French declined to help and Sisowath remained in Siamese hands, but in April 1865 Norodom received a letter from Mongkut suggesting that they meet in Kampot. Norodom hurried to greet his guest, but the steamer that arrived was not Siamese but French, and it carried not Mongkut but Sisowath. From the boat Sisowath sent word that wished to come ashore and swear to his brother that he was not a rebel, but Norodom's terror of Sisowath’s popularity was so great that he refused to allow it, and the prince was taken to Saigon. The French promised Norodom that Sisowath would not be allowed to leave Cochinchina, and in exchange Norodom provided an allowance for the upkeep of Sisowath and his numerous court.

In Saigon he had a comfortable villa with servants and carriages, and his wives in their silk sampots gave a touch of exotic glamour to government balls, but he continued to dream of his homeland. The opportunity was provided by the uprising of Pou Kombo. Sisowath suggested to de Lagrandière that with his popularity and military ability he might be just the man to put down the rebels. Norodom thought this was a terrible idea, but he was overruled, Sisowath was sent into battle in July 1867, and by December Pou Kombo's head was on top of a pole in front of the palace.

In January 1868 Admiral de Pierre de Lagrandière came up to Phnom Penh and then to Kampong Cham, and the prince [Sisowath] came in a junk before him and received a promise that he would be named Obbareach and would live in Phnom Penh. He had to wait more than two years for this agreement to be implemented: finally, in May 1870, on the formal request of the Governor of Cochin-China, the king [Norodom] resigned himself to conferring on him the dignity of Obbareach. He lived peacefully in his palace in Phnom Penh until the death of Norodom …

This is part-translated and part-summarised from an obituary of Sisowath written by the archaeologist Louis Finot on the king’s death in 1927, but Finot’s biography is not quite complete. It fails to mention, for example, that in 1884 Sisowath made a secret agreement with Thomson to take over the throne should it become necessary to send Norodom into exile, and that he continued to intrigue against Norodom thereafter. Achar Sva (talk) 15:16, 18 February 2022 (UTC)