Prince Vidhivong Norindeth

Prince Vidhivong Norindeth at Sre Ampil, 3 April 2018

I need your help to retrieve a pre-1975 photograph that I’ve seen and shared on Facebook once a few years ago of a very stately mansion that once belonged (and as a matter of law, still should belong) to my friend, HH* Vidhivong Norindeth (pictured, April 2018).

The foundation of this colonial mansion is still in tact and will serve as the front of the soon-to-be Hyatt Hotel across the street from the Nation Museum and RUFA.

During King Norodom’s reign, Prince Sisowath was viceroy waiting in line to be king, his residence being the current National Museum. Prince Sisowath was son of King Ang Duong and half brother of Prince Si Votha and King Norodom.

When Sisowath became king in 1904, he gave a plot of land to his favorite daughter Princess Sisowath Pindara (mother of Prince Norodom Norindeth, grandmother of my friend Prince Vidhivong, or "Vidi" to his friends), the land that became their royal residence, now to be the Hyatt Hotel. Princess Sisowath Pindara was married to royalty on the other side, Prince Norodom Sathavong (as spelled by his son Norindeth; with some transliteration as "Suthivong"). Legally, this land should still be part of the Crown.

Prince Vidhivong‘s father was Norodom Norindeth, former ambassador to UNESCO based in Paris where Prince Vidhivong was born. He didn’t give his son the Norodom last name probably to shield his son from the turmoil of politics of the day associated with the Norodom name. (As Prince Vidhivong has chided me time and again, to call him simply "Vidi" minus all the royal honorifics, as he’s more comfortable as a commoner than a prince.)

My friend PrinceVidhivong Norindethh’s paternal grandmother —Princess Pindara—was half-sister of King Monivong and daughter of King Sisowath who went on a tour of France in 1906. Prince Vidhivong’s father Norodom Norindeth was not only ambassador to UNESCO but also director of the Cambodia House in Paris.

I first met Prince Vidhivong in 1995 when he gave me a ride to the children’s home in Sre Ampil, the home founded by Lauk Ta Son Sann and his son Lauk Pou Soubert. Prince Vidhivong lost all family members to the Khmer Rouge, save an uncle. He became a member of the Son Sann family in Paris, Lauk Pou Soubert his close elder brother to this day. (Both Prince Vidhivong and Lauk Pou Soubert, fiercely patriotic, never took on French citizenship.)

*I am corrected by the prince himself that rather than HRH, it is His Highness (or, in French, Son Altesse Sérénissime).

Theary on Facebook, 6 April 2018

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