'Phnom Penh' (; official Romanization: ''Phnum Pénh'';
IPA: ) is the largest, most populous and
capital city of
Cambodia. It is also the capital of the Phnom Penh municipality.
Once known as the "Pearl of Asia"
[1] in the
1920s, Phnom Penh, along with
Siem Reap, is a significant global and domestic tourist destination for Cambodia. Phnom Penh is known for its traditional Khmer and French influenced architecture.
Phnom Penh is the wealthiest and most populous city in Cambodia. It is also the commercial, political and cultural hub of Cambodia and is home to more than one million of Cambodia's population of over 13 million.
[2]
Etymology
The city takes its name from the ''Wat Phnom Daun Penh'' (known now as just the ''Wat Phnom'' or Hill Temple), built in 1373 to house five statues of
Buddha on a man made hill 27 meters high. It was named after Daun Penh (Grandma Penh), a wealthy widow.
Phnom Penh was also previously known as ''Krong Chaktomuk'' meaning "City of Four Faces". This name refers to the junction where the
Mekong,
Bassac, and
Tonle Sap rivers cross to form an "X" where the capital is situated. ''Krong Chaktomuk'' is an abbreviation of its ceremonial name given by
King Ponhea Yat which was "Krong Chaktomuk Mongkol Sakal Kampuchea Thipadei Sereythor Inthabot Borei Roth Reach Seima Maha Nokor".
History
Phnom Penh first became the capital of Cambodia after
Ponhea Yat, king of the
Khmer Empire, moved the capital from
Angkor Thom after it was captured by
Siam a few years earlier. There are
stupa behind Wat Phnom that house the remains of Ponhea Yat and the royal family as well as the remaining
Buddhist statues from the Angkorean era. There is a
legend that tells how Phnom Penh was created.
It was not until 1866, under the reign of King
Norodom I, that Phnom Penh became the permanent seat of government, and the
Royal Palace (pictured) was built. This marked the beginning of the transformation of what was essentially a village into a great city with the
French Colonialists expanding the canal system to control the wetlands, constructing roads and building a port.
By the
1920s, Phnom Penh was known as the ''Pearl of Asia'', and over the next four decades continued to experience growth with the building of a railway to
Sihanoukville and the
Pochentong International Airport.
The exterior of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, Phnom Penh
During the
Vietnam War, Cambodia was used as a base by the
North Vietnamese Army and the
Viet Cong, and thousands of refugees from across the country flooded the city to escape the fighting between their own government troops, the NVA/NLF, the
South Vietnamese and its allies and the
Khmer Rouge. By 1975, the population was 2,000,000, the bulk of them refugees from the fighting. The city fell to the Khmer Rouge on
April 17. Many of its residents, those who were wealthy and educated, were forced to do labor on rural farms as "
new people". Tuol Svay Prey High School was taken over by
Pol Pot's forces and was turned into the
S-21 prison camp, where Cambodians were detained and tortured. Pol Pot desired a return to an agrarian economy and therefore killed anyone who was educated, who wore glasses, or who did not have calloused hands to cleanse the population of the taint of westernization. Many others starved to death as a result of failure of the agrarian society and the sale of Cambodia's rice to China in exchange for bullets and weaponry. Tuol Svay Prey High School is now the
Tuol Sleng Museum in which Khmer Rouge torture devices and photos of their victims are displayed. Choeung Ek (
The Killing Fields), 15 kilometers away, where the Khmer Rouge marched prisoners from Tuol Sleng to be murdered and buried in shallow pits, is also now a memorial to those who were killed by the regime.
The
Khmer Rouge were driven out of Phnom Penh by the
Vietnamese in 1979 and people began to return to the city. Vietnam is historically a state with which Cambodia has had many conflicts, therefore this liberation was and is viewed with mixed emotions by the Cambodians. A period of reconstruction began, spurred by continuing stability of government, attracting new foreign investment and aid by countries including
France,
Australia, and
Japan. Loans were made from the
Asian Development Bank and the
World Bank to reinstate a clean water supply, roads and other infrastructure. The 1998 Census put Phnom Penh's population at 862,000;
[3] by 2001 it was estimated at slightly over 1 million.
Geography
A Buddhist monk walking
in front of the Royal palace in Phnom Penh.
Phnom Penh is located in the south-central region of Cambodia, at the confluence of the
Tonlé Sap,
Mekong, and
Bassac rivers. These rivers provide potential freshwater and other resources. The city, located at (11°33' North, 104°55' East,
[1]). covers an area of 375 km² which some 11,401 hectares in the municipality and 26, 106 hectares of roads. The agricultural land in the municipality amounts to 34.685 km² with some 1.476 km² under
irrigation.
Climate
The climate is hot year-round with only minor variations. City temperatures range from 10° to 38 °C (50° to 100 °F) and experiences tropical
monsoons. Southwest monsoons blow inland bringing moisture-laden winds from the
Gulf of Thailand and
Indian Ocean from May to October. The northeast monsoon ushers in the dry season, which lasts from November to March. The city experiences the heaviest precipitation from September to October with the driest period occurring from January to February.
It has two distinct seasons. The rainy season, which runs from May to October, can see temperatures raise up to 40 °C around April and is generally accompanied with high humidity. The dry season lasts from November to April when temperatures can drop to 22 °C. The best months to visit the city are November to January when temperatures and humidity are lower.
Administration
Administratively, Phnom Penh is a municipality, although, its status is equal to provinces of Cambodia. It is subdivided into 7 districts
ážáŸážŽáŸ’ឌ as follows:
★
Chamkarmon -​
ចំការមន
★
Daun Penh​ ​​​ -​
ដូនពáŸáž‰
★
Prampir Makara ​ -​
ប្រាំពីរមករា
★
Toul Kork -​
ទួលគោក
★
Dangkor​ -​
ដង្កោរ
★
Meanchey -​
មានជáŸáž™
★
Russey Keo -​
ឫស្សីកែវ
These are further subdivided into 76
Sangkats, and 637
Kroms.
[2]
Demographics
Phnom Penh street scene
Children in Phnom Penh
As of
2006, Phnom Penh had a population of 2,009,264 people, with a total
population density of 2.696 km² in a 375 km² city area. Population growth in the city is 3.92%.
Economy
National Museum, Phnom Penh
Situated at the confluence of the
Mekong,
Bassac and
Tonlé Sap Rivers, Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, has a population of approximately two million people. Despite some dilapidation resulting from decades of war, the city retains its traditional Khmer and colonial charm. French villas along tree-lined boulevards remind the visitor that the city was once considered the gem of Southeast Asia. Double-digit economic growth rates in recent years have triggered an economic boom, with new hotels,
restaurants, bars, and residential buildings springing up around the city. Phnom Penh's wealth of historical and cultural sites makes it a very popular tourist destination.
Cityscape and architecture
The main tourist attractions in Phnom Penh include the
Royal Palace,
Phsar Thom Thmei, the
Silver Pagoda, the
National Museum,
Independence Monument (Khmer: Vimean Akareach), the
Cambodia-Vietnam Friendship Monument, the
Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, and
Wat Phnom. On the outskirt of the city is the
Choeung Ek Genocide Center.
The
Royal Palace of Phnom Penh are a complex of buildings which are the royal abode of the Kingdom of Cambodia. Its full name in the
Khmer language is ''Preah Barom Reachea Vaeng Chaktomuk''. The
Kings of Cambodia have occupied it since it was built in 1866, with a period of absence when the country came into turmoil during and after the reign of the
Khmer Rouge.
The palace was started after
King Norodom relocated the royal capital from
Oudong to Phnom Penh after the mid-1800s. It was gradually built atop an old
citadel called ''Banteay Kev''. It faces towards the
East and is situated at the Western bank of four divisions at the
Mekong River called ''Chaktomuk'' (an allusion to
Brahma).
Wat Phnom is a historical and one of the most important pagoda located in Phnom Penh. Built in
1373,it stands at 27 metres and is by far the tallest religious structure in the city. Built on an artificial hill by the wealthy widow ''Daun Chi Penh'' after a great flood washed statues of
Buddha downstream, it has since been renovated. There have been many additions to the original shrines over the centuries. The largest stupa houses the ashes of King
Ponhea Yat and it is the center of city celebrations for the
Cambodian New Year, and ''
Pchum Benh'' festivals.
The Cambodia-Vietnam Friendship Monument, Phnom Penh
The
National Museum, Phnom Penh is Cambodia's largest and was built in 1917–20 by the French colonial authorities then in control of Cambodia, in a traditional Khmer style, with French influence.
The
Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, a former
high school which was used as the notorious 'Security Prison 21 (
S-21)'
concentration camp by the
Khmer Rouge regime from its rise to power in 1975 to its fall in 1979 is one of the city's most moving landmarks.
From 1975 to 1979, an estimated 17,000 people were imprisoned at Tuol Sleng (some estimates suggest a number as high as 20,000). The prisoners were selected from all around the country, and usually were former Khmer Rouge members and soldiers, accused of treason. Classrooms were converted into tiny prison and torture chambers and all the windows were covered with iron bars and barbed wire to prevent prisoner escapes.
In 1979, the prison was uncovered by the invading Vietnamese army. In 1980, the prison was reopened as a historical museum memorializing the actions of the Khmer Rouge regime. The museum is open to the public, and receives an average of 500 visitors every day.
The
Cambodia-Vietnam Friendship Monument is a large concrete monument to the former alliance between
Vietnam and Cambodia located in the centre of Phnom Penh not far from the
Royal Palace. It was built in the late 1970s by the
communist regime which took power after the
Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia, which overthrew the
Khmer Rouge regime.
It features heroic statues of Vietnamese and Cambodian soldiers in the "
Socialist realist" style developed in the
Soviet Union in the 1930s, together with images of a woman and baby representing Cambodian civilians. With the end of the Vietnamese presence in Cambodia and fading memories of the conflicts of the 1970s, the memorial is neglected and little used by the Cambodians.
The
Choeung Ek Genocide Center is located about 17 km south of the urbanized centre of
Phnom Penh the site of a former orchard and Chinese graveyard which is the best-known of the sites known as the
Killing Fields, where the
Khmer Rouge regime executed about 17,000 people between
1975 and
1979. Mass graves containing 8,895 bodies were discovered at Choeung Ek after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime. Many of the dead were former inmates in the
Tuol Sleng prison. Today, Choeung Ek is a memorial, marked by a
Buddhist stupa that is filled with skulls of the victims.
The
Preah Suramarit National Theatre was built in
1968 and during late 1960s and early 1970s enjoyed many cultural performances ranging from
opera and
dance to musical concerts from talented musicians all across Cambodia. It was designed by the venerated architect
Vann Molyvann, responsible for much of the city's modern architecture. A fire in 1994 gutted the entire building and due to a lack of funding it hasn't been restored.
Shopping
The market was built in an intensely art deco style by the French when Cambodia was under colonial rule.
market was built in the shape of a dome in
1937 and is the capital's main shopping centre.
Nowadays, the market is a tourist hot spot, most tourists that came to Phnom Penh visited this market because they want to see the varieties of products that this market has to offer. The four wings of the yellow coloured Phsar Thom Thmei are teeming with numerous stalls selling
gold and
silver jewellery,
antique coins, clothing,
clocks,
flowers, food, fabrics and
shoes.
The Chan Chhaya Pavilion of the
Royal Palace, as seen from Sothearos Blvd
Media
Newspapers
The
Phnom Penh Post is a
fortnightly
English-language newspaper published in Phnom Penh. Founded in 1992 by publisher Michael Hayes, it is Cambodia's oldest English-language newspaper. It is printed in full-color
Berliner format.
It has a staff of Cambodian and foreign journalists covering national news, and also prints a police blotter, which has items translated from local
Khmer-language dailies.
Since its founding in Phnom Penh in July 1992, the printed edition has been published on a fortnightly basis, and read in Cambodia and worldwide by over 20,000 people in more than 40 countries.
The Independence Monument, Phnom Penh
is
Cambodia's only
English-language daily
newspaper based in Phnom Penh. It was started in 1993 by Bernard Krisher, an
American journalist. Krisher hired two young and relatively inexperienced journalists, Barton Biggs and Robin McDowell, as the paper's first editors. The first issue was published in 1993, and the paper has published ever since. It is printed in an
A4-size format and is delivered six days a week, Monday to Saturday, with the Saturday edition a full-color ''Weekend'' magazine. The Monday to Friday editions are black and white. ''The Daily'' has access to many major
wire services (
Associated Press, ''
The New York Times'', ''
The Washington Post'') and has a staff of Cambodian and foreign journalists covering local and national news. A daily section in
Khmer language carries articles translated from the main English-language section. An international edition is available by annual subscription for US$200; each weekly edition compiles the staff-produced content from the previous week.
Phnom Penh International Airport
daily newspapers include:
★ ''Sralagn' Khmer''
[3]
★ ''Chakraval Daily''
★ ''
Kampuchea Thmei Daily''
★ ''Kampuchea Thnai Nes'' (''Cambodia Today'')
★ ''Kanychok Sangkhum''
★ ''Koh Santepheap'' (''Island of Peace'')
[4]
★ ''Moneaksekar Khmer'' (''Khmer Conscience'') - Published by the
Sam Rainsy Party.
★ ''
Rasmei Kampuchea'' (''Light of Kampuchea'') - Cambodia's largest daily, it circulates about 18,000 copies.
★ ''Samleng Yuvachun'' (''Voice of Khmer Youth'')
★ ''Udomkate Khmer'' (''Khmer Ideal'')
★ ''Wat Phnom Daily''
Transport
Phnom Penh International Airport (Phnom Penh) is the largest and busiest airport in Cambodia. It is located 7 km (4.3 miles) west of central Phnom Penh. Taxis, pick-ups and minibuses leave Phnom Penh for destinations all over the country, but are fast losing ground to cheaper and more comfortable buses. Phnom Penh also has rail service.
A street scene in the city centre
There are two bus companies, Phnom Penh Public transport and GST Express, servicing to Sihanoukville, Kompong Chang, Udong & Takeo. Motocycles are a popular form of quick travel in the city streets.
Although the city is 290 km (180 miles) from the sea, it is a major port on the Mekong River valley, and it is linked to the South China Sea via a channel of the Mekong delta in Vietnam
Highways in Phnom Penh
As the capital of Cambodia a number of National Highways connect the city with various parts of the country:
Education
The
Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP) is the oldest and largest institution of
higher education in
Cambodia. As of 2007, the university has over 5,000 students across three campuses, and offers a wide range of high-quality courses within the Faculty of Science, the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, and the Institute of Foreign Languages (IFL).
The University has approximately 200 teaching staff, seven of whom have PhDs, 66 who have master degrees and the remainder with undergraduate qualifications. There are over 176 administrative and support staff. Various international and non-government organizations also provide adjunct faculty members.
The Royal University of Phnom Penh began as the Royal Khmer University in 1960. It opened during a period of intense growth in Cambodia and expanded rapidly to include a National Institute of Judicial and Economic Studies, a Royal School of Medicine, a National School of Commerce, a National Pedagogical Institute, a Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, and a Faculty of Science and Technology. The language of instruction during this period was French.
With the establishment of the
Khmer Republic in 1970, the Royal Khmer University became the Phnom Penh University. Between 1965 and 1975 there were nine faculties, namely the Ecole Normale Supérieure (Higher Normal College), Letters and Humanities, Science, Pharmacy, Law and Economics, Medicine and Dentistry, Commerce, Pedagogy, and the Languages Institute.
However the
Khmer Rouge period of saw the closure and destruction of schools, the decimation of the teaching service and the cessation of formal education and the college was closed.
In 1980, the Ecole Normale Supérieure (Higher Normal College) reopened, again teaching predominantly in French. In 1981, the Institute of Foreign Languages (IFL) began, initially training students to become Vietnamese and Russian teachers. The purpose of both colleges was to provide surviving graduates of primary school or above with crash courses in teaching.
In 1988, the college and the IFL merged to create Phnom Penh University, and in 1996 the name was changed to the Royal University of Phnom Penh.
During the past decade, the University has grown and now includes the Faculty of Science, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, and the Institute of Foreign Languages. In 2001, the University began its first postgraduate degrees with the Graduate Diploma and Master's Courses in Tourism Development.
Sport
Main articles: Sport in Cambodia
Boys in Phnom Penh playing football
has increasingly become involved in sports over the last 30 years.
Football and the
martial arts as in the rest of the country are popular in particular. The martial arts of
Bokator,
Pradal Serey (Khmer kick boxing) and
Khmer traditional wrestling have venues in Phnom Penh watched by dedicated spectators.
The most prominent of venues in the city is the
Phnom Pehn National Olympic Stadium with a capacity of 50,000. Built in
1964 it is home to the
Cambodian national football team. Noted clubs include
Hello United,
Khemara and
Military Police
Notable people
★
Vann Molyvann -architect
★
Vann Nath - painter
★
Narath Tan - painter
References in Popular Culture
★ One of the pivotal missions in is a mission called Phnom Penh '86
Sister cities
★
Long Beach, California,
USA
★
Lowell, Massachusetts,
USA
★
Providence, Rhode Island,
USA
See also
★
Cambodia
★
History of Cambodia
★
Royal Palace, Phnom Penh
★
Phnom Penh International Airport
References
1. Peace of Angkor Phnom Penh Accessed July 27, 2007
2. Cambodia Inter-Censal Population Survey 2004, National Institute of Statistics, Ministry of Planning, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
3. General Population Census of Cambodia 1998, National Institute of Statistics, Ministry of Planning, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
External links
Official
★
Phnom Penh Government Website in English
★
★
In Khmer
★
★
In French
★
Profile
Other
★
★
Cambodia.org is the Cambodian Information Center (CIC), a web-based entity that provides relevant and informative information about Cambodia and its people
★
A web site designed and managed in Cambodia by Cambodians - jobs, maps, cultural translation, digital phrase-book of the Khmer language
★
Cambodia Travel & Leisure Guide - from ElephantGuide.com
★
2006 Cambodia Travel Guide - Phnom Penh
★
Official website of the ''
Phnom Penh Post'', Cambodia's oldest English-language newspaper, issued fortnightly.
★
Royal University of Phnom Penh
★
Cambodia Airports Home of Pochentong (Phnom Penh) and Angkor (Siem Reap) International Airports. In English and French
★
Detailed Phnom Penh map at the website of
Cambodia Yellow Pages
★
History photography of Phnom Penh in the 20's
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