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Phnom Penh

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Phnom Penh (official Romanization: Phnum Pénh; ) 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" 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.

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 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.

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 sought a return to an agrarian economy and therefore killed many people percieved as educated, "lazy" or political enemies. 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), 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; by 2001 it was estimated at slightly over 1 million.

Geography

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, ). Covers an area of which some in the municipality and of roads. The agricultural land in the municipality amounts to with some 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 around April and is generally accompanied with high humidity. The dry season lasts from November to April when temperatures can drop to . The best months to visit the city are November to January when temperatures and humidity are lower.

Policing

Administration

Administratively, Phnom Penh is a municipality standing at 375 square kilometers and is governed with a status that is equal to provinces of Cambodia. As such, it has a similar political structure to its provinces. The municipality is subdivided into 7 administrative divisions called Khan (district) and of the 7 Khans, Dangkor, Meanchey and Reussey Keo are considered the outskirts of the city. All Khans are under the governance of the Phnom Penh Municipality. The Khans are further subdivided into 76 Sangkats (communes), and 637 Kroms.

The municipality is governed by the Governor who acts as the top executive of the city and manages the general affairs as well as overlooking the Municipal Military Police, Municipal Police and Bureau of Urban Affairs. Below the Governor is the First Vice Governor and 5 Vice Governors. The Chief of Cabinet who holds the same status as the Vice Governors, heads the Cabinet that consists of 8 Deputy Chiefs of Cabinet which in turn are in charge of the 27 Administrative Departments. Every khan (district) also has a head Chief.

List of Phnom Penh Administrative Units
Name of district (khan) (since January 2003) Number of communes (sangkat) (since September 2006) Number of villages (phum) (since December 2006)
Chamkarmon 12 sangkats ?
Daun Penh 11 sangkats ?
Prampir Makara 8 sangkats ?
Tuol Kork 10 sangkats ?
Dangkor 15 sangkats ?
Meanchey 8 sangkats ?
Ruessey Keo 12 sangkats ?

Demographics

As of 2006, Phnom Penh had a population of 2,009,264 people, with a total population density of in a city area. Population growth in the city is 3.92%.

Phnom Penh is mostly inhabited by Cambodians (or Khmers) - they represent 90% of the population of the city. There are large minorities of Vietnamese and Chinese, other ethnic groups are Thai, Budong, Mnong Preh, Kuy, Chong, Chams. The state religion is Theravada Buddhism, hence more than 90% of the people in Phnom Penh are Buddhists with the Chams practicing Islam and over the years since 1993, there has been an increase in the practice of Christianity which was practically wiped out after 1975 when the Khmer Rouge took over. English and French are widely used in the city, but the official language is Khmer.

Economy

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 a 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 oldest structure is the Wat Phnom from the founding days of the city, constructed in 1373. The main tourist attractions is the Royal Palace with the Silver Pagoda, which dates to the mid 1800's. The National Museum, constructed during the French colonial era in the late 1800's in the classical Khmer style hosts a vast collection of Khmer antiquities. The Independence Monument (Khmer: Vimean Akareach), although modern from the 1950's, is also constructed in the ancient Khmer style.

The French, who were the colonial masters from the 1800's to the 1940's, also left their mark, with various colonial villas, French churches, boulevards, and the Art deco market Phsar Thom Thmei. A famous landmark of the colonial era is the Hotel Le Royal.

Monuments and memorials to the genocide during the Khmer Rouge era in the 1970's are the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (a former high school used as a concentration camp) and on the outskirt of the city the Choeung Ek Genocide Center. The Cambodia-Vietnam Friendship Monument was commissioned by the Vietnamese communists as symbol of Khmer-Vietnamese "friendship" during the late 1970's following the liberation of Cambodia from the Khmer Rouge.

The Phnom Penh Shooting range and various golf courses are at the leisure for visitors and locals.

Shopping

Phsar Thom Thmei 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.

With the economic growth seen since the 1990's, new shops have openend as well as western-style malls such as Sorya Market.

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 Cambodia Daily 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.

Khmer language daily newspapers include:

  • Sralagn' Khmer
  • Chakraval Daily
  • Kampuchea Thmei Daily
  • Kampuchea Thnai Nes (Cambodia Today)
  • Kanychok Sangkhum
  • Koh Santepheap (Island of Peace)
  • 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

French language daily newpapers:

  • Cambodge Soir

Transport

Phnom Penh International Airport (Phnom Penh) is the second-largest and second-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. There are two bus companies, Phnom Penh Public transport and GST Express, servicing to Sihanoukville, Kompong Chang, Udong & Takeo.

Also Phnom Penh Sorya Transport Co. offers bus service to several provincial destinations along the National Routes as well as Ho Chi Minh City. 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

Local means of public transportation within the city most often include the cycle rickshaw, known in Khmer as "cyclo" and motorcycle taxis. Private forms of transportation include bicycles and automobiles.

Highways in Phnom Penh

As the capital of Cambodia a number of National Highways connect the city with various parts of the country:

National Highway Code Length Origin Terminal
National Highway 1 10001 Phnom Penh Vietnam Border
National Highway 2 10002 Phnom Penh Vietnam Border
National Highway 3 10003 Phnom Penh Veal Rinh
National Highway 4 10004 Phnom Penh Sihanoukville
National Highway 5 10005 Phnom Penh Thailand Border
National Highway 6 10006 Phnom Penh Bantey Meanchey

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).

Sport

The martial arts of Bokator, Pradal Serey (Khmer kick boxing) and Khmer traditional wrestling have venues in Phnom Penh watched by dedicated spectators.

Cambodia has increasingly become involved in modern sports over the last 30 years.

Football and the martial arts as in the rest of the country are popular in particular.

The most prominent of venues in the city is the Phnom Penh National Olympic Stadium with a capacity of 50,000. Built in 1964 it is home to the Cambodian national football team, although the country never hosted the Olympic Games. Noted clubs include Phnom Penh Empire, Khemara and Military Police.

Notable people

Sister cities

References

Literature

  • LeBoutillier, Kris Journey Through Phnom Penh. Times Editions. ISBN 978-9812325969.
  • Hoskin, John Dreams of Cambodia Phnom Penh. ISBN 978-9889814021.
  • Igout, Michel Phnom Penh Then and Now. White Lotus Ltd.. ASIN B000UCLNR2.
  • Denise Affonço: To The End Of Hell: One Woman's Struggle to Survive Cambodia's Khmer Rouge; ISBN 978-0955572951

External links

Official

Other



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Last updated on Thursday March 13, 2008 at 21:01:52 PDT (GMT -0700)
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