This book accurately chronicles the creation of the French Protectorate of Cambodia through the accounts of the people who actually participated in its inception and in the context of the political intrigues of that time and place involving Cambodia, Siam, France and Great Britain. In the same decade of the 1860's two other related treaties complicated and then resolved the protectorate treaty. Drawing on the same historical context this new book commemorates the 150th anniversary in 2016 of the beginning of photography in Cambodia, presenting over 145 rare engravings, maps, and the remarkable first photographs captured at Angkor and Phnom Penh by John Thomson and Emile Gsell, decades before photographic film was even invented. On February 26, 1866 John Thomson arrived at Angkor Wat to capture the first photographs there. Four months later Emile Gsell's historic photographs at Angkor also marked the beginning of the French expedition, led by Commander Doudart de Lagrée, to explore the then uncharted Mekong River from Cambodia to the north of China, one of the great and most courageous expeditions of exploration in recent centuries. In the end, France captured Cambodia, Siam captured Angkor, King Norodom captured the crown and the throne of Cambodia and for at least a short time the independence of the kingdom, John Thomson and Emile Gsell captured the first photographs at Angkor, and Ernest Doudart de Lagrée was captured by duty, adventure and the affection of a little Cambodian boy named Chhun.

Unbelievable feats of transportation are an everyday occurrence on the streets of Cambodia. Tuk-tuks, cyclos, cars, trucks, motorbikes and bicycles transport loads that defy your wildest imagination. Tuk-tuks crammed to the roof with fruit and veg, beaten-up old taxis transporting pigs bigger than people, beds bigger than pigs and water tanks bigger than beds Six people on one small motorbike, and sixty-seven people standing on the back of a flatbed lorry. Photographers Hans Kemp and Conor Wall spent hundreds of long, painful hours on the back of motorbikes documenting this unique street culture, resulting in this amazing book loaded with incredible photographs that will forever change your definition of "packed "

A stunning, powerful debut novel set against the backdrop of the Cambodian War, perfect for fans of Chris Cleave and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie For seven-year-old Raami, the shattering end of childhood begins with the footsteps of her father returning home in the early dawn hours bringing details of the civil war that has overwhelmed the streets of Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital. Soon the family's world of carefully guarded royal privilege is swept up in the chaos of revolution and forced exodus. Over the next four years, as she endures the deaths of family members, starvation, and brutal forced labour, Raami clings to the only remaining vestige of childhood - the mythical legends and poems told to her by her father. In a climate of systematic violence where memory is sickness and justification for execution, Raami fights for her improbable survival. Displaying the author's extraordinary gift for language, In the Shadow of the Banyanis testament to the transcendent power of narrative and a brilliantly wrought tale of human resilience. 'In the Shadow of the Banyanis one of the most extraordinary and beautiful acts of storytelling I have ever encountered' Chris Cleave, author of The Other Hand 'Ratner is a fearless writer, and the novel explores important themes such as power, the relationship between love and guilt, and class. Most remarkably, it depicts the lives of characters forced to live in extreme circumstances, and investigates how that changes them. To read In the Shadow of the Banyan is to be left with a profound sense of being witness to a tragedy of history' Guardian 'This is an extraordinary debut … as beautiful as it is heartbreaking' Mail on Sunday

Travel Writing.

While the United States battled the Communists of North Vietnam in the 1960s and '70s, the neighbouring country of Cambodia was attacked from within by dictator Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge imprisoned, enslaved, and murdered the educated and intellectual members of the population, resulting in the harrowing "killing fields"–rice paddies where the harvest yielded nothing but millions of skulls. Young Sichan Siv–a target since he was a university graduate–was told by his mother to run and "never give up hope!" Captured and put to work in a slave labor camp, Siv knew it was only a matter of time before he would be worked to death–or killed. With a daring escape from a logging truck and a desperate run for freedom through the jungle, including falling into a dreaded pungi pit, Siv finally came upon a colorfully dressed farmer who said, "Welcome to Thailand." He spent months teaching English in a refugee camp in Thailand while regaining his strength, eventually Siv was allowed entry into the United States. Upon his arrival in the U.S., Siv kept striving. Eventually rising to become a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Siv returned with great trepidation to the killing fields of Cambodia in 1992 as a senior representative of the U.S. government. It was an emotionally overwhelming visit.

This study of Cambodian nationalism brings to life eight turbulent decades of cultural change and sheds new light on the colonial ancestry of Pol Pot's murderous dystopia. Penny Edwards re-creates the intellectual milieux and cultural traffic linking Europe and empire, interweaving analysis of key movements and ideas in the French Protectorate of Cambodge with contemporary developments in the Metropole. With its fresh take on the dynamics of colonialism and nationalism, Cambodge: The Cultivation of a Nation, 1860-1945 will become essential reading for scholars of history, politics, and society in Southeast Asia. Edwards' analysis of Buddhism and her consideration of Angkor's emergence as a national monument will be of particular interest to students of Asian and European religion, museology, heritage studies, and art history. It will also appeal to specialists in modern French history, cultural studies, and colonialism, as well as readers with a general interest in Cambodia.