The Prince and His Royal Highness' Gemstone

Cambodia is one of the bright spots of ASEAN’s economic development in recent years. The country’s opening up did not dampen the world’s interest in it. His Royal Highness Prince Sisowath Tesso of Cambodia said that he liked Singapore very much and had always been a supporter of Singapore’s cultural activities. On an afternoon in September, accompanied by Dr Julio Jeldres, Counsellor to the Cabinet of His Majesty the King of Cambodia, Prince Tesso was interviewed by Fortune Times. He was modest and polite, and the jadeite ring on his finger was as brilliant as his conversation.

“I love gems, especially jadeite!” Prince Tesso stretched fingers and showed off the jadeite on his ring—dark-coloured with an irresistible glow. “I wear it all the time and only take it off when I’m gardening.” His love of the ring was revealing through the introduction, he even added, “My sister loves it too!”

Prince Sisowath Tesso is the great-great-grandson of King Sisowath who reigned during the early 20^thcentury. He moved to Paris with his family at very young age as his father served as Cambodia’s ambassador to France. Although he grew up in Paris, his family placed great emphasis on the passing on of traditional culture. Hence, all family members were thought traditional dance and music, his sisters were even trained as professional dancers. Growing up in such an environment, he cultivated a love for the royal court dance and established an organisation in France to promote this art form. 

Singapore and Cambodia are Old Friends 

Prince Sisowath Tesso is no stranger to Singapore. Recently, he collaborated with Singapore’s Lotus on Water to produce a series of Lotus jadeite rings for six members of the royal family. Not too long ago, he graced “The Rise of Wind and Water” art exhibition organised by UOB Privileged Reserved Suites. Hewas also invited as special guest to the coronation night of the Miss Universe Singapore held at Resorts World Sentosa. 

This was how the conversation turned from personal to national. 

Singapore and Cambodia had been old friends. Cambodia was the first country to recognise Singapore as a sovereign state when she declared independence. The late Mr Lee Kuan Yew also shared a close relationship with the late King of Cambodia His Majesty Norodom Sihanouk. When the two countries celebrated 50 years of diplomatic relations in 2015, both states were still holding regular high-level meetings. Just that year alone, Prime Minister Hun Sen of Cambodia visited Singapore twice. 

Dr Julio Jeldres, Counsellor to the Cabinet of His Majesty the King of Cambodia, who was accompanying Prince Tesso, introduced the relations between the two countries. Singapore and Cambodia shared wonderful trade relations, Singapore was Cambodia’s eighth largest trading partner and the third largest investment partner in 2015. Singapore companies were similarly active in Cambodia, being involved in real estate, finance and logistics. For instance, HLH Group Limited is currently developing quality and affordable housing in Sihanoukville. Last year, both governments also signed the double taxation avoidance agreement. Once the agreement comes into effect, it will help benefit companies investing in the other country.

History Through Dance

His Royal Highness Prince Sisowath Tesso is the dancer and director of the Royal Court Dance of Cambodia. After completing his studies in Paris, Prince Tesso worked at Sergey Pontoise, the headquarters of the French multinational company Spie Batignolles. The Cambodian court dance, also known as the traditional Khmer dance, dates back to the Angkor Dynasty (9th to 15th century AD). There are numerous opinions and versions about the origin of this dance. Prince Tesso explained: “This dance originated from India as Southeast Asia was heavily influenced by Indian culture and religion, and we were no different. One of the traditional Khmer dance pieces was the Indian epic Ramayana. The Angkor rulers believed in Hinduism, giving rise to the Angkor Wat.”

Prince Tesso was born in Cambodia but grew up in Paris. A thousand years ago, Cambodia was an ancient civilization. While living and working overseas for so many year, Prince Tesso did not stop thinking about home. In 2004, he decided to return to Cambodia with his father’s ashes. In his mind: “What can I do for my country?” 

“As a member of the royal family, we should undertake some form of responsibility, we should be responsible for passing on traditional culture to the next generation.” After living in France for years, Prince Tesso returned from Paris with the resolve to bring Cambodian art to the world. He was appointed director of the Royal Court Dance of Cambodia. “Many Cambodians support the royal family and regard the royal family as part of their identity. Thus, we are not dancing for the sake of dancing, it’s more than that. This is not just for the royal family, this is for the Cambodian people, this is for the passing on of Cambodian culture." 

He mentioned that frequent cultural exchanges between countries showed that they shared many similarities in dance tradition. After the fall of the Angkor dynasty, Cambodia went through many years of civil war and foreign invasion, the nation was weak, and traditional culture almost disappeared. Winner of the war, Siam, brought the Khmer dancers back to their court. This had an influence on Siamese dance and the latter preserved the essence of Khmer dance.” The 19th century King of Anton who ruled Phnom Penh had a long relationship with Siam, thus, he revived the dying Khmer court dance by inviting Siam dancers to teach it. This led to greater cultural influence between the two countries. 

Over time, the same dance went through different transformations due to different contextual and social factors. Prince Tesso pointed out that Thai dance had more Chinese influence, this was seen in the more exaggerated movements and expressions. Whereas, traditional Khmer dance tended to be subtle and the dancers’ expression were more restrained.

Every dynasty, members of the Cambodian royal family made changes to the court dance and the one who left the largest impact would be Queen Sisowath Kossamak who lived during the 20^thcentury. She brought the court dance to the people and with that, the dance is no longer an art form exclusive to the royalty and social elites or reserved for entertaining the gods. The Queen invited everyone who was interested to come for selection and to learn the dance. She redesigned the dancers’ costumes and accessories based on the stone carvings found in Angkor Wat, a gorgeous crown was added in the process. She also rechoreographed the dance according to the same carvings, recreating the long-lost Angkor dance. 

The Queen arranged to have her granddaughter, Her Royal Highness Princess Norodom Buppha Devi, practice the dance. Later on, the King worked to promote Cambodian culture around the world and often brought the dance troupe with him on world tours. Princess Norodom Buppha Devi was one of the lead dancers and she left a deep impression on politicians who have seen her dance. 

Unfortunately, during the Khmer Rouge era after Pol Pot came to power in the 1970s, extreme reforms and cultural cleansing took place. The royal family was exiled and court dance was regarded as a symbol of the old and being too close to royalty, it was oppressed and almost did survive the political turmoil.   

Dr Julio Jeldres, Counsellor to the Cabinet of His Majesty the King of Cambodia, presented Fortune Times with a copy of his The Royal House of Cambodia.

During this period, Queen Sisowath Kossamak passed away in Beijing and Princess Norodom Buppha Devi relocated to Paris. The other dancers and musicians were mostly killed. Those who survived did so by hiding their identity and found ways to make it through the famine, some of them even fled to the refugee camp along the Thai border. 

The Pol Pot regime collapsed following Vietnam’s invasion of Cambodia in 1979. King Norodom Sihanouk was released from house arrest and lived in one of the refugee camps along the border. Princess Norodom Buppha Devi returned to Cambodia from Paris, and with funding from the United Nations, she founded a dance school. She brought together dancers who survived the political turmoil and put together the dance using their memory. They taught the young these steps and revived this ancient art form of court dance. 

King Norodom Sihanouk was invited to reign again and the royal family was restored. Princess Norodom Buppha Devi was appointed as the Minister of Culture and she pushed for the promotion of this art form. “There were 300 people in the entire royal dance group, but only 30 of them survived.” Short on funds, they had to depend on the United Nations’ financial assistance. Even the dance school’s building was sponsored by the Japanese. In 2003, the Royal Court Dance of Cambodia finally received international recognition as it got listed as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. 

The Long Road Ahead for Cultural Promotion 

Over the years, Prince Tesso and Princess Norodom Buppha Devi organised numerous overseas performances for the royal dance troupe. The Prince smiled and said that there was a huge entourage whenever they traveled overseas, “The dancers and musicians add up to at least a dozen as the Princess insists on having live music accompany the dance, which is more authentic.” Moreover, the crown, jewellery and clothing were very expensive, they required special care during transportation and that took months to prepare, leading to a high cost of bringing the dance overseas. 

In 2006, Prince Tesso returned to Cambodia to serve as advisor to the Speaker of the National Assembly. And in 2007, he served as Secretary of State for the Ministry of Tourism. His Majesty King Norodom Sihamoni also appointed him a cabinet advisor and Secretary of State. Prince Tesso also served as Cambodia’s Minister for Culture and Arts previously. Currently, he is the principal secretary of Princess Norodom Buppha Devi and Director of the Royal Cambodian Ballet, responsible for its promotion, coordination, fundraising etc. 

While in Cambodia, Prince Tesso actively organises and participates in cultural activities: celebrating royal members’ birthday, attending classical music concerts and film festivals related to national cultural heritage. As well as travel with Princess Norodom Buppha Devi to promote Khmer art and organise overseas performanecs for the Royal Ballet. Some of these include the International Sacred Music Festival in Fez, Morocco, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music Spring Arts Festival in Monaco and recently held in New York. The Prince’s efforts were recognised by the King and he was awarded the Monissaraphoan Royal Medal of Arts and Literature.

Now, many youngsters in Cambodia can speak English. But Prince Tesso does not stop in his promotion of traditional culture. He laments the drastic changes his country has gone through, “I hope that historical monuments and cultures will not be destroyed, humans should resist being too eager in pursuing rapid development. The best investment should be investing in tomorrow: provide more education opportunities, set up more scholarships for students to study and learn overseas.  

His fingers rubbing against the jadeite, “Time is the greatest asset.”

(Translated from Fortune Times.)