PHNOM PENH: His Majesty King Norodom Sihamoni has participated on a five days mission in France for UNESCO’s 41st General Assembly. He was among of the heads of state from more than 20 countries. The King has arrived back in Cambodia on Monday morning, bringing the outcomes of the conference to the kingdom.

Majesty King Norodom Sihamoni has arrived home safely. He came back from UNESCO General Assembly, held between the 10th and 14th of November. The King represented Cambodia with a well praised speech, in which he thanked France and Indonesia for helping with the Paris Peace Agreement talks 30 years ago, when Cambodia has finally returned to peace after a turbulent period of civil wars.

The King has also thanked UNESCO’s efforts in protecting and safe guarding Cambodian’s cultural heritages, and has stated it was a pleasure to back at a UNESCO’s General Assembly. King Sihamoni has participated in a UNESCO meeting in 1993 and 2003, when he was assigned to be Cambodian Ambassador.

On this year occasion, the Majesty has used the opportunity to requests UNESCO to include two more Cambodian heritages as part of the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage and the World Heritage Sites. According to Royal du Cambodge Facebook post, the King has started to prepare a request for the inclusion of Khmer traditional martial arts Bokator as an Intangible Cultural Heritage. Bokator has the chance to be the sixth Cambodian Intangible Cultural Heritage on a list that includes the Royal Ballet of Cambodia and the Shadow Theater.

He has also requested to include Cambodia’s Koh Ker Archaeological Temple in the World Heritage Sites category. As for the moment, Cambodia’s most famous temple, Angkor, as well as Preah Vihear temple and Sambor Prei Kuk archaeological sites are parts of the World Heritage Sites. The Majesty has also set a call with Director General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, on Saturday, to discusses the inclusion of both proposals.

^{PHOTO: TVK}