4 In his North Korean biography and in his later interview with Yugoslavian journalists, Pol Pot claimed to have been under monastic discipline for four years. His brother, however, was adamant about the shorter period.

5 James Gerrand, personal communication. See also Vu Can, Kampuchea: The Nightmare Is Over (Ho Chi Minh City, 1982), pp. 29-36. Saloth Sar’s younger brother, Saloth Nhep, told Jon Swain, who interviewed him in Prek Sbauv in 1989, “As a child [Saloth Sar] was a lovely boy, very gentle”; and Christine Chameau, “Brother’s Tears of Recollection and Resignation,” Phnom Penh Post, April 24-May 7, 1998, a special issue commemorating Pol Pot’s death. Saloth Nhep told Chameau that as a boy, Saloth Sar was “gentle and did not like to pick a fight with others. He was as nice as a girl.”

6 See Khy Phanra, “La communauté vietnamienne au Cambodge à l‘époque du protectorat français, 1863—1953” (Thesis, University of Paris, 1974). I am grateful to Thiounn Mumm for sending me a copy of this interesting study.

7 For visitors’ impressions of Phnom Penh in the 1930s, see François de Croiset, La côte de jade (Paris, 1938), pp. 64—71; and Guy de Pourtalès, Nous à qui rien n’appartient (Paris, 1936), pp. 142ff. See also Pierre-Lucien Lamant, ”Phnom Penh,“ in P. B. Lafont, ed., La peninsule indochinoise: Etudes urbaines (Paris, 1991), pp. 59—102.

8 On the ballet, interviews with Suon Kaset Sokho (1987-1990) and Eileen Blumenthal (1991).

9 Suon Kaset Sokho, who danced in the ballet in the 1950s, described the dancers’ quarters—which she visited but never lived in—as a ”rather hectic, filthy little village.“ Conditions were worse in Monivong’s time.

10 See David P. Chandler, ”Seeing Red: Perceptions of Cambodian History in Democratic Kampuchea,“ in David P. Chandler and Ben Kiernan, eds., Revolution and Its Aftermath in Kampuchea (New Haven, Conn., 1983), pp. 34-56.

11 See David P. Chandler, A History of Cambodia (Boulder, Colo., 1983; 2nd ed., updated 1996), Chapters 6 and 7.

12 For an astute analysis of this period, see Milton Osborne, The French Presence in Cochinchina and Cambodia: Rule and Response (Ithaca, N.Y, 1969).

13 See Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities (London, 1982).

14 Some French authorities viewed the institute and its innovative director, Suzanne Karpelès, with suspicion. In the 1940s, many monks who had been affiliated with the institute joined Cambodia’s embryonic Communist movement.

15 For a discussion of Nagara Vatta, see Bunchhan Mul, Kuk Niyobay [Political prison] (Phnom Penh, 1971). Monireth’s remark is from author’s interview with Sim Var (November 1987). Nagara Vatta ceased publication in July 1942, following the monks’ demonstration and Pach Chhoeun’s imprisonment (see below). See Ben Kiernan and Chanthou Boua, Peasants and Politics in Kampuchea, 1942—1982 (London, 1982), pp. 114—126. Khieu Ponnary’s early career from author’s interviews with So Bun Hor (February 1989), Chheam Van (November 1987), and Suon Kaset Sokho (May 1988).

16 On Saloth Roeung, Youk Chhang’s interview with her. For an analysis of the succession, see Milton Osborne, ”King-Making in Cambodia,“ Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 4 (1973): 169-185; and Norodom Sihanouk, Souveuirs doux et amers (Paris, 1981), pp. 69-72.