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Princess Malika and the Management of the “Property of Prince Yukanthor”: Household Economy and Bringing Up of Children in a Royal Family in French Colonial Cambodia
Get PDFThis article is an attempt to clarify the way in which Princess Malika (1872-1951), the daughter of Cambodia King Norodom (r.1860-1904), managed the household of the “Yukanthor Family” and brought up her children, based on the documents related to the Princess. Prince Yukanthor (1860-1934) is a Cambodian historical hero, known for his resistance to the French colonial regime, resulting in his exile, with such honors as a high school and a street named after him in the city of Phnom Penh, while Princess Malika is well-known for such achievements as the establishment of the first school for young women (École Malika) and the compilation and publication of works of Cambodian classical literature (the story of Kaki) and history textbooks.
Moreover, their daughter, Princess Pengpas (1893-1969), served as the minister of education under the post-independence monarchy. However, despite such activity and fame, these two women have yet to be the subjects of any serious research; and not for any lack of source materials, for the National Archives in Phnom Penh presently holds at least 13 folders, containing several hundred individual documents, related to the “Yukanthor Family,” which consisted solely of the Princess Malika and her children, who lived in Cambodia after the exile of Prince Yukanthor and his death. The collection records over forty years of the family’s struggle to improve its living conditions through continual petitions to the authorities and replies issued by both the Cambodian and French colonial powers that be.
In the process we find, for example, the Princess’ ideas about educating her children, providing them with the highest levels of education possible, including French lessons, regardless of their gender. In more general terms, the Princess, perceiving that the Khmer including herself were powerless than the French, set out to remedy the situation through the introduction of modern education into Cambodia. For her, the barrier between innately privileged royalty and its commoner subjects was even more unsurmountable. From a debate involving a comparison between “Khmer law” and “the laws of other countries,” we discover her perception of Cambodian traditions being equal in worth to those of any other nation, including France. It seems to be these kinds of ideas that greatly influence the process of administering education in post-independence Cambodia.journal articl
