Word: sisavang
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Upriver, in the royal capital of Luang-prabang, Buddhist monks in orange robes gathered in the gold-spired temples to pray for the soul of King Sisavang Vong. who died 18 months ago. Since then, his corpse-preserved in formaldehyde and spices-has been sitting in a huge gilded coffin carved from a single, perfect sandalwood tree, awaiting a propitious time for cremation. Last week the time came. Military planes, which might usefully have airdropped munitions to isolated garrisons, were commandeered to fly in tons of food for expected funeral guests. The King's coffin was placed...
...they could work with the Communists without being swallowed up. And King Savang Vatthana thought he knew just how to start getting the warring factions on better terms: have them all up to the royal capital of Luangprabang late this month for the cremation of his father, old King Sisavang Vong, who has been preserved in formaldehyde since...
Savang Vatthana, a rather puritanical fellow, found himself at sharp odds with his father. King Sisavang Vong, who considered polygamy a foundation stone of the Laotian way of life. Once a year it was his father's royal pleasure to take a leisurely 40-day boat ride down the Mekong to Vientiane, picking and choosing from the new crop of maidens in the villages as he passed. The palace swarmed with royalty who were all half or full brothers and sisters of the future King...
...late King Sisavan Vong, who has been preserved in formaldehyde since last October. By long tradition, a Laotian King must be buried in a coffin made from a sandalwood tree that had been growing for centuries for this predestined purpose. This tree had just been found, and Sisavang Vong could at last be laid to rest. But even as Somsanith and his ministers were making funeral arrangements, a paratroop captain back in Vientiane was preparing a different sort of funeral for the Cabinet itself. Voice of America. A moody soldier trained in a U.S. Ranger course in the Philippines, Captain...
Ever since he died last October, King Sisavang Vong has been waiting. His body, suitably embalmed with formaldehyde, crouches in a throne-shaped coffin in the Royal Palace in Luangprabang in the fetal position, for the Buddhist monks say, "As we came into this world, so we shall leave it." The dead King is dressed in his most glittering robes and wears a gem-encrusted conical crown. His gaze is turned toward the wide, murmuring Mekong River where during his long life of 74 years he loved to watch canoe races and fireworks displays, often in the company of some...