King of Cambodia Norodom Sihamoni announced on Friday that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, stating that he will remain in China for an extended period of treatment. The 72-year-old monarch said in a statement to his people from Beijing that doctors 'confirmed that I am currently suffering from prostate cancer' and advised him to be hospitalized for treatment that could last up to two months. Sihamoni had traveled to Beijing over a month ago for a medical check-up. The king, who is unmarried and speaks French, Czech, and English, spent most of his life abroad, working in the arts field before ascending to the throne in 2004. He took the throne after his father, King Norodom Sihanouk, abdicated to receive cancer treatment in Beijing. Sihamoni largely performs a ceremonial role as head of state under a 1993 agreement between his father and Cambodian leadership that allowed the former king to return to the throne after years in exile. Sihamoni was born in 1953, the year Cambodia gained independence from France. He received a significant portion of his education abroad, studying filmmaking in North Korea in 1975 before being suddenly recalled to Phnom Penh in 1976. Some diplomats believe the decision to pass the throne to Sihamoni, rather than his politically ambitious eldest son Ranariddh, was part of Sihanouk's efforts to ensure the continuation of the monarchy, even with limited powers. The 'Khmer Rouge' came to power the previous year, and it is believed they forged a telegram from his father ordering him to return to the capital. During this time, the royal family was placed under house arrest during the Khmer Rouge's bloody four-year rule, which cost the lives of around two million people, including five of Sihanouk's fourteen children. As Vietnamese forces approached to oust the Pol Pot regime in 1979, Sihamoni was moved to China with his parents, where he later served as his father's secretary in Beijing and Pyongyang. In 1981, he moved to Paris, where he became a professor of classical dance, founded the 'Ballet Deva' company with his own choreographies, and also directed films in the field. In 1993, he was appointed as Cambodia's ambassador to UNESCO in Paris, where he worked to combat the trafficking of Khmer artifacts.
