Little Baen and the king of the Khmers

Cha Chom Baen claimed to have been the wife of King Sisowath Monivongse.

 Subhatra Bhumiprabhas

SPECIAL TO THE NATION

Photo courtesy of Anake Nawigmune

 When King Sisowath Monivongse of Cambodia fell in love with the Siamese dancer Nangsao Baen in 1927, who knew the effect it would have on politics and freedom of the press?

 The Khmer monarch was smitten by Baen's performance with a classical drama troupe in Battambang and swept her away to his court as his Chao Chom - his wife.

The romance was not destined to end happily, however, although no one knows exactly what happened.

 Historian Krairerk Nana shared the tale recently in the Thai-language magazine Silpa-Wattanatham (Art & Culture) after finding articles in a 1930 edition of Asia magazine and a 1938 copy of the New York Times.But there's more to the story that what the historian recalled in the magazine.

 The romance has never found its way into official Thai or Khmer history books, but it's been passed on orally through the generations.

 Monivongse was 52 and newly enthroned in 1927, and Baen just 13.

 "She was kidnapped by the king's men the night after she performed," recalls Boonsang Reungnond, whose father was Baen's younger brother.

 "The next morning the king sent a palanquin to invite my grandfather [Baen's father] to the palace and asked for his pardon."

 Boonsang, 50, heard the story from his grandfather and his father, the late National Artist Thongbai Reungnond.

 According to the family's version, Baen lived in the royal court in Phnom Penh for many years before being sent back to Siam.

 But in his 1932 book "Brown Women and White", Andrew Freeman, the editor of the Bangkok Siam Daily Mail, offered a variation.

 "If the Daily Mail hadn't placed a megaphone to the mouth of the shouter, Nangsao Baen and King Monivongse might have lived happily ever after," Freeman wrote. His book was reissued in 2007 as  "A Journalist in Siam".

 The Mail heard Baen's story from her mother:

 "My daughter and I were playing in Battambang, but business was very bad. It was hard for our company to make people part with their satang, even to see my beautiful Baen dance.

 "We were even thinking of closing up and coming to Bangkok when, one evening, the manager whispered to us that King Monivongse was in the audience."

 The next day the troupe performed at the palace, and Baen was introduced to the court as Monivongse's new wife.

 "When I left Phnom Penh the two were extremely happy," Baen's mother said.

 "Baen proved that she was as good a wife as she was a dancer, and King Manivongse was proud of her. His Majesty honoured her with the royal name Srivasti Amphaibongse and ordered the royal scribes to write into the royal records her title of Chao Chom."

 The Mail kept up daily reports of the royal romance, until Freeman got a call from the French consulate in Bangkok, Cambodia being a French colony.

 "Your story about King Monivongse is all wrong," the consul told him. Freeman was given a formal statement that he was somehow compelled to publish - by what he called a "dictatorial ring":

 "According to the news received by the French Legation from the highest authority in Phnom Penh, it appears that the rumours of a would-be marriage between the King of Cambodia and a Siamese dancer are quite unfounded.

 "This dancer has actually been engaged by the royal entertainment department at Phnom Penh under the same conditions as Cambodian dancers."

 "We regret having misled the public in this condition."

 The editor made a stand for freedom of the press by omitting the last sentence.

The French consul issued another statement for the two other English-language newspapers in Bangkok to publish:

 "HM King Srivasti Monivongse of Cambodia, being displeased with the inaccurate and ridiculous assertions of the father of Nangsao Baen, has ordered the dismissal of the latter and her immediate return to Bangkok."

 Chao Chom Baen returned to Bangkok soon after, but told a reporter she was still the king's wife and only in town to visit her ailing younger brother.

 When Freeman published her avowal, Siam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs had its American adviser ask the Mail to stop printing news about the romance. The French, Freeman was told, didn't appreciate the "silly story".

 Baen was soon enough performing with another dance troupe - and keeping her silence.

 Historian Anake Nawigamune met her in 1979, when Baen was 65. She could still dance, Anake reported, but unwilling to discuss the past.

 "She didn't want to talk about her days in the royal court of Cambodia," says Boonsang, "not even with members of the family."