• Society

Tributes Pour in Following Sambo Manara’s Death

• By Nhek Sreyleak
• April 20, 2024 11:55 AM

PHNOM PENH – Testimonials have been pouring in following the death of well-known historian Sambo Manara who passed away on April 20 in Phnom Penh. He was 67 years old.

Manara succumbed to illness on that Saturday morning at Calmette Hospital, announced Pannasastra University of Cambodia where he served as vice rector.

The tributes have been multiplying on social media, coming from all corners of the country. Alumni, colleagues and social media users expressed their condolences and grief over the loss of one of Cambodia’s outstanding historians and educators.

Kou Sopheap, a well-known Cambodian monk in the field of mental education, offered his condolences and wished Manara to rest in peace. “We have lost good human resources, Professor Sambo Manara, a historian who encouraged young people to be patriotic,” he said on his page on social media.

Chak Sopheap, director of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights and one of Manara’s former students, posted a condolence message with a picture of her visiting Manara on April 18. “The teacher is no longer in pain,” she wrote.

Manara seemed in poor health that day after undergoing surgery, she said. “But in this situation, the teacher still tried to talk to this student,” Sopheap said. “The teacher also told me to take good care of my father.”

An esteemed historian, Manara spent time sharing his knowledge on culture with the public through social media, and interviews for newspapers, radio and television.

He was appointed adviser to then-Prime Minister Hun Sen in February 2023.

In a condolence letter to Manara’s wife, Hun Sen, now Senate President, said that death of Manara is the loss of the nations important human resources who sacrificed physical and mental strength to serve the country in all circumstances for national interests.



Originally written in Khmer for ThmeyThmey, this article was translated by Torn Chanritheara for Cambodianess.