Hundreds of thousands of Cambodians dressed in black and white gathered on Monday ahead of the cremation of revered former king Norodom Sihanouk, who steered the war-ravaged kingdom through six turbulent decades.
The cremation is part of a week-long funeral for the mercurial ex-monarch, which started with a lavish procession through the streets of Phnom Penh on Friday and will see his ashes returned to the palace on Thursday.
Mourners jostled to get to the front of the queue early on Monday to enter the cremation site to pay their last respects to the chameleon king, who was deft at moving with the political tides. Others sat and prayed on a street outside.
Sihanouk, who towered over six tumultuous decades in his nation’s history, died of a heart attack in Beijing in October, aged 89.
Thousands of people had queued up at the crematorium over the weekend for a glimpse of the gilded casket containing the embalmed body of the beloved former monarch, while fireworks have illuminated the sky each evening.
