Amitav Ghosh, Dancing in Cambodia, At Large in Burma

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Dancing in Cambodia, At Large in Burma

(1998) is made up of three parts: the two longish travel-essays of the book's title and a shorter Cambodian piece, “Stories in Stones”. Ghosh's capacity to find patterns in apparently unconnected events is at its best in “Dancing in Cambodia”, which links the 1906 visit of Cambodia's King Sisowath, his entourage, and a troupe of Cambodian classical dancers, to France, with the recent history of the country decimated by the Khmer Rouge Revolution. Ghosh interviews a number of figures who provide living testimony to the interconnectedness of these two narratives. They include a famous dancer, Chea Samy, who has first-hand knowledge of King Sisowath and his daughter Princess Soumphady as a result of having been taken to the royal palace in 1925,…

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Citation: Thieme, John. "Dancing in Cambodia, At Large in Burma". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 March 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5763, accessed 29 March 2024.]

5763 Dancing in Cambodia, At Large in Burma 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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