The Funeral of the late Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk  who died in October has began.Crowds have gathered in Phnom Penh for the start of funeral proceedings .

His  body  is being paraded through the city, from the Royal Palace to an ornate, custom-built crematorium in a city park.

Cambodia’s King Norodom Sihanouk

A father of 14 children over six marriages, Sihanouk abdicated in 2004 after steering Cambodia through six decades, which were marked by independence from France, civil war, the Khmer Rouge regime, his own exile and finally peace.

Many elderly Cambodians credit him with overseeing a rare period of political stability in the 1950s and 1960s, following independence, until the emergence of the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s.

King Norodom Sihanouk’s funeral procession,VOA Image

Friday’s funeral ceremony began at 00:00 GMT, and will include a 101-gun salute. The procession gives crowds the chance to bid a final farewell to their king, who was placed on the throne by the French at the age of just 18, but developed into a canny political survivor.

When King Sihanouk died in October last year ,it was agreed that his  body lie in state at the palace for three months before an elaborate funeral and cremation, said the government.

By UP