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100 Riels 1972, Cambodia

in Krause book Number: 15
Years of issue: 1972
Edition:
Signatures: Governor: Hing Kunthel, Chief Inspector: Yem Sarong, Advisor: Unknown
Serie: 1972 Issue
Specimen of: 1972
Material: Cotton fiber
Size (mm): 172 х 76
Printer: TDLR (Thomas de la Rue & Company), London

* All pictures marked magnify are increased partially by magnifying glass, the remaining open in full size by clicking on the image.

** The word "Specimen" is present only on some of electronic pictures, in accordance with banknote images publication rules of appropriate banks.

100 Riels 1972

Description

Watermark:

watermark

Cheng Heng (Khmer: ឆេង ហេង, 10 January 1910 – 15 March 1996) was a Cambodian politician, who acted as the country's Head of State from 1970–1971, and was a relatively prominent political figure during the Khmer Republic period (1970-1975).

ឆេង-ហេង

Heng was born in Takeo Province into a middle-peasant family of Sino Khmer descent. He went on to become a prosperous businessman and landowner. He served in the civil service of colonial Cambodia, eventually reaching the grade of Oudom-Montrey (senior grade mandarin) by the mid-1950s.

His early political career, during the period when Prince Norodom Sihanouk's Sangkum party controlled the country, is relatively obscure: he entered politics in 1958, and served as Secretary of State for Agriculture in 1961-2. He was elected as the Sangkum deputy for Takhmau in 1962, but lost in the 1966 elections to a rival candidate, a young Sihanoukist doctor called Keo Sann. Heng subsequently returned via a 1967 by-election in Phnom Penh, and by 1970 was serving as President of Cambodia's National Assembly. Heng's levels of political support appear to have been limited up until 1970; aside from being President of the Assembly, he had previously been director of the main Phnom Penh prison.

Immediately subsequent to the Cambodian coup of 1970, in which the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, General Lon Nol and Prince Sisowath Sirik Matak, engineered Sihanouk's removal, Heng was made Head of State until elections could be arranged. This was a largely ceremonial role, as Lon Nol had assumed most of the Head of State's political powers on an emergency basis: Sihanouk, from exile, was to dismiss Heng as an "insignificant puppet". Apart from giving press conferences, Cheng Heng was also called on to receive visiting foreign politicians: William Shawcross relates an incident during Spiro Agnew's July 1970 visit to Phnom Penh, in which the Acting Head of State was forced to contend with United States Secret Service personnel training their guns on him while he was attempting to welcome Agnew to the Royal Palace.

Nol subsequently used a political crisis to remove Heng and take over the role himself early in 1972. In 1973, after American pressure on Lon Nol to broaden political involvement, Heng was made Vice-Chairman of a 'High Political Council' set up to govern the country. The Council's influence was soon, however, sidelined, and Nol resumed personalist rule of the deteriorating Republic.

In 1975, with the Khmer Rouge forces surrounding the capital, Heng's name was published on a list of "Seven Traitors" (also including Lon Nol, Sisowath Sirik Matak, In Tam, Long Boret, Sosthene Fernandez and Son Ngoc Thanh) who were threatened with immediate execution in the event of a Communist victory. Heng fled the country on April 1 for Paris, where he became associated with the group of exiles centred on Son Sann.

Heng returned to Cambodia after the UN-brokered 1991 political settlement (the Paris Peace Agreements) and had some further involvement in politics, founding the Republican Coalition Party which unsuccessfully took part in the 1993 elections. He died on 15 March 1996 at the age of 86 in Portland, Oregon, the United States.

Avers:

100 Riels 1972

Weaver

Woman weaving mat.

Silk weaving in Cambodia has a long history. The practice dates to as early as the 1st century, and textiles were used in trade during Angkorian times. Even modern textile production evidences these historic antecedents: motifs found on silk today often echo clothing details on ancient stone sculptures.

There are two main types of Cambodian weaving. The ikat technique (Khmer: chong kiet), which produces patterned fabric, is quite complex. To create patterns, weavers tie-dye portions of weft yarn before weaving begins. Patterns are diverse and vary by region; common motifs include lattice, stars, and spots. The second weaving technique, unique to Cambodia, is called "uneven twill". It yields single or two-color fabrics, which are produced by weaving three threads so that the "color of one thread dominates on one side of the fabric, while the two others determine the colour on the reverse side." Traditionally, Cambodian textiles have employed natural dyes. Red dye comes from lac insect nests, blue dye from indigo, yellow and green dye from prohut bark, and black dye from ebony bark.

Cambodia's modern silk-weaving centers are Takeo, Battambang, Beanteay Meanchey, Siem Reap and Kampot provinces. Silk-weaving has seen a major revival recently, with production doubling over the past ten years. This has provided employment for many rural women. Cambodian silk is generally sold domestically, where it is used in sampot (wrap skirts), furnishings, and pidan (pictoral tapestries), but interest in international trade is increasing.

Cotton textiles have also played a significant role in Cambodian culture. Though today Cambodia imports most of its cotton, traditionally woven cotton remains popular. Rural women often weave homemade cotton fabric, which is used in garments and for household purposes. Krama, the traditional check scarves worn almost universally by Cambodians, are made of cotton.

Revers:

100 Riels 1972

Prasat Bayon

The Bayon (Khmer: ប្រាសាទបាយ័ន, Prasat Bayon) is a well-known and richly decorated Khmer temple at Angkor in Cambodia. Built in the late XII or early XIII century as the official state temple of the Mahayana Buddhist King Jayavarman VII, the Bayon stands at the center of Jayavarman's capital, Angkor Thom. Following Jayavarman's death, it was modified and augmented by later Hindu and Theravada Buddhist kings in accordance with their own religious preferences.

The Bayon's most distinctive feature is the multitude of serene and massive stone faces on the many towers which jut out from the upper terrace and cluster around its central peak. The temple is known also for two impressive sets of bas-reliefs, which present an unusual combination of mythological, historical, and mundane scenes. The current main conservatory body, the Japanese Government Team for the Safeguarding of Angkor (the JSA) has described the temple as "the most striking expression of the baroque style" of Khmer architecture, as contrasted with the classical style of Angkor Wat.

Weaver

On left side is the statue of the mythical Naga, the seven-headed serpent protector of Buddha, in Prasat Bayon temple (profile).

Nāga (IAST: nāgá; Devanāgarī: नाग) is the Sanskrit and Pali word for a deity or class of entity or being, taking the form of a very great snake-specifically the king cobra, found in Indian religions, mainly Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. A female nāga is a nāgī or nāgiṇī.

Traditions about nāgas are also very common in all the Buddhist countries of Asia. In many countries, the nāga concept has been merged with local traditions of great and wise serpents or dragons such as the Burmese nat. In Tibetan religion, the nāga was equated with the klu (Tibetan: ཀླུ་) that dwell in lakes or underground streams and guard treasure. In China, the nāga was equated with the Chinese dragon (Chinese: 龍; pinyin: lóng).

The Buddhist nāga generally has the form of a great cobra, usually with a single head but sometimes with many. At least some of the nāgas are capable of using magic powers to transform themselves into a human semblance. In Buddhist painting, the nāga is sometimes portrayed as a human being with a snake or dragon extending over his head. One nāga, in human form, attempted to become a monk; when telling it that such ordination was impossible, the Buddha told it how to ensure that it would be reborn a human, able to become a monk.

In the "Devadatta" chapter of the Lotus Sutra, the daughter of the dragon king, an eight-year-old longnü (nāga), after listening to Mañjuśrī preach the Lotus Sutra, transforms into a male Bodhisattva and immediately reaches full enlightenment. This tale appears to reinforce the viewpoint prevalent in Mahayana scriptures that a male body is required for Buddhahood, even if a being is so advanced in realization that they can magically transform their body at will and demonstrate the emptiness of the physical form itself.

Nagas are believed to both live on Mount Meru, among the other minor deities, and in various parts of the human-inhabited earth. Some of them are water-dwellers, living in streams or the ocean; others are earth-dwellers, living in underground caverns.

The nāgas are the servants of Virūpākṣa (Pāli: Virūpakkha), one of the Four Heavenly Kings who guards the western direction. They act as a guard upon Mount Sumeru, protecting the dēvas of Trāyastriṃśa from attack by the asūras.

Among the notable nāgas of Buddhist tradition is Mucalinda, Nāgarāja and protector of the Buddha. In the Vinaya Sutra (I, 3), shortly after his enlightenment, the Buddha is meditating in a forest when a great storm arises, but graciously, King Mucalinda gives shelter to the Buddha from the storm by covering the Buddha's head with his seven snake heads. Then the king takes the form of a young Brahmin and renders the Buddha homage.

It is noteworthy that the two chief disciples of the Buddha, Sariputta and Moggallāna are both referred to as Mahānāga or "Great Nāga". Some of the most important figures in Buddhist history symbolize nagas in their names such as Dignāga, Nāgārsēna, and, although other etymons are assigned to his name, Nāgārjuna.

In the Vajrayāna and Mahāsiddha traditions, nagas in their half-human form are depicted holding a naga-jewel, kumbhas of amrita, or a terma that had been elementally encoded by adepts.

Comments:

Many thanks to Ivan from Chelyabinsk for the addition to the description of the banknote!

He asked a question about Kampuchea's banknotes of this period.

He asked: "Many times I read in different sources that when Pol Pot came to power in Cambodia, money was abolished." Communism and all that happened.

But there are bills of Kampuchea time! Moreover, judging by everything, they were "republished" for what they were needed? After all, no one recognized the power of the Reds.

Even the neighbors on social. block, such as China and Vietnam, were not happy with their policies.

The party simply took what they wanted, and the working people received their wages with rice.

Maybe you met something on this topic? ".

I could not immediately answer this interesting question and said that I had to dig into the history of the monetary circulation of Kampuchea.

A little later, the same reader, sent me his own idea, therefore:

"After reading the articles about Cambodia and stirring my brains, I found the answer to my own question.

In 1970, General Lon Nol came to power. What is not less important -

 He carried out a coup with the support of the United States. Lone renamed the country "Khmer Republic" and existed until 1975.

But in 1975 the authorities switched to the "Khmer Rouge" and Pol Pot, and bloody terror and other "delights" began, the country was renamed again, this time to Kampuchea. The notes they issued were never put into circulation, as the banking system was abolished.

In 1979, Vietnam invaded Cambodia, expelled Pol Pot and created with his "help" the new government again renamed the country, already in the People's Republic of Kampuchea.

So, we can say with confidence that, from 1975 to 1979, there was no money in the long-suffering Cambodia, and these bills, probably, from the printing press immediately went to the collectors. And Cambodia and Khmer can be different, both simple and "red"."