Narang Nouth

HE Nouth Narang (17 Jan 1937, Kratie, Cambodia — 9 Aug 2023, Paris, France) was a Cambodian diplomat, professor and statesman, a Khmer civilization scholar who was the Minister of Culture and Fine Arts of Cambodia just after Angkor was inscribed to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1992.

From 1963 to 1993, Nouth Narang lived in Paris, where he met his wife, Chhim Dary, contributing to the survival of the Cambodian culture during the civil war, teaching at Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (EPHE, 1974 – 1977), where he had studied under the supervision of Prof. Paul Lévy, then joining and heading (from 1978 to 1992) the Cedoreck (Centre de documentation et de recherché sur la civilisation khmère) in Paris — the important Cedoreck library has been transferred to Phnom Penh in 1993, and is now part of the Hun Sen Library. 

With a particular interest in local animist religions — the cult of the neak ta — and for ethnic minorities in Cambodia, with an emphasis on the Laotian communities — significative in Northeast Cambodia and the Kratie province, his birthplace -, Nouth Narang founded in 1982 the review Seksa Khmer សិក្សាខ្មែរ, a multidisciplinary, reference publication with contributions from Cambodian and French specialists such as Ang Choulean, Khing Hoc Dy, Jacques Népote, who became the reviews’ editors, and other researchers including Jean Ellul, Pauline Dy Phon, Marie-Alexandrine Martin, Khin Sok, Saveros Pou, Sunseng Sunkimmeng, Bernard Dupaigne, to mention only few from a long list” [from Nouth Narang’s biographical note completed in 2023 by Suppya Nut]. 

In 1998, Nouth Narang introduced ​‘National Culture Day’ to the Cambodian official calendar. After HRH Princess Norodom Buppha Devi took over the Ministry that same year, he co-directed the Royal Ballet of Cambodia with Princess Buppha Devi for a time. From 2010 to 2014, he was the Permanent Representative of Cambodia at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, then Plenipotentiary Special Ambassador to France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Andorra, Malta and Cyprus from 2014 to 2016. 

Publications

[list drawn up by Suppya Nut]

1. Conférences de M. Nouth Narang, EPHE, Section des sciences religieuses, Annuaire 1975 – 1976, t. 84,1974, pp. 155 – 164 ; Annuaire 1976 – 1977, t. 85, 1976, pp. 127 – 131 ; Annuaire 1977 – 1978, t. 86, 1977, p. 121.
2. “Le Cedoreck”, Culture khmère, Apr-Sept. 1981, pp. 144 – 148.
3. “Considerations on Asian values & Western Democracy: For a better Khmer society”, papers published in this series edited by Claudia Derichs and Thomas Heberer, Institut für Ostasienwissenschaften (Institute for East Asian Studies/​East Asian Politics, Gerhard-Mercator-University Duisburg, 2001, pp. 1 – 7.
4. “Laos and ethnic minority cultures: promoting heritage, in Protecting the intangible heritage of minority groups in Cambodia, Paris, Unesco, 2003, pp. 227 – 238. FR: ​“Cultures minoritaires du Laos : valorisation d’un patrimoine”, in La sauvegarde du patrimoine culturel immatériel des groupes minoritaires au Cambodge, Paris, Unesco, 2003, pp. 227 – 238.
5. “Preah Vihear : la symbolique cosmographique du site”, Revue du patrimoine mondial, n° 68, 2013, pp. 80 – 83.
6. [with Michel Butor and Philippe Gras], Angkor silencieux, Paris, Éditions sous le vent, 1988, 162 p.

See also Suppya Nut, ​‘In Memoriam Nout Narang”, Péninsule 87, 2023,