Nhiek Tioulong

Nhiek Tioulong was born on August 23, 1908 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in a family of mandarins with Chinese ancestry near the palace. After primary education in Lycee Sisowath in Phnom Penh, he attended, and graduated from, the prestigious high school Chasseloup Laubat in Saigon. He returned to Cambodia in 1932 and served as governor of Pursat in 1937 and from 1939 to 1944 as governor of Kampong Cham. On March 9, 1945, he was appointed governor of Phnom Penh. Under the Sisowath Monireth administration, he served as Minister of Finance from October 17, 1945 to December 14, 1946. He also served as Minister of Education during the Son Ngoc Thanh administration. In April 1948, he became the Cambodian government delegate from the French High Commissioner in Indochina and in August of the same year, representative of Cambodia to the High Council of the French Union in Paris. In September, he is part of the French delegation to the UN, as an advisor. On 22 November 1949 he was appointed colonel of the Khmer Royal Army and Chief of Staff. In May 1950, he was appointed as a governor again, of Battambang Province. In 1951, he returned to his position as Minister of Finance. At the end of December 1953, after Cambodia gained independence, he was appointed the new governor of Phnom Penh and took part in negotiations with the French on the latest skills transfer between the colonial administration and the Cambodian government. On April 7, 1954, he became the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He became the first General of the Royal Cambodian Army. In 1955, he began his career as ambassador, to Japan, Poland, and later Czechoslovakia. His film career consisted of acting in Apsara (1966) and La Joie de Vivre (1969). Tioulong died in a Hong Kong hospital on June 9, 1996, aged 87.