Mourners from all over Cambodia gathered in the country's capital on Sunday (February 3, 2013) to pay their last respects to their former King Norodom Sihanouk.<br/> <br />Sihanouk's body will remain in a purpose built crematorium in Phnom Penh until the cremation ceremony on Monday (February 4, 2013).<br/> <br />Sihanouk, once an absolute ruler who freed Cambodia from colonialism before becoming a tragic pawn through decades of turmoil, died in October in a Beijing hospital. He was 89.<br/> <br />Mourners gathered and offered prayers for their former king.<br/> <br />Despite his political flip-flopping, diminished influence and latter years in exile, Sihanouk will be remembered with fondness, as a man groomed to be a puppet of France who defied his colonial masters and tried to prevent a repeat of Cambodia's bloodstained past.<br/> <br />Sihanouk's portrait is commonplace in homes and buildings across the Southeast Asian nation of 14 million people.
