Body Of Late King Sihanouk Returning From China Warmly Welcomed By Grief-Stricken Cambodians In Phnom Penh

A portrait of Cambodia’s late King Norodom Sihanouk leads the procession of the body of Sihanouk in a casket on a street to the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012. The body returned to his homeland on the plane from China on Wednesday, welcomed by tens of thousands of mourners who packed tree-lined roads in the Southeast Asian nation’s capital ahead of the royal funeral.

The casket containing the body of Cambodia’s late King Norodom Sihanouk is carried by a flotilla of legendary phoenix in the procession on the street in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012. <AP Photo/Heng Sinith>

In this photo released by China’s Xinhua News Agency, Cambodian Queen Mother Norodom Monineath Sihanouk, 5th left in front, Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni. 4th left in front, and Prime Minister Hun Sen, 2nd left,pray in front of the body of Cambodian former King Norodom Sihanouk at China’s Beijing Hospital on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012. Sihanouk died Monday at age 89 of a heart attack in Beijing, where he had been receiving medical treatment since January for multiple ailments. His body will be flown back to Phnom Penh Wednesday. <AP Photo/Xinhua, Li Xueren>

People offer flowers as they mourn the death of former King Norodom Sihanouk at the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday Oct. 17, 2012. Sihanouk, a cunning political survivor who reinvented himself repeatedly throughout his often flamboyant life, died Monday at age 89 of a heart attack in Beijing, where he had been receiving medical treatment since January for multiple ailments. <AP Photo/Wong Maye-E>

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