Keng Vannsak

Strongly opposed to the Cambodian monarchy, Vannsak was also known for his role as a mentor to Saloth Sar, later known as Pol Pot, who ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. During Pol Pot's rule of Cambodia, at least two million people died from execution, starvation and overwork.

Politically left-wing, he was a member of the radical Democratic Party, and stood unsuccessfully as its MP candidate in the 1955 elections. He was also a friend and mentor of Saloth Sar (later known as Pol Pot) while both of them were studying in Paris.

In 1952, he returned to Cambodia with his wife and a bachelor's degree which he obtained at the Faculty of Literature and Human Science University of Paris in 1951. He later worked as a teacher at the prestigious Lycée Sisowath in Phnom Penh, and decided to stay there from 1952 to 1958.

In 1952, he invented the Khmer typewriter keyboard. After his death, Prime Minister Hun Sen expressed his regret, saying Cambodia lost a well-known intellectual. Before his death, Vannsak wrote a letter to Premier Hun Sen to let him know that he wanted to visit Cambodia after many years spent abroad since the 1970s. His very close friends said that Vannsak had a very last wish to have his ashes buried inside his mother's stupa in Cambodia.

Keng Vannsak became one of the key figures of the Cambodian student community in Paris. As described by historian Philip Short in his book titled "Pol Pot – Anatomy of a Nightmare", during the winter of 1950, more exclusive student meetings took place several times every month at Keng Vannsak's flat in Paris “to discuss political issues and more precisely about the future of Cambodia, a country which, for the first time, was directly affected by the war in Vietnam”. The historian explains that the meetings was the beginning of Saloth Sar's political training and more involvement into the Khmer political affairs.

After obtaining his baccalaureate in philosophy in 1946 in Phnom Penh, Vannsak continued his studies in Paris on a scholarship and worked as a Khmer-language assistant at the National School of Modern Eastern Languages (Ecole nationale des Langues Orientales). During his studies, he spent two years teaching Khmer language at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

In modern Cambodia, Vannsak is known for being one of the influential figures for the next generations of Cambodian scholars and intellectuals. He left behind him a legacy in literature, including two drama plays, short stories, many poems and his research from the 1940s.

Keng Vannsak (Khmer: កេង វ៉ាន់សាក់, Kéng Vănsăk [keːŋ ʋansak]; 19 September 1925 – 18 December 2008) was a Cambodian scholar, philosopher and Khmer linguist. He invented the Khmer typewriter keyboard in 1952. He lived in exile in Paris, France, from 1970 until his death in 2008. He died at the age of eighty-three at the hospital of Montmorency in the outskirts of Paris after suffering from a chronic illness.

Keng Vannak was born in a small village in Kampong Cham province on 19 September 1925, the same year Pol Pot was born. Vannsak mentored Pol Pot while both were in France. Both of them appeared to share an opinion on "original Khmer", considering Buddhism and Hinduism had contaminated the Khmer original culture.