Khmer-language author Troeung Ngea, who wrote books about ancient Khmer civilisation and a history of the Khmer people, passed away at the age of 83 at 7am on August 28, after a lengthy period of illness.

Ngea's funeral will be held in Veal Vong commune of the capital's Prampi Makara district and a cremation ceremony will take place on August 28-29 at Kul Toteung pagoda, according to her son Troueng Bancharun.

Bancharun said in an August 28 social media post that his mother had passed away after a long battle with illness, though he did not specify.

Kok Ros, director of the Department of Books and Reading at the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, said on August 28 that his department had no detailed records of biographical information or comprehensive list of books by Ngea, but her book on the history of the Khmer civilisation, first published in 1973, was probably her most widely-read work.

Ros said that in addition to being a writer, Ngea was a teacher in Battambang province. Just this past year, she was honoured at the Royal Academy of Cambodia (RAC) by its president Sok Touch, who granted her an honorary doctorate degree for her contributions to Khmer culture through her writing.

Ngea was born on November 24, 1939, in Preah Netr Preah commune’s Sra moch village of Banteay Meanchey province’s Preah Netr Preah district and was originally named Lay Hunki by her parents.

She began working as a teacher in 1957 in Banteay Meanchey and a year later she married Troeung Ngea, a resident of Yingzhou district in Pol Leav province in Kampuchea Krom, the former French Cochinchine region in present-day southern Vietnam.

After marriage, Lay Hunki changed her name to her husband's name Troeung Ngea, which was customary within certain communities at that time.

In 1962, she pursued her studies at the National Institute of Education's Faculty of Pedagogy in Phnom Penh until she graduated in 1966 with a Bachelor's degree in Khmer literature. She then became a teacher at the prestigious Preah Sisowath High School.

Ngea authored and published her most famous book "Khmer Civilisation" in 1973 under her married name. Records show that as of April, 1975, she was the director of Neary High School in Phnom Penh.

During the fall of Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975, she and her husband and family members were evacuated to Kandal province’s Koh Thom district.

Despite the dangers to their lives posed by the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime, she and her husband did not change their names or hide the truth that he had been a professor and she had been a teacher working for schools run by the Lon Nol-led Khmer Republic.

Ngea's husband was sent to the Khmer Rouge’s Security Prison S21, or Tuol Sleng, on November 20, 1975 and he was presumably killed there. Her other family members were evacuated to Moung Russey district of Battambang province.

After liberation day on January 7, 1979, she lived in Banteay Meanchey province, where in 1983 she resumed her career in education and became the director of Mongkol Borey High School until her retirement in 1995. From 1998 through 2006, she chaired the Banteay Meanchey provincial election commission.

After her retirement, family members said she spent much of her time studying Buddhism in the province and that she relocated to live with one of her son's in the capital in 2019.

Khmer Civilisation has stood the test of time as a scholarly work and is frequently cited in books on Cambodian history by other authors as well as in research papers by academics.

To thank her for her contributions to Khmer literature and history, RAC president Sok Touch awarded her an honorary doctorate in literature in 2022, stating in the announcement that doing so was in gratitude for her work and in recognition of its great merit as an achievement made in the best interests of society.