Heritage site

Kirirom National Park

ឧទ្យានជាតិព្រះសុរាម្រិតកុសុមៈគីរីរម្យ

Kirirom National Park is a national park of pine forest and waterfalls in Phnom Sruoch district, Kampong Speu province, along the border with Koh Kong. It lies on the eastern edge of the Cardamom Mountains.[1][2] Its official name is Preah Suramarit-Kossamak Kirirom National Park (ឧទ្យានជាតិព្រះសុរាម្រិតកុសុមៈគីរីរម្យ).[3] The name Kirirom is usually translated as "mountain of joy" or "happy mountain".[4][5][1]

Landscape

The park is centered on the Kirirom plateau, about 700 meters (2,300 feet) high, and covers some 35,000 hectares (86,500 acres). A study from about 2003 counts some 13,000 hectares (32,100 acres) of Pinus merkusii pine, the largest such forest in Cambodia.[2] The Independent described it in 2016 as the country's only high-altitude pine forest, rising to 1,000 meters (3,300 feet).[6] The park is noticeably cooler than the plains around it.[5]

The same study lists the tiger, the sun bear and the pileated gibbon among the endangered animals the park shares with Bokor, along with banteng and Eld's deer.[2]

IntoCambodia places the park in Damrey Phong village, Kirirom commune, about 117 kilometers (73 miles) from Phnom Penh by National Road 4; The Phnom Penh Post gives 112 kilometers (70 miles), off the road to Sihanoukville.[3][1] Visitors come for the pines, the waterfalls, the wildlife and the walking trails, and for picnics, hikes and bird watching in the cool air.[3]

One of the park's sights is Tmor Loy Kirirom (ថ្មលយគិរីរម្យ), a large natural rock on a mountaintop in Traeng Trayueng commune. It lies about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the Naga roundabout inside the park, along a rough and rocky road, and visitors camp there.[3] Just north of Kirirom mountain is the Chambok community ecotourism site, with waterfalls, a bat cave, ox-cart rides and guided walks. Anloung Roth waterfall lies about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) north of the park, in Chambok commune.[3]

Visiting

In 2025 the park chief, Kim Sira, named its waterfalls, Domnak Chas, Khleang Brak and its sunset viewpoints among the places that draw visitors, and said the pine landscape is especially popular in the green season. The park counted 218,943 visitors in 2024, of whom 217,862 were Cambodians and 1,081 came from abroad. From the top of Kirirom mountain visitors watch the sunrise and sunset over the surrounding peaks, and campers stay in the pine forest.[7]

The Vipassana Centre, a meditation center of the Cambodian Buddhist Cultural Centre, stands inside the park and was completed on May 19, 2024. The national news agency, Agence Kampuchea Presse, reported in July 2025 that it received more than 100 visitors a day, both Cambodian and foreign.[8]

The Chambok Community Protected Area, in Phnom Sruoch district, covers about 3,383 hectares (8,359 acres) and takes in 10 villages of 638 households, whose residents help stop crimes against the forest and wildlife.[7]

History

Royal resort

The Water and Forestry Department created the park in 1940. It covered 4,401 hectares (10,900 acres) on a plateau between 300 and 1,000 meters (1,000 and 3,300 feet) above sea level.[1] King Norodom Sihanouk first went there in 1944, riding an elephant, and was struck by the pine trees, which he had not expected to find in Cambodia.[1][6] He gave the place the name Kirirom and had the department build him a holiday house, and roads and bridges followed to bring visitors up.[1][6] United Press International (UPI) dates the king's palace there to 1945.[4]

In the 1950s and 1960s Sihanouk made Kirirom a retreat for the royal family and the country's elite, and a group of villas was built on top of Kirirom mountain.[5] Work on Chuolong City, a holiday town on the plateau, began in 1962, with better roads, villas, hotels and some light industry.[2] In 1968 the O Koarklei stream was dammed for hydroelectric power.[2] By UPI's count, 137 buildings went up in the park, among them hotels and a hydropower plant.[4]

War and the national park

The sources differ on when the resort was wrecked. A study by the International Centre for Environmental Management says the Khmer Rouge held the area after 1971, and that most of its buildings, roads and services were lost. The Independent writes that Khmer Rouge fighters held out there after 1979 and wrecked the villas, which they saw as emblems of the king and his circle.[2][6] Cambodian government forces took the area back in 1992.[2]

Kirirom was one of 23 protected areas named in the royal decree of 1993.[4][9] The decree's list gives it 35,000 hectares in Kampong Speu and Koh Kong provinces.[9] IntoCambodia gives a total of 35,232 hectares (87,060 acres), shared with Kampot and Preah Sihanouk, of which 19,436 hectares (48,030 acres) are in Kampong Speu.[3] Cambodianess wrote in 2025 that the park covers about 80,000 hectares (198,000 acres) of forest, and called it the first national park officially set up in Cambodia, in 1993.[7] The plateau got a new palace for the king and four guesthouses in 1994, and a park headquarters and visitor center in 1995.[2] In June 1995 Sihanouk returned to dedicate the park formally. That year some 200 soldiers and 400 police were posted there, as the park bordered an area held by Khmer Rouge guerrillas.[4]

In 2016 a fireplace was all that was left of Sihanouk's old palace, and a local guide counted about 150 villas of the 1950s standing empty or in ruins.[6] By 2019 the park was drawing visitors again with new outdoor activities and places to stay.[5]

Protection and development

In 1995 UPI reported uncontrolled logging in the park, though advisers counted its pine forests among the largest natural pine reserves in Southeast Asia.[4] In 2012 a Japanese company, A2A Town (Cambodia), received an economic land concession of nearly 10,000 hectares (24,700 acres) in the park. Its first stage, the vKirirom Pine Resort, offered bungalows, huts, tents, camp sites and rooms built inside lengths of concrete pipe; the company planned a 700-hectare (1,730-acre) development with a university and land for homes and businesses.[1]

In August 2018 senior officials of the Ministry of Environment agreed to keep working with the local forest rangers to prevent forest crimes in the park.[10]

On August 2, 2023, Sub-decree No. 221 turned 221.94 hectares (548 acres) in the park's sustainable-use zone, in Traeng Trayueng commune, from state public property into state private property. The land went on a 50-year lease to the company One More Ltd. for an ecotourism project.[11]

In 2025 the park chief said that illegal logging and the unlawful claiming of park land as private property were its main problems. Rangers patrolled day and night, and about 15 deforestation cases a year went to court.[7]

In September 2025 buildings put up without permission were found inside the park in Chambok commune. Rangers began taking them down while the authorities tried to find out who had built them.[12]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 The Phnom Penh Post, A forest with concrete appeal (undated)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 International Centre for Environmental Management, Field study: Cambodia. Bokor, Kirirom, Kep and Ream National Parks (undated, about 2003)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 IntoCambodia.org, Kampong Speu Province (undated)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 United Press International, Tricia Fitzgerald, Cambodia dedicates new national park (June 6, 1995)
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 South China Morning Post, Marissa Carruthers, Is this really Cambodia? Pine-clad national park is a dream for hikers and mountain bikers (April 7, 2019)
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 The Independent, Nathan A. Thompson, A ghost town in the hills of Cambodia (2016)
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Cambodianess, Chhuon Kongieng, Kirirom National Park draws visitors in green season (August 14, 2025)
  8. ↑ Agence Kampuchea Presse, Preah Suramarit-Kossamak Kirirom National Park: A dual haven for spiritual growth and ecotourism (July 16, 2025)
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Open Development Cambodia, National parks and wildlife sanctuaries (undated)
  10. ↑ Open Development Cambodia (Khmer Times), Ministry to monitor Kirirom national park (August 20, 2018)
  11. ↑ Open Development Cambodia, Sub-decree no. 221 on the reclassification of an ecotourism development investment project in Preah Suramarit-Kosamak "Kirirom" national park (August 2, 2023)
  12. ↑ Open Development Cambodia (The Phnom Penh Post), Authorities dismantle illegal structures Kirirom National Park, hunt on for owner (October 13, 2025)
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This page was last edited on 17 October 2026, at 10:48.