Tourism & Culture: The SOSORO Museum welcomes almost 50,000 visitors in 2024, and more ambition and projects to come

The Preah Srey Içanavarman Museum of Economics and Money (SOSORO) has recorded 50,000 visitors in 2024, an increase of 28% on 2023. Still very active and ambitious, the museum team is preparing several major events this year.

At the SOSORO museum, this interactive touch screen offers a unique journey through time, presenting all the governors of the National Bank of Cambodia from its creation in 1954 to the present day

The National Bank of Cambodia's SOSORO Museum welcomed around 50,000 visitors in 2024, 85% of whom were Cambodians. This demonstrates the growing interest of Cambodians in their history and the central role of this institution in the transfer of knowledge and history.

The museum's economic literacy programme has also provided educational opportunities for more than 9,000 public school students, with Cambodian private banks helping to finance transport costs and visits.

This initiative was implemented following a Memorandum of Understanding with the Cambodian Banking Association in March 2024, and with the support of key banking partners and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport

Recently, the museum renovated three rooms to pay tribute to key periods in Cambodian history: independence, the Khmer Republic and the Pol Pot regime. The exhibitions aim to be more immersive and entertaining, thanks to modern display technology implemented by the Melon Rouge agency.

Several events and exhibitions will be taking place at the museum this year. On 15 January, researcher Andrew Harris will give a lecture on the use of advanced computer methods to study ancient coins from the ‘Rising Sun’ and explore trade and currency patterns in ancient South-East Asia. Mr Harris will present his study of over 1,000 ‘Rising Sun’ coins from museum collections in Southeast Asia, and discuss the effectiveness of advanced computational methods in better understanding their production techniques.

These coins, made of silver and originating from the Pyu city-states currently located in Myanmar, have been found in Thailand, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Cambodia. Some of them form part of the famous Konlah Lan hoard from Angkor Borei, dating from the 6th-7th centuries AD and now on display at the SOSORO museum.

This lecture, presented in English, offers a unique opportunity to discover the economic and cultural links that shaped South-East Asia in the first millennium AD.

From 21 March to 13 April, the museum will be hosting an exhibition organised by the Japan Foundation, featuring photographs of Tokyo taken between the 1930s and 1940s. They will be presented in juxtaposition with those taken after 2010.