09 July 2006
Posted on the Sunday Herald (UK)
THE enigmatic carved faces that have stared out from the temples of Angkor Wat for the past 1000 years have seen much: the rise and fall of Cambodia’s god-kings, invasions by armies from Vietnam and Thailand, and vandalism by Khmer Rouge guerrillas who used the faces for target practice.
Now these images of old rulers gaze out at a new destructive threat: hordes of invading tourists. More than one million people visited the temple complex at Angkor Wat last year, turning neighbouring Siem Reap from a sleepy provincial backwater into a boomtown bursting with hotel construction sites, trendy restaurants, art galleries and travel agencies.
Luxury spas and resorts are sprouting up all over the country and eco-tourism is taking off in a wilderness in which exotic hill tribes haven’t seen a foreigner since the French colonialists departed. The millions of dollars the visitors spend are badly needed in one of Asia’s poorest nations, now relatively safe for tourists but still scarred by years of war and the communist reign of terror in which a third of the population were killed.
The new invaders may be well-heeled and are usually well-intentioned, but with their arrival come problems. Their presence puts more pressure on ancient sites and creates a market for looted antiquities. Some tourists are themselves a menace, out to exploit one of Asia’s nastiest under-age sex scenes.
Little more than a decade ago Cambodia was pristine territory for a few adventurous backpackers willing to risk a trip to a beguiling land of beauty and culture, with an engagingly gentle people still deeply traumatised by all they had been through.
The first Western visitors after the fall of the Khmer Rouge had to watch out for minefields and bandits, but away from these dangers they found temples that were places of beauty and solitude. Such sites have helped make Cambodia Asia’s hottest tourist destination.
One temple in particular has suffered from its popularity as a place to view the sunset. The nightly ritual of 3000-plus over-fed foreigners puffing up the steps of Phnom Bakheng, a five-tier hilltop temple, is putting so much stress on the structure that it threatens to collapse. The World Monuments Fund, a US-based agency, is calling for the temple to be shut to visitors so that a £1.6 million restoration project can be completed.
There are further signs of destruction elsewhere in the incredible complex, mainly the result of gangs stripping the best and most easily transportable pieces for sale. Heads are missing from temple sculptures and sections of carved friezes have been hacked out.
Most of the destruction happened during the 1990s, when lawless Cambodia was Asia’s wild west. Now things are much better and a protection force guards Angkor Wat. But elsewhere in the jungles and paddy fields are 3500 important sites, according to Unesco, few of which have any protection except that afforded by respectful villagers.
That is not always enough. In some places, looters have a free hand, stealing priceless artworks that are cherished by those who still worship in the temples, but are destined to end up in the cash-hungry antique shops of Bangkok and Singapore. To the frustration of campaigners trying to save what is left, there is little regulation in these two cities, trading centres for Asia’s antiquities whose governments have never signed the 1970 Unesco convention against dealing in stolen cultural treasures.
Bargains can be picked up in Phnom Penh’s Russian market, stolen and sold by hungry people who trade their heritage for a few dollars . Peasant thieves sell images of Buddha or Shiva for a pittance, but Cambodian antiques reach premium prices by the time they reach San Francisco or Tokyo.
One remote temple, Preah Banteay, has reportedly been reduced to a pile of stones. The film Tomb Raider was set in Angkor, but the real raiding is carried out at smaller sites. Tourism perhaps offers the best hope of persuading the authorities of the wisdom of long-term protection, but in the short term the impact of tourists discovering a new site can be disastrous. The ancient Khmer capital of Koh Ker is the site of one of Asia’s largest temple complexes, and for decades it has been protected first by jungle and remoteness, then by war and landmines. Now, however, the roads have been cleared of mines and the site is being opened to pioneering tourists. That could also open a way in for looters.
Dougald O’Reilly, of Heritage Watch, says: “Archaeological tourism is, potentially, this ravaged country’s economic salvation. The temples of Angkor are still the primary destination of most tourists, but more and more people are starting to venture out to Cambodia’s more remote archaeological sites. As they do so there is an increasing danger that those temples which have survived years of abandonment, war and looting do not survive their own popularity.”
Groups such as Heritage Watch have proved effective campaigners, appealing to tourists not to buy artifacts, persuading the government to protect Cambodia’s past, and using superstition as an effective weapon. A comic book distributed to villages last year tells the story of farmers who dig up an ancient site in search of treasure. Their animals sicken and die and ghosts plague them. The book, with a cover picture of a skeleton on a phantom horse rearing over petrified treasure seekers, has apparently been quite successful in getting its message across.
But damage done by tourism doesn’t end there. Cambodia has become a magnet for paedophiles, drawn by the desperate poverty of its people and official inefficiency and corruption.
Phnom Penh, the languorous French colonial city of temples and palaces on the banks of the Mekong, has some of the best cafes and sleaziest bars in southeast Asia – and some of the most morally corrupt clients. It’s another tourist boomtown, with families and couples drawn by the relaxed atmosphere and refined culture, and single men drawn by the opportunities for cheap sex.
Amphetamine-fuelled bars such as the Heart Of Darkness are notorious places where bar girls mob any Western man and shoot-outs between Phnom Penh’s spoiled rich kids are common. Prostitution, rare in Phnom Penh before the terrible years of war that started in the 1970s, has now become one of the city’s main industries, catering mainly to Western customers.
To their credit, the city authorities are cracking down on paedophile visitors . Posters warn that abusers will be jailed and advertise a hotline number for reporting them. Hundreds have been jailed, including some in the UK following joint British-Cambodian police action. But it’s a lucrative business for some, and away from the cafes on the Phnom Penh riverfront, perverts still haunt the dark corners of shady bars where old women introduce girls who should be in school to men who find out about such places on the internet.
Many Cambodians have turned a blind eye to the bars. Some police take bribes, and many are so desperate for well-paid jobs that they have become used to not criticising foreigners with money. But with tourism booming there is more willingness to eradicate these unsavoury elements that put off families and couples, who are the best customers. Cambodia’s tourism industry has a great future – as long as the visitors don’t destroy its key attractions first.
Now these images of old rulers gaze out at a new destructive threat: hordes of invading tourists. More than one million people visited the temple complex at Angkor Wat last year, turning neighbouring Siem Reap from a sleepy provincial backwater into a boomtown bursting with hotel construction sites, trendy restaurants, art galleries and travel agencies.
Luxury spas and resorts are sprouting up all over the country and eco-tourism is taking off in a wilderness in which exotic hill tribes haven’t seen a foreigner since the French colonialists departed. The millions of dollars the visitors spend are badly needed in one of Asia’s poorest nations, now relatively safe for tourists but still scarred by years of war and the communist reign of terror in which a third of the population were killed.
The new invaders may be well-heeled and are usually well-intentioned, but with their arrival come problems. Their presence puts more pressure on ancient sites and creates a market for looted antiquities. Some tourists are themselves a menace, out to exploit one of Asia’s nastiest under-age sex scenes.
Little more than a decade ago Cambodia was pristine territory for a few adventurous backpackers willing to risk a trip to a beguiling land of beauty and culture, with an engagingly gentle people still deeply traumatised by all they had been through.
The first Western visitors after the fall of the Khmer Rouge had to watch out for minefields and bandits, but away from these dangers they found temples that were places of beauty and solitude. Such sites have helped make Cambodia Asia’s hottest tourist destination.
One temple in particular has suffered from its popularity as a place to view the sunset. The nightly ritual of 3000-plus over-fed foreigners puffing up the steps of Phnom Bakheng, a five-tier hilltop temple, is putting so much stress on the structure that it threatens to collapse. The World Monuments Fund, a US-based agency, is calling for the temple to be shut to visitors so that a £1.6 million restoration project can be completed.
There are further signs of destruction elsewhere in the incredible complex, mainly the result of gangs stripping the best and most easily transportable pieces for sale. Heads are missing from temple sculptures and sections of carved friezes have been hacked out.
Most of the destruction happened during the 1990s, when lawless Cambodia was Asia’s wild west. Now things are much better and a protection force guards Angkor Wat. But elsewhere in the jungles and paddy fields are 3500 important sites, according to Unesco, few of which have any protection except that afforded by respectful villagers.
That is not always enough. In some places, looters have a free hand, stealing priceless artworks that are cherished by those who still worship in the temples, but are destined to end up in the cash-hungry antique shops of Bangkok and Singapore. To the frustration of campaigners trying to save what is left, there is little regulation in these two cities, trading centres for Asia’s antiquities whose governments have never signed the 1970 Unesco convention against dealing in stolen cultural treasures.
Bargains can be picked up in Phnom Penh’s Russian market, stolen and sold by hungry people who trade their heritage for a few dollars . Peasant thieves sell images of Buddha or Shiva for a pittance, but Cambodian antiques reach premium prices by the time they reach San Francisco or Tokyo.
One remote temple, Preah Banteay, has reportedly been reduced to a pile of stones. The film Tomb Raider was set in Angkor, but the real raiding is carried out at smaller sites. Tourism perhaps offers the best hope of persuading the authorities of the wisdom of long-term protection, but in the short term the impact of tourists discovering a new site can be disastrous. The ancient Khmer capital of Koh Ker is the site of one of Asia’s largest temple complexes, and for decades it has been protected first by jungle and remoteness, then by war and landmines. Now, however, the roads have been cleared of mines and the site is being opened to pioneering tourists. That could also open a way in for looters.
Dougald O’Reilly, of Heritage Watch, says: “Archaeological tourism is, potentially, this ravaged country’s economic salvation. The temples of Angkor are still the primary destination of most tourists, but more and more people are starting to venture out to Cambodia’s more remote archaeological sites. As they do so there is an increasing danger that those temples which have survived years of abandonment, war and looting do not survive their own popularity.”
Groups such as Heritage Watch have proved effective campaigners, appealing to tourists not to buy artifacts, persuading the government to protect Cambodia’s past, and using superstition as an effective weapon. A comic book distributed to villages last year tells the story of farmers who dig up an ancient site in search of treasure. Their animals sicken and die and ghosts plague them. The book, with a cover picture of a skeleton on a phantom horse rearing over petrified treasure seekers, has apparently been quite successful in getting its message across.
But damage done by tourism doesn’t end there. Cambodia has become a magnet for paedophiles, drawn by the desperate poverty of its people and official inefficiency and corruption.
Phnom Penh, the languorous French colonial city of temples and palaces on the banks of the Mekong, has some of the best cafes and sleaziest bars in southeast Asia – and some of the most morally corrupt clients. It’s another tourist boomtown, with families and couples drawn by the relaxed atmosphere and refined culture, and single men drawn by the opportunities for cheap sex.
Amphetamine-fuelled bars such as the Heart Of Darkness are notorious places where bar girls mob any Western man and shoot-outs between Phnom Penh’s spoiled rich kids are common. Prostitution, rare in Phnom Penh before the terrible years of war that started in the 1970s, has now become one of the city’s main industries, catering mainly to Western customers.
To their credit, the city authorities are cracking down on paedophile visitors . Posters warn that abusers will be jailed and advertise a hotline number for reporting them. Hundreds have been jailed, including some in the UK following joint British-Cambodian police action. But it’s a lucrative business for some, and away from the cafes on the Phnom Penh riverfront, perverts still haunt the dark corners of shady bars where old women introduce girls who should be in school to men who find out about such places on the internet.
Many Cambodians have turned a blind eye to the bars. Some police take bribes, and many are so desperate for well-paid jobs that they have become used to not criticising foreigners with money. But with tourism booming there is more willingness to eradicate these unsavoury elements that put off families and couples, who are the best customers. Cambodia’s tourism industry has a great future – as long as the visitors don’t destroy its key attractions first.
2 comments:
t really is unfortunate for things to play out the way they do. I noticed when I visited Cambodia they seem to ALWAYS put foreigners (who are usually of European descent) ahead of others. I understand the nature of promoting tourism, but it's kind of a kick to the gut when people in your own country start to judge you on the flesh of your skin.
“Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It's beyond me.”-Z. N. Hurston
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