Saturday, December 23, 2006

Leveling Wat Destroys More Than Building

Friday, December 22, 2006

Letter to the Editor
THE CAMBODIA DAILY

The article "Man Gives Rice in Effort to Rebuild Battambang Pagoda" (Wednesday, page 16), really surprised me because a Khmer-American is very serious about destroying his Khmer ancestors' property.

He has been trying hard to distribute his $140,000 donation and replace a 100-year-old pagoda with a new one. Such a donation is a delight for the community, but destroying history is far beyond unacceptable.

Today there is a rich Khmer-American who wants to replace a 100-year-old temple with a new one. What happens when a millionaire wants to replace a 1,000-year-old Angkorian temple? No matter the reason, destroying historical property is destroying history and destroying ourselves.

Let the next generation see what our ancestors left us with.

Dara Dy,
Phnom Penh

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Our government certainly need to get involved and say No! If anybody cann't do anything, A Government can!

Anonymous said...

Technically, he is NOT destroying it, but rather chooses to replace it with a newly built one. However, he should understand that ancestry is very important. The pogoda should be fixed up, not replaced.

Anonymous said...

That rich Khmer-American is beleived to be Okhna Duol Phouk. Duol Phouk is beleived to be a former resident of Providence, Rhode Island. Why does he wants to destroy a historical site and rebuild a new one. "okhna" Phouk never work when he lived in Providence. He went around to "bign a poung" is all his work. Also, he uses older khmer people to ask for donations from other Khmer in the commnity to profit his own interest in Srok Khmer.