Preah Vihear Temple (Photo: AFP)Mon, 19 Nov 2007
By Devirupa Mitra
Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi, Nov 19 - An 11th century temple in Cambodia, located near its border with Thailand and the subject of lingering tension between the two Southeast Asian countries, will now be renovated by India.
The Preah Vihear temple has been in the limelight this year over Cambodia's bid to get a Unesco world heritage status for it, but was objected to by Thailand.
A senior official in the external affairs ministry said Cambodia had approached India to take up the conservation of the Preah Vihear temple about six months ago. 'The request had been routed through our ambassador,' the official, who could not be identified as per service rules, told IANS.
The government has already asked the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to start work on a conservation plan for the temple.
It is expected that an announcement would be made to coincide with the visit of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to India next month.
India has been conducting temple diplomacy across Southeast Asia, harnessing the ASI to renovate important medieval temples in the region built by dynasties that had links with India.
An ASI team has been conserving the Ta Phrom temple in Cambodia's world-famous Angkor Wat complex since 2004, with the Indian Institute of Technology in Chennai conducting the structural study.
Similarly, ASI had also been asked to draw up a conservation plan for the ruins of Wat Phou temple in Southern Laos. In Indonesia, Indian archaeologists are helping to renovate the Hindu temples at Prambanan, Yogyakarta, that were damaged by the 2006 Java earthquake.
Indian diplomats said the strategy is to stress the common cultural links between India and Southeast Asia as medieval trade links with south Indian kingdoms led to the spread of Indian religion, language and culture in the region.
The Preah Vihear temple built during the Khmer empire is perched on a cliff in Dangrek Mountains, just across the Thai border. In fact, the easiest access to the temple is from the Thai side, while the Cambodian way is a ride through a mountain dirt road.
With its grand causeway climbing up the hill, the temple is supposed to be a stylised representation of Mount Meru, the habitat of gods according to Hindu mythology. Among the sculptures carved on the walls is a depiction of the Hindu mythological story of 'churning of the ocean'.
In 1962, the International Court of Justice had ruled that the temple was firmly in Cambodia. But with the country plunging into civil war soon after, the temple witnessed pitched battles between the Khmer rouge and the Cambodian army, with the former using it as a military camp.
The Preah Vihear temple has been in the limelight this year over Cambodia's bid to get a Unesco world heritage status for it, but was objected to by Thailand.
A senior official in the external affairs ministry said Cambodia had approached India to take up the conservation of the Preah Vihear temple about six months ago. 'The request had been routed through our ambassador,' the official, who could not be identified as per service rules, told IANS.
The government has already asked the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to start work on a conservation plan for the temple.
It is expected that an announcement would be made to coincide with the visit of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to India next month.
India has been conducting temple diplomacy across Southeast Asia, harnessing the ASI to renovate important medieval temples in the region built by dynasties that had links with India.
An ASI team has been conserving the Ta Phrom temple in Cambodia's world-famous Angkor Wat complex since 2004, with the Indian Institute of Technology in Chennai conducting the structural study.
Similarly, ASI had also been asked to draw up a conservation plan for the ruins of Wat Phou temple in Southern Laos. In Indonesia, Indian archaeologists are helping to renovate the Hindu temples at Prambanan, Yogyakarta, that were damaged by the 2006 Java earthquake.
Indian diplomats said the strategy is to stress the common cultural links between India and Southeast Asia as medieval trade links with south Indian kingdoms led to the spread of Indian religion, language and culture in the region.
The Preah Vihear temple built during the Khmer empire is perched on a cliff in Dangrek Mountains, just across the Thai border. In fact, the easiest access to the temple is from the Thai side, while the Cambodian way is a ride through a mountain dirt road.
With its grand causeway climbing up the hill, the temple is supposed to be a stylised representation of Mount Meru, the habitat of gods according to Hindu mythology. Among the sculptures carved on the walls is a depiction of the Hindu mythological story of 'churning of the ocean'.
In 1962, the International Court of Justice had ruled that the temple was firmly in Cambodia. But with the country plunging into civil war soon after, the temple witnessed pitched battles between the Khmer rouge and the Cambodian army, with the former using it as a military camp.
8 comments:
Thank you India for helping us to restore our precious temple.
May God blesses you and your people for your kindness.
Please don't use the acide to cleane the stone like you did on Ankor base!India!
Why CPP people never leurn any lesson? please try to remumber some thing that went wrong even you get PHD without going to school and from Vietname!
Any thing from Vietname is faked!!!!! that is true!
why is your head so bloated with ignorance? Why do you have to find an opportunity to say something about Vietnam even though this subject has no relevance to it. And what evidence did you have that the Indians archeologist damaged the Angkor site?
You're the excuse for the trollers to make bad comments about us. What a rotten apple.
T0 11:43PM!
All issues are interrelated because the current government is a puppet Vietcong government! I also have a fucken issue with whoever took the fucken picture of the Preah Vihear with the Thaicong solider standing above Khmer solider on Khmer Temple!
This kind of picture only promotes the fucken look down on Khmer people by the Thaicong mother fucker and Khmer people can not accept this kind of behavior! If I have my way the fucken Thaicong soldier wouldn't have chance to stand on the Khmer land to have a photo shoot!
11:43pm If you not eurned your degree from Vietname you may read some Unesco, froreigne, and local newpaper report about the damage on the sand stone of Ankor by the India1
By the way you are too stupid to be educated in free system!
proud with your PHD from Verrrr, Do ma mei koncho:r
Guys, all temples are built by Khmer ancestors; therefore, those who inherited khmer blood, will inhirithed the temple as well. We must share it among our brothers everywhere on the planet. That is the wills of our anscestors, which is pretty much the same wills as you have for your children. Are you with me?
Hey! I like your concept of sharing by inherited Khmer blood and that mean I am your brother! So can you share your wife with me because we both share the same blood? Ahahhahahha
Are you with me? Do you hear me?
Give another chance to India to ruin another sacred temple. These CPP guys got brain of a size of a pea. They only know how to ruin every precious treasure our ancestors left us. Wake up Koun Khmers!!!!!
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