The Preah Vihear temple in Cambodia, near the Thai border. Photo: Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP/Getty ImagesThe row over the Preah Vihear temple has been simmering for hundreds of years. World Heritage Status has brought it to the boil
Tuesday July 15, 2008
Tom Fawthrop
guardian.co.uk
Preah Vihear, a stunning temple dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva, is perched on a Cambodian cliff-top straddling the Thai border. It was finally awarded World Heritage status this month, despite fierce protests from ardent Thai nationalists and the parliamentary opposition in Bangkok. Now, according to a Cambodian official, 40 Thai troops have crossed the border and entered the temple complex.
The temple's ornate structures date back to the eleventh century, but the site was occupied two hundred years earlier. Preah Vihear has become an explosive issue in domestic Thai politics. It has also exposed how narrow-minded nationalism can obstruct efforts at world conservation. Indeed, according to the Thai opposition leader Abhisit Vejjajiva, the dispute over the temple's ownership is the "knockout punch" that could bring down the Thai government.
Unesco's World Heritage Committee should be congratulated for their refusal to bow down to frenzied claims that Thai sovereignty is being compromised. Much of the furore has focused on the 4.6 kms of disputed land surrounding the temple, which is claimed by Thailand. But the UN committee judged the Cambodian claim – pending since 2001 and repeatedly delayed by Thai objections - on its merits, and refused to cave in to the barrage of Thai petitions and political pressure. The foreign minister was forced to resign over his inept handling of the issue.
Cambodia and Thailand share much in common - culture, Buddhism and many traditions - but rivalry has led to centuries of distrust and simmering border disputes. Cambodians remember with pride that the temples of Angkor were the foundations of southeast Asia's greatest empire, the Khmer, which took in parts of what are today Laos, Thailand and Vietnam and Burma. Preah Vihear is now added to the legendary Angkor Wat at the heart of this Khmer civilisation.
The death blow to 400 years of Khmer rule was dealt by an invasion from Siam in 1431. Since the decline and fall of the great empire of Angkor during the 14th and 15th centuries, Cambodia has suffered a series of invasions and loss of temples and territory. The only victory achieved by the Khmer people during this long period of humiliation and retreat was won not on the battlefield but in the courts. In 1962, the International Court of Justice in The Hague made a landmark ruling that Preah Vihear – then under Thai military occupation - was a Khmer temple and part of Cambodia's heritage. The Thai dictatorship reluctantly complied with the judgment, removing Thai soldiers from the temple, while the ownership of the surrounding 4.6 kilometres was left unresolved.
During the last 46 years Thailand has shown little interest in helping to preserve the temple. Khmer Rouge forces seized it in 1993 under the noses of a Thai military base stationed nearby. Pol Pot's soldiers were not there to engage in archaeological pursuits, but to deny the Phnom Penh government control over a sacred and symbolic site as part of an insurgency backed by the Thai military. This policy of complicity with the Pol Pot forces led to further Khmer disgust with their more powerful neighbour.
The centuries of accumulated grievances felt by ordinary Cambodians erupted in 2001 when they burnt down the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh. Even today, most Thais still have little or no idea why their embassy burnt down, much less why Cambodians feel that Thailand has engaged in cultural chauvinism. According to several Thai historians, Thai schools teach a very partisan version of events in which Cambodia's vast contributions to Thai culture and society are scarcely mentioned, much less acknowledged. Historian and author Professor Thongchai Winichakul recently said he believed the Preah Vihear World Heritage issue "has gone beyond technicalities. It is abused to arouse delusion that the temple belongs to Thailand and a desire to revive the claim. The purpose is to generate hatred in Thai politics."
Ultimately, World Heritage sites like Preah Vihear are supposed to transcend national squabbles and boost conservation efforts in both Thailand and Cambodia. But despite Thailand's rapid economic progress, this centuries-old vendetta drags on.
Tuesday July 15, 2008
Tom Fawthrop
guardian.co.uk
Preah Vihear, a stunning temple dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva, is perched on a Cambodian cliff-top straddling the Thai border. It was finally awarded World Heritage status this month, despite fierce protests from ardent Thai nationalists and the parliamentary opposition in Bangkok. Now, according to a Cambodian official, 40 Thai troops have crossed the border and entered the temple complex.
The temple's ornate structures date back to the eleventh century, but the site was occupied two hundred years earlier. Preah Vihear has become an explosive issue in domestic Thai politics. It has also exposed how narrow-minded nationalism can obstruct efforts at world conservation. Indeed, according to the Thai opposition leader Abhisit Vejjajiva, the dispute over the temple's ownership is the "knockout punch" that could bring down the Thai government.
Unesco's World Heritage Committee should be congratulated for their refusal to bow down to frenzied claims that Thai sovereignty is being compromised. Much of the furore has focused on the 4.6 kms of disputed land surrounding the temple, which is claimed by Thailand. But the UN committee judged the Cambodian claim – pending since 2001 and repeatedly delayed by Thai objections - on its merits, and refused to cave in to the barrage of Thai petitions and political pressure. The foreign minister was forced to resign over his inept handling of the issue.
Cambodia and Thailand share much in common - culture, Buddhism and many traditions - but rivalry has led to centuries of distrust and simmering border disputes. Cambodians remember with pride that the temples of Angkor were the foundations of southeast Asia's greatest empire, the Khmer, which took in parts of what are today Laos, Thailand and Vietnam and Burma. Preah Vihear is now added to the legendary Angkor Wat at the heart of this Khmer civilisation.
The death blow to 400 years of Khmer rule was dealt by an invasion from Siam in 1431. Since the decline and fall of the great empire of Angkor during the 14th and 15th centuries, Cambodia has suffered a series of invasions and loss of temples and territory. The only victory achieved by the Khmer people during this long period of humiliation and retreat was won not on the battlefield but in the courts. In 1962, the International Court of Justice in The Hague made a landmark ruling that Preah Vihear – then under Thai military occupation - was a Khmer temple and part of Cambodia's heritage. The Thai dictatorship reluctantly complied with the judgment, removing Thai soldiers from the temple, while the ownership of the surrounding 4.6 kilometres was left unresolved.
During the last 46 years Thailand has shown little interest in helping to preserve the temple. Khmer Rouge forces seized it in 1993 under the noses of a Thai military base stationed nearby. Pol Pot's soldiers were not there to engage in archaeological pursuits, but to deny the Phnom Penh government control over a sacred and symbolic site as part of an insurgency backed by the Thai military. This policy of complicity with the Pol Pot forces led to further Khmer disgust with their more powerful neighbour.
The centuries of accumulated grievances felt by ordinary Cambodians erupted in 2001 when they burnt down the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh. Even today, most Thais still have little or no idea why their embassy burnt down, much less why Cambodians feel that Thailand has engaged in cultural chauvinism. According to several Thai historians, Thai schools teach a very partisan version of events in which Cambodia's vast contributions to Thai culture and society are scarcely mentioned, much less acknowledged. Historian and author Professor Thongchai Winichakul recently said he believed the Preah Vihear World Heritage issue "has gone beyond technicalities. It is abused to arouse delusion that the temple belongs to Thailand and a desire to revive the claim. The purpose is to generate hatred in Thai politics."
Ultimately, World Heritage sites like Preah Vihear are supposed to transcend national squabbles and boost conservation efforts in both Thailand and Cambodia. But despite Thailand's rapid economic progress, this centuries-old vendetta drags on.
11 comments:
According to Thai historian Charnvit Kasetsiri of Thammasat University of Bangkok, Chulalongkuoy signed the 1904 treaty with France to prevent Siam from being colonized by Western Powers. It is the legal border between Thailand and Cambodia to this day. The world court awarded the temple and the surrounding land to Cambodia in 1962.
Someone should quote this article for the thai trollers on this site. Even the world thinks they are an embarassment, especially their allies the brits.
Cambodia should be a shame for stealing the temple from Khmer people in Issan Province.
If any Khmer Issan who chooses to think along the line your point of view, ah pler 5:02, then they are simply traitors to the Mother Land, ah pler.
How can Khmer Issan be a traitor, Ah Jkout (7:15)? They are independent of Cambodia for centuries now, and Cambodia must stops attacking independent people. They don't pay tax to Cambodia. They don't follow and Cambodia's Law. They don't join Cambodia military, ..., and that is their right for being independent.
Who claims to be Khmer Issan now were slave of Khmer in Cambodia and now they become the slave of Thai all the ways
Find me a khmer issan people that think thailand deserves the right to preah vihear.
9:03,
I am so sorry to disappoint you...... I only find one!
8:12 am. What a disgrace!
8:12, let me make this easy and painless for you..... just call yourself Thai! We don't need any indecisive ignorant like you.
agreed,
you don't hear khmer USA claiming the temple, GO CAMBODIA. because khmer essan equals THAI
KHMER USA, KHMER FRANCE, KHMER CANADA, KHMER EUROPE, KHMER ASSUIE, KHMER NEW ZEALAND = KHMER cambodians
read this my heart go out to them
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2008070920210/National-news/Preah-Vihear-A-Mountain-of-Undeniable-Fact.html
Finally an article worth acknowledging!! Hope most of the international communities do feel the same way like this about THailand/Siam. Great work, Tom Fawthrop!!
Preah Vihear is now added to the legendary Angkor Wat at the heart of this Khmer civilisation.
The death blow to 400 years of Khmer rule was dealt by an invasion from Siam in 1431.
Kampuchea Krom & Si Sa Ket will be added on Cambodian Map in the near future.
Rise Up & Live All Khmers...
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