Siem Reap (Cambodia), Sep 16 (PTI) - President Pratibha Patil today said India was proud to have been involved in conservation and restoration of ancient monuments in Cambodia and hailed the ever growing cultural and business ties with the ASEAN nation.
Speaking at a banquet organised in her honour by the Governor of Siem Reap province, Patil lauded the Archaeological Survey of India for its commendable job in the restoration of Ta Prohm temple here.
"India is proud to have been involved in the conservation and restoration efforts of Angkor Wat from 1986 to 1993 and is currently working for Ta Prohm Temple," she said.
Earlier, the ASI team working here for the restoration of Ta Prohm, a temple built by King Jayavarman VII in honour of his mother in the 12-13th century, made a presentation to Patil on the subject.
She was impressed by their work and praised their effort.
ASI, which was involved in restoration work in the 1990s of the world famous Angkor Wat site located here, undertook the project to renovate Ta Prohm in 2004.
The project got underway in 2006 after some studies and the work of ASI at the historical temple, that has been damaged several times when this country moved back and forth from Hinduism to Buddhism as the official religion, is scheduled to be completed by 2013-14.
"We have no complaints about the 17.43 Crore funds till 2010 (the earlier deadline) given to us for the restoration of the Ta Prohm temple. This amount is likely to be revised further," D S Sood, Assistant Superintendent Archaeological Engineer and ASI team leader said.
The Ministry of External Affairs is funding the project.
He said the ASI had earlier planned to restore the whole Ta Prohm temple - also called Tree temple as trees have grown on the walls of the structure - but International Coordination Committee (ICC) for restoration of Angkor Park Area recommended only five enclosures to be renovated.
The ICC, which consists of 11 countries including India, sends a team twice every year to assess the progress made in restoration work.
Speaking at a banquet organised in her honour by the Governor of Siem Reap province, Patil lauded the Archaeological Survey of India for its commendable job in the restoration of Ta Prohm temple here.
"India is proud to have been involved in the conservation and restoration efforts of Angkor Wat from 1986 to 1993 and is currently working for Ta Prohm Temple," she said.
Earlier, the ASI team working here for the restoration of Ta Prohm, a temple built by King Jayavarman VII in honour of his mother in the 12-13th century, made a presentation to Patil on the subject.
She was impressed by their work and praised their effort.
ASI, which was involved in restoration work in the 1990s of the world famous Angkor Wat site located here, undertook the project to renovate Ta Prohm in 2004.
The project got underway in 2006 after some studies and the work of ASI at the historical temple, that has been damaged several times when this country moved back and forth from Hinduism to Buddhism as the official religion, is scheduled to be completed by 2013-14.
"We have no complaints about the 17.43 Crore funds till 2010 (the earlier deadline) given to us for the restoration of the Ta Prohm temple. This amount is likely to be revised further," D S Sood, Assistant Superintendent Archaeological Engineer and ASI team leader said.
The Ministry of External Affairs is funding the project.
He said the ASI had earlier planned to restore the whole Ta Prohm temple - also called Tree temple as trees have grown on the walls of the structure - but International Coordination Committee (ICC) for restoration of Angkor Park Area recommended only five enclosures to be renovated.
The ICC, which consists of 11 countries including India, sends a team twice every year to assess the progress made in restoration work.
14 comments:
Please do not use acid again to clean the stone! India!!!
India should acknowledge its scientists' role in defacing most of the bas relief carvings at Angkor Wat through the application of corrosive acid by paying Cambodia due compensation.
From a smooth and beautiful solid surface resulting from being caressed by human hands for hundreds of years, it took the acid overnight to turn it into the rough and coarse sandy stonework it has now become.
School of Vice
good luck 8:16PM! you asked for free help and than looking for compensation?
I don't know what kind of expert indian send to help the restoration of Angkor wat. They should had test to see how the Angkor's stone react with the cleaning formular ... they shouldn't have just blast those cleaning half of Angkor Wat! I been to Angkor Wat in 1996...it was very nice at that time. You can walk to the top level. But when I went again in 2000, we couldn't even claim up to the top. Because all these metals structure try to to keep up side stone from falling. The stone was dekay very fast.
My question is - was the experts were intentionally try to distroy Angkor Wat? Why don't they just try out on the smaller temple first before they do it on Agkor Wat? What I think is the intention of India doing - because this is the representation the Soul of Khmer people. khmer event use Angkor Wat on it flag as symbol representing Cambodian country. Distroying Angkor Wat is as painful as distroying Khmer identify in the 21st Century. Angkor Wat is where the Khmer people so proud of calling this temple as their own.
My question is to the Minister of Culture at that period that allow the Indian to help clean Angkor Wat-- had you identify what cleaning material they were going to us? Were the cleaning material had been use in other temple before it use on Angkor Wat?
'Help' in this case being the operative word, not reckless, unaccountable damage to another country's national heritage.
I'm sure it's not deliberate mistake by the helpers themselves - certainly not the Government of India - but there's no getting around the responsibily for the deed committed, hence the moral gesture in some form on the part of the helper is due. Even a public apology would not do India's prestige or reputation any harm.
Similarly, the US also committed terrible harm against the peoples of Indochina in the name of 'helping' her non-communist allies, and heavy B52 carpet bombings, as well as 'Agent Orange' that not only ruined much of Vietnam's forest and continues to harm and deform human lives yet unborn, were just some of the excesses mediated through American assistance to her allies.
The infamous 'K5' and other projects that led to the loss of thousands of Khmer people's lives in the 1980s also fall into this category of un-acknowledged history of 'friendly' assistance and genocide.
When will the US Government accept its due role and responsibilities over its war-time involvement in Indochina and compensate these nations in the same manner it forced Germany and Japan to meet its demand for war time reparations?
Isn't it petty of the US expecting Cambodia to repay the war time loans of some hundreds of millions of US dollars when the estimated cost in damages to Cambodia's terrain, agriculture, wild life, and human psyche alone would be some where around 10-15 billions US dollars or over?
Well, that is one of the reasons why Hanoi has insisted on US paying Vietnam reparations.
As for Cambodian leaders, it appears they are just content with getting the 'help' no matter what consequences that help leads to. Enough said.
School of Vice
Hay, 11:30 pm, thanks for your Vice. From my part I wasn't think that it was bad intention, but there are real expert on restoration...they should have tested and give enough time to see how the Angkor stone react to the chemical of it. If you would seen the Angkor Wat right now, I am sure it would be more decay than it was in 2000...as an expert - one have a moral responsibility to its work to humanity as a whole. Thus, in this cas, I think that India should as done so as well.
they should study first, before apply chemical to treat angkor stone, etc! i mean the intention was good, however, the technical work was not thoroughly or carefully studied to prevent further damages to the stone works, etc! hope any future restoration work is learned from this costly mistake!
No problem! My 'Vice' is free, and I couldn't agree more about the issue of moral responsibilty - that's exactly what I am getting at here.
We are discussing 'free help' and compensation? Please read my notes again for clarification. Thanks
PS. In my view both the host authorities and the foreign experts bear equal responsibility for having allowed the damage on such a massive scale to take place. This is partly to do with Cambodian government's naiivity and a lack of critical, questioning culture in the first instance.
Regimes after regimes only know how to suppress or purge off dissenting views and opinions, and that's has been at the core of the country's tragedy and predicament up to the present time.
If it's not Angkor Wat, it's the border delineations with Vietnam, Laos or Thailand claiming the headline for another national scandal or fiasco. And one way to prevent scrutity is, of course, to claim exclusivity of expertise or point to the technical nature of the work being carried out.
This then in turn restricts and discourages public debate and involvement in national affairs with the certain effect of further breeding a culture of blind subservience and official incompetence at all levels of public administration.
School of Vice
10:06 don't you asking too much from the monkies???
4:20 am,first, I have to give them a benefit of the doubt that they're capable to having responsibility toward the country as it come with the title. I really want to know the true of what he was thinking at that time? Wouldn't he raise any questions toward this assistant?...
To the free "vice" person...what are you thinking on the issue-that people should take their title seriousely - they should take responsibility and accountability of their action!
You raised a relevant and fundamental question there, one that has been widely debated - particularly as this question pertains to genocides and war crimes - not only in Cambodia, but also in other trouble spots around the world such as Rwanda, the Balkans, Chile, the Sudan, Australia, etc!.
The captions of former KR leaders in the article immediately below this serves to remind us all of the intractable nature and complexity of what really 'defines' responsibility and accountability in public life.
We would have to turn to the legal experts for their views on this, but I believe like you and most decent folk do that people should be held accountable for all their actions. That said, one should recognise that accountability in public life is highly contextualised - i.e it is inextricably intertwined with a number of social influences or factors such as religion, ideology, culture, politics, and of course, history herself. However, we should not (I feel) make references to these forces as though they were overpowering dynamics dictating men's and women's actions, reducing humans to the status of some kind of robotic instruments of their playthings.
From an early age, we have had to conform our action and behaviour to our parent's guidance and discipline, to the school authority, to friends' approval, to state laws, to social sanctions in society as well as at the work place.
These measures serve to remind us of where exactly our conduct fits into a specific context and situation, framing our moral judgement and social instinct and ultimately tell us where our personal responsibility and accountability lie.
It would be worthwhile for Cambodians to reflect or debate more on this issue - and I have enough humility to learn from others! - but returning to our concern over the damage rendered to Angkor Wat, I believe, yes, people entrusted with social responsibility or title must be held accountable for their role in the said error, and whether it is intentional or not, it is nonetheless a crime of monumental proportion, as Angkor Wat (the world's largest known religious structure)foremost among hundreds of other monuments of similar stature and origin, has come to symbolise the depth and richness of Khmer civilisation as well as the indomitable spirit and dignity of the Khmer people.
Enjoy the weekend!
School of Vice
Hi free "Vice"
Thanks a million for you deep though and well put pertaining to responsibility and accountability of leaders that come with those title. As it reminds me that Khmer leaders have very long title in front of their name (H.E., Auknar, Dacho, Samdat, Dr. Mr. (name)), but have very little value. I think that their title can only be use in Cambodia to dominate the Khmer population at large, otherwise, their title just like the Cambodian currency (riel). The riel is useless out side Cambodia. Event Vietname and Thai's currency can be use in Cambodia, but Cambodian currency cannot be use either in Thailand or Vietnam.
Once again, thanks for your free "vice"
Enjoy your weekend as well!
From Koun Khmer enjoying to read anything free from "School of Vice"
9:59PM! about title, can you at lease respect culture or we all would become monkey like the communist!
It is hard to brink human out of monkey but it is easy to bring monkey out of man!
5:05 am, I have no problems of respecting the culture, but not the culture of threattening other people to call them with those title. But such kind of title in front of the people's who does not earn it is useless. I don't mind those people use their title in Cambodian environment such as H.E., etc, but don't demand other people to address them that way.
5:05 am - are you living in Cambodia, Is your servival in that environment depend on the title you hold? How big the car you drive, and do you have to tell people that you only get your hair cut in singapore?...if you one of those people, you definately will have a hard time to stay outside of polute social environment of Cambodia - where the elite, or almost elite demand people to address them by title...
But with such a demand of the people who does not deserve these title...they just make themselves look like a monkey out of men. Men with clear mind and wisdom...will allow others to see their deed and give respect from the heart...
Best wishes to you 5:35 am...
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