 |
| Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com) |
Showing posts with label Angkor Wat endangerment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Angkor Wat endangerment. Show all posts
Monday, September 12, 2011
Sacrava's Political Cartoon: Sok Kong's Angkor
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Cambodia: commercial overload at Angkor Wat
 |
| Tour groups in Angkor Wat (Photo: Amanda Keenan) |
Conservationists say the temples are suffering serious damage from millions of tourists.
September 11, 2011
Patrick Winn
Global Post
“If everybody goes and touches the Mona Lisa, it’s going to be worn out. That’s what is happening at Angkor.” ~Jeff Morgan, director of the Global Heritage Fund
SIEM REAP, Cambodia — Angkor Wat’s magnificence has endured nature, invading armies, artifact bandits and occupation by Khmer Rogue communist guerillas.
But nearly a millennium after the 12th-century temple’s creation, it faces its greatest threat yet: millions of tourists marching upon its stones and pawing at its intricate stonework with greasy hands.
Tourism is exploding at Angkor Wat, a world of sandstone ruins considered mankind’s largest pre-industrial city. Jungled over for centuries, and more recently unreachable during Cambodia’s decades of war, the site now absorbs more than a million visitors each year.
But while preservationists cringe at the site’s commercial takeover, they might as well brace for more. The Disneyfication is just beginning.
“See that?” said Hyo-Soon Park, a South Korean developer, standing on a balcony outside his office in Cambodia. “You can see Angkor Wat from here.”
The temple’s tallest tower was visible, in the distance, as a finger of sandstone jutting above the tree line. “When all this is finished, guests will be able to stare at it from their hotel rooms,” Park said. “They’re going to love it.”
Park’s project, called “AngkorCoex,” is a 400-acre temple-themed sprawl of golf courses, hotel suites, duty-free shopping and a large convention center. Site plans also call for a wellness center and something described as a “Bohemian Island with Innovative Playground.” Completion is expected in a year or two.
Monday, December 06, 2010
Cambodia Angkor park risks collapse
Angkor archaeological park is at risk of collapse due to excessive use of underground water.
05 Dec 2010
Al Jazeera
Angkor archaeological park is one of Cambodia's most beloved destinations, the solid stone ruins of Angkor sit atop a huge reservoir of underground water.
For centuries this water has kept the sandy soil firm and the monuments steady, but as tourists flood to these temples, the water has been used to supply the rapidly expanding tourist city of Siem Reap.
The crowds are literally sucking the ground out from under Angkor Wat and its temples, with potentially dire consequences.
The stone is already cracking under the strain of water being drained from the earth.
Experts are seeing the towers move before their eyes.
If the Government still use underground water, in the future, the momument can be subsided and collapse.
Al Jazeera's Aella Callan reports from Cambodia.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Tourists endanger Angkor Wat
Fragile temples threatened by erosion and instability
August 24, 2008
By Paul Watson
Los Angeles Times
August 24, 2008
By Paul Watson
Los Angeles Times
ANGKOR, Cambodia - The ancient sandstone temples of Angkor have stood up to endless assaults down the centuries, from medieval raiders armed with clubs and spears to genocidal looters laying land mines.
These days, the onslaught begins in the early morning darkness, when invading columns of buses, taxis and sputtering tuk-tuks converge on a dirt parking lot across from Angkor Wat's broad moat.
They disgorge hundreds of camera-wielding tourists, who march through the gray light toward the awesome gates of the world's largest religious monument.
Hindus constructed it in the 12th century, with a gilded central tower representing Mount Meru, mythical home of the gods and the center of the spiritual and physical universes. They built it facing west, perhaps in honor of the Hindu god Vishnu, preserver of all things.
For today's tourists, the alignment has a more mundane appeal. It's a great place to snap a picture of the sunrise behind sprawling Angkor's best-known temple.
When the shutters stop clicking, tour guides herd their groups into the monument all at once. Tourists jostling for space bump, scrape and rub their fingers against exquisitely carved stone, adding to centuries of damage to the friezes of soldiers depicted in epic battle atop chariots and elephants.
By dusk, the mob of sightseers has moved to Phnom Bakheng, where buses drop off hundreds of people who then scramble for position on large, delicately balanced stone platforms at the small temple, Angkor's oldest.
Obscured from the road by dense forest, it was safely off the regular tour routes until sappers cleared land mines that Khmer Rouge guerrillas had placed to defend the strategic hilltop.
"Now it's suddenly become the destination where everybody wants to be at the end of the day to see the sunset, and to see the views, which are spectacular," said Bonnie Burnham, president of the New York-based World Monuments Fund.
The nonprofit group helps conserve historic sites around the world.
Many of Phnom Bakheng's 108 shrines stand on platforms that have shifted over the centuries as water trickles in and loosens sand and dirt, and the tourists are gathering where they shouldn't.
So many people have clambered up stones next to the crowded stairs that erosion is accelerating, with loosened sections poised to tumble, Burnham said.
"The platforms where people stand are not really stable," Burnham said. "They're eroding very rapidly. The magnificent sculpture on the shrine at the center of the temple is in very fragile condition and has not been treated for conservation yet.
"People shouldn't really be touching it, or going anywhere near it."
Burnham's fund received almost $1 million recently from the U.S. State Department for a project to stabilize the eastern side of Phnom Bakheng, the temple's most endangered section.
As night falls, the tourists feel their way back down the hill and onto air-conditioned buses. They're delivered to their hotels in nearby Siem Reap, where they rinse off the sweat of a long day's touring with a dip in the pool or a soothing shower before dinner.
As the taps open up, more of the dwindling groundwater is drained. UNESCO has warned that the receding water table could undermine Angkor Wat's fragile foundations, causing the temple to gradually sink.
There hasn't been enough research to say how much the heavy demand for water affects Angkor Wat's stability, said Dougald O'Reilly, a Canadian archaeologist who heads HeritageWatch, a nonprofit group working to protect Cambodia's historic sites from looters and overuse.
A decade ago, about 300,000 tourists visited Angkor Wat each year. It was possible to have a quiet, spiritual moment alone in nearby temples that had been swallowed up by the jungle.
But peace, after decades of civil war and upheaval, opened the tourism floodgates.
More than a million people are expected to file through Angkor Wat's narrow stone corridors this year, and the government hopes to draw 3 million annually to the site by 2010.
With more hotels and resorts on the drawing board, conservationists are pushing hard to prevent a destructive free-for-all of development and tourism.
"It's going to mean some sacrifices," Burnham said. "People aren't going to be able to do some of the things, in an unregulated way that they've been permitted to do in the past."
Angkor's temples aren't new to the indignities of visitors with sharp elbows.
Numerous armies have barged through the city-state founded 1,200 years ago. Its temples were abandoned to the jungle during almost half that period. Angkor Wat suffered its worst damage when Khmer Rouge fighters looted it in the late 1970s as they were committing mass murder in the name of an agrarian revolution.
Foreign donors and governments, led by the United States, France and Japan, have spent as much as $50 million over the past 15 years to repair the scars of time and abuse.
But the work is far from finished, and new threats are building.
Sokimex Group, which has used its connections with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to become the country's biggest company, plans to build a 900-room hotel and spa, with shopping mall, water park, slot machines and conference center, on a 56-acre site in Siem Reap.
Sokimex also controls the ticket concession to Angkor. Passes cost $20 a day, $40 for three days and $60 a week.
It's small change for a company that deals in oil, gas stations, pharmaceutical products, garment making, property development and luxury hotels and resorts, in addition to running an airline.
Sokimex's share of the admission take is set by a contract with the government, and Burnham said it leaves most of the profit in the company's hands. One-third of the revenue is supposed to go to Apsara, a Cambodian agency set up by royal decree to preserve the Angkor sites and manage development.
But some people dispute the ticket sales figures, saying Apsara, which takes its name from the heavenly nymphs of Hindu and Buddhist mythology whose bare-breasted figures adorn the Angkor temple walls, gets enough only to cover basic expenses.
"Apsara has virtually no money for conservation," Burnham said. "All of the conservation at Angkor is being done through international assistance."
The effect of millions of feet pounding on Angkor Wat's steps and floors has already led officials to close some areas.
The towers, the tallest of which rises 213 feet, are off-limits because the constant wear and tear made the structures unsafe.
A first step toward reducing congestion could be as simple as insisting that visitors walk through Angkor Wat in the same direction, from beginning to end, Burnham said.
She also wants to see Cambodian officials set time constraints on tickets for the busiest of Angkor's temples, to limit pressure during peak hours.
The day may come when a strict quota is placed on the number of visitors allowed at certain monuments, Burnham said.
But O'Reilly hopes to avoid that by persuading tourists and their guides to make better choices.
O'Reilly is deputy director of the Greater Angkor Project, a team of researchers at Australia's University of Sydney who in recent years have discovered how vast ancient Angkor was by studying images taken by NASA satellites and an ultralight plane.
Their theory is that the city's 15th-century collapse occurred largely because people neglected their environment, cutting down too many trees to expand rice paddies, causing waterways to fill with silt.
If they're right, it's a cautionary tale for the 21st century, as overdevelopment threatens the magnificent buildings and art that ancient Angkor left behind.
These days, the onslaught begins in the early morning darkness, when invading columns of buses, taxis and sputtering tuk-tuks converge on a dirt parking lot across from Angkor Wat's broad moat.
They disgorge hundreds of camera-wielding tourists, who march through the gray light toward the awesome gates of the world's largest religious monument.
Hindus constructed it in the 12th century, with a gilded central tower representing Mount Meru, mythical home of the gods and the center of the spiritual and physical universes. They built it facing west, perhaps in honor of the Hindu god Vishnu, preserver of all things.
For today's tourists, the alignment has a more mundane appeal. It's a great place to snap a picture of the sunrise behind sprawling Angkor's best-known temple.
When the shutters stop clicking, tour guides herd their groups into the monument all at once. Tourists jostling for space bump, scrape and rub their fingers against exquisitely carved stone, adding to centuries of damage to the friezes of soldiers depicted in epic battle atop chariots and elephants.
By dusk, the mob of sightseers has moved to Phnom Bakheng, where buses drop off hundreds of people who then scramble for position on large, delicately balanced stone platforms at the small temple, Angkor's oldest.
Obscured from the road by dense forest, it was safely off the regular tour routes until sappers cleared land mines that Khmer Rouge guerrillas had placed to defend the strategic hilltop.
"Now it's suddenly become the destination where everybody wants to be at the end of the day to see the sunset, and to see the views, which are spectacular," said Bonnie Burnham, president of the New York-based World Monuments Fund.
The nonprofit group helps conserve historic sites around the world.
Many of Phnom Bakheng's 108 shrines stand on platforms that have shifted over the centuries as water trickles in and loosens sand and dirt, and the tourists are gathering where they shouldn't.
So many people have clambered up stones next to the crowded stairs that erosion is accelerating, with loosened sections poised to tumble, Burnham said.
"The platforms where people stand are not really stable," Burnham said. "They're eroding very rapidly. The magnificent sculpture on the shrine at the center of the temple is in very fragile condition and has not been treated for conservation yet.
"People shouldn't really be touching it, or going anywhere near it."
Burnham's fund received almost $1 million recently from the U.S. State Department for a project to stabilize the eastern side of Phnom Bakheng, the temple's most endangered section.
As night falls, the tourists feel their way back down the hill and onto air-conditioned buses. They're delivered to their hotels in nearby Siem Reap, where they rinse off the sweat of a long day's touring with a dip in the pool or a soothing shower before dinner.
As the taps open up, more of the dwindling groundwater is drained. UNESCO has warned that the receding water table could undermine Angkor Wat's fragile foundations, causing the temple to gradually sink.
There hasn't been enough research to say how much the heavy demand for water affects Angkor Wat's stability, said Dougald O'Reilly, a Canadian archaeologist who heads HeritageWatch, a nonprofit group working to protect Cambodia's historic sites from looters and overuse.
A decade ago, about 300,000 tourists visited Angkor Wat each year. It was possible to have a quiet, spiritual moment alone in nearby temples that had been swallowed up by the jungle.
But peace, after decades of civil war and upheaval, opened the tourism floodgates.
More than a million people are expected to file through Angkor Wat's narrow stone corridors this year, and the government hopes to draw 3 million annually to the site by 2010.
With more hotels and resorts on the drawing board, conservationists are pushing hard to prevent a destructive free-for-all of development and tourism.
"It's going to mean some sacrifices," Burnham said. "People aren't going to be able to do some of the things, in an unregulated way that they've been permitted to do in the past."
Angkor's temples aren't new to the indignities of visitors with sharp elbows.
Numerous armies have barged through the city-state founded 1,200 years ago. Its temples were abandoned to the jungle during almost half that period. Angkor Wat suffered its worst damage when Khmer Rouge fighters looted it in the late 1970s as they were committing mass murder in the name of an agrarian revolution.
Foreign donors and governments, led by the United States, France and Japan, have spent as much as $50 million over the past 15 years to repair the scars of time and abuse.
But the work is far from finished, and new threats are building.
Sokimex Group, which has used its connections with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to become the country's biggest company, plans to build a 900-room hotel and spa, with shopping mall, water park, slot machines and conference center, on a 56-acre site in Siem Reap.
Sokimex also controls the ticket concession to Angkor. Passes cost $20 a day, $40 for three days and $60 a week.
It's small change for a company that deals in oil, gas stations, pharmaceutical products, garment making, property development and luxury hotels and resorts, in addition to running an airline.
Sokimex's share of the admission take is set by a contract with the government, and Burnham said it leaves most of the profit in the company's hands. One-third of the revenue is supposed to go to Apsara, a Cambodian agency set up by royal decree to preserve the Angkor sites and manage development.
But some people dispute the ticket sales figures, saying Apsara, which takes its name from the heavenly nymphs of Hindu and Buddhist mythology whose bare-breasted figures adorn the Angkor temple walls, gets enough only to cover basic expenses.
"Apsara has virtually no money for conservation," Burnham said. "All of the conservation at Angkor is being done through international assistance."
The effect of millions of feet pounding on Angkor Wat's steps and floors has already led officials to close some areas.
The towers, the tallest of which rises 213 feet, are off-limits because the constant wear and tear made the structures unsafe.
A first step toward reducing congestion could be as simple as insisting that visitors walk through Angkor Wat in the same direction, from beginning to end, Burnham said.
She also wants to see Cambodian officials set time constraints on tickets for the busiest of Angkor's temples, to limit pressure during peak hours.
The day may come when a strict quota is placed on the number of visitors allowed at certain monuments, Burnham said.
But O'Reilly hopes to avoid that by persuading tourists and their guides to make better choices.
O'Reilly is deputy director of the Greater Angkor Project, a team of researchers at Australia's University of Sydney who in recent years have discovered how vast ancient Angkor was by studying images taken by NASA satellites and an ultralight plane.
Their theory is that the city's 15th-century collapse occurred largely because people neglected their environment, cutting down too many trees to expand rice paddies, causing waterways to fill with silt.
If they're right, it's a cautionary tale for the 21st century, as overdevelopment threatens the magnificent buildings and art that ancient Angkor left behind.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Too much adoration at Cambodia's Angkor temples
Statues line a roadway in the Angkor temple complex in Cambodia. A decade ago, the site drew about 300,000 tourists a year. This year, more than a million are expected. (Paul Watson / Los Angeles Times)
The 12th century Angkor Wat temple is the world's largest religious monument. Lost to the jungle for centuries, it soon could draw 3 million visitors a year if things go according to the Cambodian government's plans. (Paul Watson / Los Angeles Times)The crush of tourists at the sandstone ruins is taking a toll, conservationists say.
July 19, 2008
By Paul Watson
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
Angkor, Cambodia - The ancient sandstone temples of Angkor have stood up to endless assaults down the centuries, from medieval raiders armed with clubs and spears to genocidal looters laying land mines.
These days, the onslaught begins in the early-morning darkness, when invading columns of buses, taxis and sputtering tuk-tuks converge on a dirt parking lot across from Angkor Wat's broad moat.
They disgorge hundreds of camera-wielding tourists, who march through the gray light toward the awesome gates of the world's largest religious monument.
Hindus constructed it in the 12th century, with a gilded central tower representing Mt. Meru, mythical home of the gods and the center of the spiritual and physical universes. They built it facing west, perhaps in honor of the Hindu god Vishnu, preserver of all things.
For today's tourists, the alignment has a more mundane appeal. It's a great place to snap a picture of the sunrise behind sprawling Angkor's best-known temple.
When the shutters stop clicking, tour guides herd their groups into the monument all at once. Tourists jostling for space bump, scrape and rub their fingers against exquisitely carved stone, adding to centuries of damage to the friezes of soldiers depicted in epic battle atop chariots and elephants.
By dusk, the mob of sightseers has moved to Phnom Bakheng, where buses drop off hundreds of people who then scramble for position on large, delicately balanced stone platforms at the small temple, Angkor's oldest.
Obscured from the road by dense forest, it was safely off the regular tour routes until sappers cleared land mines that Khmer Rouge guerrillas had placed to defend the strategic hilltop.
"Now it's suddenly become the destination where everybody wants to be at the end of the day to see the sunset, and to see the views, which are spectacular," said Bonnie Burnham, president of the New York-based World Monuments Fund. The nonprofit group helps conserve historic sites around the world.
Many of Phnom Bakheng's 108 shrines stand on platforms that have shifted over the centuries as water trickles in and loosens sand and dirt, and the tourists are gathering where they shouldn't. So many people have clambered up stones next to the crowded stairs that erosion is accelerating, with loosened sections poised to tumble, Burnham said.
"The platforms where people stand are not really stable," Burnham said. "They're eroding very rapidly. The magnificent sculpture on the shrine at the center of the temple is in very fragile condition and has not been treated for conservation yet.
"People shouldn't really be touching it, or going anywhere near it," she said.
Burnham's fund received almost $1 million last month from the State Department for a project to stabilize the eastern side of Phnom Bakheng, the temple's most endangered section.
As night falls, the tourists feel their way back down the hill and onto air-conditioned buses. They're delivered to their hotels in nearby Siem Reap, where they rinse off the sweat of a long day's touring with a dip in the pool or a soothing shower before dinner.
As the taps open up, more of the dwindling ground water is drained. UNESCO has warned that the receding water table could undermine Angkor Wat's fragile foundations, causing the temple to gradually sink.
There hasn't been enough research to say how much the heavy demand for water affects Angkor Wat's stability, said Dougald O'Reilly, a Canadian archaeologist who heads , a nonprofit group working to protect Cambodia's historic sites from looters and overuse.
A decade ago, about 300,000 tourists visited Angkor Wat each year. It was possible to have a quiet, spiritual moment alone in nearby temples that had been swallowed up by the jungle.
But peace, after decades of civil war and upheaval, opened the tourism floodgates. More than a million people are expected to file through Angkor Wat's narrow stone corridors this year, and the government hopes to draw 3 million to the site by 2010.
With more hotels and resorts on the drawing board, conservationists are pushing hard to prevent a destructive free-for-all of development and tourism.
"It's going to mean some sacrifices," Burnham said. "People aren't going to be able to do some of the things, in an unregulated way, that they've been permitted to do in the past."
Angkor's temples aren't new to the indignities of visitors with sharp elbows.
Numerous armies have barged through the city-state founded 1,200 years ago. Its temples were abandoned to the jungle during almost half that period. Angkor Wat suffered its worst damage when Khmer Rouge fighters looted it in the late 1970s as they were committing mass murder in the name of an agrarian revolution.
Foreign donors and governments, led by the U.S., France and Japan, have spent as much as $50 million over the last 15 years to repair the scars of time and abuse. But the work is far from finished, and new threats are building.
Sokimex Group, which has used its connections with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to become the country's biggest company, plans to build a 900-room hotel and spa, with shopping mall, water park, slot machines and conference center, on a 56-acre site in Siem Reap.
Sokimex also controls the ticket concession to Angkor. Passes cost $20 a day, $40 for three days and $60 a week. It's small change for a company that deals in oil, gas stations, pharmaceutical products, garment making, property development and luxury hotels and resorts, in addition to running an airline.
Sokimex's share of the admission take is set by a contract with the government, and Burnham said it leaves most of the profit in the company's hands. One-third of the revenue is supposed to go to Apsara, a Cambodian agency set up by royal decree to preserve the Angkor sites and manage development.
But some people dispute the ticket sales figures, saying Apsara -- which takes its name from the heavenly nymphs of Hindu and Buddhist mythology whose bare-breasted figures adorn the Angkor temple walls -- gets enough only to cover basic expenses.
"Apsara has virtually no money for conservation," Burnham said. "All of the conservation at Angkor is being done through international assistance."
The effect of millions of feet pounding on Angkor Wat's steps and floors already has led officials to close some areas. The towers, the tallest of which rises 213 feet, are off limits because the constant wear and tear made the structures unsafe.
A first step toward reducing congestion could be as simple as insisting that visitors walk through Angkor Wat in the same direction, from beginning to end, Burnham said.
She also wants to see Cambodian officials set time constraints on tickets for the busiest of Angkor's temples, to limit pressure during peak hours.
The day may come when a strict quota is placed on the number of visitors allowed at certain monuments, Burnham said. But O'Reilly hopes to avoid that by persuading tourists and their guides to make better choices.
O'Reilly is deputy director of the Greater Angkor Project, a team of researchers at Australia's University of Sydney who in recent years have discovered how vast ancient Angkor was by studying images taken by NASA satellites and an ultralight plane.
Their theory is that the city's 15th century collapse occurred largely because people neglected their environment, cutting down too many trees to expand rice paddies, causing waterways to fill with silt.
If they're right, it's a cautionary tale for the 21st century, as overdevelopment threatens the magnificent buildings and art that ancient Angkor left behind.
paul.watson@latimes.com
July 19, 2008
By Paul Watson
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
Angkor, Cambodia - The ancient sandstone temples of Angkor have stood up to endless assaults down the centuries, from medieval raiders armed with clubs and spears to genocidal looters laying land mines.
These days, the onslaught begins in the early-morning darkness, when invading columns of buses, taxis and sputtering tuk-tuks converge on a dirt parking lot across from Angkor Wat's broad moat.
They disgorge hundreds of camera-wielding tourists, who march through the gray light toward the awesome gates of the world's largest religious monument.
Hindus constructed it in the 12th century, with a gilded central tower representing Mt. Meru, mythical home of the gods and the center of the spiritual and physical universes. They built it facing west, perhaps in honor of the Hindu god Vishnu, preserver of all things.
For today's tourists, the alignment has a more mundane appeal. It's a great place to snap a picture of the sunrise behind sprawling Angkor's best-known temple.
When the shutters stop clicking, tour guides herd their groups into the monument all at once. Tourists jostling for space bump, scrape and rub their fingers against exquisitely carved stone, adding to centuries of damage to the friezes of soldiers depicted in epic battle atop chariots and elephants.
By dusk, the mob of sightseers has moved to Phnom Bakheng, where buses drop off hundreds of people who then scramble for position on large, delicately balanced stone platforms at the small temple, Angkor's oldest.
Obscured from the road by dense forest, it was safely off the regular tour routes until sappers cleared land mines that Khmer Rouge guerrillas had placed to defend the strategic hilltop.
"Now it's suddenly become the destination where everybody wants to be at the end of the day to see the sunset, and to see the views, which are spectacular," said Bonnie Burnham, president of the New York-based World Monuments Fund. The nonprofit group helps conserve historic sites around the world.
Many of Phnom Bakheng's 108 shrines stand on platforms that have shifted over the centuries as water trickles in and loosens sand and dirt, and the tourists are gathering where they shouldn't. So many people have clambered up stones next to the crowded stairs that erosion is accelerating, with loosened sections poised to tumble, Burnham said.
"The platforms where people stand are not really stable," Burnham said. "They're eroding very rapidly. The magnificent sculpture on the shrine at the center of the temple is in very fragile condition and has not been treated for conservation yet.
"People shouldn't really be touching it, or going anywhere near it," she said.
Burnham's fund received almost $1 million last month from the State Department for a project to stabilize the eastern side of Phnom Bakheng, the temple's most endangered section.
As night falls, the tourists feel their way back down the hill and onto air-conditioned buses. They're delivered to their hotels in nearby Siem Reap, where they rinse off the sweat of a long day's touring with a dip in the pool or a soothing shower before dinner.
As the taps open up, more of the dwindling ground water is drained. UNESCO has warned that the receding water table could undermine Angkor Wat's fragile foundations, causing the temple to gradually sink.
There hasn't been enough research to say how much the heavy demand for water affects Angkor Wat's stability, said Dougald O'Reilly, a Canadian archaeologist who heads , a nonprofit group working to protect Cambodia's historic sites from looters and overuse.
A decade ago, about 300,000 tourists visited Angkor Wat each year. It was possible to have a quiet, spiritual moment alone in nearby temples that had been swallowed up by the jungle.
But peace, after decades of civil war and upheaval, opened the tourism floodgates. More than a million people are expected to file through Angkor Wat's narrow stone corridors this year, and the government hopes to draw 3 million to the site by 2010.
With more hotels and resorts on the drawing board, conservationists are pushing hard to prevent a destructive free-for-all of development and tourism.
"It's going to mean some sacrifices," Burnham said. "People aren't going to be able to do some of the things, in an unregulated way, that they've been permitted to do in the past."
Angkor's temples aren't new to the indignities of visitors with sharp elbows.
Numerous armies have barged through the city-state founded 1,200 years ago. Its temples were abandoned to the jungle during almost half that period. Angkor Wat suffered its worst damage when Khmer Rouge fighters looted it in the late 1970s as they were committing mass murder in the name of an agrarian revolution.
Foreign donors and governments, led by the U.S., France and Japan, have spent as much as $50 million over the last 15 years to repair the scars of time and abuse. But the work is far from finished, and new threats are building.
Sokimex Group, which has used its connections with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to become the country's biggest company, plans to build a 900-room hotel and spa, with shopping mall, water park, slot machines and conference center, on a 56-acre site in Siem Reap.
Sokimex also controls the ticket concession to Angkor. Passes cost $20 a day, $40 for three days and $60 a week. It's small change for a company that deals in oil, gas stations, pharmaceutical products, garment making, property development and luxury hotels and resorts, in addition to running an airline.
Sokimex's share of the admission take is set by a contract with the government, and Burnham said it leaves most of the profit in the company's hands. One-third of the revenue is supposed to go to Apsara, a Cambodian agency set up by royal decree to preserve the Angkor sites and manage development.
But some people dispute the ticket sales figures, saying Apsara -- which takes its name from the heavenly nymphs of Hindu and Buddhist mythology whose bare-breasted figures adorn the Angkor temple walls -- gets enough only to cover basic expenses.
"Apsara has virtually no money for conservation," Burnham said. "All of the conservation at Angkor is being done through international assistance."
The effect of millions of feet pounding on Angkor Wat's steps and floors already has led officials to close some areas. The towers, the tallest of which rises 213 feet, are off limits because the constant wear and tear made the structures unsafe.
A first step toward reducing congestion could be as simple as insisting that visitors walk through Angkor Wat in the same direction, from beginning to end, Burnham said.
She also wants to see Cambodian officials set time constraints on tickets for the busiest of Angkor's temples, to limit pressure during peak hours.
The day may come when a strict quota is placed on the number of visitors allowed at certain monuments, Burnham said. But O'Reilly hopes to avoid that by persuading tourists and their guides to make better choices.
O'Reilly is deputy director of the Greater Angkor Project, a team of researchers at Australia's University of Sydney who in recent years have discovered how vast ancient Angkor was by studying images taken by NASA satellites and an ultralight plane.
Their theory is that the city's 15th century collapse occurred largely because people neglected their environment, cutting down too many trees to expand rice paddies, causing waterways to fill with silt.
If they're right, it's a cautionary tale for the 21st century, as overdevelopment threatens the magnificent buildings and art that ancient Angkor left behind.
paul.watson@latimes.com
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Angkor in quicksand
The fast and huge growth in tourist numbers is putting environmental pressure on one of the world's premier heritage sites of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Photo / ReutersWednesday March 19, 2008
The New Zealand Herald
At first glance, it is business as usual at the great sandstone temple of Angkor Wat. Through a drape of evening haze, the ancient Cambodian superstructure sees another batch of tourists process across its moat and marvel at its grandeur.
Local teenagers waggle cool drinks in the faces of passers-by and auto-rickshaw or "tuk-tuk" drivers loudly vie for business. It looks like what it is - a boom town.
But the modern commercial success of the complex, on the site of the ancient city of Angkor, may, literally, be on shaky ground.
Heritage experts carrying out restoration work at the temple say a plethora of new hotels, cashing in on the country's near-exponential rise in tourist numbers, is sapping gallons of water from beneath nearby urban areas. They say this could upset the delicate foundations on which Angkor Wat sits and may lead to parts of it taking an unheavenly tumble to earth.
Philippe Delanghe, the culture programme specialist at Unesco's Phnom Penh office, said this week: "There is an important balance between the sand and water on which the temple is built. And if that balance is taken away then we might have trouble with collapse.
"The growth in the number of hotels means more holes are being drilled for water. And this has profound consequences for this mix.
"We saw something similar with the weakening of the stability of ruins in Indonesia two years ago, and there is the possibility that we will see something like this here."
Locally, it is easy to see why such comments go down badly. The temple, which appears on the national flag, is the jewel in Cambodia's heritage crown. Not only is it in the best condition of any such structure at the Angkor site, it has been tightly linked with Cambodia's history for nearly a millennium.
It is thought to have been built as a funerary temple for King Suryavarman II (who died in 1152) to honour Vishnu, the Hindu deity with whom he identified.
The sandstone blocks from which it was constructed were quarried more than 30 miles away and floated down the Siem Reap river. Recent research suggests that Angkor was an urban settlement covering some 700 square miles, comparable in size to Greater London, and therefore the world's largest medieval city.
In 1993, when Angkor was first added to Unesco's World Heritage List, the Khmer Rouge (a leftover from the Vietnam War) were still active in certain areas. Some 7600 people visited the temple complex that year. Since then, however, Cambodia has become "safe" and package tours have landed in fleets. In 2007, about two million tourists visited Cambodia, with half stopping at Angkor Wat.
With tourist traffic continuing to increase by about 20 per cent year on year, some three million people are expected to visit the country in 2010.
PRECIOUS PAST
- Angkor appears on Cambodia's national flag.
- It is thought to have been built as a funerary temple for King Suryavarman II (who died in 1152) to honour Vishnu, the Hindu deity with whom he identified.
- The sand stone blocks from which it was constructed were quarried more than 30 miles away and floated down the Siem Reap river.
- Recent research suggests that Angkor was an urban settlement covering some 700 square miles.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
New tourist route could be answer to Cambodia’s Angkor Wat woes
Oct 17, 07
By Stéphane Hanot
TravelVideo.TV
By Stéphane Hanot
TravelVideo.TV
PHONM PENH, Cambodia (eTN) - As tourism in Angkor Wat continues to grow unabated, a new tourist route could alleviate some of the tourist pressure. For many years now, the Cambodian government has been looking for solutions to take some of the pressure out of the site. As the first seven months of 2007 brought 442,000 visitors to Siem Reap International Airport, a growth of 38 percent, Angkor Wat is poised to continue to take a beating from the hordes of tourists that visit the world heritage site.
The Apsara Authority, which manages the Angkor Wat complex, recently introduced new paths with tourists taking different routes to enter and exit the temple.
The objective now is to make certain that tourists do not flock to the site at the same time. The idea is to create circuits around Angkor Wat to spread the number of visitors and take some of the pressure faced by Angkor top attractions.
“As France and Japan are sharing the presidency of the Permanent Secretary for the International Coordinating Committee for the Preservation and Development of the Historical Site of Angkor under the UNESCO, we work closely with Cambodian authorities to find the best solutions to accommodate tourism requirements,” explained Jean-François Desmazieres, French Ambassador in Cambodia. “The target is not to kill the hen with the golden eggs but at the same to preserve the authenticity of Angkor.”
Even if the committee plays only a consultative role, it has been able to avoid the development of the most incredible projects such as a subway to the temples.
According to the Ambassador Desmazieres, Angkor Wat can indeed accommodate a fairly high number of tourists every day. “During the time of Khmer Kings, they were already thousand of visitors per day to Angkor Wat temples,” he said.
The committee has also been working with Cambodia’s Ministry of Tourism for the creation of new tourist sightseeing such as traditional handicraft or silk producing villages. The most ambitious project is the development of a new tourist road, which would link Angkor Wat to the spectacular Preah Vihear temple, via the old city of Koh Ker where many temples can still be visited. Discussions will take place about tourism development from October 26 to 28, when the Coordinating Committee meets.
In another development, Cambodia’s tourism minister recently signed a joint declaration with tourism ministers from Laos and Vietnam on trilateral cooperation at the meeting in Ho Chi Minh City. The ministers agreed to encourage their national tourism agencies to boost exchange of information and experiences in tourism development and promotion. They also agreed to jointly hold and attend tourism events and tours and cooperate in personnel training.
According to published reports, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, under the “three countries – one destination” scheme, will implement measures to boost tourism and cultural activities as well as encourage public-private partnerships with regard to tourism development.
The Apsara Authority, which manages the Angkor Wat complex, recently introduced new paths with tourists taking different routes to enter and exit the temple.
The objective now is to make certain that tourists do not flock to the site at the same time. The idea is to create circuits around Angkor Wat to spread the number of visitors and take some of the pressure faced by Angkor top attractions.
“As France and Japan are sharing the presidency of the Permanent Secretary for the International Coordinating Committee for the Preservation and Development of the Historical Site of Angkor under the UNESCO, we work closely with Cambodian authorities to find the best solutions to accommodate tourism requirements,” explained Jean-François Desmazieres, French Ambassador in Cambodia. “The target is not to kill the hen with the golden eggs but at the same to preserve the authenticity of Angkor.”
Even if the committee plays only a consultative role, it has been able to avoid the development of the most incredible projects such as a subway to the temples.
According to the Ambassador Desmazieres, Angkor Wat can indeed accommodate a fairly high number of tourists every day. “During the time of Khmer Kings, they were already thousand of visitors per day to Angkor Wat temples,” he said.
The committee has also been working with Cambodia’s Ministry of Tourism for the creation of new tourist sightseeing such as traditional handicraft or silk producing villages. The most ambitious project is the development of a new tourist road, which would link Angkor Wat to the spectacular Preah Vihear temple, via the old city of Koh Ker where many temples can still be visited. Discussions will take place about tourism development from October 26 to 28, when the Coordinating Committee meets.
In another development, Cambodia’s tourism minister recently signed a joint declaration with tourism ministers from Laos and Vietnam on trilateral cooperation at the meeting in Ho Chi Minh City. The ministers agreed to encourage their national tourism agencies to boost exchange of information and experiences in tourism development and promotion. They also agreed to jointly hold and attend tourism events and tours and cooperate in personnel training.
According to published reports, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, under the “three countries – one destination” scheme, will implement measures to boost tourism and cultural activities as well as encourage public-private partnerships with regard to tourism development.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Invasion of Angkor Wat
Tourists at Angkor Wat. (Photo: AFP)August 19, 2007
The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
Cambodia's jewel has survived a lot, but popularity may be its biggest challenge, Kerry van der Jagt writes.
ANGELINA Jolie has a lot to answer for. Ta Prohm, with its ancient stonework and massive tree roots, is now sadly known as the Tomb Raider temple. And the tour groups love it. I watch on as entire groups re-enact Lara Croft running out from the temple.
One at a time they sprint, leap and hurl themselves towards their tour guide - and his video camera.
More like a stampede of clearance-sale shoppers than responsible travellers.
Angkor Wat and the surrounding Angkor temple complex in Cambodia are without doubt one of the seven man-made wonders of the world.
Stretching over 400 square kilometres, Angkor Archaeological Park contains the magnificent remains of the different capitals of the Khmer empire, from the 9th to the 15thcentury.
In December 1992, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation declared Angkor a World Heritage Site.
In 1993, 7600 intrepid travellers visited Angkor, but by 2006 the number had skyrocketed to 1.6million. By 2010, 3 million people are expected to visit Cambodia.
Dr Dougald O'Reilly, one of South-East Asia's foremost archaeologists and lecturer at the University of Sydney, founded the non-governmental organisation Heritage Watch in 2003.
The group has implemented a number of projects to help protect Cambodia's heritage by raising awareness of looting and its consequences. With full support from the Ministry of Tourism and the Authority for the Protection and Management of Angkor and the Region of Siem Reap, Heritage Watch declared 2007 "heritage friendly".
Its aim is to bring together locally-based private, public and non-governmental sectors in a nationwide collaboration to promote responsible tourism, while encouraging businesses to promote the arts, culture, heritage and development projects in Cambodia.
An additional component of the Heritage Watch project, the Heritage Friendly Tourism Campaign, was launched in January.
"The idea behind the campaign is to raise awareness of the fragility of heritage and the need for travellers to be responsible when they visit archaeological ruins," O'Reilly says.
"We also hope to discourage people from purchasing antiquities and to broaden their travel experience outside of just Angkor."
O'Reilly would like to see visitors venturing further afield.
"Cambodia is an amazing and diverse country with much to offer, yet too few people leave Siem Reap where the temples of Angkor are located," he says. "Rural communities are in desperate need of tourist dollars and encouraging people to lengthen their stays and visit other places is one of the goals of the campaign."
A major component of the Heritage Friendly Tourism Campaign has been to involve the business and corporate community in promoting arts, culture and heritage in Cambodia.
More than 100 businesses have been certified as heritage friendly. Heritage friendly businesses are promoted through banners, street signs and stickers to help travellers identify and support those companies that give something back to Cambodia.
Heritage Watch offers some simple and undemanding guidelines for visitors: do not purchase ancient artefacts; respect the temples as they are religious monuments; refrain from touching bas-reliefs as the lanolin on hands imparts oil into the stone; use environmentally friendly transport such as bicycles in the park (vibrations from buses affect the monuments); conserve water in Siem Reap - the water table is dropping, which may cause the monuments to subside; purchase Cambodian-made products; dispose of rubbish appropriately; support businesses certified as heritage friendly.
Dr Tim Winter, of the University of Sydney, has worked in Cambodia for many years on the challenges that emerge around heritage and tourism. Winter acknowledges that though there has been significant damage to some of the temples, including erosion to steps, entrance ways and fragile carvings, this is only part of the problem.
Winter says there are other important things to consider when visiting the area: the local economy and major inequalities arising in Cambodia because of tourism and Siem Reap as an island of hyper-growth, surrounded by some of the poorest communities in the whole of Asia.
Associate professor Roland Fletcher of the University of Sydney, who is also the director of the Greater Angkor Project and the Living with Heritage Project, encourages visitors to prolong their stay in the area. "Basically, the key thing that tourists need to do is to stay longer than the average two-day stay," he says.
It sounds so simple, but makes good sense. By increasing your stay to four days, you will significantly contribute to the local economy. Even the pollution problem caused by washing your sheets and towels will be reduced.
Yes, parts of Angkor can feel like a circus. But if you venture further a field to the quieter temples of Preah Khan, Ta Som, Banteay Srei or Beng Mealea or spend a few extra days away from the madding crowds, you will be rewarded with the moments that every traveller craves.
Perhaps it will come while you're sitting under a centuries-old silk-cotton tree that is slowly devouring a temple, or when you talk with a saffron-robbed monk.
Or maybe when a shy local child plays peek-a-boo with you from behind a temple or during that spine-tingling moment when the sun first climbs through the sky over Angkor Wat.
TRIP NOTES
* Getting there: Regular flights are available to Siem Reap from Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Singapore, Vientiane and Shanghai. There are also a number of border crossings.
* Staying there: There is no accommodation within the park. Visitors must stay in Siem Reap, about six kilometres from the main temples. Accommodation is plentiful and ranges from luxury five-star hotels to budget guesthouses.
* For more information: See
http://www.heritagewatch.org and http://www.angkor.usyd.edu.au.
* Packages: Peregrine Adventures has a 14-day Saigon to Angkor cycle trip from $2420, excluding international air fares. See www.peregrineadventures.com.
ANGELINA Jolie has a lot to answer for. Ta Prohm, with its ancient stonework and massive tree roots, is now sadly known as the Tomb Raider temple. And the tour groups love it. I watch on as entire groups re-enact Lara Croft running out from the temple.
One at a time they sprint, leap and hurl themselves towards their tour guide - and his video camera.
More like a stampede of clearance-sale shoppers than responsible travellers.
Angkor Wat and the surrounding Angkor temple complex in Cambodia are without doubt one of the seven man-made wonders of the world.
Stretching over 400 square kilometres, Angkor Archaeological Park contains the magnificent remains of the different capitals of the Khmer empire, from the 9th to the 15thcentury.
In December 1992, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation declared Angkor a World Heritage Site.
In 1993, 7600 intrepid travellers visited Angkor, but by 2006 the number had skyrocketed to 1.6million. By 2010, 3 million people are expected to visit Cambodia.
Dr Dougald O'Reilly, one of South-East Asia's foremost archaeologists and lecturer at the University of Sydney, founded the non-governmental organisation Heritage Watch in 2003.
The group has implemented a number of projects to help protect Cambodia's heritage by raising awareness of looting and its consequences. With full support from the Ministry of Tourism and the Authority for the Protection and Management of Angkor and the Region of Siem Reap, Heritage Watch declared 2007 "heritage friendly".
Its aim is to bring together locally-based private, public and non-governmental sectors in a nationwide collaboration to promote responsible tourism, while encouraging businesses to promote the arts, culture, heritage and development projects in Cambodia.
An additional component of the Heritage Watch project, the Heritage Friendly Tourism Campaign, was launched in January.
"The idea behind the campaign is to raise awareness of the fragility of heritage and the need for travellers to be responsible when they visit archaeological ruins," O'Reilly says.
"We also hope to discourage people from purchasing antiquities and to broaden their travel experience outside of just Angkor."
O'Reilly would like to see visitors venturing further afield.
"Cambodia is an amazing and diverse country with much to offer, yet too few people leave Siem Reap where the temples of Angkor are located," he says. "Rural communities are in desperate need of tourist dollars and encouraging people to lengthen their stays and visit other places is one of the goals of the campaign."
A major component of the Heritage Friendly Tourism Campaign has been to involve the business and corporate community in promoting arts, culture and heritage in Cambodia.
More than 100 businesses have been certified as heritage friendly. Heritage friendly businesses are promoted through banners, street signs and stickers to help travellers identify and support those companies that give something back to Cambodia.
Heritage Watch offers some simple and undemanding guidelines for visitors: do not purchase ancient artefacts; respect the temples as they are religious monuments; refrain from touching bas-reliefs as the lanolin on hands imparts oil into the stone; use environmentally friendly transport such as bicycles in the park (vibrations from buses affect the monuments); conserve water in Siem Reap - the water table is dropping, which may cause the monuments to subside; purchase Cambodian-made products; dispose of rubbish appropriately; support businesses certified as heritage friendly.
Dr Tim Winter, of the University of Sydney, has worked in Cambodia for many years on the challenges that emerge around heritage and tourism. Winter acknowledges that though there has been significant damage to some of the temples, including erosion to steps, entrance ways and fragile carvings, this is only part of the problem.
Winter says there are other important things to consider when visiting the area: the local economy and major inequalities arising in Cambodia because of tourism and Siem Reap as an island of hyper-growth, surrounded by some of the poorest communities in the whole of Asia.
Associate professor Roland Fletcher of the University of Sydney, who is also the director of the Greater Angkor Project and the Living with Heritage Project, encourages visitors to prolong their stay in the area. "Basically, the key thing that tourists need to do is to stay longer than the average two-day stay," he says.
It sounds so simple, but makes good sense. By increasing your stay to four days, you will significantly contribute to the local economy. Even the pollution problem caused by washing your sheets and towels will be reduced.
Yes, parts of Angkor can feel like a circus. But if you venture further a field to the quieter temples of Preah Khan, Ta Som, Banteay Srei or Beng Mealea or spend a few extra days away from the madding crowds, you will be rewarded with the moments that every traveller craves.
Perhaps it will come while you're sitting under a centuries-old silk-cotton tree that is slowly devouring a temple, or when you talk with a saffron-robbed monk.
Or maybe when a shy local child plays peek-a-boo with you from behind a temple or during that spine-tingling moment when the sun first climbs through the sky over Angkor Wat.
TRIP NOTES
* Getting there: Regular flights are available to Siem Reap from Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Singapore, Vientiane and Shanghai. There are also a number of border crossings.
* Staying there: There is no accommodation within the park. Visitors must stay in Siem Reap, about six kilometres from the main temples. Accommodation is plentiful and ranges from luxury five-star hotels to budget guesthouses.
* For more information: See
http://www.heritagewatch.org and http://www.angkor.usyd.edu.au.
* Packages: Peregrine Adventures has a 14-day Saigon to Angkor cycle trip from $2420, excluding international air fares. See www.peregrineadventures.com.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Angkor under 'serious' threat from development: scientists
This NASA handout image, received on 14 Aug, shows the area around the city of Angkor, Cambodia. The city houses an ancient complex of more than 60 temples dating back to the 9th century. Uncontrolled development around Cambodia's Angkor temples poses a serious threat to one of the region's great wonders, said the archaeologists who this week revealed the full extent of the site.16/08/07
AFP News brief
Uncontrolled development around Cambodia's Angkor temples poses a serious threat to one of the region's great wonders, said the archaeologists who this week revealed the full extent of the site.
Angkor was a "vast and populous network ... stretching far beyond the well known temples of the central archaeological park," said the Greater Angkor Project (GAP) at the University of Sydney on its website.
"Delicate traces of that network ... remain on the surface even today and are of great archaeological significance, but are under serious threat from uncontrolled development in the Siem Reap area," the group warned.
The group on Monday published a paper saying that during its height of power between the ninth and 14th centuries, Angkor -- covering about 1,000 square-kilometres (400 square-miles) -- was "the most extensive city of its kind in the pre-industrial world."
Angkor was at least three times larger than archaeologists had previously suspected, eclipsing comparable developments such as Tikal, a Classic Maya "city" on the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico.
Using digital mapping to detail some 3,000 square-kilometres around the temples, the group found evidence of an urban centre supported by a complex series of canals and waterways that became too vast to manage.
Deforestation and erosion caused as the city extended its rice fields to feed its bloated population led to a collapse in infrastructure, and Angkor was eventually abandoned.
The temples today remain Cambodia's largest tourist draw, attracting almost one million visitors last year and bringing more than a billion dollars to the impoverished country.
But along with the tourists has come a massive building boom in and around the Siem Reap town -- the gateway to the temple complex.
Officials have long voiced concern over the effects of this explosion of visitors on the temples themselves, but attention has now been turned to development around the park.
Most seriously, huge hotels, along with dozens of smaller guesthouses have begun to suck the area's water supply dry and have raised fears that the temples could collapse as the earth beneath them is destabilised.
According to GAP, its digital mapping database was presented to Cambodia's Apsara Authority, the government's Angkor management group in order "to safeguard the archaeological landscape."
Angkor was a "vast and populous network ... stretching far beyond the well known temples of the central archaeological park," said the Greater Angkor Project (GAP) at the University of Sydney on its website.
"Delicate traces of that network ... remain on the surface even today and are of great archaeological significance, but are under serious threat from uncontrolled development in the Siem Reap area," the group warned.
The group on Monday published a paper saying that during its height of power between the ninth and 14th centuries, Angkor -- covering about 1,000 square-kilometres (400 square-miles) -- was "the most extensive city of its kind in the pre-industrial world."
Angkor was at least three times larger than archaeologists had previously suspected, eclipsing comparable developments such as Tikal, a Classic Maya "city" on the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico.
Using digital mapping to detail some 3,000 square-kilometres around the temples, the group found evidence of an urban centre supported by a complex series of canals and waterways that became too vast to manage.
Deforestation and erosion caused as the city extended its rice fields to feed its bloated population led to a collapse in infrastructure, and Angkor was eventually abandoned.
The temples today remain Cambodia's largest tourist draw, attracting almost one million visitors last year and bringing more than a billion dollars to the impoverished country.
But along with the tourists has come a massive building boom in and around the Siem Reap town -- the gateway to the temple complex.
Officials have long voiced concern over the effects of this explosion of visitors on the temples themselves, but attention has now been turned to development around the park.
Most seriously, huge hotels, along with dozens of smaller guesthouses have begun to suck the area's water supply dry and have raised fears that the temples could collapse as the earth beneath them is destabilised.
According to GAP, its digital mapping database was presented to Cambodia's Apsara Authority, the government's Angkor management group in order "to safeguard the archaeological landscape."
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
New study on ancient Angkor city is a wake-up call for Cambodian conservation [-Will Hun Sen heed the call?]
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
The Associated Press
The Associated Press
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: A new study about the vast extent of the ancient city of Angkor and reasons for its demise is a wake-up call for Cambodia to be more vigilant in its efforts to conserve a centuries-old heritage, an official said Wednesday.
The study — published recently in a U.S. science journal — represents a new tool for preventing over-exploitation of Angkor, Cambodia's main tourist attraction, said Soeung Kong, a deputy director-general of Apsara Authority, the government agency managing the site.
"The findings are eye-opening for us. They awake us to a greater need for safeguarding (the ancient city)," he said.
The findings of the study, led by Damian Evans of the University of Sydney, Australia, were published in this week's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
They reveal that Angkor, during its zenith between the 9th and 14th centuries, was "the world's most extensive preindustrial low-density complex" and far larger than previously thought. It included an elaborate water management network encompassing nearly 1,000 square kilometers (390 square miles).
The researchers mapped the area, long obscured by jungle, using airborne imaging radar data acquired over Angkor in 2000 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Research found that the complex was too vast to manage. Extending rice fields to support a population of more than 1 million resulted in serious ecological problems, including deforestation, topsoil degradation and erosion.
The study's conclusions supported a theory in the early 1950s by Bernard-Philippe Groslier, a prominent French archaeologist, that the collapse of Angkor stemmed from over-exploitation of the environment.
Impoverished Cambodia has relied heavily on the Angkor temples in the northwestern province of Siem Reap province to earn much-needed hard currency from an ever-increasing number of tourists.
But in recent years, conservationists have expressed concerns about stress to the monuments, including the famed Angkor Wat, from the tourist invasion.
They also fear that the unrestricted local pumping of underground water to meet rapidly rising demand of hotels, guesthouses and residents in the provincial town may be undermining Angkor's foundations, destabilizing the earth beneath the centuries-old temples so much that they might sink and collapse.
Soeung Kong, the Apsara authority official, said what happened to ancient Angkor "appears to be repeating itself now" and thus highlights current challenges in managing and conserving the temples.
"Since we aware of this, we have to take measures to prevent it from worsening or to minimize the impact as much as possible," he said.
The study — published recently in a U.S. science journal — represents a new tool for preventing over-exploitation of Angkor, Cambodia's main tourist attraction, said Soeung Kong, a deputy director-general of Apsara Authority, the government agency managing the site.
"The findings are eye-opening for us. They awake us to a greater need for safeguarding (the ancient city)," he said.
The findings of the study, led by Damian Evans of the University of Sydney, Australia, were published in this week's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
They reveal that Angkor, during its zenith between the 9th and 14th centuries, was "the world's most extensive preindustrial low-density complex" and far larger than previously thought. It included an elaborate water management network encompassing nearly 1,000 square kilometers (390 square miles).
The researchers mapped the area, long obscured by jungle, using airborne imaging radar data acquired over Angkor in 2000 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Research found that the complex was too vast to manage. Extending rice fields to support a population of more than 1 million resulted in serious ecological problems, including deforestation, topsoil degradation and erosion.
The study's conclusions supported a theory in the early 1950s by Bernard-Philippe Groslier, a prominent French archaeologist, that the collapse of Angkor stemmed from over-exploitation of the environment.
Impoverished Cambodia has relied heavily on the Angkor temples in the northwestern province of Siem Reap province to earn much-needed hard currency from an ever-increasing number of tourists.
But in recent years, conservationists have expressed concerns about stress to the monuments, including the famed Angkor Wat, from the tourist invasion.
They also fear that the unrestricted local pumping of underground water to meet rapidly rising demand of hotels, guesthouses and residents in the provincial town may be undermining Angkor's foundations, destabilizing the earth beneath the centuries-old temples so much that they might sink and collapse.
Soeung Kong, the Apsara authority official, said what happened to ancient Angkor "appears to be repeating itself now" and thus highlights current challenges in managing and conserving the temples.
"Since we aware of this, we have to take measures to prevent it from worsening or to minimize the impact as much as possible," he said.
Friday, July 06, 2007
Temple Preservation Conference Begins in Siem Reap
Vong Dara, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
05/07/2007
Original report from Phnom Penh
05/07/2007
Government and tourism officials are meeting in Siem Reap to discuss the dangers posed to the Angkor temples by overcrowding.
Tourism has become a pillar industry for Cambodia, but a spike in tourist numbers has led to concern the temples will be harmed or destroyed.
About 2 million tourists visited the sprawling temple complex in 2006, but 5 million are expected to visit annually by 2010. Most temples are open to scrambling, clambering, picnicking and horseplay.
Tourism has become a pillar industry for Cambodia, but a spike in tourist numbers has led to concern the temples will be harmed or destroyed.
About 2 million tourists visited the sprawling temple complex in 2006, but 5 million are expected to visit annually by 2010. Most temples are open to scrambling, clambering, picnicking and horseplay.
Angkor Temples Inspire Awe, Burger Joints
Tourists Flock to Ancient Cambodia Shrines, Bringing Opportunity and Danger
July 5, 2007
By MARK LITKE
ABC News (USA)
July 5, 2007
By MARK LITKE
ABC News (USA)
Magnificent. Miraculous. Mystical. Words that only begin to convey the majesty of the temples at Angkor, Cambodia. And today, you can add another word: mobbed!
Day after day, this wonder of the world is being assaulted by hordes of tourists, an estimated 2 million visitors this year. A number almost certain to double in the next few years.
They crawl like colorful lines of ants across the steep stairs and towering spires of the 12th century temple, the most recognized of the Hindu and Buddhist shrines sprawling over 300 square kilometers.
They scamper across ancient stones to pose in front of the hundreds of massive enigmatic stone faces of the 13th century Bayon Temple.
At the end of each day, one can barely make out the shape of the 9th century temple, Phnom Bakheng, literally buried under an onslaught of four to five thousand visitors who have scaled its ancient sandstone walls to witness a once-in-a-lifetime sunset.
Must See Tourism
In the tourist industry, Angkor has rapidly become one those "must-see destinations." It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and largely unspoiled in a still remote and exotic corner of Cambodia.
But tourism, according to John Stubbs, vice president of the U.S.-based World Monuments Fund, "has become a double-edged sword."
On the one hand, tourism can bring an enormous amount of revenue to countries and organizations trying to preserve the great cultural treasures of the world.
Stubbs and his WMF teams have worked for 15 years helping preserve two of the most seriously threatened temples at Angkor. He's watched tourism grow from a trickle to a flood. "The tourists are blessing," he said. They bring money and curiosity and respect for the temples. And tourist dollars help pay for restoration work that runs into the millions of dollars.
"Most tourists want to be responsible," Stubbs said. "They understand the importance of behaving properly and cleaning up after themselves. It's our responsibility to keep encouraging that."
Siem Reap, Boom Town
On the other hand, the rapid growth in visitors to Angkor and the nearby town of Siem Reap now threaten to overwhelm the region's limited resources. Noise, traffic and pollution have become serious threats to the temples and the culture they symbolize.
Angkor is now experiencing the same stress and threats as the other Heritage Sites, including the Great Wall of China and the Pyramids of Giza.
Ten years ago, Siem Reap, the gateway to Angkor, had one hotel. Today there are over 100 and more are being opened at a rate of one a month. Ox carts and bicycles have given way to horrendous traffic jams. Entertainment districts have sprung up, offering nightspots for every taste, massage parlors, pizza and burger joints. And the constant drone of jet aircraft landing at the new international airport has some wondering whether vibrations will damage the fragile temple walls.
Invasion or Salvation?
However, for many Cambodians, impoverished survivors of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime of the 1970s, the growth of tourism has meant salvation. At least for the time being. Som Vannak, who hawks souvenir photographs for the tourists, said he hopes to start his own photography business with the money he makes in tips. "Tourism," he said, "of course it's good, good for Cambodia, and very good for me." That sentiment is echoed by hundreds of small merchants selling guidebooks, souvenir hats and T-shirts to the tourists.
But some of the more well traveled, well-heeled tourists from Western countries have mixed feelings. Mick Moore recently visited from Australia. "I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing, to be honest. I know the tourist crowds bring money here. But it's not as peaceful as it used to be."
Asked about the crowds perched atop Phnom Bashing at sunset, American Toni Duffy said, "I think the crowds take away from the experience." But her companion Saul Unter disagreed. "I don't feel that. The importance of this place deserves people to watch it, to see it, to witness it."
Managing Change
John Stubbs said that "at the end of the day, it comes down to managing change, managing the visitors who come to the site. And there is hope. There is a lot of work underway to do just that."
For the first time, top Cambodian officials are expressing concern that more planning and care will be needed if Cambodia is to protect one of its most important cultural assets.
Many Cambodians have been upset with how the temples have been used so far. In one case, the temples were rented out for the production of the Angelina Jolie film "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider."
Son Soubert, a member of Cambodia's Constitutional Council, believes that using Angkor for movies and unrestricted tourism has disrupted the Hindu and Buddhist spiritual atmosphere of the temples.
He is especially concerned with the greed of his own countrymen, looking to get rich at Angkor's expense. "They are not caring for the cultural side of this temple," he said. "They are more interested with the economic side, making money, and getting it into their pockets."
But others, like Stubbs, are hopeful. "Angkor in its day," Stubbs said, "was one of the all-time great civilizations on Earth." And, in fact, it could have been destroyed many times over.
It was all but lost to the jungles a century ago, before it was painstakingly uncovered by early European explorers.
It was lost to the world again during the years of isolation under the murderous Khmer Rouge, who sometimes used the temple grounds for shooting practice.
Following the Khmer Rouge, a small army of grave and cultural artifact robbers descended on the deserted temples. Cambodia was too weak and traumatized to defend itself.
But eventually nations and nongovernmental agencies, art communities, and ordinary individuals came to Angkor's defense. The fact that we can now can fly or drive in reasonable comfort right to the gates of this long-lost magnificent relic of an ancient civilization is a testament to those efforts.
As Stubbs reminded us, "We just need to stay ahead of the curve, so to speak. There's not a minute to waste in looking after this precious place, because it could, without a doubt, be ruined by some wrong decisions, or by lack of control of visitors."
Day after day, this wonder of the world is being assaulted by hordes of tourists, an estimated 2 million visitors this year. A number almost certain to double in the next few years.
They crawl like colorful lines of ants across the steep stairs and towering spires of the 12th century temple, the most recognized of the Hindu and Buddhist shrines sprawling over 300 square kilometers.
They scamper across ancient stones to pose in front of the hundreds of massive enigmatic stone faces of the 13th century Bayon Temple.
At the end of each day, one can barely make out the shape of the 9th century temple, Phnom Bakheng, literally buried under an onslaught of four to five thousand visitors who have scaled its ancient sandstone walls to witness a once-in-a-lifetime sunset.
Must See Tourism
In the tourist industry, Angkor has rapidly become one those "must-see destinations." It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and largely unspoiled in a still remote and exotic corner of Cambodia.
But tourism, according to John Stubbs, vice president of the U.S.-based World Monuments Fund, "has become a double-edged sword."
On the one hand, tourism can bring an enormous amount of revenue to countries and organizations trying to preserve the great cultural treasures of the world.
Stubbs and his WMF teams have worked for 15 years helping preserve two of the most seriously threatened temples at Angkor. He's watched tourism grow from a trickle to a flood. "The tourists are blessing," he said. They bring money and curiosity and respect for the temples. And tourist dollars help pay for restoration work that runs into the millions of dollars.
"Most tourists want to be responsible," Stubbs said. "They understand the importance of behaving properly and cleaning up after themselves. It's our responsibility to keep encouraging that."
Siem Reap, Boom Town
On the other hand, the rapid growth in visitors to Angkor and the nearby town of Siem Reap now threaten to overwhelm the region's limited resources. Noise, traffic and pollution have become serious threats to the temples and the culture they symbolize.
Angkor is now experiencing the same stress and threats as the other Heritage Sites, including the Great Wall of China and the Pyramids of Giza.
Ten years ago, Siem Reap, the gateway to Angkor, had one hotel. Today there are over 100 and more are being opened at a rate of one a month. Ox carts and bicycles have given way to horrendous traffic jams. Entertainment districts have sprung up, offering nightspots for every taste, massage parlors, pizza and burger joints. And the constant drone of jet aircraft landing at the new international airport has some wondering whether vibrations will damage the fragile temple walls.
Invasion or Salvation?
However, for many Cambodians, impoverished survivors of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime of the 1970s, the growth of tourism has meant salvation. At least for the time being. Som Vannak, who hawks souvenir photographs for the tourists, said he hopes to start his own photography business with the money he makes in tips. "Tourism," he said, "of course it's good, good for Cambodia, and very good for me." That sentiment is echoed by hundreds of small merchants selling guidebooks, souvenir hats and T-shirts to the tourists.
But some of the more well traveled, well-heeled tourists from Western countries have mixed feelings. Mick Moore recently visited from Australia. "I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing, to be honest. I know the tourist crowds bring money here. But it's not as peaceful as it used to be."
Asked about the crowds perched atop Phnom Bashing at sunset, American Toni Duffy said, "I think the crowds take away from the experience." But her companion Saul Unter disagreed. "I don't feel that. The importance of this place deserves people to watch it, to see it, to witness it."
Managing Change
John Stubbs said that "at the end of the day, it comes down to managing change, managing the visitors who come to the site. And there is hope. There is a lot of work underway to do just that."
For the first time, top Cambodian officials are expressing concern that more planning and care will be needed if Cambodia is to protect one of its most important cultural assets.
Many Cambodians have been upset with how the temples have been used so far. In one case, the temples were rented out for the production of the Angelina Jolie film "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider."
Son Soubert, a member of Cambodia's Constitutional Council, believes that using Angkor for movies and unrestricted tourism has disrupted the Hindu and Buddhist spiritual atmosphere of the temples.
He is especially concerned with the greed of his own countrymen, looking to get rich at Angkor's expense. "They are not caring for the cultural side of this temple," he said. "They are more interested with the economic side, making money, and getting it into their pockets."
But others, like Stubbs, are hopeful. "Angkor in its day," Stubbs said, "was one of the all-time great civilizations on Earth." And, in fact, it could have been destroyed many times over.
It was all but lost to the jungles a century ago, before it was painstakingly uncovered by early European explorers.
It was lost to the world again during the years of isolation under the murderous Khmer Rouge, who sometimes used the temple grounds for shooting practice.
Following the Khmer Rouge, a small army of grave and cultural artifact robbers descended on the deserted temples. Cambodia was too weak and traumatized to defend itself.
But eventually nations and nongovernmental agencies, art communities, and ordinary individuals came to Angkor's defense. The fact that we can now can fly or drive in reasonable comfort right to the gates of this long-lost magnificent relic of an ancient civilization is a testament to those efforts.
As Stubbs reminded us, "We just need to stay ahead of the curve, so to speak. There's not a minute to waste in looking after this precious place, because it could, without a doubt, be ruined by some wrong decisions, or by lack of control of visitors."
Thursday, July 05, 2007
As Tourists Flock to Cambodia's Angkor Temples, Preservations Fear for Its Survival
While tourism to the Angkor Wat temple is flourishing and helping Cambodia from an economic standpoint, the environmental concerns of the tourists' impact make it a difficult issue to tackle. Only five years ago, visitors to the world-famous Angkor Wat temple were only a few hundred a day. Now the number of tourists has increased to more than 10,000 per day, which is good for the Cambodian economy but a disaster for the 800-year-old temple area. The increased number of visitors demands that measures be taken to preserve the temples of Angkor Wat. (TANG CHHIN SOTHY/AFP/Getty Images)July 4, 2007
ABC News (USA)
After years of neglect threatened to destroy the temples of Angkor during the brutal regime of the Khmer Rouge, this wonder of the world is now at threat for a different reason too much interest.
The temples were built between the ninth and 15th centuries and now face the modern threat of tourism, as millions of visitors arrive to see the more than 100 Hindu and Buddhist monuments spread across 50 square miles in Cambodia.
"The ruins of Angkor are one of the marvels of the world," John Stubbs of the World Monument Fund told ABC's Mark Litke. "There's no doubt about that."
Stubbs is at the forefront of a global effort to preserve and restore Angkor, and has spent 15 years in Cambodia to help piece together a vast archaeological jigsaw puzzle.
Crowding the Ruins
While Stubbs' work has helped to save Angkor and turn it into one of the world's premiere destinations for cultural tourism, the location's salvation may ultimately turn out to be its curse.
There's literally been a tourist invasion. In the 1990s, Angkor attracted just a few thousand visitors a year; by the end of 2007, a total of 2 million are expected to climb up, down and through the ancient ruins.
They arrive by planeload, busload, on motorbikes and even on elephants.
Visitors once had to hack through jungles to reach Angkor. Now, the route to the temples is packed with traffic jams, especially by the end of the day when more than 3,000 people assault the highest temple in the complex to watch the sunset.
In the adjacent town of Siem Reap, there were just two hotels a decade ago now, there are more than 102, along with shopping malls, pizza joints and massage parlors.
It's hardly the serene Angkor experience some tourists might expect, as one woman told ABC News, "I think it takes away from it, I do."
But, another visitor said, "I don't. I feel that the importance of this place deserves people to watch it, see it, witness it."
Balancing Preservation With Greed
Angkor tourism has brought jobs and millions of dollars to one of the world's poorest countries, but some Cambodians fear greed is now winning out over preservation.
The scenery was even used as an exotic location for Hollywood films including "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" not quite what the preservationists had in mind.
Stubbs said there was a need for constant vigilance as interest grew for Angkor. "There's not a minute to waste in looking after this precious place. & Because, without a doubt, it could be ruined by some wrong decisions."
But he's hopeful that Cambodians will eventually strike the right balance.
After all, they were the ones who created this magnificent, majestic site in the first place.
The temples were built between the ninth and 15th centuries and now face the modern threat of tourism, as millions of visitors arrive to see the more than 100 Hindu and Buddhist monuments spread across 50 square miles in Cambodia.
"The ruins of Angkor are one of the marvels of the world," John Stubbs of the World Monument Fund told ABC's Mark Litke. "There's no doubt about that."
Stubbs is at the forefront of a global effort to preserve and restore Angkor, and has spent 15 years in Cambodia to help piece together a vast archaeological jigsaw puzzle.
Crowding the Ruins
While Stubbs' work has helped to save Angkor and turn it into one of the world's premiere destinations for cultural tourism, the location's salvation may ultimately turn out to be its curse.
There's literally been a tourist invasion. In the 1990s, Angkor attracted just a few thousand visitors a year; by the end of 2007, a total of 2 million are expected to climb up, down and through the ancient ruins.
They arrive by planeload, busload, on motorbikes and even on elephants.
Visitors once had to hack through jungles to reach Angkor. Now, the route to the temples is packed with traffic jams, especially by the end of the day when more than 3,000 people assault the highest temple in the complex to watch the sunset.
In the adjacent town of Siem Reap, there were just two hotels a decade ago now, there are more than 102, along with shopping malls, pizza joints and massage parlors.
It's hardly the serene Angkor experience some tourists might expect, as one woman told ABC News, "I think it takes away from it, I do."
But, another visitor said, "I don't. I feel that the importance of this place deserves people to watch it, see it, witness it."
Balancing Preservation With Greed
Angkor tourism has brought jobs and millions of dollars to one of the world's poorest countries, but some Cambodians fear greed is now winning out over preservation.
The scenery was even used as an exotic location for Hollywood films including "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" not quite what the preservationists had in mind.
Stubbs said there was a need for constant vigilance as interest grew for Angkor. "There's not a minute to waste in looking after this precious place. & Because, without a doubt, it could be ruined by some wrong decisions."
But he's hopeful that Cambodians will eventually strike the right balance.
After all, they were the ones who created this magnificent, majestic site in the first place.
Friday, April 13, 2007
Mad tourist rush threatens future of Cambodia’s Angkor Wat
The Angkor Wat temple is the biggest Hindu temple in the world. It is counted among the seven modern wonders of the world and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site visited by millions of tourists each year. Until 150 years ago, this whole city was undiscovered, being covered by thick jungles and overgrown trees! This temple is a wonderful example of the Hindu concept of the cosmos. The moat represents the oceans. The temple is the Mount Meru and the galleries, which lead up to the sanctum, are the various continents. The constant upward movement of the building from one gallery to the next represents the spiritual path of a human being. The final destination is the sanctum sanctorum where he/she comes face to face with divinity. Photo Credit: Prabhakar PatilThursday, April 12, 2007
news.sawf.org
The Cambodian Government and locals are reportedly concerned over the over-exposure of its famous Angkor Wat (Sun) temple to tourists.
Sydney, Apr.12 (ANI): The Cambodian Government and locals are reportedly concerned over the over-exposure of its famous Angkor Wat (Sun) temple to tourists.
There is a worry now that the droves of tourists visiting the heritage-listed site could grow from the hundreds at present to thousands.
The Sunday Telegraph quotes Khun Sokha, a tourist guide, as saying, "The ancients built the temples for religious purposes, not for such crowds of tourists to climb on."
"The harm is obvious. We are worried, but the people's livelihood depends on these tourists," he adds.
The Cambodian Government is caught in a Catch 22 situation. On the one hand, the Angkor Wat temple is at the very heart of Cambodia's identity, and on the other, is the fear that this famous landmark could be ruined by the onslaught of the nearly two million tourists that see it annually. The Government is recognizing the need to keep these precious ruins intact.
"The harm to the temples is unavoidable when many people walk in and out of them," says Soeung Kong, deputy director-general of the Apsara Authority, which oversees Angkor's upkeep.
It is also hard to ignore the nearly 1.85 billion dollars in revenue that tourism brought to the impoverished country last year.
"We are trying to keep that harm at a minimal level," Kong says.
The Angkor Wat has been on the UNESCO's World Heritage List since 1993.
Since then, tourist arrivals have risen meteorically, with the Government hoping for three million visitors to Cambodia by 2010.
Sydney, Apr.12 (ANI): The Cambodian Government and locals are reportedly concerned over the over-exposure of its famous Angkor Wat (Sun) temple to tourists.
There is a worry now that the droves of tourists visiting the heritage-listed site could grow from the hundreds at present to thousands.
The Sunday Telegraph quotes Khun Sokha, a tourist guide, as saying, "The ancients built the temples for religious purposes, not for such crowds of tourists to climb on."
"The harm is obvious. We are worried, but the people's livelihood depends on these tourists," he adds.
The Cambodian Government is caught in a Catch 22 situation. On the one hand, the Angkor Wat temple is at the very heart of Cambodia's identity, and on the other, is the fear that this famous landmark could be ruined by the onslaught of the nearly two million tourists that see it annually. The Government is recognizing the need to keep these precious ruins intact.
"The harm to the temples is unavoidable when many people walk in and out of them," says Soeung Kong, deputy director-general of the Apsara Authority, which oversees Angkor's upkeep.
It is also hard to ignore the nearly 1.85 billion dollars in revenue that tourism brought to the impoverished country last year.
"We are trying to keep that harm at a minimal level," Kong says.
The Angkor Wat has been on the UNESCO's World Heritage List since 1993.
Since then, tourist arrivals have risen meteorically, with the Government hoping for three million visitors to Cambodia by 2010.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Angkor Wat being loved to death
Traffic jam ... tourist-laden cyclos line up at the entrance to Cambodia's most famous monument. Picture: AFPBy Suy Se
The Sunday Telegraph (Australia)
KHUN Sokha looks on while camera flashes pop in the pre-dawn haze. Hundreds of tourists perch along the outer wall of Cambodia's Angkor Wat waiting to catch that moment when the sun rises over the temple's distinctive towering spires.
Over the next few hours, those hundreds will multiply to thousands, largely free to wander in and out of the temple ruins, probing dark corners, climbing over fallen stones or tracing the delicate bas reliefs with their bare hands.
"The ancients built the temples for religious purposes, not for such crowds of tourists to climb on," says Khun Sokha, a tour guide whose job depends on the vast crowds swarming Cambodia's Angkor National Park.
"The harm is obvious. We are worried, but the people's livelihood depends on these tourists," he adds.
TOURISM BOOM THREATENING ICON
Like Khun Sokha, Cambodia's government is at odds over what to do with its most famous landmark. Angkor is at the very heart of Cambodia's identity, and with nearly two million tourists coming to the country last year – more than half of them visiting Angkor – the Government is recognising the need to keep these precious ruins intact.
"The harm to the temples is unavoidable when many people walk in and out of them," says Soeung Kong, deputy director-general of the Apsara Authority, which oversees Angkor's upkeep.
But at the same time, it is also hard to ignore the nearly $1.85 billion in revenue that tourism brought to the impoverished country last year, forcing officials into a delicate balancing act.
"We are trying to keep that harm at a minimal level," Soeung Kong says.
More than 7600 visitors ventured to Angkor in 1993, when it was added to UNESCO's World Heritage List.
Since then, tourist arrivals have risen meteorically, with the Government hoping for three million visitors to Cambodia by 2010.
The intimacy offered by Angkor – the close interaction with its historic stones – is a large part of its appeal.
But when multiplied over millions of visitors, the effects can be alarming.
"When you have such a huge mass of tourists visiting, then we are concerned about damage to the heritage site and the temples and the monuments," says
Teruo Jinnai, UNESCO's top official in Cambodia.
SACRED TEMPLES DESERVE RESPECT
"Many temples are very fragile," he says, adding that the agency is working with the Government to minimise the impact of the tourism boom.
Names and other graffiti are gouged into temple walls and unsightly wooden steps have been constructed over some stone staircases that have become worn with overuse.
In some temples, visitors have been prevented completely from coming into contact with delicate wall carvings.
However, the battle to preserve Cambodia's temples won't necessarily be fought in their stone breezeways and intricately carved sanctuaries.
SIEM RIEP'S GROWTH THREATENS WATER SUPPLIES
Rather, the bigger threat comes kilometres away, along Siem Reap town's increasingly congested thoroughfares, where more than 250 guesthouses and hotels, including several sprawling resorts, have sprung up in recent years.
Some 500 years after a failing irrigation system forced Angkor's rulers to abandon the sprawling Khmer capital, a lack of water is again threatening Cambodia's most famous temple complex.
Just as the ancient city's waterways collapsed under the demands of a population of as many as a million, an unprecedented tourism boom is again sucking the area dry and risking the collapse of many of Angkor's temples.
The sinking foundation and widening cracks between the carefully carved stones of Bayon temple, famous for the serene faces carved on its 54 towers, confirm what experts have long feared: one of Angkor's best-known monuments is collapsing into the sandy ground around it.
This is caused by the unrestricted consumption of groundwater by Siem Reap's hotels, whose enormous demand is destabilising the ground beneath the Angkor complex.
The coming dry season, when temperatures can hover at a blistering 40C for days, is only going to make things worse.
"As long as the number of tourists increases, the use of water increases. This is our concern, but we are not standing still – we are trying to make a balance between use of water and tourists," he adds.
Japan is developing a plan to supply the area with nearly half of the 15,000 cubic metres a day needed, but questions remain about whether the total supply will keep pace with the town's relentless expansion.
"The construction of hotels is booming. We cannot ban the rich people from building accommodations," said Kuy Song, director of Siem Reap's tourism office.
But, he adds: "The future of the temples is really worrisome."
More: www.angkorwat.org
Over the next few hours, those hundreds will multiply to thousands, largely free to wander in and out of the temple ruins, probing dark corners, climbing over fallen stones or tracing the delicate bas reliefs with their bare hands.
"The ancients built the temples for religious purposes, not for such crowds of tourists to climb on," says Khun Sokha, a tour guide whose job depends on the vast crowds swarming Cambodia's Angkor National Park.
"The harm is obvious. We are worried, but the people's livelihood depends on these tourists," he adds.
TOURISM BOOM THREATENING ICON
Like Khun Sokha, Cambodia's government is at odds over what to do with its most famous landmark. Angkor is at the very heart of Cambodia's identity, and with nearly two million tourists coming to the country last year – more than half of them visiting Angkor – the Government is recognising the need to keep these precious ruins intact.
"The harm to the temples is unavoidable when many people walk in and out of them," says Soeung Kong, deputy director-general of the Apsara Authority, which oversees Angkor's upkeep.
But at the same time, it is also hard to ignore the nearly $1.85 billion in revenue that tourism brought to the impoverished country last year, forcing officials into a delicate balancing act.
"We are trying to keep that harm at a minimal level," Soeung Kong says.
More than 7600 visitors ventured to Angkor in 1993, when it was added to UNESCO's World Heritage List.
Since then, tourist arrivals have risen meteorically, with the Government hoping for three million visitors to Cambodia by 2010.
The intimacy offered by Angkor – the close interaction with its historic stones – is a large part of its appeal.
But when multiplied over millions of visitors, the effects can be alarming.
"When you have such a huge mass of tourists visiting, then we are concerned about damage to the heritage site and the temples and the monuments," says
Teruo Jinnai, UNESCO's top official in Cambodia.
SACRED TEMPLES DESERVE RESPECT
"Many temples are very fragile," he says, adding that the agency is working with the Government to minimise the impact of the tourism boom.
Names and other graffiti are gouged into temple walls and unsightly wooden steps have been constructed over some stone staircases that have become worn with overuse.
In some temples, visitors have been prevented completely from coming into contact with delicate wall carvings.
However, the battle to preserve Cambodia's temples won't necessarily be fought in their stone breezeways and intricately carved sanctuaries.
SIEM RIEP'S GROWTH THREATENS WATER SUPPLIES
Rather, the bigger threat comes kilometres away, along Siem Reap town's increasingly congested thoroughfares, where more than 250 guesthouses and hotels, including several sprawling resorts, have sprung up in recent years.
Some 500 years after a failing irrigation system forced Angkor's rulers to abandon the sprawling Khmer capital, a lack of water is again threatening Cambodia's most famous temple complex.
Just as the ancient city's waterways collapsed under the demands of a population of as many as a million, an unprecedented tourism boom is again sucking the area dry and risking the collapse of many of Angkor's temples.
The sinking foundation and widening cracks between the carefully carved stones of Bayon temple, famous for the serene faces carved on its 54 towers, confirm what experts have long feared: one of Angkor's best-known monuments is collapsing into the sandy ground around it.
This is caused by the unrestricted consumption of groundwater by Siem Reap's hotels, whose enormous demand is destabilising the ground beneath the Angkor complex.
The coming dry season, when temperatures can hover at a blistering 40C for days, is only going to make things worse.
"As long as the number of tourists increases, the use of water increases. This is our concern, but we are not standing still – we are trying to make a balance between use of water and tourists," he adds.
Japan is developing a plan to supply the area with nearly half of the 15,000 cubic metres a day needed, but questions remain about whether the total supply will keep pace with the town's relentless expansion.
"The construction of hotels is booming. We cannot ban the rich people from building accommodations," said Kuy Song, director of Siem Reap's tourism office.
But, he adds: "The future of the temples is really worrisome."
More: www.angkorwat.org
Monday, March 26, 2007
Phnom Penh mulling over restricting access to Angkor Wat, the cash cow of Sok Kong and Sokimex
Cambodia mulls over restricting access to Angkor Wat Temple
Mar 26, 07
By Yusof Sulaiman
eTN Asia
Mar 26, 07
By Yusof Sulaiman
eTN Asia
Cambodian officials are reportedly mulling over measures to restrict tourist access to Angkor Wat Temple, in an effort to prevent its further deterioration. The ravages of nature over time and the water table have taken a toll on the UNESCO listed World Heritage site, putting some at risk and further weakening their “structural integrity,” said experts from UNESCO.
Once a sleepy village, Siem Reap, where the site is located, is now a town booming with hotels, restaurants and continues to attract new investments in tourism.
Officials estimate that up to a million tourists visited the Angkor Wat temple complex in 2006, an increase of about 40 percent over the previous year.
Every day up to 5,000 people climb the steps, putting the site under the strain of wear and tear. Tourist numbers to the ancient Khmer ruins have grown faster than the town can keep pace, according to published reports. "Large tour groups often do a quick stop to see the temples, but do little else," remarked a tourism official. "They hope to see everything within the one and a half day in their itinerary."
"The large number of people wandering around by themselves has caused a lot of problems," said Khin Po-Thai, spokesperson for the World Monuments Fund in Siem Reap.
According to UNESCO’s Dr. Sheldon Schaeffer, building and construction works have added to the risk of damage to the actual monuments. “Water supply to the golf courses and hotels may affect the water table at the temple sites, further weakening the structural integrity,” he said.
Temple officials are thinking about limiting access to the temple compound on a daily basis using a reservation system. "If the tourist numbers go unchecked, Angkor Wat will be gone just because we want to please the tourists," added Po-Thai.
Once a sleepy village, Siem Reap, where the site is located, is now a town booming with hotels, restaurants and continues to attract new investments in tourism.
Officials estimate that up to a million tourists visited the Angkor Wat temple complex in 2006, an increase of about 40 percent over the previous year.
Every day up to 5,000 people climb the steps, putting the site under the strain of wear and tear. Tourist numbers to the ancient Khmer ruins have grown faster than the town can keep pace, according to published reports. "Large tour groups often do a quick stop to see the temples, but do little else," remarked a tourism official. "They hope to see everything within the one and a half day in their itinerary."
"The large number of people wandering around by themselves has caused a lot of problems," said Khin Po-Thai, spokesperson for the World Monuments Fund in Siem Reap.
According to UNESCO’s Dr. Sheldon Schaeffer, building and construction works have added to the risk of damage to the actual monuments. “Water supply to the golf courses and hotels may affect the water table at the temple sites, further weakening the structural integrity,” he said.
Temple officials are thinking about limiting access to the temple compound on a daily basis using a reservation system. "If the tourist numbers go unchecked, Angkor Wat will be gone just because we want to please the tourists," added Po-Thai.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Development, tourist boom threaten Cambodia's Angkor Wat
Foreign tourists flock the Angkor Wat temple in Siem Reap province some 314 kilometers northwest of Phnom Penh, 02 March 2007. Angkor is at the very heart of Cambodia's identity, and with nearly two million tourists coming to the country in 2006 -- more than half of those visiting Angkor -- it is recognising the need to keep these precious ruins intact.(AFP/File/Tang Chhin Sothy)
An aerial view of the Angkor Wat temple in Siem Reap province some 314 kilometers northwest of Phnom Penh, 02 March 2007. Angkor is at the very heart of Cambodia's identity, and with nearly two million tourists coming to the country in 2006 -- more than half of those visiting Angkor -- it is recognising the need to keep these precious ruins intact.(AFP/File/Tang Chhin Sothy)Sun Mar 25, 2007
SIEM REAP, Cambodia (AFP) - Khun Sokha looks on while camera flashes pop in the pre-dawn haze, as hundreds of tourists perch along the outer wall of Cambodia's Angkor Wat waiting to catch that moment when the sun rises over the temple's distinctive towering spires.
Over the next few hours, those hundreds will multiply to thousands, largely free to wander in and out of the temple ruins, probing dark corners, climbing over fallen stones or tracing the delicate bas reliefs with their hands.
"The ancients built the temples for religious purposes, not for such crowds of tourists to climb on," says Khun Sokha, a tour guide whose job depends on the vast crowds swarming Cambodia's Angkor National Park in rising numbers each year.
"The harm is obvious. We are worried, but the people's livelihood depends on these tourists," he adds.
Like Khun Sokha, Cambodia's government is at odds over what to do with its most famous landmark.
Angkor is at the very heart of Cambodia's identity, and with nearly two million tourists coming to the country last year -- more than half of them visiting Angkor -- it is recognising the need to keep these precious ruins intact.
"The harm to the temples is unavoidable when many people walk in and out of them," says Soeung Kong, deputy director-general of the Apsara Authority which oversees Angkor's upkeep.
But at the same time, it is also hard to ignore the nearly 1.5 billion dollars in revenue that tourism brought to the impoverished country last year, forcing officials into a delicate balancing act.
"We are trying to keep that harm at a minimal level," Soeung Kong tells AFP.
Just over 7,600 visitors ventured to Angkor in 1993, when it was added to UNESCO's World Heritage List.
Since then, tourist arrivals have risen meteorically, with the government hoping for three million visitors to Cambodia by 2010.
The intimacy offered by Angkor -- the close interaction with its historic stones -- is a large part of its appeal.
But when multiplied over millions of visitors, the effects can be alarming.
"When you have such a huge mass of tourists visiting then we are concerned about damage to the heritage site and the temples and the monuments," says Teruo Jinnai, UNESCO's top official in Cambodia.
"Many temples are very fragile," he says, adding that the agency is working with the government to minimise the impact of the tourism boom.
Names and other graffiti are gouged into temple walls and unsightly wooden steps have been constructed over some stone staircases that have become worn with over-use.
In some temples, visitors have been prevented completely from coming into contact with delicate wall carvings.
However, the battle to preserve Cambodia's temples won't necessarily be fought in their stone breeze-ways and intricately-carved sanctuaries.
Rather, the bigger threat comes kilometres (miles) away, along Siem Reap town's increasingly congested thoroughfares, where more than 250 guesthouses and hotels, including several sprawling resorts, have sprung up in recent years.
-- Historic water threat shortages return as modern threat --
Some 500 years after a failing irrigation system forced Angkor's rulers to abandon the sprawling Khmer capital, a lack of water is again threatening Cambodia's most famous temple complex.
Just as the ancient city's waterways collapsed under the demands of a population of as many as a million people, an unprecedented tourism boom is again sucking the area dry and risking the collapse of many of Angkor's temples.
The sinking foundation and widening cracks between the carefully carved stones of Bayon temple, famous for the serene faces carved on its 54 towers, confirm what experts have long feared; one of Angkor's best known monuments is collapsing into the sandy ground around it.
This is caused by the unrestricted consumption of ground water by Siem Reap's hotels, whose enormous demand is destabilising the earth beneath the Angkor complex.
"Some hotels have 10 wells -- thousands of cubic metres of water are being pumped out each day," Khun Sokha says.
The coming dry season, when temperatures can hover at a blistering 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) for days, is only going to worsen the situation.
"Most of the hotels have underground wells. We have warned them not to pump out more than 8,000 cubic metres (10,500 cubic yards) per day, especially during the dry season," Soeung Kong says.
"As long as the number of tourists increases, the use of water increases. This is our concern, but we are not standing still, we are trying to make a balance between use of water and tourists," he adds.
But UNESCO's Jinnai estimates that on average Siem Reap needs at least 15,000 cubic metres a day to meet demand.
Japan is developing a plan to supply the area with nearly half of that, but questions remain about whether the total supply will keep pace with the town's relentless expansion.
"The construction of hotels is booming. We cannot ban the rich people from building accommodations," said Kuy Song, director of Siem Reap's tourism office.
But, he adds: "The future of the temples is really worrisome."
Over the next few hours, those hundreds will multiply to thousands, largely free to wander in and out of the temple ruins, probing dark corners, climbing over fallen stones or tracing the delicate bas reliefs with their hands.
"The ancients built the temples for religious purposes, not for such crowds of tourists to climb on," says Khun Sokha, a tour guide whose job depends on the vast crowds swarming Cambodia's Angkor National Park in rising numbers each year.
"The harm is obvious. We are worried, but the people's livelihood depends on these tourists," he adds.
Like Khun Sokha, Cambodia's government is at odds over what to do with its most famous landmark.
Angkor is at the very heart of Cambodia's identity, and with nearly two million tourists coming to the country last year -- more than half of them visiting Angkor -- it is recognising the need to keep these precious ruins intact.
"The harm to the temples is unavoidable when many people walk in and out of them," says Soeung Kong, deputy director-general of the Apsara Authority which oversees Angkor's upkeep.
But at the same time, it is also hard to ignore the nearly 1.5 billion dollars in revenue that tourism brought to the impoverished country last year, forcing officials into a delicate balancing act.
"We are trying to keep that harm at a minimal level," Soeung Kong tells AFP.
Just over 7,600 visitors ventured to Angkor in 1993, when it was added to UNESCO's World Heritage List.
Since then, tourist arrivals have risen meteorically, with the government hoping for three million visitors to Cambodia by 2010.
The intimacy offered by Angkor -- the close interaction with its historic stones -- is a large part of its appeal.
But when multiplied over millions of visitors, the effects can be alarming.
"When you have such a huge mass of tourists visiting then we are concerned about damage to the heritage site and the temples and the monuments," says Teruo Jinnai, UNESCO's top official in Cambodia.
"Many temples are very fragile," he says, adding that the agency is working with the government to minimise the impact of the tourism boom.
Names and other graffiti are gouged into temple walls and unsightly wooden steps have been constructed over some stone staircases that have become worn with over-use.
In some temples, visitors have been prevented completely from coming into contact with delicate wall carvings.
However, the battle to preserve Cambodia's temples won't necessarily be fought in their stone breeze-ways and intricately-carved sanctuaries.
Rather, the bigger threat comes kilometres (miles) away, along Siem Reap town's increasingly congested thoroughfares, where more than 250 guesthouses and hotels, including several sprawling resorts, have sprung up in recent years.
-- Historic water threat shortages return as modern threat --
Some 500 years after a failing irrigation system forced Angkor's rulers to abandon the sprawling Khmer capital, a lack of water is again threatening Cambodia's most famous temple complex.
Just as the ancient city's waterways collapsed under the demands of a population of as many as a million people, an unprecedented tourism boom is again sucking the area dry and risking the collapse of many of Angkor's temples.
The sinking foundation and widening cracks between the carefully carved stones of Bayon temple, famous for the serene faces carved on its 54 towers, confirm what experts have long feared; one of Angkor's best known monuments is collapsing into the sandy ground around it.
This is caused by the unrestricted consumption of ground water by Siem Reap's hotels, whose enormous demand is destabilising the earth beneath the Angkor complex.
"Some hotels have 10 wells -- thousands of cubic metres of water are being pumped out each day," Khun Sokha says.
The coming dry season, when temperatures can hover at a blistering 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) for days, is only going to worsen the situation.
"Most of the hotels have underground wells. We have warned them not to pump out more than 8,000 cubic metres (10,500 cubic yards) per day, especially during the dry season," Soeung Kong says.
"As long as the number of tourists increases, the use of water increases. This is our concern, but we are not standing still, we are trying to make a balance between use of water and tourists," he adds.
But UNESCO's Jinnai estimates that on average Siem Reap needs at least 15,000 cubic metres a day to meet demand.
Japan is developing a plan to supply the area with nearly half of that, but questions remain about whether the total supply will keep pace with the town's relentless expansion.
"The construction of hotels is booming. We cannot ban the rich people from building accommodations," said Kuy Song, director of Siem Reap's tourism office.
But, he adds: "The future of the temples is really worrisome."
Friday, March 02, 2007
Angkor Wat threatened by tourist invasion
01 March 2007
World Travel Guide
World Travel Guide
Cambodia's ancient Angkor Wat complex is facing one of its biggest threats yet - the fastest-growing tourist onslaught of any World Heritage site.
Conservationists warn that visitors are already damaging Angkor's treasures irreparably. In 1993, after Angkor was added to Unesco's World Heritage List, 7,650 visitors ventured to the site. Last year almost 900,000 tickets were sold, worth US$25m (£12.8m), and three million visitors are expected in 2010.
Unesco is said to be very concerned by the unprecedented acceleration, which they say is critically damaging the monuments and the local environment.
The director of tourism at Angkor is said to be finalising regulations for controlling visitors, training guards to watch the temples and educating visitors to help protect the monuments.
Damage is being caused by tourists climbing over temples and manhandling the vulnerable stonework. Other temples are sinking into their sandy foundations as the hospitality industry drains underground water reservoirs.
Meanwhile, the site's serenity is thought to be overwhelmed by commercialisation, with shopping malls and even a theme park cropping up in the booming nearby town of Siem Reap.
Conservationists warn that visitors are already damaging Angkor's treasures irreparably. In 1993, after Angkor was added to Unesco's World Heritage List, 7,650 visitors ventured to the site. Last year almost 900,000 tickets were sold, worth US$25m (£12.8m), and three million visitors are expected in 2010.
Unesco is said to be very concerned by the unprecedented acceleration, which they say is critically damaging the monuments and the local environment.
The director of tourism at Angkor is said to be finalising regulations for controlling visitors, training guards to watch the temples and educating visitors to help protect the monuments.
Damage is being caused by tourists climbing over temples and manhandling the vulnerable stonework. Other temples are sinking into their sandy foundations as the hospitality industry drains underground water reservoirs.
Meanwhile, the site's serenity is thought to be overwhelmed by commercialisation, with shopping malls and even a theme park cropping up in the booming nearby town of Siem Reap.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Tourism threatens UN World Heritage site in Cambodia [-Angkor is threatened but the money goes to Sok Kong's pocket]
Monday, Feb 26, 2007
Taipei Times (Taiwan)
THE OBSERVER, SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA
Taipei Times (Taiwan)
THE OBSERVER, SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA
It has survived the collapse of the sophisticated civilization that built it, centuries of consumption by the suffocating jungle and the nihilism of the Khmer Rouge, who beheaded its stone Buddhas and used its walls for target practice.
Now, Cambodia's Angkor Wat complex is facing the biggest threat in a millennium -- the fastest-growing tourist onslaught of any UNESCO World Heritage site, which conservationists warn is already damaging its treasures irreparably.
In 1993, after Angkor was added to UNESCO's World Heritage List, just 7,650 intrepid visitors ventured to the site. Last year Sokimex, the oil company controversially granted the entrance concession on behalf of the government's Apsara Angkor management, sold almost 900,000 tickets worth US$25 million.
Three million visitors are expected in 2010.
Teruo Jinnai, UNESCO's top official at Angkor, said: "We are very concerned by this unprecedented, uncontrolled acceleration, which is damaging the monuments and the local environment. Preservation of the park for future generations has to be the number one priority, over and above commercial exploitation, which is mainly benefiting foreign interests instead of the local population."
Kerya Chau Sun, director of tourism at Angkor, said: "We are finalizing regulations for controlling visitors. We will train guards to watch the temples and educate visitors to help us protect the monuments."
However, John Stubbs, who has spent 15 years working at Angkor with the New York-based World Monuments Fund, said: "Tourism is already out of control, and unless the Cambodian government takes some pretty radical action to rein it in now much of Angkor's magic and heritage could be lost forever."
The five-tiered Phnom Bakheng hilltop temple, one of the most significant relics of the ancient Khmer civilization, is one of the most endangered of the park's 40- plus monuments.
More than 3,000 tourists clamber up narrow flights of stone stairs every evening, manhandling sandstone carvings as they jostle for a sunset view of Angkor Wat.
"It simply cannot survive this daily assault. Unless it is completely closed off for essential repairs, Phnom Bakheng will suffer critical damage," Stubbs said.
The World Bank warns that other temples, including the spectacular Bayon with four-faced Buddhas carved on its 54 towers, are sinking into their sandy foundations as the hospitality industry drains underground water reservoirs.
Meanwhile, the site's serenity is being overwhelmed by crass commercialization, from the Las Vegas-style shopping malls to a gaudy Angkor theme park just outside the complex.
In May a golf course opens, the second water-guzzling 18-holer to be built in two years within four miles of the park.
But some say visiting Angkor Wat can also be done in a responsible way.
Jarrod Kyte, UK manager of Gecko's Adventures, which offers an eco-tour to clean up rubbish at the site, said: "We train local guides to make sure our clients know exactly how to dress and behave and we use locally owned restaurants and hotels."
Now, Cambodia's Angkor Wat complex is facing the biggest threat in a millennium -- the fastest-growing tourist onslaught of any UNESCO World Heritage site, which conservationists warn is already damaging its treasures irreparably.
In 1993, after Angkor was added to UNESCO's World Heritage List, just 7,650 intrepid visitors ventured to the site. Last year Sokimex, the oil company controversially granted the entrance concession on behalf of the government's Apsara Angkor management, sold almost 900,000 tickets worth US$25 million.
Three million visitors are expected in 2010.
Teruo Jinnai, UNESCO's top official at Angkor, said: "We are very concerned by this unprecedented, uncontrolled acceleration, which is damaging the monuments and the local environment. Preservation of the park for future generations has to be the number one priority, over and above commercial exploitation, which is mainly benefiting foreign interests instead of the local population."
Kerya Chau Sun, director of tourism at Angkor, said: "We are finalizing regulations for controlling visitors. We will train guards to watch the temples and educate visitors to help us protect the monuments."
However, John Stubbs, who has spent 15 years working at Angkor with the New York-based World Monuments Fund, said: "Tourism is already out of control, and unless the Cambodian government takes some pretty radical action to rein it in now much of Angkor's magic and heritage could be lost forever."
The five-tiered Phnom Bakheng hilltop temple, one of the most significant relics of the ancient Khmer civilization, is one of the most endangered of the park's 40- plus monuments.
More than 3,000 tourists clamber up narrow flights of stone stairs every evening, manhandling sandstone carvings as they jostle for a sunset view of Angkor Wat.
"It simply cannot survive this daily assault. Unless it is completely closed off for essential repairs, Phnom Bakheng will suffer critical damage," Stubbs said.
The World Bank warns that other temples, including the spectacular Bayon with four-faced Buddhas carved on its 54 towers, are sinking into their sandy foundations as the hospitality industry drains underground water reservoirs.
Meanwhile, the site's serenity is being overwhelmed by crass commercialization, from the Las Vegas-style shopping malls to a gaudy Angkor theme park just outside the complex.
In May a golf course opens, the second water-guzzling 18-holer to be built in two years within four miles of the park.
But some say visiting Angkor Wat can also be done in a responsible way.
Jarrod Kyte, UK manager of Gecko's Adventures, which offers an eco-tour to clean up rubbish at the site, said: "We train local guides to make sure our clients know exactly how to dress and behave and we use locally owned restaurants and hotels."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
