[Thailand] Walkout: More loss than gain [-Phimai and Phnom Roung belong to Cambodia anyway!!!]

June 28, 2011
By Supalak Ganjanakhundee
The Nation

Suwit says move against World Heritage Committee was to protect Thailand's sovereignty; exit won't affect ICJ ruling, but status of 3 new sites now in doubt

Thailand is likely to lose, rather than gain, from its decision to withdraw from the 1972 World Heritage Convention simply to express its disagreement with the World Heritage inscription of Cambodia's Preah Vihear Temple.

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti, who returned from Paris yesterday after withdrawing from the 35th session of World Heritage Committee, defended his decision by saying it was made to protect Thailand's sovereignty over the territory adjacent to Preah Vihear.

[Khmer] Temples of delight in Thailand

Wat's up? ... Buddhist monks outside the main shrine at the Khmer temple at Phimai, Thailand. Photograph: Getty
Making a splash … Tok Haew Narok waterfall. Photograph: Alamy

There are no full moon parties in Isaan, perhaps Thailands' least touristy region. Instead you'll find sleepy villages, Khmer architecture, and a boutique hotel right on the Mekong

Saturday 18 September 2010
Chris Coplans
The Guardian (UK)

After hacking through undergrowth for a couple of hours, we emerged sweaty, muddy and bedraggled at the 25m-high Tok Haew Narok falls, which (please excuse yet another reference to The Beach in a Thailand article) are the ones Leonardo DiCaprio leapt from in the film. We scrambled down to swim in the turquoise pool below it.

My guide – called Apple – and I were following a challenging 8km trail through the Khao Yai national park, a huge tract of monsoon forest and a Unesco world heritage site two hours north of Bangkok. On the western edge of the Isaan region, it is home to tigers, bears, leopards, deer, gibbons, hornbills and elephants.

The Isaan region covers a huge swathe of north-east Thailand stretching to the Mekong river, Laos and Cambodia. It is the country's least visited area – as close to the "old Thailand" as you can get, and a welcome change from the tour group- and backpacker-choked northern destinations of Chiang Mai and the Golden Triangle.

Boutique hotels are few and far between, a steaming broth of noodle soup replaces the banana pancake breakfast, and pedicabs rather than taxis or tuk-tuks are the main mode of transport. I encountered sleepy, small rural towns that depend on farming, not tourism, despite the fact that this area is not only a stunning natural wilderness, but also full of fantastic Khmer temples.

Just like those in Cambodia (including Angkor Wat), the 182 Khmer sites in Isaan were built by the God Kings of Angkor, who at the height of their supremacy, from the ninth to the 13th century, extended their empire into Burma. Many of the finest examples of Khmer architecture are to be found on Issan's Khorat Plateau, clustered around Buriram, Surin and Khorat provinces. I explored many of them and, more often than not, I had them pretty much to myself.

The jewel in the crown was undoubtedly Phimai, 60 miles north-east of Khorat, less than three hours from Bangkok. The temple complex is right in the heart of the otherwise humdrum little town of Phimai, and entering it is like walking into a secret, mythical garden. The whole complex is dominated by an exquisite prang (tower), the iconic corn-on-the-cob-like Khmer structure – in fact, some claim that Angkor Wat was modelled on Phimai.

Apple and I sat, cocooned in a soporific tropical haze, transfixed, as the sandstone of the temple absorbed the last rays of the weakening sun, and were joined by a group of novice monks in saffron robes, who imparted spiritual wisdom about Lampard and Rooney.

The next morning we were up at dawn for a two-hour drive east across the flat, dusty landscape of the Khorat Plateau to another great Thai Khmer monument, Phanom Rung. Although Isaan is a vast region, distances between the Khmer temples are short, and all the main sites can be seen in a couple of days.

Phanom Rung is perched atop an extinct volcano, with panoramic views of the surrounding plain, and I climbed up steps worn down by centuries of visiting Buddhist pilgrims to a promenade overlooking the exquisite sandstone tower of the main temple, with its labyrinth of hidden chambers.

A few miles on was the Meuang Tam complex, based on the design of Angkor Wat, but with four L-shaped ponds covered with colourful lotus flowers.

I ventured east next, towards the Mekong valley, into rural landscapes full of paddy fields broken up by palm trees – Thailand is the world's largest rice exporter and much of the crop is grown in Isaan.

Isaan hot is a different kettle of spice from regular Thai hot as I found out when I ordered larb moo (minced pork salad) in a small roadside restaurant.

Several hours later we had made it to Khong Jiam, a somnolent river town, beautifully located on a peninsula where the blue waters of the river Mun are overwhelmed by the bubbling chocolate that is the Mekong. After staying in many basic rural lodges during our journey, I was overjoyed to find a boutique hotel here, the Tohsang Khong Jiam, right on the bank of the Mekong, with enchanting views of the mountains of Laos on the other side.

Leaving Kong Jiam to head back to Bangkok, we stumbled upon Wat Tham Khuha Sawan, which overlooks the town and the river. In complete contrast to the bewitching Khmer temples, this modern temple, built in 1978, has a surreal theme park feel to it, with a mish-mash of flamboyant architectural styles. A huge elephant protects the Buddha images below, and the main stupa's golden spires wink conspiratorially in the dazzling light. There is a dreamlike bell tower, topped with fierce nagas (mythical serpent deities) and golden spires. In Isaan, always prepare for the unexpected.

A journey back in time

Thai-Cambodian project leads to Living Angkor Road

January 22, 2008
Asina Pornwasin
The Nation (Thailand)

People who love art and history may soon have a wonderful opportunity to travel back 800 years in time to the great Empire of Angkor and King Jayavarman VII of Cambodia.

Collaboration between Thai archaeologists from Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy and Silpakorn University, and Cambodian archaeologists from the Authority for the Protection and Management of Angkor and the Region of Siem Reap in a project called the Living Angkor Road has made this possible.

Surveys have been conducted along the 254-kilometre Angkor Road from Cambodia's Angkor to Thailand's Phimai.

The idea of the project is to eventually develop virtual reality archaeological images of the Empire of Angkor displayed in three dimensions.

King Jayavarman VII was one of the most forceful and productive kings of the Khmer Empire of Angkor. He expanded the empire to its greatest territorial extent and engaged in a building programme that produced numerous temples, highways, rest houses and hospitals.

He also rebuilt the city of Angkor Thom and rebuilt and extended a system of highways which radiated outward from the Bayon temple and the royal palace and reached far into the provinces. He constructed 121 rest houses along these roads. During his reign, the king built 102 hospitals throughout his kingdom. He was more than 90 years old when he died around 1215.

Surat Lertlum, the archaeologist from Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy who initiated and leads the project, said archaeological and anthropological knowledge, geo-informatics technology, information technology, and geo-physics technology were utilised to identify the ancient road from Angkor to Phimai that was mentioned in the inscriptions by King Jayavarman VII.

The first step was to identify the historic road and human settlement of the Khmer empire to show how the people lived and how the country looked in the past. Stone bridges, dharmashala (rest houses) and arogyashala (hospitals) were sought out.

"Remote sensing and geographic information system technology are used by archaeologists to pinpoint and identify archaeological sites and as tools for archaeological analysis. Technology itself cannot make the project complete. It requires other aspects of knowledge including archaeology and anthropology as well as surveys in the field talking with people," said Surat.

Archaeologists and anthropologists went to the field with global-positioning system devices equipped with geographic information systems as well as both satellite maps and vector maps to collect data.

Apart from the satellite and vector maps, the project also requires other sources of information such as digital elevation models, old maps, aerial photos and ground surveys.

Once the teams find the exact location of targeted archaeological sites they can record their position and then upload details to the database at Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy. It is available at http://larp.crma.ac.th.

The historical, archaeological and cultural multimedia database for the area of study will include all the knowledge from archaeologists, historians, current cultural information and information from current studies. This information will be used to perform further analysis to understand the ancient road in terms of utilisation and beliefs about the ancient road in former times.

"Then all the information will be structured in a reference format that can be used by researchers or other interested persons. In addition, it will be very useful for tourism purposes, especially for the cultural route tourism campaign," said Surat.

The project was supported by funding from the Thailand Research Fund. The project is now in the second phase. The first and the second phases take one and a half years.

On the road to Angkor

September 9, 2007
Aree Chaisatien
The Nation (Thailand)

Bilateral project seeks and preserves 12th-century trade route built by the ancient Khmer

Braving the sizzling late-summer heat of the border jungle between Surin province in lower Northeast Thailand and Uddor Mean Chey province in northern Cambodia, I joined researchers tracing a route trodden by the ancient Khmer from Angkor to Phimai.

"Stay on the track," we are warned from time to time. The trail has not been completely cleared of landmines.

This route has been in use since ancient times and parts of the road can still be seen - laterite blocks covered with moss and lichen.

"We are on the ancient road from Angkor to Phimai, believed to have been used since the time of King Jayavarman VII in the 12th century," explains Colonel Surat Lertlum of the Chulachomklao Royal Thai Military Academy at the Ta Mean pass in Surin Province.

The reason we are out here in the stifling heat is that this trail will soon become a "living" route, thanks to the Living Angkor Road Project. The project is a joint Khmer-Thai endeavour of the Authority for the Protection and Management of Angkor and the Region of Siem Reap (APSARA), the Chulachomklao academy, and Thailand's Prince of Songkhla and Silpakorn universities' Fine Arts Departments. Financial support has come from the Thailand Research Fund.

Stretching southeast from Phimai in Nakhon Ratchasima onto the Khorat Plateau, leading across the Phnom Dongrak mountain range on the Thailand-Cambodia border and on to Angkor, the 254-kilometre Angkor-Phimai road is believed to be one of five royal Angkor roads linking its dominions in what are now modern-day Laos, Vietnam and Thailand. They were built in the reign of Jayavarman VII, reputably the greatest king of ancient Angkor.

According to ancient Preah Khan stone inscriptions, Jayavarman VII was a follower of Mahayana Buddhism. He built hospitals and 17 rest houses for travellers and pilgrims on the route from his capital to Phimai. The laterite rest houses - agnisala in the Khmer language, dhammasala in the argot of French archaeologist Louis Finot - are of uniform size and style. Dotted along the route 12-to-13 kilometres apart, their five south-facing windows once contained Buddha images and lights to guide travellers at night.

The hospitals, or arogyasala, looked after sick pilgrims and the health of local residents.

Surat is leading our five-day expedition on foot to explore the remains of the agnisala and arogyasala, setting out from Phimai.

At the Ta Mean border pass in Surin we visit temples and an agnisala, the best preserved of all on the Thailand side, according to archaeologist Pongdhan Sampaongern.

Evidence here suggests earlier French archaeologists might have been wrong in their belief that the ancient road cut through Chong Chom, or Osmach. The agnisala and laterite suggests that this is the true route, explains Surat.

The Angkor-road project started in 2004 and is the first in Thailand to take a multi-disciplinary approach, using remote sensing to complement historical, archaeological and cultural information, says research fund deputy director Silaporn Buasai.

Other new discoveries include two formerly missing agnisala - Prasat Ampil and Prasat Chan in Cambodia - many stone bridges, and ancient industrial relics such as iron furnaces and ceramic kilns.

"These roads are like those of the Roman or Chinese empires. The Khmer used their roads as military and trading routes supplying the capital at Angkor," Pongdhan says

On the second day, entering Cambodia at Osmach we are greeted by Khmer researchers from Apsara, led by archaeologist and anthropologist IM Sokrithy.

We visit agnisalas only reachable on foot. They are dilapidated but still recognisable. Water tanks constructed of laterite are clearly visible. The original boundary markers with still-visible Mahayana Buddhist features were modified as Hindu stupa during the reign of Srindravarman a century after Jayavarman VII.

We found the Spean Toap bridge, which is in good condition and still being used today. "This is the longest ancient bridge, and about 10-metres high," explains Sokrithy.

To get an idea how large royal processions along this route were in its heyday, we view bas-reliefs at the gallery of the Bayon temple. "There were likely many hundreds of soldiers on foot, with several hundred elephants and horses," Sokrithy says.

Heavy modern vehicles will soon be banned in the vicinity of the ancient road to ensure the area's preservation for archaeological and cultural tourism.

"Culture has no boundaries and a road is a link between people. There is an old saying: 'If we have roads, we have hope,' says Sokrithy.

By the fourth afternoon we reach Angkor, entering by the Western Gate of Angkor Thom, believed to be the original departure point for the Angkor-Phimai road.

Pongdhan believes the road preservation project can generate cultural tourism and improve bilateral relations between neighbours. Surat has plans for an animation game to help young people learn and enjoy the history of the road.

For more information visit larp.crma.ac.th and www.autoriteapsara.org.

The writer was a guest of the Thailand Research Fund.

The road from Angkor to Phimai reveals the splendor of Khmer civilization under King Jayavarman VII (unlike under the current 2nd fake one)

A path through history

A research project between Thailand and Cambodia sheds light on the ancient Angkor-Phimai road, which has been shrouded in mystery for centuries

Saturday August 18, 2007
SANITSUDA EKACHAI
Bangkok Post

The air was full of mystery and danger as we hiked the lush forest in the no-man's-land along the Thai-Cambodian border looking for archaeological remnants of the long lost Angkor-Phimai royal road.

"Stay on the path," Col Surat Lertlum solemnly warned, pointing to a cluster of what looked like round plastic lids near a thicket two metres away. "The forest is still full of land mines and we can only guarantee your safety if you stay on the path."

Obediently, we followed him along the narrow path until the moist earth under our feet turned rocky as we stepped onto a raised laterite walkway supported by an embankment made of layers of laterite rocks.

We were at the Ta Muean mountain pass on the Phanom Dongrak mountain range, a natural boundary between Surin province in Thailand's northeast and Oddar Meanchay province in northern Cambodia.

"This is where the ancient road, which passed through the plains in Cambodia, climbed up the mountainous forest of Phanom Dongrak to the plateau in Thailand before heading toward Phimai," explained Col Surat.

Apart from the laterite embankment, other archaeological evidence of the ancient Angkor-Phimai route at the heavily-mined Ta Muean Pass includes stone pillars that once lined the road, remnants of decorative sculptures, a small laterite bridge and a laterite cutting site that provided building materials for the road.

This connecting point at Ta Muean is one of the important discoveries made by the Living Angkor Road Project, a Thai-Cambodian joint effort supported by the Thailand Research Fund to explore the 254-kilometre route that linked Angkor and Phimai when the Khmer civilisation reigned.

The road started at the western gate of the Angkor Thom temple and ended at Phimai, an ancient city believed to have had close royal links with the Angkor dynasties.

The knowledge of the route is not new. A 12th century stone inscription from Preah Khan Temple near Angkor Thom states that King Jayavarman VII, a great Mahayana Buddhist king, ordered the construction of 17 temples along the Angkor-Phimai road as rest stops for travellers.

Originally called agnisala, meaning "houses of fire" that travellers could see lit-up from afar at night, these rest houses have become popularly known as dharmasala through L. Finot's studies in the 1920s on the architecture of the rest chapels.

Prior to the Living Angkor Road Project, archaeologists had identified the sites of 15 of the 17 dharmasalas built along the road, but the exact route it took had never been located.

There was a widespread belief among archaeologists that the road passed through the Phanom Dongrak mountain range at the Samed pass, near the famous Prasat Phanom Rung temple. The Living Angkor Road Project has proved this wrong.

By integrating modern technology in remote sensing, geographical information systems (GIS) and geophysics along with conventional studies in archaeology, anthropology and history, the project has identified Ta Muean as the connecting link over the Phanom Dongrak mountains, which leads directly to Prasat Ta Muean, the first dharmasala or rest stop on the Korat Plateau.

The project has also discovered the remains of the two missing dharmasalas on this route, which are called Ampil and Kok Phnov. The discovery of ancient stone bridges, meanwhile, plots a series of dots that has for the first time revealed the outline of the ancient route from Angkor to Phimai.

Equally important, the research has found a large number of iron smelting and ceramics production sites as well as ancient human settlements within a five kilometre radius of the road. These sites were linked to the main road by networks of smaller roads to transport labour, goods, foods and other resources to the centres of the ancient Khmer empire.

Geophysics technologies, said Col Surat, have also been used to accurately locate iron smelting sites, leading to archaeological excavation in Surin's Ban Kruad district earlier this year.

Started in 2005, the joint project to unveil the road's mystery is a collaboration between the Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy, the Fine Arts Department, Prince of Songkhla University, Silpakorn University and Cambodia's Apsara authority, which works to protect and manage the Angkor and the Siem Reap region.

Thailand's multi-disciplinary research team is led by remote sensing and GIS expert Col Surat Lertlum of the Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy's Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, who is responsible for initiating the project.

The Cambodian team is led by Im Sokrithy, an archaeologist from Apsara.

"I've long been fascinated by ancient Khmer civilisation," said Col Surat, explaining why he initiated the bilateral effort.

"Since the use of remote sensing and geography information systems have helped archaeologists pinpoint archaeological sites around the world, I thought my discipline could help shed some light on the royal road."

Col Surat began exploring the road with remote sensing and GIS in 2001. "I soon started realising that advanced technologies may significantly speed up archaeological studies, but they are not enough."

Remote sensing, for example, cannot help much when the sites are covered with jungle or when the landscape has been drastically changed by modern farming and construction, he explained.

Archaeology and history, said Col Surat, help fill the gaps by guiding scientific work in the right direction to locate possible survey sites.

For ground surveys, however, he has learned that it pays to listen to the locals. For example, scientific studies on topography and the direction of water flows suggested that Ta Muean was the least steep pass and thus the most geographically appropriate for road building.

"But it was an old man in the village who told us about an old walkway he used, which led to the discovery of the laterite royal road," said Col Surat.

Archaeologist Im Sokrithy tells a similar story about his discoveries at Cambodian sites.

When searching for the two missing rest chapels, GIS information only roughly identified an area for ground surveys. "It was the villagers' legends relating to the royal road and names of places such as preah kanlong, which means royal road, that gave us the clues as to where the sites should be.

"And it was their knowledge of their area which has helped us to identify the dharmasalas, which are always near the ancient royal road," he said.

The locals' belief that the road is sacred has helped preserve it for modern-day study, said Sokrithy. Under the scorching sun on our way to see Kok Phnov dharmasala, he pointed to an elevated dirt path flanked by paddy fields. "This part of the royal road still exists thanks to the local belief that damaging it brings bad fortune," he explained.

During the war, recounted Sokrithy, the Cambodian villagers used the little-known road to escape the Khmer rouge. "And it is still being used today to go between villages," he added.

It is also the villagers' knowledge of their localities that has helped the Cambodian team identify 32 ancient stone bridges that together form an outline of the entire Angkor-Phimai royal road.

"Remote sensing technology could never locate this bridge because it is on the same level as the road," said Col Surat while standing on Spean Top, the longest ancient stone bridge on the Angkor-Phimai route.

Measuring 149 metres in length and 10 metres high with 25 arches, Spean Top is still in use until today as part of the modern road from Oddar Meanchay to Siem Reap.

The researchers also found many bonuses in their efforts to locate the royal road.

In Cambodia, where the landscape has been not been damaged as much by modern development as it has in Thailand, they discovered Prasat Chan, another ancient rest house near the border.

"It could be one of the 17 dharmasalas mentioned in the Preah Khan stone inscription if the first rest stop adjacent to Angkor Thom is not counted. Or it could belong to an earlier period," Col Surat explained.

King Jayavarman VII, in an attempt to provide better health care to his people, had also ordered the construction of many arogyasala, or hospitals, during his reign. Three of them have been found along the Angkor-Phimai royal road, said Sokrithy, one of them a new discovery.

A large number of newly-discovered ancient settlements, industrial sites, temple ruins and hundreds of man-made reservoirs that are still in use today can also provide a clearer picture of ancient peoples' way of life and the trade and cultural exchanges that took place between the plateau and the plains.

While conventional archaeology focuses on knowledge acquired from particular sites, the multi-disciplinary approach of the Living Angkor Road Project has placed such knowledge in a systemic perspective to give a complete picture of how these sites are connected and what they meant to the ancient Khmer civilisation, said Silaporn Buasai, deputy director of the Thailand Research Fund.

"This research shows how integration of different disciplines can raise our plane of knowledge," she said. "Integration is key to creativity and innovation. It shows it is important for us step out of our fields of expertise, which yield only fragmented pieces of knowledge, and to link up with other disciplines if we want to create new knowledge."

For remote sensing expert Col Surat, his foray into archaeology has shown him the importance of local villagers' knowledge, be it in the form of folklore, legends, ancient documents or knowledge of their locality and real life experiences.

If the pursuit of knowledge leads to respect for others, can this very pursuit in the Living Angkor Road Project help tackle mutual prejudices that often strain Thai-Cambodian relations and lead to conflict over ownership of archaeological sites?

The fact that the dharmasalas had been altered and used as places of worship by different faiths over the past millennium - from Mahayana Buddhism to Hinduism to Theravada Buddhism - should inform people on both sides of today's national boundaries of the process of cultural evolution that has shaped their present societies.

Apart from developing a web site, Col Surat said the project also plans to bring Thai and Cambodian youths together to learn about the ancient road and peoples' relationships in the past. "So the locals are proud of their ancient cultural roots and common heritage," he said.

"We must remember there were no national boundaries a thousand years ago," he added. "We have to go beyond nationalism and ownership to attain knowledge that helps shed light on our past and our cultural heritage."

Im Sokrithy shares the same conviction. "Culture has no boundaries. Culture is about exchange, relationships and connectedness," he said.

"Culture also stresses similarities and common bonds. So if we want to encourage people go beyond ultra-nationalism, using culture as a tool to foster a sense of common bonds is a good way to go."

More information about the Living Angkor Road Project is available in English at: http://larp.crma.ac.th/tikiwiki/tiki-index.php
and in Thai at http://larp.crma.ac.th/

Wisdom among the ruins

COMMENTARY

Thursday August 02, 2007
Sanitsuda Ekachai
Bangkok Post

How should archaeological ruins, the remnants of past glorious kingdoms, serve our present and help us cope with an uncertain future? This question came to mind over the Asalaha Bucha and Buddhist Lent holiday last weekend when I joined a press trip to explore the ancient Phimai-Angkor road.

For five days, we hiked the forest strewn with land mines, walked the paddy fields and braved the dirt roads under a scorching sun to see numerous ancient rest stops, hospitals, reservoirs and laterite bridges along the route linking Phimai and Angkor when the Khmer civilisation was at its zenith.

The exact location of this 254km-long ancient route has been identified for the first time by the Living Angkor Road Project supported by Thailand Research Fund.

A collaboration between Thai and Cambodian researchers, the Thai team is led by remote-sensing expert Col Surat Lertlum while the Cambodian team is led by anthropologist Im Sokrithy.

The research started with the clues in the 12th-century Stone Inscription saying that King Jayavarman VII had ordered 17 rest houses built along the Angkor-Phimai royal road.

A study by French scholars a century ago identified most of the rest houses but did not identify the exact route.

By integrating advanced technology in remote sensing, geographical information system and geophysics with conventional studies in anthropology, archaeology and history, the Living Angkor Road Project has found the missing links.

In addition to the missing rest stops, the discovery of ancient bridges helps pinpoint the outline of the royal road as well as locating the connecting point on the Thai-Cambodia border at Chong Ta Muean in Surin province.

Moreover, they have found several ancient industrial sites and communities which could shed more light on the relationships of people along the route, and probably also the rise and fall of the ancient Khmer empire.

This research is yet more proof that we must step beyond our comfort zones to connect with other fields of expertise in order to raise our plane of knowledge.

When relations between Thai and Cambodia are often strained by ultranationalism and conflicts over ownership of archaeological sites, it is refreshing to see how the researchers' sheer dedication to knowledge can free them from nationalism, another form of egotism.

Equally refreshing is their respect for the local villagers' knowledge. Where the ancient sites are covered by forests or modern roads, the advanced technology of remote sensing can identify only the broad area, needing ground surveys, said Col Surat.

Without the local legends linking the ancient royal road and the villagers' knowledge of their areas, the research teams could not possibly have found the missing rest houses nor established the outline of the Angkor-Phimai ancient route, he added.

These villagers are struggling with harsh poverty, which is a world apart from the modern luxury in Siem Reap. Things are changing there.

At the Bayon Temple, however, the bas-reliefs depicting the lives of little people show us that for the peasants, their life has not changed much from 800 years ago.

As these villagers happily sang and danced their way to their temples to celebrate Asalaha Bucha and Buddhist Lent, I couldn't help wonder if this royal road project could give our countries more than tourism potential.

Though built by a great Buddhist king, the ancient rest houses have been changed to places of worships of different faiths over time. Now ruined, they best attest to the law of impermanence.

The multi-disciplinary approach and the researchers' no to ultranationalism is also in line with the Buddha's teachings on letting go of self to attain peace and truth.

Our world is rocked with violence from racist nationalism, environmental destruction from insatiable greed and political instability from ego clashes.

If archaeological ruins can remind us of the law of impermanence to reduce our greed and ego, they will best serve our present.

If so, we will not have to worry about the future.

Sanitsuda Ekachai is Assistant Editor (Outlook), Bangkok Post.