"Home Truth" of Angkor

Published below are some of the comments written by KI Media readers in response to my piece “Dark Clouds Over Angkor”. There are many other interesting comments as well, and to all the readers who took their time to read and express their concerned views, my sincerest thanks - School of Vice

Additional Note:

Never underestimate the power of ‘spin’ and media disinformation, and we have seen for years how the Thais have been misleading the rest of the world over the Preah Vihear issue and the ownership of its "surrounding areas" including "the earth beneath the temple itself" which they claim was never spelled out by the IJC in 1962!

Remember how well Croatia's football team was doing at every world cup tournament since that country broke away from the former Yugoslavia; the colours of Croatia's national flag painted all over the Croatian players? Well, the players had the duty to announce to the world at large that there is a country called "Croatia"! And they almost made it past France in the quarter final in 1998! Some achievement for a small nation.

Most Cambodians who live overseas should know how little known Cambodia is to the public in the west, for example, when compared to Thailand or Vietnam. Many westerners even think that Cambodia is part of Vietnam, which it is in that political sense, but the point is Cambodia is Cambodia, and Vietnam is Vietnam. 

Why this confusion? For several centuries, Cambodia had existed in the shadow of her two neighbours, and this fact has meant that her culture and identity had been all too freely copied and adopted by those neighbours as their own. Thailand had been the more successful in that regard as she had assimilated Khmer identity and culture from the dawn of her ‘civilisation’. Think of “Thai classical dance”, “Thai kick-boxing”, "Siamese crocodile", "Siamese wood", “Thai classical music” , “Siamese costume” and so on, most of which can be traced to their original roots in Khmer culture which had been there long before the arrival of ‘Hindu’ and Buddhist influences from India and Sri Lanka respectively. Certainly, the crocodiles didn't migrate all the way from India!

After independence from France, Cambodia enjoyed a brief period of peace and revival in culture, and it was against this backdrop of being eclipsed by other larger better known countries in the region and fearing international isolation and obscurity that some of the world's powerful heads of state and celebrities had been invited to visit the Kingdom in the 1960s including the former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, France’s Charles De Gaul and Jacqueline Kennedy. When the war came in the late sixties and early seventies, tourists who once flocked to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat had to turn to Indonesia instead where some remarkable ancient ruins of the same era were on offer to curious visitors.

I don’t want to appear over fixated with this duplication issue in any way. After all, Angkor Wat is a world heritage site. However, in my view Cambodia as a country had gone through so much and lost almost everything that was precious to her people. On top of that she is being led by some of the world’s most incompetent and inept political elites, some of whom are planted there for the sole purpose of subverting and sabotaging whatever they know might allow the country to regain its strength and pose a credible challenge to its historical rivals in the long term. Politics is not based on mutual trust, but is driven by the lack of it.

Angkor Wat, even in her present dilapidated condition could still offer the Khmer people a glimpse of hope of finding light at the end of their long tunnel of darkness. School of Vice

The Flag and the Monument link the Nation's present to its past and point to its future . . .

India’s President, Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil looks at the wall carving of Ramayana & Mahabharata Story at Angkor Wat Temple, in Siem Reap, Cambodia on September 17, 2010. But the corroding effects of acid chemicals applied by India’s “experts” on many surface areas of the 12^th century temple, including most of the main galleries’ bas relief work [pictured] in the 1980s may prove irreversible -search.wn.com

“Angkor is to Khmer both a story of sweet glory and of bitter downfall - herein lie the recorded accounts of their civilization.”

Opinion by Keo Cham

School of Vice has touched on another note, which is at the heart of this issue, that I (I confessed for myself) and maybe many Khmers and foreign people (including Indian Hindus) may have overlooked.

And that is the issue of the historical significance of these architectural complexes and holy sites. Hindus lay claim to or take liberty at replication of Angkor because to them, this is merely a matter of Hindus venerating Hindu arts and culture.

In that perspective, they failed to see, and have overlooked the historical significance of this art in shaping Khmer identity. The image of Siam looting Angkor and that of Jayavarman II being anointed God King are prime examples of how the fabric of Khmer identity is infused into these temples.

The living arts among the walls and corridors, the scene of dancers and wars - these go beyond Hindu motifs and mere religious and Brahmanism inspiration. Indeed, what we have in Angkor is a living record of a people. The very fabric of their existence, recorded in it.

Thus to replicate Angkor, goes beyond merely dedicating and venerating the Gods and religion Angkor was inspired from, but it is also a replication of the unique struggle, identity, and history of the Khmer people including their wars and their struggle, Angkor is to Khmer both a story of sweet glory and of bitter downfall - herein lies the recorded accounts of their civilization.

When one looks at Angkor from this perspective- from the Khmer perspective- one can come to believe and realized (as I now have) as School of Vice puts it, a "Cultural Theft" on a grand scale. Why? Angkor is not merely a Hindu religious holy site, but a living history and archive of the Khmer civilization through its own unique struggles and evolution - all which had been recorded and will be replicated from the extensive bas relief of Angkor.

If we cannot stop this, we are indeed in need of forgiveness from our ancestors!

-- Keo Cham

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Comment by Pissed off

I am surprised that India is that low and stupid in their thinking on this project. Their temple built in the 21st century using machinary on a mass scale on the Indian land will never have the same historical and religious values plus the serenity that Angkor Wat provides.

Without the time that has passed, same jungle surrounding it and the stones get entangled with roots of the large trees and the historical blood and sweat of the Khmers that were shed in the building and protecting this glorious Temple, the temple the Indians plan to build will simply be another building of the 21st century.

If you love Angkor Wat so much, and nobody would blame you for having done so since she is just too beautiful to not love, you could come to Cambodia with the money you have and help us, the Khmers, the true owner and builder of Angkor Wat repair, preserve and beautify the real beauty that you have so admired to the point of shamelessly declaring to the world that you would make one of your own though you know it is unreasonably, religiously and morally wrong.

The Hindu Gods have already got a house in Angkor Wat, their home that has survived the test of time, greed and wickedness of man. They won't move to your temple.

Do the right thing, abolish the project; come to Cambodia with money and help restore our beauty to her original glory!

Your Hindu Indians can make a pilgrimage to Angkor Wat as often as they like if they really want to please the real Hindu Gods.

Pissed off

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From a different angle/ a conspiracy theory?

By Anonymous author

The Indians (the restoration started in 1986) used a few damaging/dangerous chemical compounds, including Zinc silicofluoride, sodium pentachiorophenate, which produced sodium chloride (salt) as a by-product. As we known salt is deadly to stone, as is Polyvinylacetate. The latter is a deadlier one.

In my view, polyvinylacetate used by the Indians has been irreversibly ruining the Temple. Polyvinylacetate compound contains moisture which seeps in and builds up underneath the impermeable stone coating in due course produced spalling (blistering/flaking of the stone surface). While it kept out the fungus, which was eating up the stone, for about 5 years. It took about 10-15 years to see the damage from the Polyvinylacetate. At first, as one put it, you would see the stone surface yellowing, then opening up and cracking, which we have been noticing now for over the last 10 years or so.

The use of Polyvinylacetate saw its deadly effect elsewhere - in the ancient Hospital of Saints Paolo and Govanni, Italy. The stone sculptures on the outside of the building were blackened and fell off. This happened before the Indian restored the Temple.§