Advertisement
Published: April 19th 2012
Edit Blog Post
Angkor Wat, thought to be the largest Hindu temple in the world, was built in the early 12
thcentury by the king of Cambodia. It took 100,000 people 30 years to build it. It took 7 years just to bring the sandstone from the mountains to the site. When the king subsequently moved the capital to Phnom Penh, Angkor Wat was forgotten and over time was completely engulfed in jungle. In 1861 it was “discovered” by the French and the jungle was pushed back to reveal the magnificent temple. (It is rumored that the Cambodians knew of the temple all along, with settlements that flourished in the jungle surrounding the temple for several hundred years, they just choose not to talk about it with outsiders).
Angkor Thom, younger than Angkor Wat by about a century, is a complex of temples, both Hindu and Buddhist. Bayon temple, at its center, is Buddhist with huge stone carvings of the Buddha. (Hinduism is not practiced in Cambodia today; virtually all Cambodians consider themselves Buddhist. All that remains of Hinduism are the ruins of temples from hundreds of years ago.) As the years wore on, the Bayon temple crumbled in a number of places. This,
too, was overrun by jungle and subsequently “discovered” by the French. The restoration project here is twofold: replacement and reconstruction. Newly fabricated replacement parts have been inserted into statues and figures throughout the complex to allow one the experience of seeing the image in its full glory. That does mean, though, that parts of the complex are not authentic. It begs the question, is it better to see a faked reproduction of the ancient temple or a fragmented piece of ruin?
The second type of restoration, reconstruction, is in response to the dense jungle’s impact on the integrity of the buildings. The tree’s strong roots lean on and ultimately crumble entire sections of the temple, leaving the original blocks strewn in the area. Restoration crews make extremely detailed drawings and take digital photography of both the sections of the building that remain intact as well as those that have fallen in the surrounding areas. A computer then reconstructs the structure to figure out what piece fits where, much like a game of Tetris where each piece’s shape is evaluated to determine where it fits into the puzzle. They are then able to select the appropriate spots to place these
original pieces in such a way that lends enough integrity to the structure that it can withstand the stresses of the elements and the wave of tourists that flow through the area.
In the Ta Prohm Temple, the roots of many of the trees are so intertwined with the temple that to remove the trees would surely mean the destruction of the temple structure. At this temple it is harder to see where the temple ends and the tree beings.
While the majority of the time I was in Cambodia was spent in these and other awe-inspiring temples, the other prevalent aspect of my experience there was the lasting impact of their civil war in the late ‘70s. The war lasted 3 years, 8 months and 28 days and 2 million people died. Anyone who appeared to be wealthy or educated was murdered and by the end of the war their population had been devastated, with most of the survivors being women and orphaned children. The lasting impact of the bloodshed is seen even today, the vast majority of the population is young and their elderly is predominately female. Over 70% of Cambodians are uneducated farmers. Between the
civil war and the subsequent occupation by the Vietnamese that lasted until 1991, over 10 million landmines were placed throughout the country. An estimated 4 million remain buried across the countryside posing a threat to the unsuspecting person or animal that happens to step in the wrong spot. There is a strong grassroots movement to remove these mines, a daunting and dangerous task, but it is expected to take years to do. Until then people, tourist and locals alike, are encouraged to remain only in the areas that are known to have been swept of mines.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.147s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 11; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0467s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb