webbed feet, web log

webbed feet, web log

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blog Cambodia; blog the planet.

Feb 4, 2004

Saving Cambodia's Treasures

Saving Cambodia's Treasures By ALAN RIDING, New York Times SIEM REAP, Cambodia - During Cambodia's long nightmare of civil war, genocide and foreign occupation, concern for its archaeological treasures took second place. But now, after more than a decade of peace, an international campaign to rescue Angkor Wat and other centuries-old temples is being hailed as a model for safeguarding the ancient sites of Afghanistan, Iraq and other nations enduring war. Involving some 40 major monuments and hundreds of smaller sites spread over 160 square miles, the restoration work in the region may take another 25 years or more. Yet an initiative - led by France and Japan and coordinated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization - has demonstrated a rare commitment to preserving a miracle of human ingenuity in a country too poor to do so itself. Around many temples are cranes, scaffolding and armies of workers. Archaeologists, architects and engineers from a dozen countries are also working at the sites, while Cambodian guards and police provide security. "A system is in place that insures cooperation," said Ros Borath, the deputy director-general of Apsara, the Cambodian government agency that has overall responsibility for the program. There are already significant results. Since the creation of an International Coordination Committee in 1993, the area has been cleared of 25,000 land mines, including 3,000 inside temple grounds. Looting of statues and friezes has stopped, and the international traffic in stolen artifacts has been disrupted. Roads have been paved, and there is a new visitors' center. So far $50 million has been spent on 100 or so restoration projects, with $5 million continuing to be invested here annually. At a conference in Paris in November, Unesco's director-general, Koichiro Matsuura, said, "What has been learned in this decade, and is still being learned, could serve as a model for the rehabilitation of other ancient sites in post-conflict situations - such as Bamiyan in Afghanistan or the Mesopotamian legacy in Iraq - that have suffered from neglect, wanton destruction and the devastation of war." There is talk of creating a Charter of Angkor, which would detail the institutional structure and the new scientific techniques and ethical standards that have been applied here and that might also work elsewhere. There is no international campaign to protect and restore archaeological sites in Afghanistan and Iraq. Still, having survived the stranglehold of a jungle, occupation by Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge guerrillas and uncontrolled pillaging, the Angkor region is facing a new challenge posed by success. The number of visitors to the temples increased sixfold in six years, to some 600,000, more than half foreigners. So this nearby town, Siem Reap, is experiencing chaotic growth, with new hotels straining the fragile urban infrastructure. One conclusion of the Paris conference was that over the next decade, along with pursuing restoration of Angkor's sites, other countries should help Cambodia fight poverty, protect the environment and promote regional development. "The population must feel that Angkor Wat improves their lives," said Azedine Beschaouch, the project's coordinator at Unesco. "We must focus not just on stones, but on men, women and children." National pride in the Angkor temples is evident in the large number of Cambodian visitors to the sites. (They have free access, while foreigners pay $20 for a day pass, $40 for three days.) With the zone now easily accessible for the first time in centuries, a visit represents for many Cambodians a discovery of their heritage as well as a pilgrimage to a historic Buddhist shrine. The Angkor complex flourished between the 10th and 14th centuries and was again briefly occupied in the 16th century, but the temples had largely been abandoned and overgrown by the time French explorers reported "discovering" them in the mid-19th century. And while drawings, photographs and eventually statues removed from the zone stirred excitement in Paris, only in 1907 did the French School of the Far East start a program for clearing the jungle and restoring temples. After Cambodia became independent from France in 1953, French archaeologists continued to manage the Angkor Conservation Service, perpetuating a French monopoly over restoration and research. But progress was made, not least in restoring Angkor Wat and several temples inside the nearby walled city of Angkor Thom, including the Bayon, with its 200 large sculptured faces. Then in 1972 three years before the Khmer Rouge seized power in Phnom Penh, escalating warfare ended conservation work. Cambodian archaeologists and architects were among the hundreds of thousands killed during the Khmer Rouge's four-year reign of terror. And even after Pol Pot was ousted by Vietnam in 1979, Khmer Rouge guerrillas remained active in the region. Only in 1986 did a group of Indian archaeologists resume work at Angkor Wat, but their techniques - chemicals to clean the temple towers and cement to support interior walls - were widely criticized. Mr. Borath defends the Indians. "Their presence was politically important," he said. "They were the first to return, with few resources and under very difficult conditions. There was a cease-fire, but still great insecurity. Perhaps their method was not correct, but it is good to remember the conditions." Finally in 1991 Cambodia's warring factions signed a peace treaty. The following year Unesco named the Angkor temples a world heritage site on condition that the Phnom Penh government commit itself to a detailed restoration program. And in 1993 the International Coordination Committee was created to channel international aid to the zone, including the training by Japan of a new generation of Cambodian archaeologists and architects. There is enough work to keep everyone busy. The World Monuments Fund is active in conserving Preah Khan and two smaller temples. A Chinese team is restoring Chau Sey Tevoda outside the eastern gate of Angkor Thom. A Swiss team is reinforcing the structures of the "pink" temple of Banteay Srei, 20 miles northeast of Angkor Wat. Japanese experts, who have already restored the northern library of the Bayon, are restoring the towers of Prasat Suor Prat and rebuilding part of the causeway across the moat leading into Angkor Wat. Italians have reinforced the moat's outer wall. Since the late 1990's a German team has been working inside Angkor Wat to restore and preserve the 1,850 stone reliefs of "apsaras," the "celestial dancers" of Indian mythology who have given their name to the Cambodian Angkor authority. "Many are in alarming condition, because of the weather and because nitrates, phosphates and sulfates are seeping through the walls," Hans Leissen, who heads the German team, explained. The most ambitious project - reconstruction of the vast temple of Baphoun inside Angkor Thom - is being carried out by the French School of the Far East using a method known as anastylosis, which was first developed by Dutch colonialists a century ago in Indonesia. This involves dismantling a damaged monument stone by stone and then rebuilding it, if necessary with modern support systems. French experts began work on Baphoun in 1960 and had laid out 300,000 numbered stones, some weighing up to two tons, when they were forced to flee the Khmer Rouge in the early 1970's. By the time work resumed in 1995, however, all archives had been lost. "Every place has a stone and every stone has a place, but we had only photographs to work from," explained Pascal Royère, the French architect in charge of the project. Gradually, though, the temple is being rebuilt, with work due to be completed around 2005. In contrast, the sprawling temple of Ta Prohm, where huge banyan trees still grow out of the ruins, is to be left much as it was found in the mid-19th century. An Indian team will secure some perilous walls and address an annual flooding problem, but it will not touch the trees. "The trees, too, are part of the world heritage," Mr. Borath said. "They are part of the memory." "In any event," he added with a smile, "it is difficult to know in places if the building is held up by a tree or the tree is held up by a building."[End] __________________________________________________ save up to 70% on calls, get voicemail & send SMS ekno - more than a phonecard http://www.ekno.lonelyplanet.com

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