[CPProt.net] Cambidia: Temple raiders tamper with history

Tue Mar 22 05:54:04 CET 2005

 Temple raiders tamper with history 

22.03.05 1.00pm
By Jan McGirk and Daniel Howden

Angkor Wat, the ancient capital of the Khmer Empire, has survived intact for
a thousand years. But now it faces a new threat 

Seen in the half-light, the crumbling towers of Ta Prohm temple are a vision
from another world. 

The massive walls, locked in the muscular embrace of vast tree-root systems,
offer a sense of the exhilaration that would have been felt by the French
explorer Henri Mouhot when he stumbled upon the Angkor temples more than 140
years ago. 

He didn't hesitate to rate his discovery as "grander than anything of Greece
or Rome". 

The ancient capital of the Khmer empire is one of the archaeological
masterpieces of the world and the spiritual and cultural heart of Cambodia.
It is also the victim of a slow and painstaking rape, an assault mounted
with chisels and drills by impoverished locals for the benefit of wealthy
collectors in the West. 

Hidden by the bamboo shoots on the approach to the little-used northern
gate, an intricately carved bas-relief of sandstone lotus leaves decorates a
section of the wall bordering the path. 

Lying in front of it yesterday were a cluster of motorcycles hastily thrown
down by a gang of five men who vaulted the wall and disappeared on hearing
the approach of footsteps. 

In each of the more than 50 niches beautifully carved into the stone, there
was nothing left but scarred rock. The tell-tale signs of chiselling were
all that remained where once a cross-legged Buddha would have sat. 

Elsewhere, carved panels had tumbled onto the jungle floor, heads had been
clumsily hacked off and only amputated legs were visible where the torso of
a lost goddess had been hauled away. 

The Khmer buddhas are by now on their way to the antique shops of Bangkok,
or the auction houses of the West. They are bound ultimately for secret
collections of Angkorian art in an illicit and thriving trade that is
consigning one of the wonders of the world to a slow death. 

"It is tragic. And criminal," said Anabel Ford, a Californian archaeologist
on a project to photograph the spring equinox at Angkor. "There is no way to
know if it happened 20 years ago or 20 minutes ago, but there is no mistake
that beautiful pieces are missing." 

The temples of Angkor were built between the 9th and 14th centuries, when
Khmer civilisation was at its height and the empire stretched north to
Yunnan in China and from Vietnam westwards to the Bay of Bengal. 

Unparalleled in south-east Asia, they are a living testament to the
extraordinary creativity of the Khmer. 

The writer and broadcaster Dan Cruikshank became increasingly concerned at
the situation in Angkor Wat during the filming of Around the World in 80
Treasures. He said he was immediately struck by the vulnerability of the
more than 100 temples stretched over 77 square miles of dense jungle. 

"Most of it is not guarded or policed. Even at Angkor Wat itself it is very
easy to pick something up. There is a lot still unexcavated and you can just
pick it up. It's a gigantic problem. It would be easy if one were determined
to knock off the odd head. There's no one around but the occasional
tourist." 

Cruickshank said that the Western collectors are as much to blame for the
looting as the gangs that bring the stone saws to bear on the priceless
carvings. 

The Khmer treasures are, he says, a victim of their own beauty. 

"The quality of the 12th century workmanship is outstanding. There is a
tremendous fusion of Hindu and Buddhist art with Indonesian sensibility.
There's nothing else like it and it's a loss to mankind at large." 

The rape of Angkor is not strictly a modern phenomenon and looting has been
underway since the complex was abandoned in the 16th century and the court
moved to Phnom Penh. 

The destruction increased with the rise of the Khmer Rouge. In 1971 Pol
Pot's guerrillas moved into Angkor Wat, lit fires in the galleries,
installed rocket launchers and started slicing the heads of sculptures. 

They sold their bounty across the border into Thailand to help finance the
war effort. 

But it was after the fall of the Khmer Rouge that the pace of looting really
picked up. Without the guerrillas to ward off potential thieves, the rape
began in earnest. 

An attmept to move up to 7,000 of the most valuable pieces to the
conservation office in the nearby town of Siem Reap in the early 1990s
merely exacerbated the conflict. 

In February 1993 thieves wielding machine-guns and rocket launchers
attacked, killing one guard; they left with 11 of the most valuable statues.

Cambodian officials say they are doing all they can. They claim that the
presence of squads of momument rangers clutching walkie-talkies and checking
all visitors for their $20 per day photo ID passes, has helped to dampen the
looting spree. 

But conservation officials admit they are fighting an uphill battle.
"Vandalism has multiplied at a phenomenal rate," the conservation agency
said in a recent statement, with thieves "employing local populations to
carry out the actual thefts. Heavily armed intermediaries transport objects,
often in tanks or armoured personnel carriers." 

On the black market, a life-sized Buddha from Angkor, can fetch at least
$250,000. According to Roland Eng, a former US ambassador to Cambodia who
recently returned, two severe factors ensure that the looting continues: the
parlous state of the economy and the exorbitant prices that Angkorian art
fetches on the international market. 

"The country remains very poor. The army is very poor," he told The New York
Times. "We have to encourage people not to buy antiques when they cannot
trace the source." 

Growing cultural awareness and tighter controls - such as the American ban
on trade in illicit Cambodian artefacts passed in 2003 - hold out some hope
that future generations will see the wonders left in the jungle by the Khmer
kings. 

But the overwhelming sentiment is one of sadness at the irreparable damage
which Cambodians have beendriven by poverty and the greed of foreigners to
inflict on their own heritage. 

King Norodom Sihanouk, who abdicated in favour of his son last year,
contrasts the ancient glory with the modern theft of anything that might
have a market: "It is very sad the Cambodian people were so masterful and
skilful but now they plunder their own history." 

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/