photo credit: jin_soo

Researchers Look Closer at Ancient Angkor
23 June, VOA News

Ancient Khmer art and culture have characteristics distinct from India, though some ideas appear to have been borrowed from the tradition, a Canadian archeologist told guests in Washington last week.

Speaking to a small conference at the Freer-Sackler Art Gallery, Mitch Henderickson, director of the Industries of Angkor Project and researcher at the University of Sydney, said he found no evidence after seven years of research indicating that temples or architectural structures like Angkor Wat had been built in India.

“In the past it was interpreted as a direct diffusion of Indians and Indian ideals into Cambodia,” he said. “It has only been, say, in the last 10 years that we have truly understood how Brahman and Buddhist ideals have been brought into Cambodia and whether the actual Brahman or monks were giving the ideas.”

Some architecture and arts were now thought “uniquely Khmer,” he said, “because there are no temples in India that are built in the same way. They don’t follow the idea of building a ‘baray’ with a ‘mebon’ in the center, which is the representation of Mount Meru in the Sea of Milk [epic]. There’s nothing like that i​n India. So, the idea is that now we realize that Cambodia took the ideas that they wanted and modified them to suit the purpose and goals of the rulers and kings.”

Where do you come from?..”Buri Rum”..Where is that?

Phanom Rung Historical Park, Chalermphrakiat district, Buri Ram province) In Hindu and Buddhist cosmology, mountains are believed to be homes to the gods. Prasat Hin Khao Phanom Rung, a magnificent temple sanctuary set on the summit of Phanom Rung Hill, was built between the 10th and 13th centuries. According to the stone inscriptions in Sanskrit and Khmer found at the site, the original name of the temple complex is Phanom Rung, Khmer for big mountain

A religious sanctuary dedicated to the Hindu god, Shiva, Prasat Hin Khao Phanom Rung symbolises Mount Kailasa, the heavenly abode of Shiva. Phanom Rung Hill rises 350 metres above the surrounding plain.

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Astro-archaeological Phenomenon at Prasat Hin Khao Phanom Rung Astrologers have also predicted that an extraordinary astro-archaeological phenomenon will occur at sunrise during the April 3-5 period this year. The doors of the temple sanctuary are so perfectly aligned that during this period, at sunrise on a cloudless day with clear blue skies, the sun’s rays will shine through all fifteen doorways of the sanctuary in a single shaft of light.

Related Books:
- Uncovering Southeast Asia’s Past: Selected Papers from the 10th International Conference of the European Association of Southeast Asian Archaeologists by E. A. Bacus, I. Glover and V. C. Pigott (Eds)
- Khmer Civilization and Angkor (Orchid Guides) by D. L. Snellgrove
- Adoration and Glory: The Golden Age of Khmer Art by E. C. Bunker and D. Latchford

Korean Technology Helps Visualize Glory of Angkor Wat

The glory that was Angkor Wat has been restored to 3D digital life with the help of Korean technology. The digital recreation company CG WAVE and a research institute at Dongguk University dedicated to Buddhist electronic content have completed a one-year project to recreate the Khmer temple in western Cambodia at a cost of some W500 million (US$1=W930). Wars, colonial rule and the passage of time left many parts of the temple in ruins, and restoration work is continuous all over the vast complex. “Digital Angkor Wat” offers a glimpse of the temple in its original form.

Some 30,000 photos were used for the complete virtual restoration. “This is the first time we have used our technology to digitally restore a cultural asset of another nation,” says the leader of CG WAVE’s Angkor Wat team, senior researcher at Korea Advanced Institute of Sciences and Technology (KAIST) Park Jin-ho. “Using the maximum amount of information accessible these days as our foundation, we resurrected a lost cultural legacy and preserved it through video imaging.”

Binh Dinh’s Cham towers proposed for world cultural heritage

The Cham towers are unique religious architecture of Cham people. Binh Dinh has eight groups of Cham towers. Those towers are treasuries of history, culture and architecture for researchers to learn about the Vijaya areas in the ancient time and Binh Dinh at present.

Among Cham towers built in the central region, the architecture style of Cham towers in Binh Dinh is always praised by researchers. In 1942, Ph. Stern ranked the architectural style of Cham towers in Binh Dinh at the sixth level in seven styles and one of the most popular styles from the 12th to the 14th centuries.

Bagan: beautified or sacrificed?

Restorations are not new to Bagan, a victim of many floods, fires and earthquakes over the centuries.

A severe 1975 quake destroyed or damaged scores of clay brick and mud buildings and stunning wall murals some say are Bagan’s greatest treasure.

The junta allowed UNESCO experts in to help, but it later ignored the U.N. culture agency’s recommendations for World Heritage status, which would have required a conservation plan and unwanted international scrutiny.

After UNESCO withdrew in the mid-1990s, the generals launched their own restoration drive and solicited donations from wealthy Burmese and merit-seeking Buddhists from across Asia in pursuit of their own temple for the next life.

“They just wanted it to look beautiful,” said Gustaaf Houtman, editor of UK-based magazine Anthropology Today, who believes it is part of a wider campaign to rewrite history.

“Generals sponsored the renovation of a pagoda as a merit-making exercise, as a way of demonstrating to the whole of Burma, and to the world, that they were in control,” he said.

A forthcoming study by Australian archaeologist Bob Hudson says 650 complete buildings have had major repairs — including new spires, roofs or corners — since 1996.

Related Books:
- Ancient Pagan by D. Stadtner
- Bagan by B. Broman
- Cultural Sites of Burma, Thailand, and Cambodia b. J. Dumarcay and M. Smithies

New discoveries at Duong Long towers

Archeologists digging around the base of the three mighty Duong Long towers in Binh Dinh Province have greatly expanded their knowledge of the ancient Champa people. In the second excavation by the provincial museum, the archeologists found more than 1,000 bas-reliefs, pieces of pottery and other objects. They are yet to be classified.

The experts guess that the three towers together had entombed someone important since, to the modern-day Cham people, a tower was often the crematorium for a deceased Champa monarch. Several half-finished structures and bas-reliefs were found at the base of the two minor towers. Dr. Dinh Ba Hoa from the Binh Dinh Museum suggests the work was interrupted because the Champa king met with some problems.

‘Blitzkrieg’ rehab imperils Myanmar’s ancient temples

BAGAN, Myanmar — The bricklayers are paid $1.35 a day to rebuild the ancient ruin: a small, 13th Century temple reduced by time to little more than its foundation.

But they have no training in repairing aged monuments, and their work has nothing to do with actually restoring one of the world’s most important Buddhist sites. Instead, using modern red bricks and mortar, they are building a new temple on top of the old.

They work from a single page of drawings supplied by the government. Three simple sketches provide the design for a generic brick structure and a fanciful archway. No one knows, or seems to care, what the original temple looked like. Nearby are two piles of 700-year-old bricks that were pulled from the ruin. The bricklayers use them to fill holes in the temple.

Related Books:
- Ancient Pagan by D. Stadtner
- Bagan by B. Broman
- Ancient Pagan by D. Stadtner
- Cultural Sites of Burma, Thailand, and Cambodia b. J. Dumarcay and M. Smithies