via Global Times, 16 March 2023: An article focusing on the Chinese contributions to the conservation and restoration of the Angkor monuments.
Ancient China’s Silk Road ties to Cambodia’s Angkor Dynasty date back to 1296, when the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368) diplomat Zhou Daguan visited the Khmer Empire and produced the only surviving first-person account of the civilization that built Angkor. His writings A Record of Cambodia: The Land and Its People later guided countless explorers to discover the ancient ruins of Angkor that had remained hidden in the forest for hundreds of years.
Today, in this ancient and mysterious land, a group of Chinese archaeologists, in cooperation with their Cambodian counterparts, continue to reinvigorate the miracle of Angkor via a revitalized Silk Road.
The Angkor complex consists of 200 stone monuments. However, due to heavy rains, looting and lack of protection for centuries, most Angkor temples, built between the seventh and the 13th centuries, were seriously damaged.
In order to better protect and conserve these gems of human civilization, China became one of the first countries to join the International Action for Safeguarding Angkor, an international campaign launched by Cambodia and UNESCO in 1993.
