Word: angkor
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...peacekeepers are the occupiers. The electoral process they oversee is impressive. Near Angkor Wat, Sajjad A. Gul, a Pakistani, says Cambodians have told him they really do want to vote -- though some of them wish they could vote for UNTAC. As of mid-December, UNTAC officials could take satisfaction from the fact that 4 million of an estimated 4.5 million prospective voters had been registered...
...civil war is over, teams from Japan, France and Poland want to begin similar work on other monuments. The most ambitious project would be the restoration by Polish specialists of the Bayon, the last great temple built before the collapse of the Khmer civilization. Most of the temples at Angkor are Hindu, but the Bayon was built as a Buddhist shrine. While Angkor Wat soars, the Bayon suffocates. It is crowded with 54 sandstone towers, each with four carved visages of a complacently smiling future Buddha, or bodhisattva. The faces are probably likenesses of the temple's builder, King Jayavarman...
...will be hard to raise money for the basic infrastructure work needed. For one thing, potential donors are likely to be put off by the corruption that surrounds Angkor's temples. Angkor Tourism, a provincial organization, charges sightseers $120 a day to visit the site and will take in more than $1 million this year. Yet little, if any, of that money goes to maintenance of the monuments. "What money we get comes from Phnom Penh," says Uong Von, director of the Angkor Conservation Office. This office, with only 72 employees in the Angkor area, must deal not only with...
Still, for all the problems facing Angkor, it shares with the Cambodian people the hope of a brighter future. UNESCO will soon launch a yearlong, $500,000 study of environmental conditions in the Angkor region. The study will make zoning recommendations for future development -- particularly tourist access -- of what will be known as the Angkor Archaeological Park. But the investigation's main emphasis will be on the hydrology of the area and the possibility of restoring the ancient Khmer water system. Such a project could take until the end of the century to complete and cost more than $10 million...
...team has some advice for scientists interested in restoration: "You have to love your monument. It should be like the relationship between a doctor and a patient. If a doctor doesn't have faith in his patient, he will never cure him." And if nothing else, the monuments of Angkor inspire a great deal of love and a faith in their ability to survive...