To Cambodia With Love

An Essential Travel Guide in a Digital World

Book Review by Kent Davis

To Cambodia With Love is an attractive and useful guidebook for any traveler headed to Cambodia. Its secret is that this book offers a unique collection of tips and ideas that readers simply won’t find anywhere else.

When I began traveling internationally in the 1970s trips were always too expensive and too short. So some things never change!

Info about exotic destinations was sparse, but even a few ideas about sights, food, transport and lodging could make the difference between a memorable adventure and a stressful fiasco.

On my first trip to Laos in 1992 I just ripped the 20 page supplement out of the Thailand Lonely Planet Guide so I didn’t have to carry the whole book…but even those 20 pages made my Laotian trip easier. Knowledge is power!

With the advent of the Internet, travel research has evolved. So have travelers.

Finding mainstream attractions and accommodations is fairly easy. If anything, there’s too much information available and online sources aren’t always reliable. Beyond that, most modern travelers are seeking insights and experiences much deeper than “been there, done that”. Enter senior editor Kim Fay with a new concept to create “travel guides for the connoisseur”.

Young Cambodian monk by Tewfic EI-Sawy.

To Cambodia With Love is a perfect example of how well her formula works. With Phnom Penh-based British writer Andy Brouwer, they sought out more than 60 expert contributors with one thing in common: a passion for some aspect of Cambodian life. Food, history, sights, temples, Buddhism, wildlife, art, music, nature, charity, adventure, education…you name it…these people all live and love their Cambodian dreams.

And to each they posed one question: If you were giving advice to a friend who was headed to Cambodia, what would you tell them?

And so To Cambodia With Love was born, the newest in a brilliant series of travel guides. In addition to Cambodia, ThingsAsian Press now offers guides for Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Shanghai, Northern India, Nepal and Japan.

I can honestly say that I wouldn’t go to any of those places without one of these clever compact guides in my luggage. Why take a chance of missing the most inspirational experiences that await you in these exotic lands?

To Cambodia With Love BOOK DETAILS

Cambodian dancers by Tewfic EI-Sawy.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. MOVEABLE FEASTS – A tasting menu of exotic flavors

2. SEEING THE SIGHTS – Fresh perspectives on exploring must-see attractions

3. SECRET GARDENS – Where to hide away from the touring masses

4. INTO THE WILD – Outdoor experiences for adventurous travelers

5. WHEN IN ROME – Lessons on living local and making yourself at home

6. PAYING IT FORWARD – Suggestions for giving back while you’re on the road

7. RESOURCES FOR THE ROAD – Practical advice to help you prepare for your travels

8. EPILOGUE – One writer takes his sons on a local detour in Siem Reap

The book also features an Introduction, detailed Contributor Biographies (see below), Credits and  an Index .

Andy Brouwer (at right without glasses)

EDITOR BIO

British-born Andy Brouwer made his first trip to Cambodia in 1994. That white-knuckle ride hooked him for life.

When his annual visits didn’t satisfy his craving, so he upped sticks to Phnom Penh in 2007. As well as having a serious interest in temples, books, and pretty much all things Khmer, he is a lifetime supporter of Leeds United and has an insatiable passion for the music of Steel Pulse and Ennio Morricone.

For the adventures of Cambodian life, updated daily, visit Andy’s blog.

Tewfic EI-Sawy

PHOTOGRAPHER BIO

Tewfic EI-Sawy is a New York City-­based freelance photographer who specializes in documenting endan­gered cultures and traditional life in Asia, Latin America, and Africa.

He is particularly interested in photograph­ing cultural ceremonies and religious and tribal rituals.

He leads photogra­phy tours to India, Sikkim, Indo­china, Indonesia, and the Himalayan Kingdoms of Nepal and Bhutan. His images, articles, and photo features have been published in various magazines and other publications.

CONTRIBUTORS

Note: This complete alphabetical list of contributors is quoted from To Cambodia With Love.

Juanita Accardo — Juanita is a regular visitor to Cambo­dia. She adores Ratanakiri and treats it like her second home. When she’s not traveling, she’s back in the United States working at St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach, California.

Matt Ames — If Matt is not in Cambodia, he is probably in Roanoke, Virginia, studying data visualization, working on art projects, making music, or writing and directing short films. Matt would like to especially thank the monks of Wat Tahm-rai-saw in Battambang for their friendliness and willingness to answer a bunch of stupid questions.

Mariam Arthur — Mariam has traveled the United States extensively and went global in 2006. Her writing career started in California for regional newspa­pers. She transferred her skills to Hollywood in 2000. She has resided in Cambodia since 2007, where she lives within view of the Royal Palace with her cat, Tigger.

Anne Best — A London-based anthropologist, Anne Best is the author of The Monk, the Farmer, the Merchant, the Mother: Survival Stories of Rural Cambodia. This book tells the true stories of the lives of four simple country people. Now elderly, they reflect on the events of their lives and talk about the traditions of Khmer village life.

Andrew Booth — British-barn Andrew has such eclectic talents and absurd determi­nation, most would agree he is the man to have with them on a desert island. When not obsessing over the logistics of bespoke itineraries for his travel company ABOUTAsia, Andrew can be found spending its profits for the education of Cambodian rural poor through the IAMCAMBODIA Foundation, where he is cofounder and director.

Adam Bray — Adam Bray is a writer and photogra­pher based in Mui Ne, Vietnam. He has contributed to more than a dozen guidebooks for countries in South­east Asia, including Insight Guides’ Laos & Cambodia, DK’s Eyewitness travel guide to Cambodia and Laos, and Thomas Cook’s Travellers Cam­bodia – as well as numerous books in the To Asia With Love guidebook series. He is also regularly featured on CNNGO.com and CNN.com.

Elizabeth Briel — Elizabeth Briel is an artist and travel ­writer with an Asian focus. She has recently illustrated her first book, H is for Hong Kong, photographed her second, Lost & Found: Hong Kong, and is writing another about her quest through Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam in search of the perfect paper. Cur­rently she is based in Australia and Asia. In Cambodia, she ran a solo charity project teaching photography to kids while working as a radio DJ.

Janet Brown — The author of Tone Deaf in Bangkok, Janet loves Cambodia from the per­spective of a Bangkok resident but harbors dreams of someday being very, very old in Kratie. Look for her forthcoming Clueless in Cambodia sometime in 2030!

Cristiano Calcagno — Italian-born Cristiano Calcagno lives with his wife in Kompong Thom, where he has worked for many years. In his spare time he conducts field research into the ancient sites around his home province … and rides his bike.

Hing Channarith – Hing Channarith is the CEO and founder of the grassroots NGO the Cambodian Children’s Advocacy Foundation (CCAF). He formerly managed the Kien Khleang National Rehabilitation Centre’s Veterans International Cambodia just outside Phnom Penh for a decade.

Karen Coates — Author of Cambodia Now: Life in the Wake of War, Karen Coates splits her time between the American Southwest and Southeast Asia. She’s covered Cambodia for publications around the world since 1998, when she worked at The Cambodia Daily. She now writes the Ramblin’ Spoon blog about cuisine.

Kent Davis — Kent Davis is a publisher, author, trans­lator, and educator with twenty years of Southeast Asian work and travel ex­perience. In 2005, he founded DatASIA Press and initiated Devata.org, an indepen­dent research project documenting, cataloguing, and analyzing the sacred women whose portraits fill the walls of Angkor Wat and other Khmer temples.

Tiara Delgado — From Los Angeles, California, Tiara Delgado is the founder of Global Vision Video production company. In addition to working on documentaries, she has been a news correspondent for CAM-TV in Long Beach, California, and is currently a contributing journalist for The Khmer Post newspaper, also in Long Beach. She has been traveling to Cambodia since 1999 and has resided for the past two years in Phnom Penh, where she works as an English teacher.

Christine Dimmock — Christine Dimmock is a volunteer tutor for migrants and refugees in Australia, who first traveled to Southeast Asia and Cambodia in the 1990s. Her travel adventures also took her to Afghani­stan in the early part of the last decade.

Kim Fay — Raised in the Pacifie Northwest, Kim Fay first traveled to Southeast Asia in 1991. Since that time, she spent four years living in Vietnam and has traveled back frequently, writing about the region. As an expert on travel literature and Vietnam, she has been a guest speaker on NPR and has written for numerous publications, including Travel + Leisure. She is the author of Communion: A Culinary Journey Through Vietnam and creator and series editor of the To Asia With Love guide books. She lives in Los Angeles.

Don Gilliland — Don Gilliland is originally from Orlando, Florida, where he worked as a dishwasher, cook, and record store manager. He moved to Thailand in 1996 to work for Tower Records. He taught English for a few years before getting the retail itch again, opening the Lazy Mango Bookshop in Siem Reap in 2002 and Dasa Books in Bangkok in 2004.

Steve Goodman — Steve Goodman is an American who has lived in Phnom Penh since 2005 working as a professional photogra­pher and part-time guitar player. In 2002, after a twenty-two-year career as a software company executive in San Francisco, he began an exciting adventure traveling extensively and shooting photos throughout South­east Asia.

Antonio Graceffo — Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the author of the book The Monk from Brooklyn and the host of the web TV show Martial Arts Odyssey, which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning mar­tial arts in various countries.

Debra Groves — Debra Groves is an Australian photographer working in Cambodia. She left her own wedding photography business on Australia’s Sunshine Coast to move to Cambodia in April 2005, a year after her first visit. She is the founder of the charity Helping Hands.

Anna Hassett — Anna Hassett’s travels to Cambodia have included spending time at the Helping Hands charity outside Siem Reap.

Christina Heyniger — Christina Heyniger is a consultant, writer, and lecturer working with governments, entrepreneurs, and community tourism interests to develop and market eco-nature-adventure tourism products and ser­vices. Her company, Xola Consulting, has supported clients in countries around the world, including Ar­gentina, Brazil, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Ecuador, Peru, India, Mexico, Montenegro, Morocco, Nepal, and the United States.

Denise Heywood — Denise Heywood is a lecturer, journalist, author, and photographer. She has lived in Paris, New York, and Cambodia, where she worked as a journalist for three years. Now based in London, she has written books on Luang Prabang and Cambodian dance, including Cambodian Dance: Celebration of the Gods.

Aaron Horwitz – Aaron Horwitz is a Los Angeles­-based filmmaker and writer who has a passion for Asia and spent a good part of 2008 shooting in Thailand. He is also a cofounder of the charity Who Will? We Will! which organizes annual fundraisers for several small, independent NGOs. He is currently working for Causecast and aiming on a return to work in Southeast Asia again soon.

Mark Hotham — In 2001 Mark set off to spend eighteen months traveling India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, China, Laos, and Vietnam before arriving in Cambodia in 2003. Unable to tear himself away, he found work in the Australian Embassy in Phnom Penh and settled down for two and a half years. He now lives and works in the travel industry in the UK.

Soumya James — Soumya is writing her doctoral dis­sertation in the Department of History of Art and Visual Studies at Cornell University in the United States. She is studying the cultural role of the divine feminine during the Angkor period. Her experiences during fieldwork led to a greater appreciation for the people and places in Cambodia.

Helen Ibbitson Jessup — Helen is an art historian specializing in the architecture and sculpture of Cambodia and Indonesia. She has curated exhibitions that have traveled in the USA, France, Japan, Germany, Switzerland, and The Netherlands. She is the founding president of Friends of Khmer Culture and a trustee of the United States Indonesia Society. Her publications include Art & Architecture of Cambodia and Masterpieces of the National Museum of Cambodia.

Molly Jester — Molly spent many years working on issues related to homelessness and street-living youth in the United States. She first traveled to Southeast Asia in 2001 and fell in love with the region. She’s the president and founder of Stop Exploitation Now! established in 2005 to fight exploitation and abuse in Southeast Asia.

Phil Lees — Phil is an Australian living in Phnom Penh and an avid foodie. He pens Phnomenon, Cambodia’s first food blog. Lonely Planet’s guide to the greater Mekong called him “the unofficial pimp of Cambodian cuisine.”

Peter Leth — Peter is an American who has explored all corners of Cambodia for both work and play. He currently lives in Phnom Penh with his wife and daughter.

Martin Lum — Martin advises the Victoria government in Australia on health. He loves traveling.

Roy McClean — Roy is currently based in Australia and Asia. He spends his time breathing and making shapes with his body (also known as Chi Gung, Wing Chun, yoga, and meditation). He enjoys riding old bicycles through the back streets of low-rise cities.

Steve McClure — Steve is an award-winning writer/ director and cofounder of Ghost-2-­Eleven Entertainment. His first feature documentary, Rain Falls from Earth: Surviving Cambodia’s Darkest Hour, is narrated by Oscar-nominated actor Sam Waterston and features personal stories from victims of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1970s Cambodia.

Doug Mendel — A former volunteer firefighter in Colorado, Doug first came to Cam­bodia in 1997 and has since donated equipment to six of Cambodia’s fire stations, including two fire trucks. He also set up the Douglas Mendel Cambodian Relief Fund.

Howie Nielsen — A former dentist in the United States by profession, Howie is a passionate bird-watcher and now trains local guides for the Sam Veasna Center for Wildlife Conservation in Cambodia.

Caroline Nixon — Serving as a medical student elec­tive in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in 1980 started Caroline’s passion for travel­ing throughout Southeast Asia. Her favorite destinations are Myanmar and Cambodia. Her favorite pastimes include floating on rivers, cooking, and eating with friends.

Dougald O’Reilly — Dougald received his PhD in archaeology in 1999 and was hired the same year by UNESCO to teach at the Royal University of Fine Arts and pursue his research interests in Iron Age settlements in Cambodia. He founded Heritage Watch International, an NGO that promotes the preservation of heritage assets in Cambodia, in 2003. The author of Early Civilizations of Southeast Asia, he is currently a lecturer at The University of Sydney in Australia.

Joanna Owen — Following Joanna’s first experi­ence with Siem Reap, she made it her home and runs a successful responsible-tourism business with her partner, Thomas at Angkor Hotels. She has just completed an MA in Responsible Tourism Management and set up HOPE, a UK-based charity supporting young adults in Cambodia.

Daniela Papi — Daniela is the founder of PEPY, a hybrid organization encompassing an education development organization and an edu-venture tour company based in Siem Reap. She has been living in Cambodia since 2005 and is always looking for ways to escape the cities-often by bicycle on one of PEPY’s bicycle adventures.

Robert Philpotts — Robert has been writing about Cambodia since UNAMIC times, “but I consider, as far as my books are concerned, what I produce is a bit like white rice without prahok. This is why I spice the texts with pen and ink drawings.” His books include A Guide to Phnom Penh, The Coast of Cambodia, A Post of Independence, and his latest, South of the Heart.

Socheata Poeuv — Socheata made her filmmaking debut with the award-winning film New Year Baby, which was broadcast nationally in 2008. She was formerly on the staff at NBC’s Dateline and TODAY shows and ABC’s World News Tonight. She’s also the CEO of Khmer Legacies, an organization whose mission is to document the Cambodian genocide through videotaped testimonies by having the younger generation interview the older generation.

Jan Polatschek — Jan is a native New Yorker and now lives in Thailand. Using Bangkok as his hub, he travels in Asia, the Middle East, and beyond. He writes about his travel adventures and posts photos on his website, and several of his essays appear in To Asia With Love guidebooks from ThingsAsian Press.

Geoff Pyle — After living in Cambodia for a while, Geoff finds it hard to keep away from the place-the people, the history, the landscape, the food … though it is the architecture, the old stuff and the 1960s stuff, that really gets him going.

Nick Ray — Nick hails from Watford, UK, and after trying his hand attour leading he hooked up with Lonely Planet in 1998 and has worked on more than twenty titles since, including Lonely Planet Cambodia. He lives in Phnom Penh and leads and lectures on tours for top travel companies and international organizations. He also works as a loca­tion scout and manager for television and film. Projects have included Tomb Raider, Two Brothers, and countless documentaries for the BBC, Discovery Channel, and National Geographic.

Dawn Rooney — Dawn is an independent scholar and an art historian specializing in South­east Asia. She has authored nine books on the art and culture of the region. An American now residing in Bangkok, her Angkor: An Introduction to the Temples was first published in 1994.

Geoff Ryman — Geoff is a Canadian living in London. He has published eight novels and a volume of short fiction and has coedited a collection of Canadian fiction and a volume of stories that are collaborations between writers and scientists. His novels and short stories have won fourteen awards. His book on Cambodia, The King’s Last Song, was inspired by a visit in 2001 to an archaeological dig at Angkor Wat. He has twice run workshops in Cambodia in creative writing.

Anita Sach — Anita works as a freelance travel writer and editor, develops tour programs to Asia for tour operators, and leads group tours to the region. She is the author of guidebooks on Cambodia, Vietnam, and Bangkok and regularly writes online guides to Phnom Penh, Saigon, Hanoi, and Bangkok.

Sheila Scoville — Sheila lives in Austin, Texas, playing in her band No Mas Bodas, selling music at Waterloo Records, and thinking about her trip to Asia at least five times a day. She misses the scenery, cheap massages, kindness of complete strangers, and street food (especially sticky rice desserts) the most.

Lundi Seng — Lundi is a doctor practicing rehabilitation, occupational, and physical therapy in Long Beach, California. In January 1979 he fled with his family to Thailand and resettled in Michigan in December 1980.

David Shamash — For the last fifteen years property company director David has been donning his backpack and traveling to the farthest reaches of Cambodia by boat, pickup, or motodop. As a board member of Mekong Blue in Stung Treng, he helped develop the project so that it now supports a large seg· ment of the local community.

Gordon Sharpless — Based in Siem Reap, Gordon has lived and worked in Cambodia for nearly a decade. He is the writer and publisher of the Tales of Asia website and since 2004 has owned and operated Two Dragons Guesthouse in Siem Reap. He is married with two children.

Robert Tompkins — Robert is a Canadian writer, editor, and educator. A regular contributor to ThingsAsian.com, he and his wife, Doris, live in Cedar Valley, Ontario, a rural community thirty-five miles north of Toronto. Bob publishes articles internationally through his freelance agency, Travel Ink. He is also the editor of Futurescapes. Currently, he is involved in an online editing and tutorial service called The Wordsdoctor.

Georgiana Treasure-Evans — Georgiana is a mother, writer, yoga teacher, and healing arts practitioner. During her four years in Cambodia she traveled widely in Southeast Asia with her husband and two small children. She now lives in Herefordshire, UK.

Loung Ung — Loung is the author of two mem­airs: First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers and Lucky Child. A Daughter of Cambodia Reunites with the Sister She Left Behind.

Glyn Vaughan — Glyn is director of All Ears Cambodia, a local NGO fighting against ear disease and deafness. It focuses on the weakest and hardest hit, providing free medical treatment for some of the most vulnerable groups in Cambodia.

Dickon Verey — Dickon lived in Cambodia from 2003 until the beginning of 2006. During that time he volunteered for a number of NGOs. His main work was building a youth and community center in the village of Ksach Poy near Battambang for FEDA. He now lives in Vietnam.

Christine Thuy-Anh Vu — Christine writes and edits work about the arts, culture, and science. Serv­ing as art adviser to several interna­tional collections, she has also been an executive director to a Vietnam-based international arts organization. A Fulbright Fellow in Contemporary Vietnamese Art, she has received other honors and fellowships for her research in Europe and the USA in psychology, gastronomy, and contemporary art.

Ray Waddington — Ray is the president of The Peoples of the World Foundation, a secular, apolitical, nonprofit organization based in the USA. He established the foundation to fund educational scholarships for indigenous people after witnessing their lack of educational opportunities and the negative impact this has on political representation. He recently cel­ebrated his one-millionth kilometer of international travel and is prepar­ing a travel/humor book based on his experiences.

Georgie Walsh — Georgie first went to Phnom Penh to work on a memoir set there in the 1980s. This fell through, but she kept herself busy by editing, teaching, exporting textiles, starting a soup kitchen, co-founding an NGO, and selling some paintings, just to name a few activities. More recently she’s been based in Bangkok and Luang Prabang, where she is working as a freelance journalist.

Peter Walter — Peter Walter is the Southeast Asia managing director for L.EX Consult­ing. A native of Lakewood, Ohio, he has lived with his family in Bangkok for nearly ten years. Whenever he gets the chance, he enjoys spending time exploring the region with his wife, Lyle, and their three boys.

Debbie Watkins — With husband Marc, Debbie created Carpe Diem Travel in 2001 after a ca­reer in banking in the UK. Carpe Diem is a social enterprise travel business, reinvesting profits in the communities its customers visit.

Rachel Wildblood — UK-born, Rachel is a freelance consultant specializing in waste and environmental management. She worked for various NGOs in Cambo­dia over a four-year period from 2005 after arriving as a volunteer.

Mick Yates — Mick is an innovative leadership researcher, teacher, and author. In 2001, Mick was elected to Save the Children’s U.S. board of trustees. Reflecting a long-term interest in children’s issues, the Yates family supports a Cambodian school devel­opment program in a remote area of the country.

Ronnie Yimsut — Born and raised in Siem Reap, Ronnie fled Cambodia after witnessing the massacre of nearly his entire family under the Khmer Rouge regime. Ron­nie is currently a senior landscape architect for the U.S. Forest Service, a published author, and a social and environmental justice issues activist with groups such as Project Enlighten and Bakong Technical College in Cambodia.

Ray Zepp — Ray came to Cambodia in 1995 as part of the Georgetown University project to rebuild the National Uni­versity of Management. His travels in the hinterland prompted him to author his Cambodia Less Travelled and Experiencing Cambodia. He now resides in Battambang and has written the tourist guide Around Battambang. He has also started the new Dewey International University in Battambang.

3D Architectural reconstruction of Banteay Chhmar by Dr. Pheakday Nguonphan.

Article by Kent Davis – Devata.org

PARIS, FRANCE – The majestic temple of Angkor Wat is an icon of the medieval Khmer civilization that once flourished in Southeast Asia. But situated 110 kilometers northwest of the well-known Angkor group, experts believe another fabulous monument also holds vital clues to the mysteries of the Khmer Empire. At the behest of the Global Heritage Fund, experts recently gathered at the Guimet Museum to insure the future of the temple of Banteay Chhmar.

One of eight Lokesvara images originally carved on the temple walls of Banteay Chhmar. Four of these were looted in 1992 (see missing wall on right).

Banteay Chhmar, also called the Citadel of the Cats, lies hidden in a remote corner of Cambodia, shielded by the Dangrek Mountains to the north. Its isolated location is exactly why archaeologists and conservators are so enthusiastic about the site. In the 800 years since it was built, Banteay Chhmar has slowly collapsed, falling victim to ancient trees, invasive jungle foliage and modern looters.

But archaeologists know that the structural collapse has preserved many artistic elements, much like a time capsule. Banteay Chhmar temple remains the least-damaged repository of art commissioned by the Khmer Empire’s last great king, Jayavarman VII, who converted Cambodia to Buddhism, which remains the national religion today.

GHF conservation of the face towers at Banteay Chhmar.

Conserving Cambodian History at Banteay Chhmar

In 2007, the Global Heritage Fund (GHF) recognized the critical need for conservation, planning and protection at Banteay Chhmar. Working with Cambodian officials, GHF initiated a conservation project at the temple. British architect John Sanday, GHF’s Director for Asia and Pacific Programs, moved to the site to personally direct the work, and to oversee training for professional team of Khmer conservators to restore their nation’s priceless heritage.

GHF’s Banteay Chhmar project is the first temple restoration project led by a Khmer team.

The Cambodian government and conservation groups actively support GHF’s conservation efforts. Governor Oung Oeung of Banteay Meanchey Province and Director General Ok Sophon, Department of Heritage, Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts (MoCFA) recently hosted the second international Banteay Chhmar conference at the site, attracting nearly 200 participants.

In addition to GHF’s work stabilizing and preserving the temple structure, two other groups are working with local residents to promote social programs; Cambodia Community Based Eco-Tourism Network promotes eco-tourism, while Heritage Watch International implements heritage education programs for visitors, guides and local residents.

In addition to the main temple, the vast Banteay Chhmar site includes a large baray (ceremonial reservoir), canals and many smaller temples.

GHF Conference at Musée Guimet Rallies Support for Heritage Conservation

A Royal Cambodian Ballet dancer.

On November 30th, 2010 the Global Heritage Fund organized a special meeting at the Guimet Museum, which preserves one of the most extraordinary collections of Khmer art in the world.

Following a traditional dance blessing by member of the Royal Ballet of Cambodia, a group of distinguished speakers discussed the importance of saving global heritage for future generations. Presenters included Cambodian Ambassador to France, H.E. Mr. Uch Kiman; the U.S. Ambassador to UNESCO David Killion, and Jacques Gies, President of the Musée Guimet, who just had returned from Cambodia.

John Sanday presented his ongoing work restoring Banteay Chhmar with professional team of Khmer conservators. Banteay Chhnar is the first temple conservation project in Cambodia to be led by a Khmer team of professionals training their fellow Khmers. Mr. Sanday also described how local communities are essential to the site’s protection and development to ensure long-term success for the project.

Dr. Peter Sharrock from University of London SOAS presented intriguing research on the unique Khmer art and iconography of Banteay Chhmar that the GHF project is now revealing to the world. (more info below)

Banteay Chhmar is enclosed by a one kilometer carved bas-relief wall depicting the entire history of the Khmer kingdom.

UNESCO Recognition – The Next Key Step for Banteay Chhmar

In 1992, UNESCO has recognized the 400 sq. km. Angkor area as one of the world’s most important archaeological sites.

The vast site of Banteay Chhmar is now among Cambodia’s top-listed sites for nomination to UNESCO’s World Heritage List. This little-know and rarely visited area contains one of the great architectural masterpieces of Southeast Asia, and its main temple is one of the culminating monuments of the Khmer Kingdom’s epic Angkorian Period.

Suffering from 800 years of neglect, the towers, chambers and intricate bas relief carvings of the temple have slowly collapsed to the encroaching jungle, as well as suffering from aggressive looters. Banteay Chhmar is in critical need of a master plan, pro-active conservation and increased protection, which is the exact mission government and non-profit agencies now pursue.

Early Banteay Chhmar temple plan by George Groslier.

Exploring the History and Mystery of Banteay Chhmar

Always remote, Banteay Chhmar has attracted explorers for more than a century. Etienne Aymonier first visited the site around 1883 followed by Lunet de Lajonquière around 1903. According to French archaeologist George Groslier,

“both noted that of all the Khmer monuments that they had explored Banteay Chhmar was the most ruined, the largest, the most chaotic…and the most indecipherable.”

On January 9, 1914, Groslier returned to the site to make a detailed survey, where he wrote:

“It took me ten days of uninterrupted work, from dawn to dusk, to survey Banteay Chhmar. No other temple in Cambodia is so vast or lies in such ruin…nowhere else have I felt such deep emotion studying the stones on site and re-erecting them one by one on paper.”

Groslier continued documenting the site, with the first major article for the public appearing in French in 1937 (click for George Groslier’s Banteay Chhmar article in English).

Professor Sharrock of SOAS now notes that the consecration of Banteay Chhmar dates to 1216 CE. Sharrock, a specialist in the religious transformation under the reign of the last great Khmer King Jayavarman VII, sees this unrestored temple as perhaps the greatest and least-damaged repository of Buddhist iconography from that era. His hope is that it will tell scholars even more about the Khmer than the state temple of the Bayon, which is in the Angkor group.

According Sharrock, images at Banteay Chhmar contain strong evidence for a cult of the supreme tantric Buddhist deity Hevajra, with significant participation by female practitioners, women known as Yoginis. According to Sharrock’s research, Hevajra cults were widespread at the time, reaching their peak in what is now China in 1260 CE with the Chinese emperor Kublai Khan’s consecration to Hevajra. Jayavarman VII’s devotion to Hevajra was therefore not unusual, but it does reveal the extent that this new religion influenced Southeast Asian beliefs.

Meanwhile, the iconography in the central sanctuary of Banteay Chhmar suggests that Vajrasattva and Herukas may have been at the core of this royal tantric cult. A frieze on one of the temple’s characteristic face towers may portraying the whole body of the crowned 4-faced deity sitting in the face-towers themselves.

Architectural reconstruction of Banteay Chhmar by architect Olivier Cunin, funded by the Robert Kiln Charitable Trust (UK) via GHF.

Restoring an Architectural Wonder

GHF has also employed the talents of French architect Dr. Olivier Cunin in creating 3-D archaeological reconstructions of the Banteay Chhmar complex. Cunin collaborated with Japanese photographer Baku Saito in 2005 to issue “The Face Towers of Banteay Chmar”, documenting this extraordinary temple.

The Banteay Chhmar site is now open to visitors. Interested travelers can also support the non-profit Global Heritage Fund, Cambodia Community Based Eco-Tourism Network, and Heritage Watch International with tax deductible contributions.

GHF team doing a temporary reassembly of a vault at Banteay Chhmar.

Banteay Chhmar Information Resources

Global Heritage Fund

Heritage Watch International

Cambodia Community Based Eco-Tourism Network

Banteay Chhmar Heritage Conference Website

Archaeological Institute of America – Banteay Chhmar Site Preservation Grant

Article – Banteay Chhmar: healing the scars of looting

Article – Banteay Chhmar – Ancient Khmer City in Cambodia (1933 article)

Kindle Wireless Reading Device

Digital books about Angkor, Cambodian travel guides, history and even folktales are literally at your fingertips with Amazon’s Kindle Reader.

Kindle has been Amazon’s #1 bestselling item for two years running. It’s also the most-wished-for, most-gifted, and has the most 5-star reviews of any Amazon product! Amazon just introduced an improved version for only $139 so if you’ve been waiting to try this technology, this could be the time.

Best of all, Kindle users save money on their books because Amazon offers some Cambodian titles at a substantial savings.

For example:

Angkor the Magnificent – The Wonder City of Ancient Cambodia

By Helen Candee - $9.99 (List $39.95)

“The tale of it is incredible;
the wonder which is Angkor is unmatched in Asia.”

Angkor the Magnificent

So begins Helen Churchill Candee’s classic tale of Asian adventure. Today, readers can again experience the mystery of Cambodia’s vast jungle temples through her eyes.

Although Helen Candee is best known for surviving the sinking of the RMS Titanic, she walked with kings, presidents, the wealthy and the powerful. entertaining, educating and influencing them. This independent woman championed feminine equality and fought tirelessly for woman’s rights.

As a single woman she traveled the Far East with a keen eye for detail, an inquisitive mind, and a sensitivity for local culture. Helen Candee’s travelogue remains one of the most evocative English language accounts of the ancient Khmer capital.

This special Kindle edition included her complete 1924 work with dozens of antique illustrations, an index and bibliography. This digital version also features an original biography of Helen Candee by historian Randy Bryan Bigham, and a reprint of Candee’s original account of the Titanic disaster itself.

A History of Cambodia

By David Chandler - $19.25 (Digital list price $35)

A History of Cambodia

This clear and concise volume provides a timely overview of Cambodia, a small but increasingly visible Southeast Asian nation. Hailed by the Journal of Asian Studies as an “original contribution, superior to any other existing work,” the first edition ended in 1953 with Cambodia’s independence from France; the second carries the narrative forward to the present.

In the new material, Chandler focuses especially on the unstable but influential career of Prince Norodom Sihanouk, the bloody reign of Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge, and the relative calm that followed the Vietnamese invasion of 1979. This comprehensive general description and analysis of Cambodia will illuminate—for specialists and general readers alike—the history and contemporary politics of a country long misunderstood.

Frommer’s Cambodia and Laos

By Daniel White - $9.99 (List $21.99)

Frommer's Cambodia and Laos

This new first edition guide introduces two exotic destinations fast becoming required stops for globetrotting tourists. Through our expert author, readers are exposed to the rich culture and poignant history in Cambodia and Laos. Discover the region’s food and gift markets, lovely beaches and islands, colorful temples, and charming villages.

This title covers highlights of both countries, including Cambodia’s tourist Mecca and spiritual center Angkor Wat, capital Phnom Penh, and beach resort Sihanoukville.

Laos covers the relaxed city Vientiane, Luang Prabang (a UNESCO World Heritage city for its blend of Laotian and European architecture), and top spots for ecotourism.

The planning chapter includes extensive information on sustainable development and volunteer vacations. Special features include a Khmer and Laotian language primer and separate history and culture chapters for both nations.

Cambodia Travel Adventures

By Janet Arrowood – $7.99

Cambodia Travel Adventures

This book is extracted from our much larger guide to Vietnam, Laos & Cambodia, and it focuses on Cambodia primarily.

Janet Arrowood is a long-time and frequent visitor to Southeast Asia.

Huge lakes, tremendous waterfalls, elephant rides, jungles, wonderful people, fabulous food. The sense of the new and unknown will amaze you. Prices? Phenomenally low. And the scenery is spectacular. Canoe or kayak the South China Sea, see some of the largest waterfalls in the world, visit the islands, trek to hill-tribe areas, visit former royal palaces, wander through local markets.

The imperial temples are unforgettable. Cambodia, almost undiscovered by Westerners, is a land of stunning scenery.

“Travel Adventures” are about living more intensely, waking up to your surroundings and truly experiencing all that you encounter. Each book offers an ideal mix of practical travel info along with culturally enriching activities and physical adventures. And the fun is for everyone, no matter what his or her age or ability.

Comprehensive background information – history, culture, geography and climate – gives you a solid knowledge of each destination and its people. Regional chapters take you on an introductory tour, with stops at museums, historic sites and local attractions. Places to stay and eat; transportation to, from and around your destination; practical concerns; tourism contacts – its all here! Detailed maps feature walking and driving tours. Then come the adventures – both cultural and physical – from canoeing and hiking to taking dance or cooking classes. This unique approach allows you to really immerse yourself in the local culture.

Folk Tales from Cambodia

By Raja Sharma - $2.39

Folk Tales From Cambodia

Cambodian Folktales grew from the imagination and the lives of people, passed through from generation to generation, the stories have sometimes altered during the retelling process, ordinary characters become bigger than life, situations exaggerated.

They remain popular both with adults and children, especially the latter who respond quickly to the stories. They are simple to understand with no complicated plot involved, they are short, and sometimes humorous. The sense of justice is always there, the good character will be rewarded and the evil one always gets punished at the end! Folktales may lead to a better understanding of customs and culture. Here are the folktales, so enjoy! They are sure to delight you.

Details on the Amazon Kindle

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Its solid build quality, along with its improved design, integrated store, and cross-platform transportability… all add up to a winner that shoots to the head of the pack.” - PC World

Simply put, it’s the best dedicated ebook reader you can buy… Amazon has managed to increase the contrast on the Kindle in a way that sets it above the Nook, Sony Readers, or any other dedicated ebook reader we’ve tested.” - PC Magazine

Le Ballet Royal du Cambodge Paris performance.

By Kent Davis – Devata.org

PARIS — At the beginning of time, an extraordinary Hindu legend relates how the forces of good and evil worked together to create Amrita, the nectar of immortality. Today, humankind still seeks this magical elixir and Khmer dancers continue to recreate the tale.

The Royal Ballet of Cambodia will perform in Paris on October 10, 2010 with the support and collaboration of the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts of Cambodia. Their performance is directly connected to their country’s thousand-year-old royal tradition of dance through the choreography, which was arranged by Cambodian Princess Buppha Devi.

Cambodian dancers in full costume.

The Princess, a former prima ballerina in this sacred art, is the daughter of former Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk, and the sister of the present King Sihamoni. At its origin, this dance form was only performed as an offering for gods and royalty. It has only been presented as a performance art in modern times.

“The Legend of the Apsara Mera” presents two Brahmanic tales that became integral to Khmer culture. Act I is the “Churning of the Sea of Milk” (“Le mythe du barattage de la mer de lait”). While the myth originated in India, Khmer interpretation and portrayal are unique, focusing on the naga, or cosmic serpent, and Vishnu at the center of the image balancing the forces of good (devas on the right below) and evil (asuras on the left).

Angkor Wat features the largest artistic representation of the Hindu legend of "the churning of the ocean of milk" on Earth. Visnu appears at the center with the naga Vasuki wrapped around Mt. Mandara. Vishnu also incarnates as his avatar, the turtle Kurma below, to provide a base. The demons, or asuras, pull on Visuki to the left as gods, or devas, pull on the right. This churns the ocean to manifest magical objects, including the apsaras that fly over the scene.

Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia is home to the largest artistic rendering of the “churning the sea of milk” on Earth; a bas-relief panel 49 yards wide. In considering the legend, the Cambodian dance history book Earth in Flower by Paul Cravath quotes French archaeologist Bernard-Philippe Groslier’s observation that the naga is the “god of the waters” that “haunts the whole of Khmer art, from the endlessly repeated theme of the churning of the Sea of Milk down to the most insignificant architectural element which will accommodate it.”

In addition to the elixir of immortality, the art of Angkor Wat reveals that something else associated with Khmer culture manifested from the ocean: the apsaras or celestial women who fly above the scene. Khmer art routinely features women and goddesses, with temples like Angkor Wat honoring women, even to the exclusion of men. The female dance tradition of Cambodia is closely associated with these ancient beliefs.

Performance by the Royal Cambodian Ballet. Copyright 2010 Anders Jiras.

Act II presents “The Legend of Kambu and Mera” (“La légende de Kambu et de Méra”). Quoting historian Thierry Solange, Earth in Flower describes how this legend establishes that “the origin of the kings of Cambodia goes back to the union of the hermit Kambu Svāyambhuva, eponymic ancestor of the Kambujas, with the celestial nymph Merā….” As Cravath explains, Svayambhuva means “self-creating,” and Merā was an apsaras or heavenly dancer given to him by Shiva.

The royal troupe features elaborate costumes, including beautiful new crowns replicating the ancient styles worn by women in the stone portraits at Angkor Wat.

A modern crown created for this special performance of the Royal Cambodian Ballet and a crowned devata seen on the West Gopura of Angkor Wat. Photo left - Copyright 2010 Anders Jiras. Right - Kent Davis

PERFORMANCE INFORMATION

Act I: The myth of the Churning of the Sea of Milk

Act II: The Legend of Kambu and Mera

Exécution musicale - Ngornly Seang, Pruong Proeung, Kong Chum, Kol Nol, Sok Chhem, Kimsour san

Chant – Borin Yann, Marey Doung, Sarath Hun

Danse – Phirum Meas, Chamroeumina Chap, Chansoda Chen, Sokhoeum Sok, Pech Heung, Viphearun Yann, Mary Prom, Savin Sam, Sathya Sam, Danida Muong, Borena Chhin, Thida Kao, Samphors Chamroeum, Phirum Keo, Limsothea Sam, Dalis Ou, Lin Seng, Vichivi Praseth, Vichheka Praseth, Chamroeuntola Chap, Chanmoly Vuth, Sovanney Samart, Khankanha Ram, Leakhena Im, Linda Hem, Sophy Yan, Chumnit Penh, Thavrak Seur, Yeng Yang

Chorégraphie – S.A.R. Norodom Buppha Devi, Proeung Chieng

Chorégraphie-Costumes – Soth Somaly

Interprète - Kor Borin

Costumes – Sim Mantha, Pen Sokhuon, Ros Yaran,

Décor -Sek Savuth

Soutien - Ministère de la Culture et des Beaux-Arts du Royaume du Cambodge, Ministère de la Culture et des Beaux-Arts du Royaume du Cambodge

PARIS

Sunday, 10/10 2010 16:00
Sunday, 10/10 2010 20:00

PARIS TICKET INFORMATION – FRENCH

PARIS TICKET INFORMATION – ENGLISH

BRUSSELS

BRUSSELS TICKET INFORMATION – FRENCH

Angkor Wat contains 12th century portraits of 1,796 individual women. They were clearly part of a "social network". American researcher Kent Davis asks "Was this temple an ancient Facebook"?

Andrew Buncombe reports from Asia for the UK Independent

Angkor, Cambodia — Amid the splendour of the 12th-century temple of Angkor Wat, they stand and stare like silent sentinels, sensuous rather than erotic, carved with elegance and care. But exactly who are these 1,796 mysterious women and why, more than a century after Cambodia’s famed Hindu temple was rediscovered by Western archaeologists, did it take the efforts of an amateur researcher from Florida to push experts into trying to resolve the puzzle?

Researcher Kent Davis at Angkor Wat.

Though Kent Davis had lived in South-east Asia during the 1990s, he did not have an opportunity to see Angkor Wat until 2005. Like most visitors to the huge complex in the centre of the Cambodia, for many years cut off from the outside world because of the presence of the Khmer Rouge, he was mesmerised by the experience.

But he was also left with a flurry of questions. “I went to Angkor as a tourist and I was startled when I got there and saw these women,” said Mr Davis, 54, a publisher and writer who now lives near Tampa, Florida. “I was not prepared for it. The human element of them struck me and I wanted to know who they were. I asked one of the guides and he said they were there to serve the king after he went to heaven.”

Mr Davis’s interest was tweaked, so he wanted to know more. He vowed he would return to the US and investigate. Yet when he got home he found there was essentially nothing written about these women, who appear throughout the temple complex in full body carvings.

The women of Angkor Wat appear to include different Asian ethnicities.

Indeed, the only study of the female carvings he could find had been made in the early 20th century by Sappho Marchal, the daughter of Frenchman Henri Marchal, then the curator of the temple site. Frustrated but intrigued, he decided he would find out for himself. Five years and several trips to Angkor later, Mr Davis has slowly begun to get some answers.

MSU researchers plotted 130 identification points on each face.

In 2008, he asked for the help of computer experts from the University of Michigan. That team was able to conduct facial mapping experiments on digital photographs of the women, or devatas. The team, whose findings were presented last month at the International Conference on Pattern Recognition, an academic convocation in Istanbul, concluded that there were at least eight different facial types, perhaps reflecting a variety of ethnicities in the Khmer kingdom.

The results are to be examined further by archaeologists and more computer mapping is planned. But for all the effort that went into the mapping, the results of which were published in DatAsia magazine, many questions about the women remain unanswered.

“It’s a 12th century Facebook,
but no one has ever heard of this social network.”

“There are almost 1,800 faces there,” said Mr Davis, who now uses 65 separate characteristics to define the individual women in a devata database. “It’s a 12th century Facebook, but no one has ever heard of this social network. This was the biggest temple the Khmer people ever built. It is still the largest religious structure on Earth! It must have been important to them because they threw everything into it. They would have only put their most important images into it; these women must have been incredibly important to the kingdom.”

Mr Davis wrote to universities, pestered experts, and sought the opinions of people from around the globe who had worked at Angkor. Trude Jacobson, an assistant professor of history at the University of Queensland, Australia, and author of Lost Goddesses: Denial of Female Power in Cambodian History, said: “Kent is an enthusiastic researcher of a question that everyone assumed was settled long ago, or doesn’t matter.

Each of the 1,796 women at Angkor Wat is unique.

“The history of women in Cambodia, until very recently, has been one in which they were relegated to the shadows. His interest is infectious and has made others more interested in questions of gender in an otherwise heavily masculinised historical inquiry.”

What has struck Mr Davis as he has continued his enquiries, is that for all the women at Angkor there are relatively few male carvings.”Could these different women represent the different professions of the Khmer kingdom?” he said. “Could they be scholars, agriculturalists? I think they must represent the most important women in the kingdom.”

Dr Peter Sharrock, an expert on South-east Asia at London’s School of African and Oriental Studies, has studied the temples around Angkor for years. “We understand [the female carvings] little but they play a major role in the architectural sculpture of these temples, which must imply a major role in the beliefs of the ancient Khmers and in the rituals in their temples,” he said.

“Khmer descent was primarily matrilineal, and Khmer women were literate and powerful. Many were queens, and most kings base their genealogies and claims to the throne on their female ancestors. The ancient Khmers venerated the goddess Prajnaparamita in the most elaborate cult to her known anywhere in Asia. So there are fundamental questions here about an exceptional female religious and regal role in ancient Cambodia that remain unanswered.”

Despite 150 years of experts purporting that the women of Angkor Wat are imaginary, Davis contends that they are realistic, accurate portraits of actual women who were members of the royal Khmer court.

Professor Jacobson believes the images were part of a broader iconography relating to the supernatural world. “The devatas, placed either side of doorways, were guards who monitored who was permitted access from the mundane world to the supernatural,” she said.

“[Those] represented as flying or dancing, were responsible for leading the souls of the dead to the supernatural world from the battlefield. The models for the images at Angkor were doubtless members of the royal family.”

Despite the abundance of women at Angkor Wat, not a single man is honored with the same type of portrait carving.

Mr Davis said he was dedicated to trying to throw greater light on the mystery of the carvings by working with the team of researchers he has cultivated. At this point, he said, starting to analyse the images was like “being the first person to get a map to the British Museum and the keys to the front door”.

He added: “Once we define facial types more thoroughly, an incredibly exciting prospect appears. If these images are portraits of actual people, it’s logical to assume that they had children within this region, and that creates the possibility of using facial pattern recognition on people living in this area to see if facial shapes and types seen at Angkor still live here. We could actually find the descendants of some of the sacred women in the temple.”

Angkor Wat, the icon of Cambodia's Khmer Empire reflects in a sacred pond.

Angkor Wat – Symbol of a nation

• The sprawling temple complex of Angkor Wat, located amid dense jungle and close to the city of Siem Reap, was built in the early 12th century and is one of a series of stunning palaces and temples that were built over a 400-year period by the Khmer Kingdom.
• Today, the temples attract up to a million tourists a year, but for many years the remarkable buildings were unknown to the West, which only “rediscovered” them in the 19th century. During the 1970s and 1980s they were off-limits as a result of the presence of the Khmer Rouge, the Maoist-inspired rebels who ruled Cambodia from 1975-79 and who then engaged in a bitter civil war for the next two decades.
• Angkor Wat itself, the most impressive and best-preserved of the complexes, was built for King Suryavarman II in the early part of the 12th century and is dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu. It has since become a symbol of Cambodia, even appearing on its national flag.

Angkor Wat at dawn.

Ta Som - East face of west entry pavilion, third enclosure. Photo-Luc Ionesco. © EFEO

A la découverte d’Angkor

Paris — Imagine the excitement of trekking through a tropical jungle and discovering a huge, intricately carved stone temple, a vestige of a mysterious civilization long since vanished from our world. That unbelievable scene happened hundreds of times in the 19th century as intrepid French explorers discovered the monuments of the mighty Khmer Empire in the Southeast Asian country of Cambodia.

The École Française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO), an agency that has conducted extensive archaeological studies in Cambodia, has amassed a huge archive of information over the past 110 years. From September 10 until January 2, 2011 the Cernuschi Museum in Paris will host an exceptional collection of rare photos capturing the EFEO’s work at Angkor since 1907.

Angkor was the vibrant Khmer capitol for hundreds of years, but when the civilization collapsed in the 15th century the dense jungle slowly, and dramatically, reclaimed the city. Hundreds of years later, French explorer Henri Mouhot arrived and when his reports of a fabulous lost city built by an unknown civilization reached France they caused a sensation.

This exhibit, with 108 photos selected by EFEO library manager Isabelle Poujol, shows the temples of Angkor between 1860 and 1960 — before, during and after their release from the jungle’s grip.

The exhibit naturally shows work at the larger temples of Angkor Wat, the Bayon and Preah Khan, but also focuses on three other unique buildings:

Banteay Srei, dvarapala, guardian of the false west front door, central sanctuary, photographer Luc Ionesco © EFEO.

Banteay Srei – A 10th century temple dedicated to Shiva that was only rediscovered in 1914. Banteay Srei was the first temple in the Angkor area where the technique of anastylosis was used, i.e. using the original architectural elements to the greatest extent possible in rebuilding the strucure.

The Baphuon – An 11th century Hindu “temple-mountain” dedicated to Shiva that is the focus of a French restoration project that began in 1943 and resulted in the creation of a huge stoneyard with an inventory of 300,000 blocks.

Neak Pean – This Buddhist temple, whose name means “entwined serpents”, is build on an artificial island that was originally in one of the vast reservoirs created by the Khmer.

In addition to photos, the exhibit includes key documents relating to the discoveries and a stereoscopic image viewer. A new documentary on Angkor by director Didier Fassio is screened free every morning at 11 AM in the Conference Room (1st floor) of the museum.

This exhibition is part of the Mois de la Photo in Paris.

Video

This French language video offers a look at many of the rare photos on display in the exhibit.

Musée Cernuschi – Des archéologues à Angkor from Paris Musees on Vimeo.

Archaeologists at Angkor:
Photographic Archives from the EFEO

By Denise Heywood

The sight of ancient ruins emerging from the jungle has always captured the imagination. When recorded in early black and white photographs these images, swathed in mystery, are even more evocative and nowhere more so than in the jungles of Cambodia at Angkor.

The lost city, submerged in tropical forest after its demise in the 15th century, remained almost impenetrable until 1860 when the French explorer Henri Mouhot, one of a number of early visitors, captured its magic in drawings and written descriptions….

Read the rest of the article in the Asian Art Newspaper.

Museum Details

Isabelle Poujol, EFEO Library Director.

Gilles Béguin, Curator, Cernuschi Museum Director.

Cernuschi Museum

7 avenue Velasquez-75008 Paris Tel: 01 53 96 21 50
From 10:00 to 18:00, except Mondays and holidays

Admission prices at the exhibition

7 Euros TP – 5 euros TR1 – TR2 EUR 3.50. Age 13 and under free.

Exhibition Catalogue

256 pages / 148 illustrations, 29 euros

Click here to read this article in Italian at Cultor.org

Angkor Wat central towers in Vizerra 3D model

By Kent Davis – Devata.org

Santa Clara, CA – Virtual reality innovators at 3DreamTeam dazzled DEMO conference attendees with 3D technology that brings the world’s most amazing heritage sites directly to your computer. The Cambodian temple of Angkor Wat is one of 20 initial projects for the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Sites.

The incredibly detailed Vizerra locations allow virtual visitors to walk through Angkor Wat, Machu Picchu, Petra, Red Square, Swayambhunath Stupa, Stonehenge, the Taj Mahal and more.

Vizerra's 3D model of Angkor Wat allows you to explore the entire site by air or on the ground.

In our 2009 article, “Virtual or Reality? 12 amazing 3D comparison photos of Angkor Wat”, side by side comparisons show the Vizerra reality almost identical to being at Angkor Wat. Since then, 3DreamTeam has continued refining their stunning Angkor Wat model using detailed photographs of devata (sacred female) portraits, surface textures and blueprints provided by Devata.org.

Vizerra's Angkor Wat model includes devata (sacred female) images. The technology will soon allow links to location specific data and high resolution photos.

3DreamTeam is now working directly with NVIDIA, the leading developers of 3D hardware technology. Games and movies comprise most 3D content now available but 3DreamTeam is expanding consumer and educational applications with its Vizerra technology.

NOTE: Vizerra software and location models are available as a free download to users worldwide:

System Requirements – Recommended

Intel Core 2 Duo / AMD 64 X2 5200+
GeForce 8800 GTX / ATI Radeon HD 4770
4Gb RAM
Broadband Internet connection (at least 2560 Kbit/s)

Minimum

Pentium 2.4 GHz / AMD Athlon XP 2500+
NVidia GeForce 6800 / ATi Radeon X850
2Gb RAM
2Gb free hard disk space
Internet connection (at least 30 Kbit/s)

Angkor Wat 3D Photos from Vizerra

Angkor Wat's West Gopura (Gate) viewed from the north in Vizerra's 3D model.

Angkor Wat in Vizerra 3D model, viewed from Southwest.

Angkor Wat's causeway facing east, with a library structure on the left.

Angkor Wat's cruciform gallery is accurately ringed with devata in Vizerra's 3D model

Vizerra is refining devata (sacred female) portraits in new versions of the software. In the future, the 3D model will show the carvings in accurate locations linked to a database.

The Northwest corner of Angkor Wat in Vizerra's 3D model.

Angkor Wat's bas relief galleries now show textures but will soon accurately render the artwork.

Cultor.org educators have now translated the initial results into Italian, and produced the captivating video overview below for Italian viewers.

Founded by the University of Turin in 1999, Cultor — an acronym forCultura Torino— now provides exceptional cultural resources online at Cultor.org. Their extensive Internet resource has become one of the most important cultural websites in Europe with more than 18,000 visitors each month.

A New Study Offers Historical Insight
on the Temple’s Female Imagery

By Michelle Vachon – The Cambodia Daily

Click here for PDF Version (1.6 meg)

© 2010 The Cambodia Daily – This article appears with the permission
of the copyright holder. No further reproduction is permitted.

The Cambodia Daily's Weekend featuring the women of Angkor Wat

In 1927, Sappho Marchal, the 23-year-old daughter of Henri Marchal who was over­seeing restoration of monuments at Angkor Wat at the time, published a book on the hair­styles, clothes and jewelry of 1,737 sculptures of women she had located on the walls and columns of Angkor Wat.

And until recently, no archeologist or historian at Angkor had wondered why so many nearly life-size images of human beings filled the 12th century monument and why these sculptures were only of women, said Kent Davis, a researcher and publisher of DatAsia Press.

“Despite 150 years of intense study, the Khmer pundits who surveyed every temple and measured every stone only thought to consider these women as decorations, rather than as people.” Mr Davis said.

“Visitors were apparently content when the experts told them that the most complex collection of full-body portrait carvings ever created in a single ancient human generation were simply ‘Imaginary wives to serve the king in heaven’ Total nonsense, but it flew for 150 years.”

Angkor Wat general devata types.

One researcher had written a short essay on the resemblance between the features on a few sculptures and hill tribe women.

Another had viewed the sculptures in a mythological context but without going further, he said.

So Mr Davis embarked on his own research in 2005, eventually getting in touch with art historian Peter Sharrock and archaeologist Robert McCarthy, who are studying these woman sculptures but concentrating on the era of Jayavarman VII, which took place about two generations after the construction of Angkor Wat.

Devata faces from the inside wall of the West Gopura at Angkor Wat.

Scholars refer to the women as devatas (deities), when portrayed in large sculptures, and apsaras (dancers and singers of the gods), when groups appear in smaller sculptures.

Mr Davis has identified 1,796 sculpted images on Angkor Wat through his research, expanding on inventories done by stone conservators with the German Apsara Conservation Project.

Once Mr Davis took digital photos of the group, he asked a team from Michigan State University in the US for help developing a computer tool to analyze the sculptures.

This has prompted the first scientific study to be conducted on Angkor Wat’s women figures. Its results will be presented on Sunday in Istanbul at the conference of the International Association for Pattern Recognition on computer vision.

Angkor Wat general devata types.

Anil K. Jain — a professor in several of the university’s departments including computer science and engineering, statistics and probability — will explain the computer analysis model that he and two of his students developed to analyze the features of women sculpted on the surface of the monument.

For this first study, Mr Jain and his team concentrated on 252 devatas located on Angkor Wat’s entrance pavilion called the West Gopura.

As they mention in the summary of their study entitled “Clustering Face Carvings: Exploring the Devatas of Angkor Wat [925k PDF download],” Mr Jain and his team had to devise a program to compare devatas on well preserved as well as eroded stone and on different types of stone, which some existing programs did not make possible.

Features of some devata faces were damaged by erosion over the centuries.

They designed the tool to analyze whole faces, proportions in features, such as the distance between the eyes or between nose and mouth, as well as specific features including ears and chins. This program will also give future researchers the flexibility to change features to be analyzed.

“While the landmarks for many different facial components were marked, in this study we used only four of the major facial components (eyes, nose, mouth and face outline) for clustering the devatas into 8 groups,” they write in their summary. [see bottom of article for composites of facial feature variations]

These groups of devatas sharing specific features may reflect the features of women who actually lived at Angkor at the time and the fact that they came from different regions such as central Cambodia, Laos, northern­central Thailand, Champa in today’s Vietnam, and China.

The initial pattern recognition algorithm defined eight distinct facial types.

“There is [a report from the year 1225] in China which says 200 foreign women danced and made offerings to the Buddha in Jayavarman VII’s temples. So Angkor was an international center,” Mr Sharrock wrote in an e-mail.

However, whether these eight groups of devatas correspond to women who lived at Angkor when the temple was built has yet to be seen, he said, “These are early results only. More tuning and more data manipulation is needed before strong claims can be made.”

In Mr McCarthy’s opinion, the sculptures may be idealized versions of living women who served as royal temple caretakers.

“The possibility that the role of guardian was taken by both female (in the majority) and male (in the minority) should not be ignored. Just as age and region of origin within the Khmer Empire does not appear to be a problematic factor within the devata community of temple guardians,” he wrote in an email.

Angkor Wat general devata types.

Both Mr Sharrock and Mr McCarthy agree that this computer analysis tool shows great potential.

“In Angkor Wat there are clearly differences between the elaborately coiffed devata inside the outer western gallery and inside the courtyards of the main temple and the more powerful, larger and more serious-faced devata on the higher level of the temple and the central tower. Why there are these differences we do not yet understand.” Mr Sharrock said Mr Davis’ research with this computer program may help answer some of those questions, he added.

When analysis expands to include more features such as headdresses, jewelry, hands and feet, the differences from one to the other image may help, Mr McCarthy said, “unlock secrets of not only the devata of Angkor Wat but those earlier and later devata traits [...] to assist in identifying artistic techniques that may lead to the identity, in unique styles only, of the craft people who supervised and those who carved the bas-reliefs.”

Mr Davis’ goal is to include Mr Jain’s program in a comprehensive database of Angkor Wat’s 1,796 sculpted images of women that tracks 65 characteristics — including location, features, compass orientation, hair styles, jewelry designs, hand positions, fabric patterns — of each image, he said.

He is now editing in a book [Daughters of Angkor Wat] compiling researcher’s opinions and speculations regarding the devata sculptures over the past 100 years.

***

Facial Feature Variations

Angkor Wat eye composite photos.

Angkor Wat devata nose comparison photos.

Angkor Wat devata mouth comparison photos.

Angkor Wat chin comparison photos.

Cultor's Oriental section presents research translations from authoritative experts in a variety of fields.

TURIN, ITALY — The European Renaissance (Rinascimento) began in 14th century Italy. Now, 21st century Italians are learning about Khmer contributions to world art and culture in their native language thanks to Cultor.org.

Founded by the University of Turin in 1999, Cultor — an acronym for Cultura Torino — now provides exceptional cultural resources online at Cultor.org. Their extensive Internet resource has become one of the most important cultural websites in Europe with more than 18,000 visitors each month.

Recently, Cultor.org began translating original research about the Khmer civilization from Devata.org. Devata focuses on investigating the sacred women depicted at Angkor Wat, a 12th century Hindu temple located in northern Cambodia. The vast Angkor area is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Angkor Wat fascinates archeologists and tourists alike, yet the temples most amazing treasure remained unexamined. According to Devata.org founder Kent Davis: “Angkor Wat contains the most extraordinary ancient portrait gallery in the world, and every subject honored is a woman.”

Throughout the immense stone building, Davis has cataloged 1,796 individual Asian women who appear in highly detailed full-body carvings. They are now called devata or apsaras — Sanskrit terms for heavenly maidens of great beauty and elegance — but no one knows what the ancient Khmer people called them or what roles they served in the society.

Who were they? Why did designers choose only women to dominate their greatest temples? No one knows. When the civilization collapsed, its people vanished without leaving any written records about Angkor Wat’s design or meaning.

Cultor's logo shows the Turin coat of arms.

Devata.org founder Kent Davis fully supports the Cultor exchange saying “Italian sculptors have rendered and appreciated classic human forms in stone for millennia. To me, this makes Italian scholars and students ideal observers to consider the refined women of Angkor Wat. I look forward to hearing their opinions after reading about this mystery in their own language.”

According to Cultor.org’s manager of media relations, Enzo Di Gesù, Cultor is an organization of scholars, independent of political and religious beliefs, seeking to disseminate information on the history, art and aesthetics of cultures around the world. The online environment allows Cultor to emphasize both academic and artistic aspects in their virtual exhibitions.

For more information, please visit the Cultor.org resources below:

Aesthetics

City of Turin

Cultor International Partners

Documents and historical research

Eastern art and culture

The Turin Laboratory focuses on the history and the development of the city itself.