INDONESIA

Young Cambodians to Look After Angkor Wat

"Efforts are now underway to preserve the UNESCO World Heritage site for future generations."

Located some 300 kilometers north of Phnom Penh, Angkor Wat is Cambodia’s most famous tourist destination.

The Hindu temple complex was listed as a World Heritage site in 1992 with more than 3 million visitors last year.

Visitor numbers have risen in recent years and there are concerns that such a high volume of tourists could damage these monuments.

In one corner, a group of young Khmers is working closely with stones from Angkor Wat.

They’re using hammers and a variety of different chisels...

19-year-old Sao Ratanak pulls out his tools and starts measuring the sculptures.

“I think these temples are great because of how they were constructed. You know, in the past, they didn’t have any modern equipment to build such a great temple. It’s amazing.”

Sao explains that this is an exercise to learn more about the ancient stones, which are over hundreds of years of old.

By measuring the sculptures, they’re learning which tools their ancestors used to create them.

Later in the training, they will also learn how to sculpt stones.

Sao is part of a group of 20 young Cambodians who are learning about stone conservation.

During the two-year training program, they learn about the history of the sculptures and new techniques to preserve the stones.

“They have finished high school, but some continue to university students. But we don’t have any school that teaches young people about stone conservation,” says 46-year-old Long Nary who heads the group.

“That’s why they have to learn from different organization, different people, expert who come to Cambodia who wants to share the knowledge to Cambodia.”

Long Nary was a tour guide for nearly 20 years... and he’s now preserving the stones too.

“I learn about how to record document, how to conserve the stones, what happened to the statues... something that is very precious.”

Long Nary was trained by the ICCROM – an organization dedicated to the conservation of cultural heritage worldwide.

He was the first Cambodian to be sent to Rome for a three-month course on stone conservation.

Simon Warrack from the ICCROM says it’s important to involve local people in looking after the temple.

“Lack of maintenance tends to become the biggest problem,” says Simon.

“If you look at any temples that have been falling down, the reason is because nobody was looking after them. So training people to look after them is extremely important in the conservation process,” he explains.

Simon adds that any conservation program has to be linked to a maintenance program that follows up forever.

“So training people is the key because you also train the staff who are making sure that the temples don’t fall down anymore.”

Sao and his friends continue measuring and recording information from the stones.

“I like this work. I want to complete the course so I can conserve Khmer temples which are being destroyed every day. I want to stop them from crumbling away.”

Long Nary hopes to train more young Khmers to help protect Angkor Wat.

“I think until now I love my job a lot. When I get to know and train many people, it makes me happy because I will not live for long in the future, but I can transfer my knowledge to the next generations.”

• Cambodia
• Angkor Wat
• World Heritage
• Cultural
• Citra Dyah Prastuti