The temples are amazing considering they were created by hand about 1300 AD. They are beginning to crumble and the Germans and Indians have their students working on projects to restore them as part of the world heritage work. It would really be a shame to loose these amazing treasure. They have already been damaged through the years of occupation and deprivation. Many of the heads of the statues are missing because they were removed and sold in the market by some enterprising thief who needed to eat.
They are restoring the creation myth story that is carved into the wall. The walls are damaged by time and it will take much more work but they are trying to preserve it. The influences in the myth are hindu and buddist. The current conqueror would just impose his new belief set on the people and lay out new creation myth saying they were descendents from the gods. The Cambodian people have been invaded many times by despots. They struggle to get what they need to rule themselves.
All of the temples that we saw were proceeded by libraries along the entrance way. I think this is very interesting. It demonstrates the place of learning since very early times for this society. They went into the temples through the libraries because they had to learn how to act before the gods. The Cambodians have a very sincere desire to do things appropiately.
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