Cambodia: Controversial Angkor Wat lighting project Sunday

To promote “night lighting” tours and to reverse the 20 per cent drop in visitors, the Cambodian government has installed artificial lighting in the 11th century-old Angkor Wat Temple. This project is opposed by some heritage conservationists and concerned Cambodian citizens. Angkor Wat is the most popular tourist site in Cambodia and is recognized as a World Heritage site.

Heritage conservation specialists describe the installed light bulbs as “unsightly.” Since 2006, more than $12 million were spent for the lighting of the temple. It is part of a grand project to transform the Angkor Wat as a complex of entertainment venues.

The government defended the lighting decoration by arguing that it has the support of the UNESCO. Authorities also added that only solar powered lighting technology was used in the project.

The public was stunned when it learned that holes were drilled in the temple to install electric bulbs. This was denied by the government and the project contractor:

“The working team explained that they have a technique to set up electric bulbs which causes no harm to the temple. They install bulbs by using cork stoppers put into already existing holes, and they set up lights only where it is possibly, and also at the lower layers of the stone. The working team claims that the heat of the bulbs is weak and does not affect the temple.”

The controversy became more intense when the person who exposed the Angkor Wat lighting was sued by a government lawyer for spreading false information. The accused has fled to France to avoid prosecution.

Angkor Wat Temple. From the Flickr Page of DragonWoman

Below are some reactions from the Cambodian blogosphere. From The Son of the Empire:

Can this equipped light attract more tourists to Angkor Wat and Cambodia as a whole while a leader of a country is incompetent to lead a country with transparency, security, stability, human right respect, and yet committing corruption and dependent on alm and submitting to neigboring countries?

Personally, the light decoration is untolerable and I think those who allow this project to be carried out is considered as a traitor and are untolerable.

Those people must think about the long term and should have done their best to preserve this most wonderful work of our greatest ancestors who have built this marvelous heritage for the world, for us and has become the soul, the spirit, and the pride of our people and nation.

Real Cambodia appreciates the effort to improve the image of Angkor Wat

I kind of like the idea of seeing Angkor Wat at night. I imagine some of the statues, carvings, and shadows would be pretty amazing, particularly after happy hour. And hopefully they'd use really environmentally-friendly lighting, like LED lights, in a smart and innovative way, creating lots of trippy, dramatic angles. But I'd also hope they left most of the park undisturbed, all the better to retain its unique position at the nexus of natural and supernatural.

The Southeast Asian Archaeology Newsblog warns that increasing the number of tourists in Angkor Wat is bad for business

The move may serve to boost falling tourism numbers, but does nothing to address what heritage specialists have been saying for years - that the effects of increased traffic to Angkor is ultimately bad for business.

An anonymous commenter rejects the lighting project:

Even from a plain, regular guy like me, I could see that the lighting was absolutely inappropriate for a sacred monument any where in the whole world, let alone a magnificent heritage like Angkor Wat. Who ever came up with that idea should be fired from his job!!!! No sense of fine aesthetic, whatsoever!!!

The Deputy PM will be summoned by the Parliament to answer questions about the controversial project.

Thumbnail image used from the Flickr Page of tylerdurden1

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http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/06/14/cambodia-controversial-angkor-wat-lighting-project/

Cambodian authorities consider opening Angkor Wat temples at night for tourists

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

The Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia -- Cambodia is considering opening the famed Angkor Wat temples at night to draw more tourists to the impoverished country, an official at the archaeological site said.

Similar night tourism efforts have been introduced at other sites in Southeast Asia.

Cambodia already has installed some lights at the network of centuries-old temples, said Bun Narith, who leads the agency responsible for managing the Angkor park.

Tourism is a major foreign currency earner for cash-strapped Cambodia. More than a million foreign tourists are expected to visit this year, with most from South Korea, Japan and the United States. More than half of tourists visit the Angkor temples, by far the country's biggest draw.

Visitors are now ushered out of Angkor at sunset, but authorities are considering extending visiting hours to as late as 8:30 p.m. local time.

"We want tourists to see all views of the temple, even in the dark places where they may have not have seen some of the sculptures and statues," Bun Narith said.

But conservationists have long expressed concerns about tourism's impact on Angkor. They say the uncontrolled pumping of underground water to meet the rising demand of hotels and residents in the nearby town of Siem Reap may be destabilizing the earth beneath the temples.

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

First published on June 16, 2009 at 12:00 am

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09167/974488-37.stm#ixzz0IfDSLIQ2&D

Lighting project part of broader push for Angkor entertainment

Written by Peter Olszewski

Thursday, 11 June 2009

SIEM REAP A series of entertainment projects have been proposed at Siem Reap's temples in recent years, including a three-day festival on the backburner and an operational night festival. Photo by: KYLE SHERER An assortment of lighting equipment used for the Angkor Wat Night Festival is stockpiled on the grounds of the temple. THE ONGOING light installation project at Angkor Wat temple - which in recent weeks has sparked allegations of temple damage and a defamation lawsuit - is the latest in a series of projects intended to transform Siem Reap's temples into major entertainment venues. Though some of these projects have not moved past the proposal stage, one of them - the Angkor Wat Night Festival - is fully operational and has the backing of both UNESCO and the government. The most recent plans for an entertainment project were presented by the Russian company Rise Entertainment during a meeting of the International Coordinating Committee for the Safeguarding and Development of the Historic Site of Angkor (ICC) held last week in Siem Reap. The Moscow-based company, which in 2007 pitched a series of concerts as part of a festival to be titled "Angkorica", now aims to host a three-day concert festival at Bayon temple. The "Angkorica" proposal, which included plans for an appearance by the Icelandic singer Bjork as well as elephants covered in white-and-gold cloth, was priced at between US$3.5 and $5 million and would have been staged at Angkor Wat and other temples. Vladimir Meshkey, general producer for Rise Entertainment, told the Post earlier this month that the company had been advised by the Apsara Authority, the body that manages Angkor Wat, to consider a more modest festival at an alternate site. "We're trying to work it out," Meshkey said. "We'll see in another year." Lighting tours The Sou Ching Co, the company implementing the light installation project at Angkor Wat, hosts "Night Lighting" tours of the Kingdom's flagship tourism complex. The project sparked controversy when the company began inserting lights into holes in the walls of the temple to replace lights placed on the ground. The company said the holes were pre-existing, though tourists and others said they suspected that the holes had been carved out specifically for the project. Photos of Angkor that showed lights placed at regular intervals in part fuelled the allegations, though Sou Ching has denied causing any damage to the temple. We have our mandate from the government... we need visitors to be visiting more. The government and the Apsara Authority have also rejected claims that Angkor Wat sustained damage as a result of the installation project. "The accusations of people that the light fittings were carved into the wall of Angkor are just not true," Phay Siphan, spokesman for the Council of Ministers, told the Post last week. Earlier this month, the government filed a suit in which it charged Moeung Sonn, president of the Khmer Civilisation Foundation, with spreading false information and inciting the public in connection to his claims that holes had been drilled deep into the temple's walls. Shortly after the suit was filed on June 2, Moeung Sonn fled to France to avoid arrest. In an interview from France Saturday, Moeung Sonn said, "If the trial starts, let it be done by international courts because Angkor Wat is a World Heritage site." Photo by: KYLE SHERER A wall-mounted light installed at Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat Night Festival During the dry season, Sou Ching also hosts the Angkor Wat Night Festival in conjunction with the Apsara Authority and the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts. The nightly production, which features more than 150 performers, 45 lighting technicians and engineers and 50 support staff, is massive, moving across the interior of Angkor Wat and culminating in a traditional dance show held on a stage with light gantries that have been erected on the site. The entire temple interior is lit up and wired throughout for sound, and a dining area provides an up-market Khmer dinner for guests. Jamie Rossiter, former director of marketing for Sou Ching, told the Post in March that UNESCO, which granted Angkor Wat World Heritage site status in 1992, approved of the project, and that there had been no resistance to it. Unesco officials, including Olabiyi Babalola Joseph Yai, president of UNESCO's Executive Council, joined government officials on a visit to the site in March, during which they dined at the restaurant and watched the show. "There has been no controversy over the show, absolutely none," said Rossiter, who has since left Sou Ching. He said, "We have our mandate from the government. It was Apsara, Unesco and the government together which said we need to use the temple more, we need visitors to be visiting more and enjoying it more and there is more we can be doing with these temples." ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY NICKY MCGAVIN The Phnom Penh Post