Special Report
Cambodia helps choose Japan’s Mount Fuji CAMBODIA
WHC 37th2013
Written and prepared by Stuart Alan Becker with a story by Jean-Michel Filippi
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World Heritage Cambodia
Sotheby’s case ‘Cambodian metaphor in stone’ One of the people involved with the case of the looted Duryodhana statue is Tess Davis, a researcher, School of Social and Political Sciences at Scotland’s University of Glasgow. Davis agreed to answer a few questions for the Post about the Duryodhana case that involves a statue taken from Cambodia during the 1970s that was ready to be auctioned by Sotheby’s in New York on behalf of a Belgian client, but which is now in litigation in the US courts and is likely to be returned to Cambodia. Davis, a selfdescribed archaeologist turned lawyer turned academic, articulated her passion about the artifact and in general for the return of looted antiquities. How did the Sotheby’s case first come to your attention? In the 1980s and ’90s, at least three looted antiquities were returned to Cambodia, after having gone on Sotheby’s auction block. Journalist Peter Watson and others believed these were just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. I conducted my own research on this topic in the 2000s, but believed myself the company had improved its behaviour following the 2003 US-Cambodia bilateral agreement. I was wrong. I learned in 2011 that Sotheby’s was attempting to sell the Duryodhana, fully knowing the statue’s feet were still here in Cambodia. Luckily, the New York Times learned this as well, and broke the story in February of 2012.
enlisted the help of the US Department of Justice, which filed a civil forfeiture action on Cambodia’s behalf in April 2012. When and how did you first get interested in Cambodian antiquities? Cambodia may just be the love of my life. I first came here a decade ago on an archaeological survey and saw first-hand the devastation that looting has wreaked on Cambodia’s ancient sites. That experience inspired me to go to law school and make this issue the focus of my career. What’s the current status of the case? Sotheby’s has requested a pretrial conference solely on the Cambodian law. The US had strongly objected to this move, which they’ve stated is just another attempt by
How did it begin to un- Duryodhana fold? The Duryodhana was set the auction house to delay to hit the auction block in discovery. But the case may March 2011, but Cambodia well go to trial within the year. intervened and stopped the sale. The Kingdom then Do you think the statue will be gave Sotheby’s a year to do returned to Cambodia? the right thing. They didn’t. The Kingdom has the So Cambodia rightfully law – and more importantly
the truth – on its side. So I have faith the Duryodhana will return home eventually. But Sotheby’s is fighting very hard to prevent that from happening. I believe their resistance comes from desperation: the era in which they can hawk war loot from countries like Cambodia, with no consequences, is over. And they can’t accept it. Other auction houses appear to be changing with the times, at least where Cambodian antiquities are concerned. For example, Christie’s has sold works of contemporary Khmer artists in Phnom Penh, and donated the proceeds to not-for-profit organisations working to support the arts in Cambodia. It was a win-win for everyone. What was the role of local law firms in this case? Local attorneys have a done invaluable work to support the Kingdom’s claims in this case. Sotheby’s has – and continues to – put out a great deal of misinformation about Cambodian law in court filings and the press. They are hoping the court and the public will believe these legal inventions. If and when this case goes to trial, I look very forward to Managing Partner Matthew Rendall, of Cambodian firm Sciaroni & Associates, correcting them, and demonstrating that the Duryodhana is – and always has been – Cambodia’s property under the law. What’s the significance of these antiquities for Cambodia, past, present and future? The tableau of Prasat Chen was complete for a millennium. But like so many Cambodian families, it was violently broken apart during the civil war, and scattered to
Tess Davis of the University of Glasgow goes eye to eye with an Apsara dancer.
the ends of the earth. That is why this case is so important: it is a metaphor in stone for Cambodia’s suffering and now recovery. Anyone who thinks this is just about money, or even art, has no sense of history. Are there any issues that are on your mind that you want to speak about? What are they? I like to believe and hope that other museums will follow the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s lead and do the right thing. No reputable institution wants war loot on display, nor any reputable individual. This is an opportunity for the world to start righting some of the many wrongs that were done to Cambodia during the civil war. These statues were stolen in the worst possible way, during the worst possible time. How can anyone want to be even a small part of that? What did they accomplish at the World Heritage Committee? Was it important for Cambodia?
I was lucky enough to be at the opening ceremony of the World Heritage Committee, in which the Met officially returned the Pandava brother statues to the Kingdom. This was a proud moment for Cambodia and a great success. Delegates from more than a hundred countries were able to enjoy Cambodia’s hospitality and see how highly this country values its heritage. The fact that Cambodia joined the World Heritage Convention in 1991, when it was still in the midst of recovering from war and occupation, demonstrates the importance the government places on heritage. Heritage is a great ambassador for Cambodia, and through it, Cambodia is showing the world there is so much more to it than the Killing Fields. What are Cambodia’s challenges for the future in preserving their antiquities? Protecting archaeological sites in the modern world
is difficult under the best conditions, and even more so for Cambodia, which is still recovering from the civil war and its aftermath. But despite the country’s modern history and the challenges it still faces, Cambodia has always made preservation a priority. Its successes on this front are remarkable, even if much remains to be done. But Cambodia has an estimated 4,000 known prehistoric and historic sites in the country and that number is constantly expanding as new discoveries are made each year. There is no way the government – that any government – could physically secure them all. So long as collectors and museums are willing to buy looted Khmer art, Cambodia’s sites will remain at risk. It’s a simple matter of supply and demand. The website associated with stopping the looting of antiquities that Davis is associated with is: www. traffickingculture.org
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World Heritage Cambodia
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Nineteen new sites added to World Heritage List
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HE results from the World Heritage Committee meeting in Cambodia are that 19 sites were added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List from 18 countries, with 14 cultural sites and five natural. The WHC meeting, which concluded last night in Siem Reap, brought the largest number of delegates Cambodia had ever received for such an event including more than 1,460 delegates from 128 countries and an estimated 500 journalists. Seven of the new sites added to the list of places that have universal value came from Europe, eight for the Asia Pacific, one from Latin America and the Caribbean, two from Africa and one from the Arab region. The new listings bring the total number of worldwide WHC sites to 981, which includes 759 cultural sites, 193 natural and 20 mixed sites from a total of 160 countries. Qatar and Fiji had their first sites inscribed as a result of the Cambodia meeting. The southern African country of Lesotho had an extension to the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park in South Africa, a cultural and natural trans-boundary
site. Two other extensions were inscribed to existing World Heritage sites, one in Kenya and one in Poland. From the 30 total nominations discussed at the Phnom Penh session, all 17 of the sites recommended for inscription were inscribed. Out of the six sites recommended for deferral, four were referred. The two sites recommended for referral were both inscribed and of the two sites not recommended for inscription one was not inscribed and one was referred. In the parlance of WHC, referral means the advisory bodies recommend that the committee request more information or slight modifications to the nomination before it can be inscribed, as early as the following session, while deferral is much more far reaching. It entails a new evaluation and mission by the advisory bodies before the Committee can re-examine the nomination. At a press conference earlier this week, Kristal Buckley, Vice President, of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), who was in Cambodia for the first time to attend the WHC
meetings, praised Cambodian hospitality and easy working conditions. We have been impressed with friendly hospitality, enjoyed the restaurants, the climate and the very easy social environment in which we have been able to do the hard work. And we thank the people for the easy working conditions. ICOMOS Advisor Michael Cotte also expressed appreciation for Cambodia. “Cambodia is so important. I feel that very strongly about the international cooperation around Angkor. This cooperation between international organisations and Cambodia is very impressive,” he said. Deputy Prime Minister Sok An, chairman for the 37th session of the World Heritage Committee, said Cambodia’s hosting of the event will have the effect of making the Kingdom more known worldwide and will attract more tourists and investments. “Our living standards have increased in Cambodia and we have succeeded in maintaining peace and stability.” Also during the WHC meeting in Phnom Penh, changes were made to the
Deputy Prime Minister Sok An, third from left, at the World Heritage Committee press conference earlier this week.
Danger List; those sites needy of protecting. The danger listing is intended to mobilise all possible support for the safeguarding properties which are recognised by the international community as being of outstanding universal value for humanity as a whole. Currently, there
are 44 properties on the List in Danger. The site of Bam and its Cultural Landscape Iran was removed from the Danger List. East Rennell in the Solomon Islands was inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger. The six World Heritage sites of the
Syrian Arab Republic were inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger. The sites concerned are: the Ancient City of Damascus: Site of Palmyra; Ancient City of Bosra; Ancient City of Aleppo; Crac des Chevaliers and Qal’at Salah El-Din; Ancient Villages of Northern Syria.
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World Heritage Cambodia
People relate to common heritage, EU T
he head of the European Union delegation to UNESCO, Maria Francesca Satolisano, says cultural heritage is a way to promote the development of a society because the people belong to that common heritage. The Paris-based EU Ambassador took time last week to talk about the importance of cultural heritage and her own dedication to the European Union as a secular organisation that she predicted would stand the test of time. “Thepurpose of the World Heritage Committee is to promote the preservation of sites which are considered of outstanding universal value and therefore are heritage of all humanity,” Satolisano said. “These sites also have particular meanings for countries of their identity. Preserving cultural heritage is a way to promote the development of a society and the ability of the people there to live together, because they all relate to a common heritage.” Satolisano said the connectivity between cultural heritage and society was
particularly relevant in postconflict environments like Cambodia. “Particularly where conflict has occurred, preserving cultural heritage is a great way to re-connect the society.” She cited the UNESCO effort in post-conflict Mali as an example. “UNESCO is there to help Mali with the local community to preserve its patrimony and to be aware of where they come from to be together and respect their own past and preserve it for the future generations.” She predicted Cambodia would do well in the future connecting with Europe. “Cambodia is growing fast and can benefit by becoming integrated in global value chains which is the way the world does business nowadays and can export to Europe and other countries,” she said. As EU Ambassador to UNESCO, Satolisano praised the work of UNSECO Director General Irina Bokova. “UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova is doing a great job in pushing for reforms for a more efficient UNESCO and we support her work very much,” she said. “My job is to represent the European
Union at UNESCO and to promote the views of EU and defend its interest.” Satolisano has been working for the European Union since 1985. She studied constitutional law at the State University of Florence, Italy, and was a law professor there for seven years before joining what was then called the European Community and since the Treaty of Lisbon has been known as the European Union. She explained that the basis for the EU idea was to promote peace and coordinate the views of Europeans to create prosperity for all the people of Europe. “I believe in the EU. It brings benefits to the citizensof Europe as well as cooperation and integration among the European member states.” The EU makes the traditional border of Europe less relevant, which creates a free movement zone she says is beneficial for all. “The benefits are that there is more exchange of ideas, business, and knowledge, cultural and economic exchanges. There is an increased ability to
Head of European Union delegation to UNESCO, Ambassador Maria Francesca Satolisano, believes in the ideals of the EU.
seek opportunities and we preserve the cultural identity of every state. The documents of the EU are translated to
all 28 members, but we are not about suppressing the cultures. There are great advantagesin multiple
entities working for the same objectives: democratic values the rule of law, the well-being of the citizens, the market economy and exchanges,” Satolisano said. She said the Euro unit of currency was a creation of the European Union and has been a good and stable currency. “If we did not have a good currency we couldnot have rescued the banks.” She said the original main purpose for the European Union had been to construct a peaceful Europe among nations that had been involved in wars against each other for a thousand years. “We achieved that. The new generation may not feel this as vividly, but it is there for everyone to enjoy. Young Europeans now expect to be able to go study anywhere, to have a university accepting them. There are programs that allow students to do curricula at different universities,” she said. Satolisano compared the EU with ASEAN: “The parallel you can make is ASEAN is trying to open up their borders and coordinate their policies, but there is a big difference. The EU has a political agenda to transfer
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U delegate believes the decision making level to the institutions which is not what the ASEAN is about.” She said there remained tension in the EU between local residents and people from new member states like Romania and Bulgaria. She thinks Turkey ought to be admitted into the EU, an opinion not shared by every other European. “Turkey has a chance to be a member of EU, and there is an attempt at re-launching a process that was stalled for many years. I am in favour of it. I think Turkey is a very dynamic big neighbouring country, and if possible to bring it closer and to adopt the values and the rules of EU they would be a great addition,” she said. “Turkey is already in the EU customs union.” Satolisano says organisations like the EU are increasingly important because so many of the world’s problems are global in nature. “The world is changing and you cannot solve problems of a global nature nation state. The role of international cooperation, through multinational organisations is crucial,” she said. “The EU is committed to use these
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World Heritage Cambodia
regional forums to promote these values inscribed in our treaty which include the rule of law and respect for human rights. We do so working together with themember states of EU and representing these views.” Her experience in Cambodia is something she won’t forget. “I found a very booming, dynamic and young country. We are very happy
‘. . . where conflict has occurred preserving cultural heritage is a great way to re-connect.’ to be here. Cambodia has a particular attachment to be in World Heritage Committee because of the Angkor site which preservation has been a high point of the World Heritage Committee and there has been a close link with Cambodia which is honoured by the fact that the WHC came to Cambodia,” she said. Originally from Florence, Italy, Satolisano is a career lawyer and diplomat who articulates a
strong sense of purpose for the European Union. “All European states are functioning democracies and they keep national political interaction alive with their own constitutional systems. The European Union is informed by the democratic system including the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers elected by citizens and made up of member states which are they democratic,” she said. She said the EU system is perfectly transparent and based on law. As of July, it will consist of 28 member states. She says in spite of laborious procedures and sometimes less than optimal outcomes, the EU stands for peace and prosperity and a high standard of living for citizens. “The EU constitutes a political partner on the global scene which has been recognised and acts with other actors. We promote all the highest values and that’s an element of stability for global community: human rights, fair and transparent elections and we do engage in development and our development assistance is the first in the world if you consider EU plus member states,” she said.
Medici villas and gardens in Tuscany get WHC inscription
The sculpture Appennino at the Medici Villas and Gardens in Italy’s Tuscany.
Evidence of flourishing lives during the Italian Renaissance were inscribed by the WHC during the Phnom Penh meeting. Twelve villas and two pleasure gardens spread across the Tuscan countryside tell the story of the enormous influence the Medici family exerted over modern European culture through its patronage of the arts. Built between the 15th and 17th
centuries, they villas and gardens show an innovative system of rural construction done in harmony with nature and dedicated to leisure, the arts and knowledge. “The villas embody an innovative form and function, a new type of princely residence that differed from both the farms owned by rich Florentines of the period and from the military might of baronial castles. The Medici
villas form the first example of the connection between habitat, gardens, and the environment and became an enduring reference for princely residences throughout Italy and Europe. Their gardens and integration into the natural environment helped develelop the appreciation of landscape characteristic Humanism and the Renaissance,” the UNESCO description reads.
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World Heritage Cambodia
WHC credibility upheld during Cambo High marks for warm welcome, and well organised meetings
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or Tim Badman, the director of the World Heritage Program at the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the WHC meetings in Cambodia this year produced a welcome strong yield of natural site inscriptions. But just as importantly, the meetings over the last two weeks at the Peace Palace reaffirmed the WHC’s credibility as an entity that held true to its original purpose: the inscription and long-term protection of places that have universal value to all people. Created in 1948, the IUCN is the world’s oldest and largest conservation network with a staff of more than 1,000 people and more than 1,000 members including 100 state members. For the World Heritage Committee, the IUCN serves to provide knowledge, experience and technical support. “There has been a growing concern about the credibility of the convention,” Badman said. “The credibility has
been challenged, whether the sites are really up to standard and fulfilling the idea of outstanding universal value, and the degree to which the sites are suffering from growing threats.” Yet, the credibility of the convention was largely reaffirmed in Cambodia with what Badman called a strong level of integrity for listings of natural heritage. “For us, the growing threats to natural world heritage are the big credibility test for world heritage for the next 10 years.” Badman was glad to report that the WHC delegates had absorbed and employed the advice IUCN provided. “The committee has supported the advice we have provided and we’ve seen some important and fantastic sites. This has been a year of mountains and deserts,” he said. “The committee has held the line on standards and we have seen a strong level of integrity for listings this year for natural heritage,” he said. Even after the sites are inscribed, there remains a
Director of the World Heritage Program at the International Union for Conservation of Nature Tim Badman.
long-term need to protect them from various threats, he said. “We are really concerned by the elevated level of threats the sites are facing. For example, East Rennell in the Solomon Islands, one of 17 natural sites on the listing, is under pressure from logging and invasive species,” Badman said. “We’re seeing growing threats from mining starting to put pressure on a range
of world areas and that’s a growing concern. There are infrastructure threats including roads and dams. The concern about the growing threats is really elevated and that is the challenge now, to realise the political will to protect sites that have got not enough management, staff and resources.” He gave the example of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, which he says is under
pressure from development and shipping, with issues of water quality, sediment and agricultural chemicals. The World Heritage Committee has inscribed nearly 1,000 sites round the world so far, out of which 222 are natural sites. In addition to Cambodia’s Angkor, other famous inscribed sites around the world include the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China, the Great Pyramids of Egypt, America’s Grand Canyon and Japan’s Mount Fuji, which was inscribed during this Cambodia-based meeting. Badman says the key phrase is “outstanding universal value”. “The convention represents the highest ideal of the international community to come together to protect these places; places so exceptional that they transcend national responsibility and we have a common responsibility to protect them,” he said. Badman said the WHC discussions were both about the listing of sites and the conservation of existing sites. He praised Deputy Prime Minister Sok An for his role as chairman. “Sok An has been doing very well. He’s a very calm and
engaging chairperson who is making sure everybody is heard and the conclusions of the debate are as constructive as possible. The meetings have been really great, beautifully organised and with an extremely warm welcome,” Badman said. “The atmosphere is very pleasant and even though there are difficult issues, it has been a very collegial atmosphere.” Badman explained the work of IUCN. “We’re not an NGO and we’re not government. We bring the civil society, the world of NGOs and the conservation community together with the conservation community in government, and occupy the space to bring those people together,” he said. For the World Heritage Committee, IUCN serves as independent advisors, bringing together an expert network and giving what Badman calls the best objective technical advice possible. “We’ve got a global network of 10,000 experts and an IUCN red list of threatened species. We make the accepted global standards for threatened species on the planet,” he said. Badman said a high point
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odia’s hosting of the meeting was the inscription of the Namib Sand Sea in Namibia. “They proceeded by consensus and there was a round of applause, flags waved, screams of joy in the room, speeches given by the government representatives. Inscription is a source of natural pride and it’s a real recognition.” The other highlight in a year of deserts and mountains, Badman said, were the inscriptions of the two millionhectare Tajik National Park in Tajikistan, the El Pinacate desert in Mexico, Mount Etna in Sicily, Mount Fuji in Japan and mountains in Tian Shan, northern China. Badman said Cambodia’s Angkor is one of the best known world heritage areas. “The challenge is to make sure you conserve and don’t lose this exceptional place.” Another area of interest for Badman is the Tonle Sap biosphere reserve. The IUCN has an office in Phnom Penh and headquarters in Gland, Switzerland. Trained as a geologist, UK citizen Badman said humankind had been on the earth only a comparatively short time in geological history.
He’s been involved with the IUCN for 10 years and he says climate change is a big concern. “It’s a fragile planet we live on and you can feel the changes. Climate change is of great concern and we’re seeing very rapid changes. By reducing the quality of functioning nature we make ourselves more vulnerable,” he said. IUCN was instrumental in the establishment of the WHC in 1972 and was named its advisory body and has done so for the last 40 years. IUCN is funded by members, partners and projects including UNESCO as well as support from Switzerland, Germany, Australia and the MAVA family foundations in Switzerland. Badman said WHC members look to the IUCN for objective, technically strong and constructive advice. “We’re here to try to speak the truth as best as we can see it and network in the best scientific and technical knowledge at our disposal. Do it in a constructive way. We think working with nature is a good solution to the challenges we have facing the world including food security and climate change.”
The Namib Sand Sea in the southern African country of Namibia was one of the sites inscribed during Cambodia’s hosting of the WHC.
Namib Sand Sea gets inscribed to WHC The Namib Sand Sea in Namibia is the only coastal desert in the world that includes extensive dune fields influenced by fog, according to UNESCO. “Covering an area of over three million hectares and a buffer zone of 899,500 hectares, the site is composed of two dune systems, an ancient semi-consolidated one overlain by a younger, active one. The desert dunes are formed by the transportation of materials thousands of kilometres from the hinterland, that are carried by river,
ocean current and wind. It features gravel plains, coastal flats, rocky hills, inselbergs within the sand sea, a coastal lagoon and ephemeral rivers, resulting in a landscape of exceptional beauty. Fog is the primary source of water in the site, accounting for a unique environment in which endemic invertebrates, reptiles and mammals adapt to an ever-changing variety of microhabitats and ecological niches.This is the first natural site in Namibia to be inscribed,” UNESCO said.
Area Manager Francois Snyders of Namibia Wildlife Resorts, left, and HB ‘Manie’ Le Roux, Chief Control Warden for Namib Naukluft Park for the Republic of Namibia share their inscription joy in front of The Peace Palace.
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North Korea’s Kaesong monuments, Mount Fuji inscribed
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f the five natural and 14 cultural sites inscribed on the World Heritage Committee list during the last two weeks of meetings in Phnom Penh, two of the most interesting are North Korea’s medieval city of Kaesong and Japan’s Mount Fuji. A group of North Korean delegates to the UNESCO committee stood and clapped on Sunday as the decision was announced to inscribe Kaesong in North Korea, a site which includes royal tombs, fortress walls and a 700year-old school. The North Korean delegates also thanked UNSECO for the listing and described it as a “joyful occasion”. Founded in 919 as the capital of the Goryeo dynasty which lasted until 1392, the dynasty gave its name “Koryo” to what we now know as Korea and is credited with creating the first idea of Korean national unity. Following the partition of the Korean Peninsula along the 38th parallel at the close of the Korean war, Kaesong was located in South Korea. Kaesong became the only city to change hands from South to North Korea as a result of the war. Today, Kaesong, hosts an industrial complex which had been used as a place of exchange between the two Koreas. The 12 sites in the listing are located several kilometres
from an industrial park that had been jointly run by the North and South Korea which closed in April following an escalation of tensions between the two. UNESCO announced that the Korean monuments were not only of outstanding universal value, but also an “exceptional testimony to the unified Koryo civilisation as Buddhism gave way to neoConfucianism in East Asia”. Part of the site includes the ruins of the Manwoldae palace; a 1,000-year-old academic institution that includes a museum and relics as well as King Kongmin’s mausoleum.
Kaesong is located on the North Korean side of the border.
“These valuable cultural relics are the pride of our nation, and they are precious cultural relics that show the long history of our nation,” Kim Jin Sok, a researcher at Kaesong City Management Office for Preserving National
Heritage, told The Associated Press. “Also, these relics, some preserved for very long periods, are well known as relics with which we can stand proud in the eyes of the world.” Another North Korean complex of ancient tombs from a previous kingdom received a World Heritage listing in 2004. Hailing Kaesong’s “outstanding universal value”, UNESCO called the monuments “exceptional testimony to the unified Koryo civilisation as Buddhism gave way to neo-Confucianism in East Asia”. Two of the world’s symbolic volcano-mountains were inscribed by the WHC in Phnom Penh, Japan’s Mount Fuji and Italy’s Mount Etna, located in Eastern Sicily. Also known as Fujisan, UNESCO describes the volcanic mountain that remains present in the minds of nearly all Japanese citizens and many people around the world as a sacred place and source of artistic inspiration. Mount Fuji has been present in Japanese art dating back to the 11th century. In the 19th century, wood block prints made of the mountain became recognised internationally. The inscription consists of 25 sites reflecting the essence of the area as a sacred landscape. During the 12th century, the mountain became a training
site for ascetic Buddhism which included elements from the Japanese Shinto tradition. The inscription includes pilgrim routes and crater shrines around the mountain and at various levels as well as Oshi lodging houses, natural features, lakes, springs and waterfalls. The other volcanic mountain inscribed was Italy’s Mount Etna, located on the eastern coast of Sicily, covering 19,237 hectares. The history of the Mount Etna volcano erupting can be traced back 500,000 years and at least 2,700 years of its more modern history has been documented. In China, the Xinjiang Tianshan mountain system was inscribed, including a total of 606,833 hectares, which constitute part of the Tianshan mountain system with scenic mountains, pristine forests, rivers, canyons and extending into the Talimakan Desert. Other listings include the 714,566-hectare El Pinacate and Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve in Mexico for its dramatic landscape and lava flows from a dormant volcano as well as sand dunes and unique features of the Sonoran desert; the TajikNational Park (Mountains of the Pamirs of Tajikistancovers more than 2.5 million hectares in the east of Tajikistan and consists of high plateaus and rugged peaks.
Cultural sites listed include the Red Bay Basque Whaling Station in Canada, a 16th century site at the northeastern tip of Canada founded in 1530 which still has artifacts present from that time. Another from China inscribed were the Honghe Hani Rice Terraces that cascade down the slopes of the towering Ailao Mountains to the banks of the Hong River; the Levuka Historical Port Town in Fiji, the Bergpark Wilhelmshole in Germany, with a giant statue of Hercules, waterfalls and rapids; the Hill Forts of Rajasthan in India that include six majestic forts in Chittorgarh, Kumbhalgarh, Sawai Madhopur, Jhalawar, Jaipur and Jaisalmer, and reflect the power of the Rajput princely states that flourished in the region from the 8th to the 18th centuries. The Golestan Palace of Iran was also inscribed, as a masterpiece of the Qajar era, embodying the successful integration of earlier Persian crafts and architecture with Western influences, as well as the Historic Centre of Agadez in Niger, known as the gateway to the southern edge of the Sahara desert; the Wooden Tserkvas of the Carpathian Region in Poland and Ukraine consisting of wooden churches, built of horizontal logs between the 16th and 19th centuries by communities of the Eastern
A statue in North Korea’s medieval city of Kaesong.
Orthodox and Greek Catholic faiths; the University of Coimbra-Alta and Sofia in Portugal that includes 12th century buildings and cathedrals; the Al Zubarah Archaeological Site in Qatar, including a walled coastal town that flourished as a pearling and trading centre in the late 18th century and early 19th centuries. Also inscribed was the Ancient City of Tauric Chersonese and its Chora in Ukraine which contains the remains of a city founded by Dorian Greeks in the 5th century BC on the northern shores of the Black Sea.
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Epigraphy in Southeast Asia: the Jean-Michel Filippi
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rom the 1st century AD, Peninsular and Insular Southeast Asia has become the setting of a huge Indian influence. Practically, this Hinduisation consisted of new religious systems such as Buddhism and Hinduism, a new conception of the state and the introduction of writing. The opinions of the specialists differ on the origins of Hinduisation: whether they be the opening of new sea routes or the necessity to stock up with gold or other motivations. One thing is sure: one of the earliest Hinduised kingdoms of the region, Funan, was born in the 1st century AD and existed until the 6th century AD. It’s precisely in this period that the Southeast Asian scripts were born and we can follow their development until today. More than a century of research showed that the earliest SEA writing systems originated in a South Indian script used to write the Sanskrit language. A Hinduised Phnong Everything begins by carving Sanskrit inscriptions in SEA and the oldest inscription on the peninsula dates back to the third century: the Vo
The Vo Canh inscription (3rd century AD).
Canh inscription discovered near Nha Trang, now central Vietnam. In a rather short time this Sanskrit script was used to write three languages spoken in the peninsula: The Mon language spoken at that time in Eastern Burma and in the central part of what is now Thailand; the Cham language of the kingdom of Champa for which the territory roughly corresponded to what is today Annam and northern coastal Cochinchina in Vietnam and, finally, the Khmer language. The oldest known Khmer inscription was found in Angkor Borei, now in Takeo Province. Angkor Borei may have been one of the capitals of the kingdom of Funan. The Angkor Borei inscription, listed as K 600, can be exactly dated to the year
the evolution of the Khmer language and writing from the 7th century to the present day without interruption. In short, this amounts to say that Khmer cultural space is an essential key to the understanding of the past on the Southeast Asian peninsula. Old Khmer and Sanskrit At this stage, one has to guard against the usual wandering error by being conscious that Khmer does in no way come from Sanskrit. Even if as a consequence of Hinduisation, Sanskrit exerted a considerable influence on the lexicon of old Khmer and the neighbouring languages. This deeply rooted prejudice apparently goes back to the first period of the French Protectorate. This prejudice may have been rooted
to any knowledgeable Cambodian, whereas the Old English version of Beowulf would hardly be understood by modern English speakers. Cambodian space also owns a fair number of inscriptions in the Sanskrit language of which the content is very different from the Khmer inscriptions. What is at stake in the two languages is very different. Sanskrit, as the language of Hinduism, is a vehicle of highly abstract literary,
offerings, and as a matter of fact, they present a major interest for reconstructing the history of the Khmer land.
Au Chieng and Georges Coédès won fame. Georges Coédès published in Hanoi in 1937 the first volume “Inscriptions of Cambodia” which was eventually followed by six other volumes published in France, the last one in 1966. The Ecole Française d’ Extrême Orient (EFEO) was to play a key part in this adventure and its journal (BEFEO) began publishing, translating and commenting on inscriptions as early as 1904. An endless activity Cambodian inscriptions make you feel dizzy: new inscriptions are still regularly found and they are very far from having been translated and commented upon.
A Shivait Sanskrit inscription (6th century AD), The Angkor Borei inscription (611 AD).
611. The word Phnong, which is the name of the main ethnic group in Mondulkiri province, is also used in Khmer to designate the not so politically correct concept of a savage. When the French scholar Georges Coédès writes that “Khmer is a Hinduised Phnong”, it is not at all a term of abuse, but a striking expression to describe the considerable distance between a tribal way of life and the then Hinduised Khmer world: religion, centralised state and, of course, script. In the following centuries, comparatively to Cham and Mon languages, Khmer written production can be characterised by an exceptional continuity. Let’s simply consider that we can follow
in the attitude of the first French explorers who were very choked by the contrast between the “great ruins” and the state of decadence of the then Khmer country. Yet, Georges Groslier was very soon the tireless advocate of the Khmer patrimony: Angkor Wat may well be the greatest Hindu temple in the world, its architectural conception took its roots in Hindu religion, but as a whole the result is nevertheless unfailingly Khmer. As far as the language is concerned, no one can seriously challenge the fact the contemporary Khmer is directly derived from old Khmer pre-Angkor inscriptions. More than that, an 8th century Khmer text will be, at least partly, understandable
A Buddhist inscription carved in 2 languages, Khmer and Sanskrit (7th century AD),
historical and philosophical texts. Sanskrit inscriptions are in no way rooted in the territory where they were carved: without exaggerating, one could say that similar themes can be found in Java, Champa or Cambodia Sanskrit inscriptions. The situation of Khmer inscriptions is totally different: of a far less degree of abstraction, they are entirely rooted in Cambodian realities: the building of temples, religious foundations and
Epigraphy as a profession Everything began in the end of the 19th century. What was then at stake was to construct the framework of a Khmer culture and the history of Cambodia. The Angkor temples forest may talk to the esthete, not to the historian. The latter’s requirements consist in interpreting, dating, reconstructing, explaining sequences of events and for all that, texts are needed. There exist of course many travellers’ accounts, generally Chinese, which are very valuable sources full of precious information, but the inscriptions were to play the decisive part to reconstruct Cambodian ancient history. A fantastic adventure followed where researchers like Louis Finot, Etienne Aymonier,
An example of Khmer script evolution.
The implications of this fact are obvious: Cambodian general history may well be known, but there remains very many obscure points which will only be made clear when the inscriptions are deciphered.Thus there is a strong chance that a book about pre-Angkor or Angkor Cambodia written 20 years ago may be simply refuted by the
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World Heritage Cambodia
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e use and misuse of inscriptions discovery or the deciphering of an inscription. This has already been the case for a classic of its kind like Georges Coédès’ “History of Hinduized kingdoms” or Laurence’s Briggs’ “The Khmer Empire”. During the meeting dedicated in 1999 to Georges Coédès in Bangkok, Michael Vickery, the author of the most recent and comprehensive survey about Pre Angkorian Cambodia “Society, Politics and Economics in Pre-Angkor Cambodia”, declared abruptly but not without reason that: “To study nowadays Cambodian history with Coédès would amount to do geography with Ptolemy”. The historical aspect of epigraphy is one well established thing, but the inscriptions were sometimes going to play another part. The content of an inscription (temple, foundation, offerings) is one thing – the nationstates’ later political use of the inscriptions is something else. The principle is as old as the world and could be summed up as follows: “I was here before you” and for that, there is nothing better than the perpetuity of the inscriptions.
An epigraphic western: The Ramkhamhaeng case In 1834, Mongkut, a Buddhist monk discovered an inscription that, according to him, had been carved in 1292. The inscription being written with letters very much like modern Thai letters. It was immediately considered as the first text ever written in the Thai language and not by just anybody but by king Ramkhamhaeng himself, who became de facto the inventor of the Thai script. From then on, the inscription was named after him. Till then the very existence of this king was not too clear and he was even considered as legendary. Even today we are not entirely sure about the time of his birth or death: 1279-1298 or 1239? – 1298 or 1239 – 1317. . . Well, we are not going to quibble about such insignificant details. Didn’t a good old religious tradition teach us that to make a saint from someone it’s better to wait for his death to avoid further disappointments, and it is even better that he had never existed. Mongkut’s story didn’t stop there as he became the king Rama IV and ruled over the
Kingdom of Siam from 1851 to 1868. It’s under his rule that Ramkhamhaeng became a major element of the Thai national patrimony. For the history of writing which has the arduous task to reconstruct the conditions of the evolution of the various scripts, the influences and the borrowings, the Ramkahmhaeng is an incredible challenge: the only case when a very much developed script literally came out of nothingness, nothing before, nothing after! The problems begin In 1986, one of the most famous Thailand art critics, Piriya Krairiksh, put forward the opinion that the inscription, according to him carved by Mongkut – Rama IV himself, only dated back to the 19th century. Michael Vickery, whose greatest quality is certainly not mercy, followed close behind him in the 1987 Canberra conference on Thai studies, and did it again in a 1989 article and, in 1991, he summarised his major points which were to be published in a 1995 issue of The Journal of the Siam Society. His article is based on a very
deep analysis of the language, script and context: the context of the Ramkhamhaeng is not 13th century Sukhotai and the question to know if this script could have been invented by a genial king is at best meaningless. Vickery writes: “There are certain questions and criticism which I shall not attempt to answer, and which I think are unanswerable, not because they are weighty, but because they are outside the realm of scientific discourse within which historians and linguists must work. “For example, I shall make no attempt to counter arguments of the type, ‘why couldn’t a great genius, such as ‘Ram Khamhaeng’ devise from nothing a perfect writing system?’ This question is unanswerable. We cannot say in a scientifically provable way that a great genius could not have done that, but all we know about the development of such cultural items suggests that if not impossible, it is extremely improbable,” Vickery wrote. Till then, the polemics had been restricted to academic discussions summed up by John Chamberlain’s book “The Ramkhamhaeng controversy”
which was published in 1991. Academic discussions of this kind may allow expressing reservations, but they will never result in a total calling into question. That would be an incredible loss of face: one would have to rewrite the parts of historical books where it is told about the Ramkhamhaeng, to take out of the Thai language handbooks the sentence according to which “modern Thai script dates back to 1292 and was invented by King Ramkhamhaeng”, without talking about the traditional universally celebrated Gelb’s and Février’s handbooks about the history of writing. An American academic offered a pedagogical
example: “imagine that tomorrow we are told that our constitution is a fake”. It is precisely this kind of uneasiness that Mukhom Wongtes analysed in her excellent book: “Intellectual Might and National Myth: A Forensic Investigation of the Ram Khamhaeng Controversy in Thai Society”, it is a remarkable indictment of a meddling tendency and the necessity for the intellectual to keep its independence. Jean-Michel Filippi is a professor of linguistics at Royal Phnom Penh University. His academic rigor in no way eclipses our deep respect for the Thai people nor our affection for the beloved King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
A beautiful four faced carved inscription, unfortunately a fake.
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