1 Verbatim CIC16e CT ALL ENGLISH FINAL...

C o m i t é I n t e r n a t i o n a l d e C o o r d i n a t i o n p o u r l a S a u v e g a r d e e t l e D é v e l o p p e m e n t d u S i t e H i s t o r i q u e d ' A n g k o rI n t e r n a t i o n a l C o - o r d i n a t i n g C o m m i t t e e f o r t h e S a f e g u a r d i n g a n d D e v e l o p m e n t o f t h e H i s t o r i c S i t e o f A n g k o r

Français

Comité Technique Technical Committee

Siem Reap – 5 & 6 juillet 2007 – Hôtel Sokha-Angkor Siem Reap – July 5 & 6, 2007 – Sokha-Angkor Hotel

co-présidé par / co-chaired by

M./Mr. Dominique Freslon Conseiller de Coopération et d’Action culturelle Counsellor for Cooperation and Cultural Affairs

Ambassade de France

Embassy of France

M./Mr. Norio Maruyama

Ministre Minister

Ambassade du Japon

Embassy of Japan

C o m i t é I n t e r n a t i o n a l d e C o o r d i n a t i o n p o u r l a S a u v e g a r d e e t l e D é v e l o p p e m e n t d u S i t e H i s t o r i q u e d ' A n g k o rI n t e r n a t i o n a l C o - o r d i n a t i n g C o m m i t t e e f o r t h e S a f e g u a r d i n g a n d D e v e l o p m e n t o f t h e H i s t o r i c S i t e o f A n g k o r

Siem Reap – 5 & 6 juillet 2007 – Hôtel Sokha-Angkor Siem Reap – July 5 & 6, 2007 – Sokha-Angkor Hotel

co-présidé par / co-chaired by

M./Mr. Dominique Freslon Conseiller de Coopération et d’Action culturelle Counsellor for Cooperation and Cultural Affairs

Ambassade de France

Embassy of France

M./Mr. Norio Maruyama

Ministre Minister

Ambassade du Japon

Embassy of Japan

Secrétariat permanent du C.I.C. Angkor

#38 Bld Samdech Sothearos, B.P. 29, UNESCO Phnom Penh, Cambodge Tél.: (855-23) 723 054 / 426 726 Fax (855-23) 426 163 / 217 022

Mél.: [email protected]

16th Technical Committee / 16e Comité Technique

International Coordinating Committee for the Safeguarding and Devel-opment of the Historic Site of Angkor

Sixteenth Technical Committee—July 5&6, 2007

Comité international de coordination pour la sauvegarde et le dévelop-pement du site historique d’Angkor Seizième Comité Technique – 5&6 juillet 2007

• BBuurreeaauu ddee ll’’UUNNEESSCCOO Adresse : 38, bd Samdech Sothearos

BP 29

Phnom Penh

Cambodge

Tél. : (855) (23) 426 726

(855) (23) 723 054 / 725 071

(855) (12) 556 277

(855) (16) 831 520

Fax : (855) (23) 426 163 / 217 022

E-mail : [email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

• SSeeccrrééttaarriiaatt ppeerrmmaanneenntt à Paris M. Azedine BESCHAOUCH

Secrétaire sccientifique permanent

à Phnom Penh

M. Philippe Delanghe

M. Lim Bun Hok

Mme CHAU SUN Kérya (ANA)

SECRÉTARIAT PERMANENT

16th Technical Session / 16e Session Technique

International Coordinating Committee for the Safeguarding and Development of the Historic Site of Angkor

Sixteenth Technical Session—July 5 & 6, 2007

Comité international de coordination pour la sauvegarde et le développement du site historique d’Angkor Seizième Session Technique – 5 et 6 juillet 2007

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

RECORD OF THE DISCUSSIONS........................................................................................................... 4 I. OPENING SESSION..................................................................................................... 4

I.1. Opening Statement by the Co-chairman for France, Mr Dominique Freslon, Counsellor for Cooperation and Cultural Affairs, Embassy of France in Cambodia ..........4 I.2. Opening Statement by the Co-chairman for Japan, Mr Norio Maruyama, Minister with the Embassy of Japan in Cambodia.........................................................................6 I.3. Statement by the Representative of the Royal Government of Cambodia, HE Mr Veng Sereyvuth, Senior Minister and Chairman of the National Tourism Authority.7 I.4. Introduction by Mr Teruo Jinnai, Representative of the Director-General of UNESCO in Cambodia .......................................................................................................................8 I.5. Contribution from Mr Mounir Bouchenaki, Director General of ICCROM....................9

II. RESEARCH AND CONSERVATION .............................................................................. 9

II.1. Report from the ICC Permanent Secretariat, by Mr Azedine Beschaouch ...........9 II.2. APSARA National Authority .....................................................................................12

II.2.1. Introduction by Mr Bun Narith, Director General ....................................................... 12 II.2.2. Report on the Western Baray.................................................................................. 13 II.2.3. Report from the Western Baray Commission, Chaired by Mr Chuch Phoeurn, Secretary of State with the Cambodian Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, Presented by the Secretariat ...... 17 II.2.4. Report on the Northern Baray, by Mr Hang Peou, Director, Department of Water and Forestry.......................................................................................................................... 18 II.2.5. Run Ta Ek Project, by Mr Khuon Khun Neay, Director, Department of Monuments and Archaeology 2................................................................................................................. 20 II.2.6. Report on Research on Ancient Features, Including Hospitals, on the Angkor to Phimai Road, by Mr Im Sok Rithy, Department of Population and Development ............................... 22

II.3. Report from the Ad Hoc Group of Experts...............................................................26 II.3.1. Mr Giorgio Croci: ................................................................................................... 26 II.3.2. Mr Pierre-André Lablaude:...................................................................................... 26 II.3.3. M. Hiroyuki Suzuki:................................................................................................ 28 II.3.4. Mr Bouchenaki (report given by Mr Beschaouch):..................................................... 28

GENERAL DISCUSSION ................................................................................................ 29

II.4. Activity Reports from International Teams.............................................................33

II.4.1. Bayon Temple Safeguarding, JASA (Japan-Cambodia) Project; New Framework for Implementation of the Bayon Safeguarding Project, by Professor Takeshi Nakagawa, Co-director..33 II.4.2. Activities of the World Monuments Fund, Presented by John Stubbs, Vice President for Field Projects ...............................................................................35 II.4.3. GACP Flying Squad Activities in Angkor, Kulen and Koh Ker, by Professor Hans Leisen. 40 II.4.4. Baphuon Temple Restoration Program: Progress Report, by Mr Pascal Royère, EFEO-FSP...42 II.4.5. Outline of the 2007 Excavation Campaign, France-Cambodia Mission on Structuring of Angkorian Territory, by Christophe Pottier, EFEO................................................................ 44 II.4.6. New Archaeological Data on the Angkor Thom Outer Moat, by Professor Jacques Gaucher, Director, French Archaeological Mission at Angkor Thom, EFEO Scientific Research.. 46 II.4.7. Petrographic and Elemental Characterization of the Sandstone Used in Construction of the Angkor Monuments, by Dr Jan Kucera et al,1 Nuclear Physics Institute, ASCR, Czech Republic.......48 II.4.8. Safeguarding Ta Prohm Temple, by Mr Vijai Madan, Director General of ASI............. 52 II.4.9. Activities of the Sophia University International Mission at Angkor.............................. 56 II.4.10. Report on the Restoration Work on Chau Say Tevoda Temple from January to June 2007, Presented by Dr Wu Yuhua, CSA (China).................................................................. 59 II.4.11. The Ta Keo Project: Evaluation of the Impact of Tree Removal on the Acceleration of Stone Weathering on the Angkor Site, by Professor Marie-Françoise André, Blaise Pascal University, Clermont-Ferrand, France ................................................................................ 59





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II.4.12. Investigation and Research on Prasat Top West, by Messrs Susumu Morimoto and Keo Sok Sovannara, Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Japan .........60 II.4.13. Joint Research Project on Stone Conservation at Ta Nei, presented by Ms Yoko Futagami and Ms Tomoko Uno, Researchers, Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Japan ............................................................................................. 62 II.4.14. Joint Project on the Banteay Srei Temple Approach Area Conducted by BSCP (Switzerland) and the APSARA Authority (Cambodia), by Mr Ueli Salzman, Director of the Banteay Srei Project ........................................................................................................ 63 II.4.15. A New Comprehensive Map of the Archaeological Region of Greater Angkor, by Mr Damian Evans, University of Sydney, Australia................................................................... 64 II.4.16. Conservation and Context—Collections and Historical Sites, by Mr Beschaouch on Behalf of ICCROM........................................................................................................... 66

GENERAL DISCUSSION ................................................................................................ 66 III. Sustainable Development...................................................................................... 70

III.1. Report on Temple Approach Area Work and Work on the Banteay Srei Approach Area, by Ms Chau Sun Kérya, Director, Angkor Tourism Development Department....70 III.2. Urban Heritage Rehabilitation, With Particular Focus on Current Efforts to Clean Up the Seam Reap River Banks, by Mme Tep Vattho, Director, Department of Urban Planning and Development of the Siem Reap / Angkor Region ...................................73 III.3. APSARA-New Zealand Cooperation: Bilateral Community Involvement Project in Angkor Park, by HE Mr Uk Someth, Deputy Director General of the APSARA National Authority, Ms Lynn de Silva, Reprentative of NZAID, and Mr John Howse, NZAID......75 III.4. Report on Establishment of the Regional Heritage Training Center, by Mr Bruno Favel, Head of Mission, European and International Affairs, Architecture and Heritage Branch, and Ms Natacha Pakka, Official Representative, Chaillot Center of Advanced Studies .......................................................................................................79 III.5. UNESCO Project in the RUFA: Progress Report by Mr Teruo Jinnai, Representative of UNESCO in Cambodia...................................................................................................81 III.6. Report on the Green Belt Project, by His Excellency Mr Pius Fisher, Ambassador of Germany......................................................................................................................82 III.7. Local Governance Project in Siem Reap “Asia Urbs 3,” by Ms Ruth Gruber, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) ..................................................................................84 III.8. Angkor Wat Safety and Comfortable Tourism, by Mr Makoto Akai, JICA Expert, Advisor to the Ministry of Tourism of Cambodia .............................................................85 III.9. Present State of Air Pollution and Damage to the Environment in the Angkor World Heritage Site, by the ERDAC Group, Japan ........................................................86 III.10. ANGKORICA: A Project by Rise Entertainment, by Ms Zile Montvilaite (Russia)...87

GENERAL DISCUSSION ................................................................................................ 89 IV. General Recommendations, by Mr Beschaouch, Permanent Secretary of the ICC..93

IV.1. SAFEGUARDING.....................................................................................................93 IV.2. DEVELOPMENT........................................................................................................94 IV.3. RESEARCH...............................................................................................................95 IV.4. TRAINING...............................................................................................................95

V. CLOSING SESSION.................................................................................................. 97 V.1 Statement by the Co-chairman for Japan, Mr Norio Maruyama, Minister with the Embassy of Japan in Cambodia .....................................................................................97 V.2. Statement by the Co-chairman for France, Mr Dominique Freslon, Counsellor for Cooperation and Cultural Affairs, Embassy of France in Cambodia................................98 V.3. Speech by the Representative of the UNESCO Director-General, Mr Teruo Jinnai..99 V.4. Statement by HE Mr Veng Sereyvuth, Senior Minister in charge of the National Tourism Authority..........................................................................................................100

List of Participants ....................................................................................................102





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NOTICE: The languages used during the sessions of the ICC are English, French and Khmer. In the English language record of the discussions, all material spoken originally in French or Khmer is therefore a translation. Presentations and comments made originally in English are indicated by [OrigE] at the beginning of the contribution. The insertion [OrigK] shows that the original statement was in Khmer.





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RECORD OF THE DISCUSSIONS I. OPENING SESSION Comment by French Co-chairman, Mr Dominique Freslon, Cooperation and Cultural Affairs Advisor, Embassy of France: “The session is scheduled to start at 8:30 a.m. We would like to get underway as planned, as the Committee’s deliberations are always jam packed and time is truly of the essence.”

I.1. Opening Statement by the Co-chairman for France, Mr Dominique Freslon, Counsellor for Cooperation and Cultural Affairs, Embassy of France in Cambodia

“Allow me to introduce myself. I am Dominique Freslon, Cooperation and Cultural

Affairs Advisor for the Embassy of France in Cambodia. I arrived in Cambodia only a few months ago, and I assure you that it is a real pleasure for me to be with you today on the occasion of this 16th Technical Committee meeting. This is the first time for me to be here, and I am truly honored to co-chair this 16th ICC session with Mr Norio Maruyama, Minister for the Embassy of Japan.

I would first of all like to wish all of you a warm welcome, in particular to

HE Mr Veng Sereyvuth, Senior Minister responsible for the National Tourism Authority, as well as HE Mr Oum Weakchiravuth, Representative of His Majesty King Sihamoni. I thank them most sincerely for coming to attend this assembly.

I likewise greet Their Excellencies Ms Donica Pottie, Ambassador of Canada, and Ms Margaret Adamson, Ambassador of Australia, along with Mr Pius Fisher, Ambassador of Germany, and Mr Viraphard Vachavarhit, Ambassador of Thailand. We are also pleased to welcome Mr Vijai S. Madan, Director General of the Archeological Survey of India, who is attending the ICC meeting for the first time.

Of course, I cannot overlook the newly appointed experts for sustainable develop-ment. Two of them are with us here, Mr Tatsuo Harada for Japan and Mr Franck Michel for the APSARA Authority. Mr François Houiller for France unfortunately could not make at the last minute.

The French delegation that I am honored to be with is made up of Mr Bruno Favel, Head of the European and International Affairs Mission, Architecture and Heritage Branch, Ministry of Culture and Communication, Ms Natacha Pakker, official representative of the Chaillot Center for Advanced Studies, and Mr Pierre-André Lablaude, Inspector General of Historical Monuments. All members of this delegation join with me in thanking the Director General of the APSARA National Authority and the representative of the Director-General of UNESCO and their respective teams for their assistance in the smooth holding of our meet-ings each year and in ensuring the quality of the proceedings. Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

At our Plenary Session in December 2006 co-chaired by the Ambassadors of France and Japan, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Culture, Ms Françoise Rivière, high-lighted a point made at the Intergovernmental Conference on the need to streamline the





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way our meetings are organized. She noted the drift that was taking place these last few years and emphasized that each of the ICC levels had a specific role to play in the protec-tion of the Angkor site.

The Plenary Session held at the end of the calendar year makes strategic choices

and decisions on policy matters, while the Technical Committee focuses on scientific analy-sis and exchanges among experts and scholars.

This 16th meeting will take this delineation into account as reflected by the themes it

will cover. This approach is appropriate and will help us get things done efficiently. As Co-chairman for France, I am very happy with this refocus. The ICC has a higher atten-dance at each successive meeting. The success of this undertaking means that it must be well organized. When the distinction is lost, the result is all too often confusing, so we needed to address the matter of getting the status of the meetings and contributors back on track.

Technical Committee meetings generally focus on the three themes of temple resto-ration and safeguarding, archaeological research and excavation sites, along with matters pertaining to sustainable development.

The latter issue involves a great many challenges and is of increasing timeliness. The circumstances that led to making sustainable development a priority concern continue to prevail and have in fact become increasingly pressing. It’s a tremendously broad field, fraught with dangers and challenges, and demands input from all in the form of imagina-tion, effort and commitment. Back in 2003 it was a matter of public discussion on the agenda of the Second Intergovernmental Conference, with all of the partners getting be-hind it to channel the effort and spell out the synergies.

Reflecting the will of the Royal Government of Cambodia to move as quickly and ef-

fectively as possible on the matter, the Government’s spokesman has faithfully reminded us of the urgency of sustainable development and issues relating to it at each of our meet-ings. We are all familiar with the tourist growth figures on the sites over the last few years and what is projected for the future with regard to the expansion of both Siem Reap and tourist infrastructure. We have been presented with scenarios of how the integrity of the sites is being affected, along with proposals to assist the local communities to benefit from the spin-offs of this tourist flow.

Without belaboring the point, the challenge means striking a balance between the inherent conservation needs and the requirements of socio-economic development in the zone. The future of the Angkor site is at stake and the job is a tremendous one, all the more so because the work has to be forward-looking in the mid- and long term. Things have to be done right now to ensure the future, to put institutions in place and train the manpower.

The centerpiece, the kingpin of all that has to be done, is the APSARA National Au-thority. Success will depend upon its ability to adapt to the changes now taking place. Momentum for the reforms was given several years ago, and a technical restructuring has recently taken place. But now the weighty matter of sustainability calls for a further re-working of the structure, and solutions must be found in terms of heritage governance.

However, a sound institutional foundation would be of little value if the people who use it are not duly qualified. Tomorrow we will talk about the matter of training, notably in the presentations concerning the Regional Heritage Training Center that is being supported by the French Ministries of Foreign and European Affairs and Culture and Communication. It will have its first class with the start of the 2007-2008 academic year.





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This progress is the result, we might say, firstly of the fact that all of the partners are aware of the urgency of this endeavor and because each one is driven by a keen sense of determination, but also because the basic principle governing the proceedings and coor-dination of this body is geared to that objective. The agenda for these two days will reflect all facets of this step in development that will in no way encroach upon the Angkor heritage and the interests of the communities, because conservation, safeguarding and archaeology are the very backbone of such an approach and shape the prerequisites for all long-term solutions that are considered.

I wish all of you much success in the proceedings and thank you.”

I.2. Opening Statement by the Co-chairman for Japan, Mr Norio Maruyama, Minister with the Embassy of Japan in Cambodia

“Mr Veng Sereyvuth, Senior Minister, Chairman of the National Tourism Authority, HE Mr Bun Narith, Director General of the APSARA National Authority, Excellencies, Dear Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen:

It is both a great pleasure and honor for me to co-chair the 16th meeting of the ICC

Technical Committee alongside Dominique. As you know, the ICC is considered to be a model of success in multilateral cooperation for safeguarding cultural heritage. I feel that this is due to the remarkable input from all of the participants here present, and I would first like to congratulate you for this outstanding result. But I am also aware of the weighty responsibility incumbent upon us, on me, on my colleague and on all of you present in this auditorium.

You appreciate that the ICC enjoys a sound reputation and we have to keep it up.

That’s no small task. To enable the ICC to continue to be worthy of this praise, we have to see to it that the quality of our proceedings is correspondingly worthy. The Technical Com-mittee meeting is a unique place in the world enabling specialists from all over to get together and talk about restoration in technical terms.

The success enjoyed by the ICC is to a large extent due to the in-depth discussions

among specialists who have been on hand for the Technical Committee meetings right from the outset. So given the challenge before us now, I feel that we have to see a clearer dis-tinction in the role of the Technical Committee meeting in relation to the Plenary Session. This will enable us to improve both the effectiveness and quality of the various undertak-ings that come under our mutual responsibility.

I would also like to say something about our ad hoc experts. I am fully behind all

the praise that has been expressed and directed to our ad hoc experts for the outstanding contributions that you have made to our proceedings. And I am sure that such contribu-tions will be even greater with the implementation of the new ad hoc group for development. I would therefore like to welcome the development experts and thank them for being here today and tomorrow to provide their input on a matter that is of increasing concern to us.

In conclusion, I would like to add a brief word as Co-chairman. You realize that the success of our proceedings depends on the time that is set aside for discussion. I am sure that everyone can see where I am going. I would like to ask all of you who have presenta-tions to make to kindly stay within their time allotment. Short presentations would be





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especially appreciated. May we therefore enjoy a successful assembly, and I thank you for your attention.”

I.3. Statement by the Representative of the Royal Government of Cambodia, HE Mr Veng Sereyvuth, Senior Minister and Chairman of the National Tourism Authority

[OrigE] “Honorable Co-chairmen, Mr Dominique Freslon, Counsellor for Cooperation and Cul-tural Affairs, Embassy of France, and Mr Norio Maruyama, Minister, Embassy of Japan, Excellencies, Distinguished Professors and Experts, Ladies and Gentlemen:

First of all I would like to extend the sincere regards of the Cambodian delegation as well as of myself to the two Co-chairmen of our Technical Session and to you, all dear col-leagues, members of the International Coordinating Committee for Angkor.

The Chair of the APSARA National Authority, HE Mr Sok An, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister in charge of the Council of Ministers, was preparing to be the representative of the Royal Government of Cambodia as usual and to attend the full proceedings of the 16th Technical Session of the ICC. However pressing commitments in Christchurch, New Zea-land, for the 31st Session of the World Heritage Committee, then in Australia in the framework of bilateral cooperation have prevented this. But to show again the importance he gives to the sessions of the ICC, His Excellency honored me by asking me to attend the present great meeting in order to underline on his behalf the successful partnership be-tween the international stakeholders and the APSARA National Authority.

As you are aware, the policy of the Royal Government is not limited to preserving the integrity of the historical monuments and the authenticity of the cultural properties in Angkor Park, a World Heritage Site. The APSARA National Authority must also do every-thing to improve the daily standard of living for the rural communities in this area. Obviously in this framework, proper management of water and environment is of concern. For this reason, our cooperation program includes a component on agriculture and arbori-culture and gives special attention to the ‘green belt’ around the Angkor area.

The Siem Reap / Angkor region is normally the main gateway for cultural tourism in Cambodia. This means that we have to undertake a comprehensive and most relevant ap-proach to managing the Angkor site. This also means that we have to associate the ICC in this analytical thinking, asking the ad hoc group of experts to carry out thorough studies and requesting all of you to share with us your wishes and expectations.

It is a pleasure for me to attend the 16th Technical Session of the ICC and to sin-cerely wish you success in your proceedings. Please let me close my speech by informing the members of the ICC of the outstanding results of the 31st Session of the World Heritage Committee held at Christchurch, New Zealand, from June 23 to July 2, 2007. This Commit-tee has taken note that Cambodia and Thailand are in full agreement that the temple of Preah Vihear has outstanding universal values and should be inscribed on the World Heri-tage List. The Committee has agreed and recognized in principle that the formal inscription on the request of Cambodia will take place at its 32nd Session in July 2008. This will ensure that the great cultural significance of Preah Vihear temple is internationally established and friendly cooperation between the Kingdom of Thailand and the Kingdom of Cambodia will continue in good conditions. I thank you for your kind attention.”





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I.4. Introduction by Mr Teruo Jinnai, Representative of the Director-General of UNESCO in Cambodia

“Honorable Co-chairman, Honorable Head of the Cambodian Delegation, HE Mr Veng Sereyvuth, Excellencies, Professors and Experts, Ladies and Gentlemen:

It is again an honor and pleasure for me to convey to you the warm greetings of UNESCO as well as our wishes for the all-around success of the proceedings of this 16th Technical Session of the ICC. As you know, the Director-General of UNESCO, Mr Koichiro Matsuura, is particularly interested in this Committee, its operations and the ongoing har-monious implementation of its decisions. This is because the safeguarding and development of Angkor has been an international flagship program for many years now.

The ICC for Angkor is also recognized as a model for international cooperation in

heritage and cooperative planning in the realm of sustainable development in both an ar-chaeological environment and a historical context. But it is also a model in another area as well—the partnership that has been successfully established and built up between the in-ternational scientific and technical community and the APSARA National Authority.

That describes the main challenge facing our Committee since it was founded at the Tokyo Conference in 1993 and as reaffirmed at the Paris Conference in 2003. We want to maintain our spirit, our cooperation; we want to perform better and do more in the frame-work of our partnership.

That indeed is the prerequisite for success in our international undertaking. The Royal Government, as everyone knows, wants to succeed. UNESCO is supporting the com-mon effort and all the teams present in the field are working to that end. So there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that we will stay on course and that the difficulties inherent in any human undertaking will not jeopardize the achievement of our objectives.

Your Secretariat with its track record of self-sacrifice and competence can now count on the unswerving commitment of our colleague in the Phnom Penh UNESCO office—Mr Philippe Delanghe, Head of the Culture Unit. The Secretariat is in charge of making a record of your discussions and working with the APSARA National Authority in seeing to it that your decisions and recommendations are followed through upon.

I would also like to announce that as a token of her confidence in our Permanent Secretary, Professor Azedine Beschaouch, UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Culture, Ms Françoise Rivière, has asked him to be her special advisor. We welcome this appoint-ment that will certainly strengthen the central role of the ICC.

In conclusion, allow me to express a warm welcome to the ad hoc group of experts for conservation. They have proven themselves to be steadfast and efficacious. They are now joined by the second group of experts that will have the job of assessing development projects. I am happy to welcome them to our midst.

I would also like to thank Professor Mounir Bouchenaki for attending in his capacity as the Director General of ICCROM. He previously served as Assistant Director-General for Culture. His contribution to training will provide precious enrichment for the ICC’s pro-grams. Thank you for your attention.”





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I.5. Contribution from Mr Mounir Bouchenaki, Director General of ICCROM

“Honorable Co-chairmen, HE Mr Veng Sereyvuth, Representative of the Royal Government of Cambodia, His Excellency the Representative of the UNESCO Director General, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:

It is a very great honor to say a few words to you at this 16th Technical Session of the International Coordinating Committee for the Safeguarding of Angkor. The pleasure I feel is enhanced by the fact that I see many faces of friends with whom I have been work-ing for over 15 years now, alongside our friends from Cambodia, which goes back to the time Angkor was put on the World Heritage List at Santa Fe in 1992. I thank the Co-chairmen for adjusting the program so that I could make this presentation on behalf of ICCROM that I have been directing since March 2006. ICCROM is an international inter-governmental institution that was established 50 years ago at the UNESCO General Conference in New Delhi, India. It has become widely known for the quality of its work in the field of research and training of conservators, restorers and architects in charge of cul-tural heritage.

I would therefore like to state here that through a number of partnerships that I de-veloped since my arrival at ICCROM—the Chaillot School, the Insituto Centrale di Ristauro in Rome, the Venaria di Torino, the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, the World Monuments Fund, the University of Shanghai, the Nara Institute, and many other institutions of excellence around the world—thanks to these partnerships, I can assure the members of the Technical Committee that ICCROM is available to officials of the Royal Government of Cambodia to develop a response to one of the challenges mentioned by the Co-chairmen this morning: that of training, that of preparing future generations of Cambodian experts to take over the restoration, conservation and showcasing of cultural heritage in this country.

Over the last three days, I was honored as an ad hoc expert to share in the site vis-its. Given the time constraints I am under, I asked my friend and colleague Azedine Beschaouch to give the report on Beng Melea, one of the great sites that our colleague and friend Seung Kong showed us during these technical visits.

Once again, I would like to state here that both with regard to my activities with my friends Giorgio Croci, Pierre-André Lablaude, Professor Suzuki and now the new colleagues who have just been added, Professor Michel and Professor Harada, I feel that we will make all our experience and knowledge available to APSARA, to the Cambodian experts, so that hopefully in the very near future, it will be we who come to learn from the Cambodians. Thank you for your attention.” II. RESEARCH AND CONSERVATION

II.1. Report from the ICC Permanent Secretariat, by Mr Azedine Beschaouch “Dear Co-chairmen, Honorable Senior Minister, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:

The recommendations made at the 15th Technical Session in June 2006 were ap-proved in their final form by this Committee at its Plenary Session on December 11, 2006. Accordingly, your Secretariat, in liaison with the APSARA Authority, worked to see that these recommendations were followed through upon. They concern three major areas: See





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that the integrity of the site as it was classified by the World Heritage Committee, is main-tained and see to it that conservation, restoration, upkeep and maintenance operations are conducted in harmony with the wishes of the Committee. The recommendations involved first of all the major temple sites of Ta Prohm, Bakeng and Angkor Wat.

With regard to Ta Prohm, I have the great pleasure of confirming the smooth func-

tioning of operations there as of yesterday, when Professor Suzuki visited the site. He will be giving you a report on behalf of the whole group, so there is no need for me to spend time on it here. But I can assure you that the work that is now being done at Ta Prohm is truly outstanding and in keeping with what was recommended.

For the second temple, Bakheng, we were hoping that things would have moved ahead and that we would be in a position to report on them. Unfortunately this has not been the case. However, our colleagues and friends from the WMF will soon be giving a re-port, at which time we will be briefed on how the recommendations were followed.

The third temple, Angkor Wat, is home to a number of different teams. This is quite unique in the sense that on just one monument, there is a truly extended form of interna-tional cooperation, oftentimes side by side. You have a Japanese team with an Italian, German or WMF team. Things are kept together under the coordination of the APSARA Na-tional Authority. Operations are proceeding very well and the recommendations have been followed. There is one matter of concern involving the Churning of the Sea of Milk Gallery, but your Secretariat would like to await the report from the group of experts before making any comments.

The second recommendation involved the Western Baray. In a short time we will en-tertain a major discussion on this site, but the recommendation made can be summarized as follows: The Baray must not be viewed as just a body of water. The Baray is a major historical monument. When the inscription on the World Heritage List was adopted in 1992 in Santa Fe, there was first Angkor Wat and second the Western Baray. So it is an impor-tant monument of Khmer engineering, a major world heritage monument and this historical facet was not to be overlooked or abandoned.

Quite fortunately, but after some hesitation it must be said—because the monument

is a tough one and the site requires attention with some urgency given the awkward posi-tion the country is in—but now, thanks to a decision handed down by the Royal Government and HE Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen, a special order has led to the setting up of a commission made up of a representative of the Ministry of Water Resources, a rep-resentative from the APSARA National Authority and UNESCO. This operation went very smoothly under the chairmanship of Mr Chuch Phoeurn, Secretary of State for Culture. It was my honor on behalf of this Committee to personally attend these meetings. I can as-sure you that the recommendations were followed to the letter. I don’t want to spend any more time on this, as the report will be presented by Mr Hang Peou. He is in charge of the team with chief architect and APSARA advisor, Mr Michel Verrot. If anything further needs to be said at that time, your Secretariat can give its viewpoint.

Yesterday, all of the experts went out to the site with our colleagues from APSARA,

our colleagues from WAPCOS and the Indian company ANGELIQUE, because the project is being handled by India—and what a nice name for a water project!—we were pleased to see that the work is going along well and that there is good overall cooperation.

The last two points, after the Baray, first the museum, which is in follow up to a suggestion made last December by the UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Culture, Ms Françoise Rivière. The idea appealed not only to the two Co-chairman, the French Am-bassador and Japanese Ambassador, but also to the Royal Government. Accordingly, a commission was formed under the chairmanship of UNESCO, with the job of secretary han-





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dled by Ms Chau Sun Kérya, here present, who I thank publicly for turning over to me all the notes she took at these meetings. I would like to say that the project caught on with all the APSARA Authority officials in their various capacities as specialists in the fields of tour-ism, water, monuments or development in liaison with site and community management.

Everyone in APSARA put on his or her thinking cap for this project, because we have

museums, the first of which, if I’m not mistaken, is the first archaeological museum in the Angkor zone that will be opened in November. That’s the museum put up by Sophia Univer-sity with funding from Japan. It is now being set up. So we have an archaeological museum. Others might be on the drawing board. But an all-inclusive museum is a notion worthy of a World Heritage Site covering 40,000 hectares with over 200 temples, as well as puts things in sync with changes in the meaning and content of cultural heritage. UNESCO has had a convention on tangible heritage since 1972, to which it has added a second one on intangible heritage and very recently a third one on cultural diversity.

Now for a site as prestigious as Angkor, there is no thought of confining museogra-

phy and museum activity to the themes of sculpture, archaeology, ceramics and textile. That could be done, but we need to bring it all together, and that is what the APSARA ex-perts are doing. Allow me to express the wish that when we write up the draft recommendations we can have a specific one. We have major countries represented here with a sound reputation for their work in the field of museums. We want to help the AP-SARA National Authority to draw up a museum plan in keeping with the suggestion from UNESCO as expressed by the Assistant Director-General for Culture and worthy of such a great site on the World Heritage List. The recommendation was followed and much pro-gress has been made in the last few months.

The final point is development. A year ago we started looking at the issue of illumi-nating the site and the possibility of highlighting the monuments, however ruling out sound and light shows. The Committee expressed the wish that this could be done, but in a bal-anced way, so that this development that would promote tourism would be truly worthwhile without overlooking the other duty, that of conserving the authenticity of the place. Some trials were done. The Angkor Nights Festival put on by the French Department of Cultural Affairs in cooperation with the APSARA National Authority and Ministry of Culture has high-lighted the value of this type of show and illumination, but also the constraints and limitations from the standpoint of logistics. So we asked the APSARA National Authority to keep that in mind, which they did.

The project was introduced just over a year ago. It was reviewed and adjusted and

is still undergoing review. This is the time and place to publicly make the point that a coop-eration arrangement between the APSARA National Authority and the Établissement de Versailles has led to a specialist, Mr Éric Gall, coming and spending ten days with the AP-SARA National Authority. The project has been looked at from both the archaeological and tourist standpoints. It was revised and changes were suggested. This is in line with our rec-ommendation. The conclusion, and I quote what the experts have to say, is that the project is not yet fine-tuned. By October a final project is to be presented to the APSARA National Authority. When this Committee meets next December, it will be in a position to approve the final project. For now, we are recommending that the project be reviewed and finalized. That’s the conclusion reached by the experts.

Plans had called for an illumination and show every night. However, all studies high-

light the sacredness of the site. We are in a major Angkor temple, one that’s on the national flag. This is a high-ranking World Heritage Site. And safety issues have to be kept in mind. If you have thousands of people in Angkor Park every night, you need security, unless you’ve got a police officer behind every tree. Great attention is in order. The experts would like the APSARA National Authority and the representatives of the Royal Government here present to give attention to this problem. This is a matter of public safety, not just one





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of making money. Great care must be taken. Having a show once or twice a week would be alright, but every night would rob it of originality. But most importantly, imagine the sce-nario if a public safety incident occurred. This recommendation will be put down a little later on and will be brought up again at our next Session for final decision as called for in our procedure.

So there you have the essence of the recommendations. Thank you for kindly giving me these 15 minutes—that I kept to—so I could give you a full update on what was done by way of implementation.”

II.2. APSARA National Authority

II.2.1. Introduction by Mr Bun Narith, Director General

“Honorable Co-chairmen, Excellency Senior Minister, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:

Before opening our working sessions on conservation and safeguarding with presen-tations by the technical directors of the APSARA National Authority, I would like to extend a warm welcome to our new Co-chairmen, Mr Norio Maruyama for Japan, and Mr Dominique Freslon for France. They are now part of our big ICC family and will be sharing in the op-erations going on in Angkor and its surrounding region.

We are also happy to have with us again the Senior Representative of His Majesty Norodom Sihamoni, who we all know is very devoted to national heritage and particularly the Angkor site. It is always a heartfelt pleasure to have with us Mr Bruno Favel from the Architecture and Heritage Branch, French Ministry of Culture and Communication, who has constantly been a source of invaluable assistance in human resources development, notably in the area of safeguarding and development. Mr Favel will brief us on the establishment of the Regional Heritage Training Center that will soon open its doors.

We have heard that a number of friends of Angkor have been appointed to leading positions in the French government. We extend our congratulations to them and wish them every success in their missions.

Before turning the floor over to the technicians who will tell us about the technologi-cal progress that has taken place on the Western Baray and Northern Baray, let me summarize briefly for you the APSARA National Authority’s ongoing operations and future projects.

I would first of all like to brief you on the Western Baray dike rehabilitation opera-tion. It is my pleasure to announce that a Joint National Commission has been formed as directed by Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen, made up of various ministries, the APSARA National Authority and international experts. This Commission is chaired by HE Mr Chuch Phoeurn. He had to go abroad on mission and asked Mr Beschaouch to give you a report on what it has done. This will follow the technical contributions by Mr Hang Peou from the De-partment of Water and Forestry and Mr Michel Verrot, advisor to the APSARA National Authority. In this regard, let me pay tribute and express our gratitude to the government of India which has made a large outlay of funds available for upgrading operations on the Western Baray water reservoir and for Khmer heritage protection.





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This will be followed by a presentation about a project that is 100-percent national, I insist. It was initiated by the APSARA National Authority and will be implemented by a team made up of young Cambodians from the Department of Water and Forestry headed by Mr Hang Peou. This involves the refilling the Northern Baray, a seemingly unthinkable ven-ture given the size of the project. If it is successful, it will provide a major solution to the water shortage affecting the Siem Reap / Angkor region. As we all know, water resources have become a global problem and the Royal Government of Cambodia is fully aware of this. Mr Sok An, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the APSARA National Authority, has made it one of the pillars of the sustainable development strategy that he is advocating for the Angkor site. Structural measures for refilling the Northern Baray include the presen-tation of the Neak Poan temple and some environmental developments that will yield a truly unique tourist product. We hope to be able to give you more details about it very soon. This overarching, large-scale project may benefit from assistance pledged by the Sul-tanate of Brunei and from international funding.

The Banteay Srei temple approach area will also be covered in a detailed presenta-tion to be given tomorrow under the sustainable development heading. We are working in close cooperation with the Banteay Srei Conservation Project in which the Swiss team has already become part of the committee in charge of structuring the temple perimeter area. The social component will really get going when the NZ-APSARA bilateral committee work-ing group gets up and running. We greet its representatives who are present with us.

In concluding coverage of the projects, the APSARA National Authority took quick action on the suggestion made by Ms Rivière, Deputy Director-General of UNESCO for Cul-ture, to put up an all-inclusive museum for Angkor. The Authority has already held several working sessions on the concept of this museum, as just stated by Mr Azedine Beschaouch.

We convey our sincere congratulations to HE Mr Thong Khon for his recent appoint-

ment as Minister of Tourism. We are very pleased to have a can-do negotiating partner, one who is always mindful of the issues involved in tourism development. We need his ad-vice and suggestions more than ever before for the management of the Angkor site. We will listen carefully to his political strategy for the economic outreach of tourism from the Ang-kor region to other sites in the country in order to contribute to poverty alleviation, a Royal Government of Cambodia theme song.

It is also incumbent upon us to pay tribute to the unceasing efforts put forth by the Governor of Siem Reap, HE Mr Sou Phirin. He is doing a wonderful job of beautifying the banks of the Siem Reap River and putting in very attractive open spaces to enable tourists to enjoy their evenings in the downtown core. This work is being done in cooperation with the APSARA National Authority’s Urban Development Department. And I am happy to an-nounce that the ad hoc group of experts is being expanded with the addition of the sustainable development specialists, and we welcome Messrs Franck Michel and Tatsuo Ha-rada.

To conclude on a very positive note, the Royal Government of Cambodia and more particularly the APSARA National Authority would like to express its great satisfaction with the official appointment of Mr Azedine Beschaouch to the position of UNESCO advisor for Angkor and extend to him our warm congratulations. Thank you for your attention.”

II.2.2. Report on the Western Baray

Mr Hang Peou, Director, ANA Department of Water and Forestry:

“It is an honor to give you a progress report on the Western Baray rehabilitation

project, the main points being as follows:





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- Initial reading of the field situation. - Inventory of fixture and risk assessment. - Proposal for emergency interventions. - Principles involved in rehabilitation. - Proposal for trial sections. - Archaeological diagnosis, hydrological and geologic analyses. - Feasibility archaeological diagnosis. - West dike project, risk assessment. - Progress of the work.

First of all an overview. On this picture you can see the Angkor site in the days of

King Yaçovarman I. First there are the cities that had developed and then the cities as they appeared under Udayaditiavarman II.

In the lower part, the map shows the development of the city during the reign of Jayavarman VII. You see the city is covered by the Western Baray, so it is under water due to work being done on the Western Baray.

Taking a look at the map, we had to find out where the boundary of the ancient city

was located. Here is Ak Yum temple, one that is still exists today, and other points that we have not yet confirmed. This gives you an idea of how the city was laid out over the Baray.

This is the Mebon of the Western Baray. One kilometer from there a 2,000-year-old graveyard was found just 10 cm under the surface of the ground.

Here is the dike of the Baray on January 30, at the elevation of the dike crest. Here you see how erosion has affected the dike, highlighted by the trees and sedimentation. Scrub brush previously covered it over, but these sections here were formed by erosion at the bottom of the dike. Work is going on at the north to bring the dike back into shape.

This is the eastern section of the same dike where it was widened out to over 20 m.

The southern section has fewer problems, simply some rimming and a minor widen-ing of the road, but there are fewer problems than on the northern, western and eastern sections.

We are proposing the following operations: - Phase 1 is an inventory of fixture, the emergency interventions. - Phase 2, the provisional proposal and work start-up. - Phase 3, special solutions, implementation of trial sections, followed by implementa-

tion for the whole Western Baray.

Here are two pictures showing the situation prior to the operations in February 2006 and after the operations, in February 2007.

Here is the impact on the overall landscape where the dike is located. At the top is a profile of the impact on the southern dike, which is less than on the northern dike. As for the impact assessment on the landscape in Phase 1, we have simply shown the area with fewer problems in yellow, and the zone with more problems in red, to the west and on the dike ridge.

Here are some proposed diagrams showing the relationship to the current situation. Here is the western part and on top, the southern part of the dike.





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The impact on the central section of the northern dike, where some vegetation re-mains, but we are encountering new problems below.

Pictures of the situation before, in 2006, show the ridge and the dike covered with vegetation. The picture was taken from the southwest corner looking north. Here is a pic-ture after the operations. The vegetation was removed from the top and foot of the dike. This resulted in some problems with erosion and water at the foot of the dike. The ridge began to cave into the dike. Here are some people selling, sometimes right on top of the danger area. We put up fencing to stop them from setting up here.

Here are a dozen or so points where we are encountering problems. The problems weren’t so bad a little earlier, but now the openings have widened from 40 cm to 2 m, and very quickly so. Here are some archaeological remains that are falling from top to bottom. We had to stop people from going over these areas because of the danger. We put up some signs on the dike and elsewhere so that our team could work unhindered.

Here are the proposed emergency interventions on the southern part of the dike to prevent further erosion. The first thing we did was to put in vegetation. Here are things we have in mind to limit the width of the road. We are putting in vegetation to cover it over.

In Phase 2, we are rebuilding the crest or ridge of the dike, after which it will be re-planted to cover it up. Damaged portions are going to be repaired.

Now I would like to give the floor to my colleague Michel Verrot.” Mr Michel Verrot, Technical Advisor (FSP):

“I will outline for you here how operations are proceeding on the western section that Mr Hang Peou just showed you. This is a team effort for both the investigations and things that are being done in the field. We have APSARA National Authority archaeologists, architects and engineers alongside international experts, including our friends and col-leagues from India. So we could refer to this team as the Baray team.

We selected this experimental section in order to try to establish a restoration prin-ciple followed by the most precise implementation protocol that could be developed, something that could be replicated on all the problem points of the Baray. We picked this point because it was also one of the locations suffering the greatest impact, one of the most threatened ones, and it was chosen based on diagnostic sheets, of which over 200 were made. This particular point is threatened by major risks; it is broken in various places and as you just saw in the pictures, there is an acceleration of landslides.

The first operation was to do a comparative study of the existing profiles of this sec-tion of the dike, right in the middle, and the older profiles as surveyed by our Indian friends. This allowed us to come up with a very general proposal first of all for dike restora-tion, as you can see on the right side of the slide. Obviously we had to address the issue of the stability of these restored sections, at least for the first few seasons. The teams under Hang Peou and our landscape consultant came up with proposals to for tree planting as well as to put in transversal drainage furrows.

The first issue was to determine exactly where things stood, and this meant asking the archaeological survey team to do a series of trenches, seven altogether, involving some critical objectives. First we had to see if there were any ancient structures within the dike. As Hang Peou showed you, based on various studies going back to 1930 when the Baray had been drained, indications were that this was a very rich location. So that was a priority matter to be checked out. Next we had to study the structure of the dike, how it had been built. And finally we had to find out what it was built on.





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This sectional view summarizes the work, showing the recurrent features that were

found in the seven elevations, first, the findings of the archaeologists that confirm overall that the dike was made with surface material scavenged from inside the Baray as the bot-tom of the Baray was leveled off, taking this bulk material and putting it in the dike.

It is noteworthy that on the structure of the dike is this type of ridge or crest. Our conclusion is that it was simply a structure that existed prior to the current dike. This ridge could be from a dike that predated the Baray, an older reservoir, or why not, another canal. It was impossible to get a look at it from either side to confirm this.

The second state we encountered was that of fill that had been made up of layers that incline inwardly, which was probably the footing of the future dike.

The third state was the backfill made up of successive extremely compact horizontal layers, and finally a fourth state on top of that, the sludge or deposit inside the dike due to erosion.

These different observations enabled the archaeological team to make a proposal that you can see here of a probable profile of the dike at a somewhat vague period between the time the dike was first built and the time it was altered.

So with this point now resolved, we went on to investigate the issues of water levels and water volumes in the Baray. Here are the elevations and volumes of water that we came up with, and this is what the surface would look like in each case. So we are looking at various volumes of water and elevations, presented here in diagram form.

We also examined the hydraulics department records to see the water levels from 1992 to 2003. We found that at the end of the rainy season in November 2000, there was a peak of 19.6 m, while it was 14.7 m in June. That is the water height. The 19.6-m point comes to the foot of the Western Mebon enclosure wall and extends over to the small islet, or point 21. These observations enabled us to make a small comparative table starting with level 15, which is the lowest level of water we found. We have this water volume above that of level 15 and we carried it over to these various tables. If we take the level at the foot of the Baray wall, we come up with a water volume payload of 50 million m3. If we go up to level 21 by flooding part of the Mebon, we get 70 million m3.

We then had to find out if it was possible to use earth to make repairs, which led us to analyze the earth on the Baray as well as the sections of sedimentation to the east. Four points were selected. These core samples of earth were analyzed and archaeological trenches were put in to find out what was contained there. We quickly gave up on points 106 and 104. Point 106 was of dubious archaeological interest. On point 104, the earth layer was too thin. We eventually concentrated on point 107, where the composition and characteristics of the earth are similar to that of the Baray.

Here you see the archaeological survey trenches. This picture shows point 107 to

the extreme east, where we eventually chose to take earth samples and put in the test trench. This is an elevation of that section showing that we have some usable earth, the hachured area, on a substrate that is commonly encountered on the floor of the Baray.

These different considerations led us to come up with a joint proposal, that of fol-lowing a technique used by the ancient builders of the Baray. That would mean using successive, well-compacted layers that would be notched into the existing layers.

Here is a diagram showing how a compact earth footing would be put in. It is safe because we can dig down 30 cm before reaching the layers of archaeological interest. The





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last diagram here shows what can be done on this 200-m section of west dike of the West-ern Baray. We still have to confirm with our Indian friends just how this will be done, what the work procedure will be, what heavy equipment can be used, as well reposition the foot-ing of the west dike as accurately as possible using relative measurements with regard to the Western Mebon.

Here are tables showing the volumes and time frame involved to do 100 m of dike. This segment of experimental work will enable us to move quite quickly on the emergency interventions on the 12 points that are extremely threatened and with all that that involves as far as protocol, materials and implementation are concerned in order to avoid asking the same questions over and over again and encountering surprises each time.

This final picture of the dike section shows you what a race we are having against time. This tunnel erosion dates from April 2007 and had tripled in surface area by June 2007. We are experiencing the same erosion problems basically at all 12 points that we showed you, so we have to go as quickly as possible now. We have drawn up diagrams for all of those points.

I will give the floor back to Hang Peou for the conclusion and to show you how things are progressing as far as the emergency work is concerned.” Mr Hang Peou:

“This is a picture of what was done in the tree planting operation to protect the dike.

On this section we put in vegetation to provide extensive protection at the top, while in the already finished section, we put in less vegetation because of road and landscape consid-erations.

This is the northern section that we are now working on and it will soon be finished. We are looking this over all around to see if there is anything else we can do, as we are in the rainy season now.

This is the western section with heavier planting going in. We limited things on the northern, eastern and southern sections so as not to negatively impact the landscape of the Baray dike. Thank you.”

II.2.3. Report from the Western Baray Commission, Chaired by Mr Chuch Phoeurn, Secretary of State with the Cambodian Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, Presented by the Secretariat

“This will be a very brief report for two reasons. First, a technical report can only be inserted in the general report, and second, because most of the material has already been covered. I can add the follow comments by way of summary:

First, we would like to assure everyone of a basic matter involving heritage on the Angkor World Heritage Site. The decision made by HE the Prime Minister to form this Commission shows the Government’s commitment to ensure economic development in the face of the very crucial water problem while also preserving heritage.

In his report, the Commission Chairman assures us that his recommendations for

the Commission and its decisions the Khmer side have been followed to the letter as far as the Khmer side is concerned.





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Second, ‘operations have been conducted very successfully.’ This I can confirm be-cause I personally sat in on two meetings of this Commission. It was and is continuing to be a forum for genuine dialogue to take place, first between the Ministry of Water Re-sources and the APSARA National Authority, as well as between the Cambodian teams with the assistance of their advisor Michel Verrot and the Indian side which is cooperating very well in this matter.

Here is the conclusion: ‘It is now the joint responsibility of all of the Cambodian

teams involved, the technical advisors whether from within the APSARA National Authority or called upon on a one-off basis, as well as the Indian team, this Commission as a body is responsible for implementing the decision.’

In a few minutes, when the expert reports are given, Professor Giorgio Croci who

prepared the report with us yesterday, will brief you very quickly on this to assure you that the recommendations you made last year have been followed through upon very well. Thank you.”

II.2.4. Report on the Northern Baray, by Mr Hang Peou, Director, Depart-ment of Water and Forestry

“It is an honor to give you a report on the project to refill the Northern Baray. We are all aware that Cambodia presently has a lot of water, but this resource is not being properly managed.

The second point involves heritage. We want to use this project to replenish the wa-

ter table and thereby support the temples, increasing the level by means of infiltration, along with the intention of preserving the historic landscape of Angkor Park.

The third point is the archaeological field that this project has opened up, in addition

to research on the hydraulic systems. The final point is on sustainable development and tourism development. This is a picture of the Northern Baray, with Angkor Thom and Angkor Wat, along

with the Mebon of the Northern Baray, Neak Poan. As you can see from this aerial view, the dike around the Baray is in good condition. It has been cut into only in four different loca-tions by the local communities. It is estimated that the current potential capacity of the Baray would be about 8 million m3.

Unlike the Eastern Baray, there are no buildings in it, and that is an advantage as

far as refilling it is concerned. This dike is surrounded by scrub tree growth at about 50 m in from the road. There are a few tall trees, but of no significant value to the Baray.

I would like to use this ancient dike project, or in ancient times, the Angkorian Road,

to channel runoff water, shown in green on this photo, using this dike to create a new wa-tershed to catch water to refill the Northern Baray. But some local communities downstream from this dike need to use water. They cut open the dike in order to get water for irrigation. We would like to repair the Baray dike at 56 points with a hydraulic structure in place to manage the water according to the requirements of the communities and to make economical use of our resources.

This picture shows the extent of the water loss, which was 394,775 m3 for Novem-

ber 2006. The total capacity of the Baray is 8 million m3, but it can be refilled to . . .





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The second objective is to add on. A few minutes ago, I only showed you this sec-tion, where runoff water was salvaged from a surface of over 85 km2, by repairing small ancient dikes. We took that approach, working with the local communities using conven-tional means, no machinery. We have to put in another three hydraulic structures. The same problems have to be dealt with. We want to avoid any friction with the local commu-nities. They really need water for irrigation, so we are taking only what is not used.

The next step is increasing the scope of the irrigation system throughout most of the

section that you see in this picture, getting water from Siem Reap River. The Siem Reap River headwaters are in Phnom Kulen. The amount of water that flows during the rainy season amounts to over 176 million m3 and pours into the Tonle Sap. So I would like to catch water from the rainy season in order to increase the volume to the level mentioned at the outset.

This is how work has been progressing since last December. Topographical studies

were done on the northern dike to determine how it should be repaired. We wanted every-thing to be clearly understood by the local communities as well as at the technical level. The four points that are going to be repaired this year are divided into three work sites, be-cause two of them are side by side. They are the Kraing Kroch and Preah Khan 1 work sites just 700 m from Preah Khan.

We first did a diagnostic analysis in the Northern Baray to determine if we could use

sedimentation in the Baray to repair this dike that you can see here. On the first point in-side the Baray there is only 15 cm of sedimentation, on point two 30 cm, and in the lowest section there is 40 cm. These types of soil are not usable for the repair work. At the same time we did some analysis work on the dike itself. For instance at Kraing Kroch we took two samples from the dike and another two from the downstream section outside the Baray. For the second point, we took a sample from the dike and another two from the inside sec-tion where it is 40 cm deep, because we were interested in using that to repair the dike.

The idea was to find out if this soil was suitable for dike repairs. We found out the

following. Aside from the point inside the Baray where the soil is not suitable, we decided to take soil from the three sites, at the downstream level, and to maintain the consistency of Baray’s inside level. Here is the first site, Kraing Kroch. We removed the brush and arable level of soil down to 30 cm, then we put in fill dirt from the lower part. The point nearest Preah Khan has the greatest depth. The difference is a 4-m spread in height. Here is the approach we decided upon. We worked with the local communities. We compacted the soil layer by layer or using ancient tools to maintain the practice of the time. The compacted height is over 2 m, and this picture gives you an idea of the width.

This is the second work site. As you can see here, the remaining laterite shows the

rest of the Baray structure, highlighted by these steps at the exit point. If we do any work on this site, we are going to run into some archaeological problems. So it was decided to put the dike out front and not to touch the boundary of the ancient dike as you see it here. We will not fill in this part, but just leave alone the part that has archaeological risks. The archaeological team can work on that and might come up with a way of showcasing it for tourists interested in seeing it. We therefore decided to put up a dike to go around this quarry.

This picture shows workers clearing brush away from the work site. The first founda-

tion has been compacted and you can now see the dike starting to take shape. We are now in the rainy season, but we can’t shut down this site. The two others are 2 m above the floor. If we don’t keep working—we’re less than 1 m high—we will have a problem with wa-ter escaping from this site and will have to do it all over again next year. So we are using tarpaulins to keep water from infiltrating into the sections we are compacting.





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Meanwhile, we are not overlooking the local communities. We have talked matters over with the local authorities and the communities to help them understand the value of the project and get them involved in it. We also explain what we are going to do. The local communities are being asked to get involved in setting up the northern dike work site for the next season.

This picture shows that the break in the southern dike has not been repaired. Now

we have to repair all these points on the dike, a total of 52 points, of different sizes. The picture on the side shows water draining away into the Tonle Sap.

Here is what we are proposing next: On this picture you have the road to Svay

Chek. We took pictures of the ancient dike and you see how much water is just flowing away into the Tonle Sap. We would like to put up another dike next to it to channel water into the Baray. This way, we can salvage 2 million m3. This volume can be increased, but the problem is the road. If we don’t put in a canal with a dike, the village will be flooded. This will also enable us to put in irrigation canals for the village in the flood zone. So with just one operation we salvage water and we prevent flooding in the areas occupied by the local communities.

This work will also include stabilization of the Neak Poan temple, and we have done

a detailed study on this subject. Thank you.”

II.2.5. Run Ta Ek Project, by Mr Khuon Khun Neay, Director, Department of Monuments and Archaeology 2

“Let me start my presentation with an overview of the problem caused by population

growth in Protected Zones 1 and 2. We now have a Royal Government decision stating that all land in Zones 1 and 2 are state-owned and that management of the said land is under the APSARA National Authority for the purpose of sustainable development. However, the Government is authorizing all people who have lived for a long time in these zones to con-tinue living there without fear of some day being forced to leave. Such residents who stay on are allowed to repair their houses and can even replace them with the approval of the APSARA National Authority. They can also pass them on as an inheritance to their descen-dants or sell them, but only to residents of the same village. Why such a restriction? If newcomers were allowed, they would need to build homes, but we want to limit the num-ber of houses to the current number. The inhabitants of the village already have houses and can buy land to increase their farming or orchard area, etc. This approach still leaves one problem unsolved, because the population living in these zones now numbers 100,000. So what about the children who grow up, get married and have children of their own? The Government had to deal with the matter of allowing accommodation for these people but with no increase in the number of people living in the protected areas. The Government came up with the idea of buying a large tract of land, 1,000 ha, just outside of Zones 1 and 2, and inviting newly married couples to settle there. This is voluntary. If they want to move out there, they go; if not, they stay in their parents’ homes. But if the parents want to live with their children, then the parents and the newly-weds can move out to the new development zone. The Government therefore purchased a 1,000 ha zone in Run Ta Ek and set up a committee to plan it out. The committee is headed by HE Mr Uk Someth, myself, Mr Hang Peou, Mr Tan Bun Suy, Ms Chau Sun Kérya and Mr Chhong Vira, which involves basically all of the concerned departments under the APSARA National Authority.





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We started doing preliminary studies and consulting the people. The land is unoccu-pied but there are adjacent villages. A topographical study of the land was done, along with a pedological study to determine the soil quality. Then we needed someone to draw up plans. We therefore made up a technical team of four junior architects from DMA-2 and the Urban Development Department. Professor Guertin, a Canadian landscape architect and urban planner was called upon. Mr Guertin is no novice. He has been here twice to conduct courses on planning in the Tanei temple, and I would like to thank Ms Donica Pottie, Am-bassador of Canada, and Canada’s International Development Research Center based in Singapore, for their kindness in funding Mr Guertin’s mission. Here is a picture of the team out in the field, and you can see the piece of land as well. It is 1,000 ha in area, to the east of Zone 2, and separated by Highway 67, a new road that goes right out to the border with Thailand. Here is a close-up of the site. Zone 2 stops here. There you see the highway and this is an aerial view with the access road and the Sna Sangkriem village road. A 300-m fringe has been left from the existing road, be-cause there are people living along it. There are several lakes on the land, one of which goes back to Angkor times. The topographical survey also shows these lakes. It is 4.5 km long and 2.3 km wide. The development principles are as follows: see to it that the people living on this location can work or find jobs without going into the cities. The main activities are agriculture-based—rice growing, fruit trees, gardening—arts and crafts as well as ecotourism. In fact the project is called the Run Ta Ek eco-village. Infrastructure work and facilities such as schools, microcredit, a cultural center and even a pagoda will be built so that the people will have everything they need to live nor-mally just like in any other Cambodian village. The planning principles that we are following focus on sustainable development, with maximum use of the site’s potentiality. Even though the large trees are gone, we want to preserve the existing forests mainly made up of small trees. We want to develop them and put in bamboo groves for use in the handi-craft industry and to provide building material. We decided to replicate the experiment done in Zone 2 of Angkor Park, in other words not issue titles to land. If we were to do that, it would spawn real estate speculation, etc. So we give out occupancy permits that allow people to live there and pass the land on to their children. It can only be sold to vil-lagers in Run Ta Ek. The land is about 1,000 ha in area. A canal and perimeter road have been put in. We will put a road inside with the lakes. This will take up 160 ha, leaving 840 ha for the residents, habitat and agriculture. The New Zealand team made a study of Zones 1 and 2 and found that there is an average of 5.5 persons per family living on about 1 ha of land. So if we replicate things, the Run Ta Ek land has a capacity of 850 families or 5,000 per-sons. Plans call for villages to be set up, five with 750 inhabitants and one central village, which would make a total of six villages for 5,000 inhabitants. Here is a picture of the villages that we are attempting to locate around the existing lakes, with the central village here. The existing road will be used for entry. Right now it is being used by oxcarts. Access to the site will be from this side, where we will put up the visitor center, etc. All of the villages will be connected by roads and green spaces. Here is an example of what we want to develop: Around this village we are putting in foot paths or other trails. This is where we will have land for gardening, orchards and rice paddies. Here is the entry-way to the site, with a directional sign and visitor center. There is also a school to teach agriculture, another for ceramics, etc. With the APSARA National Authority team, we are studying the town of Bakong to see how the farmer land lots are laid out. These lots have a house, vegetable garden and sometimes a pond to grow fish. So we are going to promote





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this type of lot that will be assigned to each family. The rice paddies and plantations will be kept outside, behind the houses, which is the current practice in Cambodian villages, such as can be seen on the road to Phnom Penh. We are promoting traditional houses using local materials, etc. A word about ecotourism. We have this ancient lake. We would like to develop this lake by putting in a trail all around it. There are some large trees and we can put in picnic grounds, a parking lot, fruit trees, orchards, etc., so tourists or people living in Siem Reap can go out there on the weekend for picnics. Working out from this lake we will have trails that go into the villages, and these can be explored by bicycle, and people can observe typ-ical village life.

Another important point is that between Zone 2 and the Run Ta Ek zone we have Tani village with the ancient kilns dating back to the Angkor period. The government of Ja-pan has provided funding to put up a museum there. We will also put in a ceramics making workshop to make copies of artifacts and sell them to tourists. So this will be something that will boost development of the Run Ta Ek site. We would like all of the villagers to have work on location as part of the sustainable development equation. We now have to get moving on putting in the internal roads. The external ones are already completed. The APSARA National Authority has the resources and we will work with the local communities as Mr Hang Peou is doing for the Northern Baray. We will pay the workers. We also need to do a detailed hydrological study and decide what criteria will be used in selecting the inhabitants, as I mentioned earlier, mainly young people now living in the park, who have gotten married and who will come to establish a new village, etc. We need funding from either internal or external sources to bring this project full circle. Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen: In conclusion, a simple question. If Run Ta Ek ends up with 5,000 people in the near future, what are we going to do? The planners feel that it would not be a good idea to let it grow any higher, so a ceiling of 5,000 inhabitants has been set. If the population increases above that, we would set up another similar center in another area and use Run Ta Ek as a model. There is nothing pretentious about replicating the Run Ta Ek model elsewhere, ei-ther in Cambodia or in other Southeast Asian countries. We want to design the agriculture operations in an environmentally friendly manner so that the site can be developed on an ongoing basis. This is what is behind the Run Ta Ek project and the concept of sustainable development. Thank you.” Comment by the Japanese Co-chairman, Mr Norio Maruyama: “Thank you for this presenta-tion. And I would like to ask everyone present here to kindly stop taking pictures, as it is a major disturbance during the presentations while at the same time interfering with this ses-sion. Thank you for your understanding. Those who might not have understood my French are invited to listen to the interpretation into Khmer or English. Kindly refrain from taking pictures.”

II.2.6. Report on Research on Ancient Features, Including Hospitals, on the Angkor to Phimai Road, by Mr Im Sok Rithy, Department of Population and Development

[OrigK] “I am honored to speak on behalf of the entire research team here present and

show you the results of research that has been going on for nearly two years now. It is an example of a collaborative or partnership research effort in which there are exchanges of





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experiences and in which each partner cares for its part of the work. Using the findings made, we will work jointly to develop a database for future use.

Here are the major features of the project, of the data that we used to direct our re-search and studies using modern technology: satellite imagery, remote sensing and GIS, along with both archaeological and ethnological studies. We subsequently used a non-invasive geophysical approach.

The purpose of this project is to study the history of the road, the history of human occupation along the road at the time of the Khmer Empire. Our objective is to study in de-tail the history of the road, its use, the development of human settlements and ancient industry practiced along it. Using modern technology coupled with archaeological and eth-nological studies, we will build a database for future use in heritage management, land use and tourism. After the research is completed, we will set up a Digital Cultural Research Center.

I would also like to inform you that this is the first time our two countries, Cambodia

and Thailand, have undertaken a joint study based on previous research that was done nearly a hundred years ago.

Our study is based mainly on inscriptions from Preah Khan and Angkor, aerial pho-

tographs, ancient maps, satellite photos and archaeological field data. For instance, in this projection No. 123 that you can see here, there are buildings, rest houses or stopover points, 17 dharmasalas built along the road from Angkor to Phimai. And here is an example of some of the old maps made by Lunet de La Jonquière and other maps from the 1960’s that we used, topographical photos, aerial photos from JICA showing traces of the roadway, radar photos, various types of Landsat and AirSar satellites photos showing landscapes, outlines of the road and ancient structures, as well as SRTM images showing various land levels in both Cambodia and Thailand.

The last point is that IKONOS and QuickBird images provided us with a great deal of

data as we made a direct field investigation. In addition to a study of available documents, the most important thing is the operation right on the ground. We therefore made actual field studies to get archaeological and ethnological data. There are still traces of the road-way, rest houses, bridges and numerous old water supply points.

All of that yields subjects for investigation. We devised our research plans after ana-

lyzing the data obtained and using modern technology such as remote sensing and GIS, making an archaeological and ethnological study and using the geophysical method.

Over a distance of 120 km in what is now Cambodia, we chose a 2-km zone on ei-

ther side of the road. We divided our research work into various stages along this road from start to finish. On Thai soil, research was done in the same way, but using Phimai as the starting point.

We analyzed the information gleaned from the available sources including aerial

photos, radar photos, old maps and field research. We did on-site surveys and put in test pits on the road structures in Thailand. Here is the general shape or structure of the road that we explored in this way in Thailand. We will be doing the same type of work on Cam-bodian soil in the next few months. We also conducted a number of systematic ethnological and sociological surveys of the population living along the road that goes through our study area. We endeavored to use techniques that are harmless to the soil. We did a prior geo-physical survey before undertaking any excavation work. Here you see test pits that we dug along the section of the road in Thailand that was hitherto thought to have disap-peared. Using so-called geophysical technology, we were able to rediscover this road structure that had supposedly been lost.





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Both in Cambodia and Thailand, we found 17 rest houses. Here is the location of

three such stopover points that we found. Of the 17 encountered along this route, eight are Cambodia and nine in Thailand. And there is the general appearance of these rest houses, with a building in the middle and four water reservoirs around them. We did a summary survey of all the points mentioned above in the research.

Based on our studies, we compiled various details, the layouts, and the measure-

ments of the distance from one rest house to the next on the table above. The total distance from Angkor Wat to Phnom Dangrek is about 121 km. This would have taken over 30 hours on foot, at a rate of over six hours a day. A similar situation prevailed for the stretch from Phnom Dangrek to Phimai. We found evidence of the lost road by talking with the local inhabitants, elderly persons who could recognize it. They could still remember the ancient road. They called it ‘Preah Kunlong’, or Royal Way. They recall that the road was very important for travel to Angkor. Along this road we see bridges on the Cambodian side only, but not in what is now Thailand. The bridges are made of laterite and sandstone. We discovered 32 bridges, 20 of which are found in the province of Siem Reap and 12 in the province of Oddor Meanchey.

We found two passes going through Phnom Dangrek and that lead to the Korat Pla-

teau. The first of the two passes was for oxcarts and elephants and was used to cross the mountain. The people call it ‘Phlov Prâhok,’ while the second road was for men bearing se-dan chairs and palanquins, called ‘Phlov Ramkel Sap.’ There are a number of legends about these roads that we will investigate further.

Here are some pictures of these two passes going up over the mountain top. One of

them goes directly to Prasat Ta Moan Toch, the rest house, located on what is now Thai-land. This is not Prasat Ta Moan Thom which is found on the Cambodian side. The other was used for oxcart and elephant traffic. Here is the oxcart access that crosses the foot of the mountain and valleys before going up. Another is a laterite stairway of about 1,000 m. We were unable to go very far because this area is heavily mined according to the local people. There are four rest points along this 1,000-m climb. Each point has lion or elephant statues on either side; the stairway is 11.3 m wide.

Based on the archaeological findings, we picked up a large amount of cultural and

ethnological information on the traditions and customs. Here I would like to show you two things. One involves the ‘Kuy’ ethnic group. A number of studies were made, which allow us to conclude that in ancient times, this ethnic group was very closely associated with the Royal Way. They made metal and elephants available for royal service. We visited this place currently inhabited by the Kuy ethnic group. These are photos of a marriage cere-mony in which there is a song that is still sung even now in Siem Reap province. This song is about a type of sword from Kampong Svay made of iron from the Kompong Svay region where the Kuy people used to make iron. Given the proximity of the Kuy people to the Royal Way and the Khmer people, even nowadays the Kuy still observe all Khmer customs, unlike other ethnic groups that live further away.

The Kuy people have a special ceremony called ‘Pravay Kuy’. Interestingly, during

the Festival of the Dead, the Kuy take all their iron tools and leave them at the altar as an offering. They wait until the end of the festival before taking them back for reuse.

This map shows the major Kuy settlements where there are metal production cen-

ters. For instance, here we can see some remains that have not yet been excavated. We only examined the surfaces were we found slag, tuyeres, etc. This is similar to Bakan also called Preah Khan of Kampong Svay, where we found evidence of metal production.





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We would like to thank our Thai partner for allowing our researchers for the first time to make detailed studies of the Kuy, Laotian and Khmer communities living in Thai-land. This provided an opportunity for us to understand them better and we obtained a lot of data that had disappeared from the Cambodian side but was available on the Thai side.

The Kuy people in Thailand still retain the original iron smelting process. They also

retain the method used to catch elephants. Here is an elderly elephant driver who remem-bers that before the war, he would come over to catch elephants on the Khmer side. There are other examples of customs that we can still find along the route. The customs, daily life and statues are the same today as they were in the past. This is part of the intangible heri-tage that we are discovering.

Here is the old industrial activity that we found along the route in the form of ce-

ramic production. Here are some samples of ceramic ware that we came across. Along the road, both in Cambodia and Thailand, we found similar production kilns. Here are some fragments of imported ceramic ware and dishes that we found, indicating that the route was used for transactions.

The presence of ceramic ware imported from China and Thailand says a great deal

about the use of the road. Here is an example of metal production away from the road but close to the ancient temples. Here are some locations in Thailand where we recently did some excavating. Here is an excavation of a metal production site where we discovered two metal furnaces one beside the other at Ban Din Tai, Bankruat.

We also came across salt production in which the people used a process of boiling

down salt-bearing soil to extract the salt. People still remember that this road was used for hauling salt.

We have put together a database to preserve the data collected. Here is an example

of it. These are the findings that we will develop further. All of this is information that we obtained along the road, in the villages, temples, from bridges, the rest houses, the hospi-tals and old industrial sites, along with 385 water structures.

Here is a picture in which we are putting together a map for a future study. This is

the total number of locations and rest houses along the road from Angkor Wat to Phimai. This data has been entered into the base. Additionally, we have created a site for data sto-rage that can be used by national and international researchers.

We have designed an educational program for children and others featuring the con-

struction of hospitals, rest houses and bridges. The other day we held an international conference at SOAS (School of Oriental and

African Studies), University of London, which included presentations of this research on an-cient industrial sites in Cambodia and Thailand.

In conclusion, this project came into being due to the use of modern technology,

along with archaeological and ethnological research. The information given by the local people is truly crucial for the present and future success of the project. The project has also enabled us to see lasting friendships develop between the Thai and Khmer peoples.” Comment by the Japanese Co-chairman, Mr Norio Maruyama: “Thank you for this very in-teresting presentation that brings to a close a series of presentations by the APSARA National Authority, all of which were truly informative.”





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II.3. Report from the Ad Hoc Group of Experts

II.3.1. Mr Giorgio Croci:

“My presentation is on the Western Baray. A lot has already been said about it, so to save time I will just touch on the main points that we need to get in mind. The first point is our terms of reference. What exactly are we out to accomplish? The second point is how we are going to go about it. For the first point, we need to keep in mind the balance between culture and the interests of development. So we have on the one hand a major place for archaeology, and the studies done by the EFEO in the preceding century revealed vestiges of the ancient city, and the digging being done today is providing very interesting information on the way the Baray was designed and built. From the angle of landscape, it is most interesting. On the other hand, we have the water problem. I don’t have the precise figures on hand, but I heard that the idea is to increase the water level. The maximum level is reached in November, 19.6 m I believe, which is the maximum level compatible with ar-chaeology, because it will come up to the Mebon wall base. Furthermore, the need to use the Baray as a reservoir might lead to the conclusion that it would be good to increase the level another 2 m, up to 21.6 m, which would almost double the volume of water, as re-ferred to in the diagram presented by Michel Verrot. Now that is not compatible with archaeology and the values of the Mebon that should be safeguarded.

I don’t want to give any opinion on this. There is the National Commission which brings together all the various branches of culture and the ‘industry,’ we might say. It is looking into solutions with support from UNESCO. It is important that this be clear, because the water level is a significant factor in stability. The important thing in this regard is to keep the level of water constant. If the water level if brought up, it will cut down on friction resistance and promote shifting. But if the level goes down too low, pressure is increased, which creates an imbalance with the outside and aggravates damage. So the important thing is to do everything possible to maintain the most constant level of water possible. Therefore, the first point is to clarify the strategy and the level. The second point, how are we going to go about it? I was most interested in what I saw yesterday, the excavations that revealed various levels or courses in the way the Baray was built up. There is a proposal to reestablish a slope of about 36 to 38 degrees, if I re-member correctly, which was the original slope, as confirmed in the documentation that was reviewed and I agree with this. An open-ended action plan is needed. Vegetation has to be removed in order to do the work. If we want to get the job done right, an appropriate amount of vegetation has to be removed, but stability must be maintained. But the time when the plant material is removed is very critical. We saw that some small tunnels had already formed, but as soon as you take off the vegetation, these tunnels open up and in-crease the risk of shift and erosion. So we have to move quickly, and I feel that these tunnels should be filled in with sand and clay. I won’t go into the technical details. As they are filled in, the soil needs to be put in layer by layer, compacted down and consolidated. Some situations might call for synthetic netting that can be put in to increase soil stability and ensure proper drainage. Then you mush move very quickly to get vegetation growing again. Thank you for your attention.”

II.3.2. Mr Pierre-André Lablaude:

“I would like to speak about our visit to Chao Say Vibol last Monday. The ad hoc

group of experts would first like to congratulate the APSARA National Authority for the work





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it has been doing for some years now and which it has intensified in recent months to focus on reconquering and opening up to the public a number of sites outside of Angkor, such as Koh Ker that we were able to visit at our last ICC meeting, and now Chao Say Vibol and Beng Mealea that we were able to visit earlier this week. We would like to highlight here the very remarkable results obtained on these dif-ferent monuments by the teams under Mr Seung Kong. It is all the more noteworthy because of the quite ordinary means they used. These particular monuments are quite different from those in the Angkor complex and therefore have special sets of problems in terms of scientific knowledge, conservation comprehension by the public and even in terms of cohabitation with the local communities. And as for Chao Say Vibol, I would like to develop these themes and make the following recommendations about them. First, in terms of knowledge, the Chao Say Vibol site is a complex that has not been studied in depth. There is very little documentation published about it. So it will be a tre-mendous source of scientific information in the future. So research work should be undertaken, which would start with a morphological and architectural survey of the site. The only documents we have are very fragmentary and incomplete. The survey work would include some limited archaeological clearing in order to better understand the layout of the temple. In terms of conservation, the Chao Say Vibol site raises the sensitive issue that comes up all the time, although in a somewhat different manner, of the very meaningful relationship between architecture and the forest, between mineral matter and vegetable matter, between the inanimate and the animate. As you know, vegetation growth can be harmful to monument conservation because of root penetration and the subsequent dislo-cation of built structures as the roots expand. But this growth can also provide a beneficial function in addition to the undeniable esthetic quality, a function that contributes to the conservation of structures, decorations and materials due to the canopy formed by vegeta-tion. The shade it casts on the buildings reduces temperature shock on the building materials, stabilizes the climate and evens out the ambient hydrometrics, with the conse-quent reduction of soluble salt migration that can cause materials and decorative elements to decay.

So as far as controlling this vegetation cover is concerned, we are dealing with small trees. It would seem totally possible for trees that have their roots entwined in the built-up structures, given the biological principle that the tree’s root system is directly proportionate to its trunk and branch system, to stabilize and control root growth by carefully planned branch trimming. This would be done regularly and handled only by specialized operators assigned by the appropriate department. Thirdly, in terms of readability of the site and monument, if the public is helped to understand it and the tour itinerary for the complex is improved, given that the access road was recently rebuilt, visitor numbers are bound to increase. In this regard, we have some things to recommend, some very simple improvements to the forested sections, cleaning up the overall lines of the monument’s composition and landscape, including the cause-ways, moats and enclosures round about that are covered with trees and only need some minor operations to make them discernible again. As for the built-up section, some prop-ping up work for safety should be done where the most unstable structures are found. And some improvements are needed to the visitor traffic areas to make a visit to this out-standing site more comfortable. As for the religious community on the site, an effort must be made along with those in charge of this community to better control the operations, structuring work and ongoing





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projects on the site. And this religious community should of course be involved in the up-keep, management and development of the site, even visitor intake. This would avoid a situation where visitor activities on the site clash with this religious community, but rather both sides would cooperate in what they are doing, work in synergy and harmony. The reli-gious presence should not be viewed as a constraint, but as a bonus, something that shows the historical continuity, the link between the ancient Brahmanic shrine and the current Buddhist shrine, the historical monument and the living monument, and this will only add to the quality of the cultural message conveyed to the visitor. But this matter of having a religious presence on ancient sites is frequently encoun-tered elsewhere in Cambodia, at Angkor Wat, of course, at Bakong, Phnom Bok, Phnom Kraom, and so forth. It raises issues of a very specific nature that could be studied at the next ICC meeting at which we might have a day set aside for some collective analytical thinking on this subject and to which some officials representing the various religious bod-ies could be invited. That is one of the suggestions that the ad hoc group of experts would like to make at this time to the Cambodian authorities and Co-chairmen of the ICC. Thank you.”

II.3.3. M. Hiroyuki Suzuki:

[OrigE] “We, the ad hoc expert group, visited the site of Ta Prohm yesterday. As all of

you may well know, Ta Prohm is one of the most fragile and delicate sites in the Angkor area. The Archaeological Survey of India is doing various operations on the site of Ta Prohm, such as stabilizing structures using steel propping, excavating various areas or gal-leries, as well as planning the drainage system, restoration of causeways, stone repairing, controlling vegetation, etc. Frankly speaking, we were initially a bit skeptical concerning India’s way of treating heritage, but we are now satisfied with their work and we highly appreciate their funda-mental attitude and their scientific methodology. For example, in stabilizing structures they have avoided using methods to establish permanent consolidation but have introduced new methods to keep the structures as they are now using steel frames. This is completely re-versible and requires minimum intervention. The props can be adjusted and more supporting members can be added in the future if needed. These methods require monitor-ing and maintenance, and we hope those on the ASI team will hand over their know-how to Cambodian workers in the future. Concerning excavations, restoration and stone repairing, the method used by the Indian team is truly scientific and reasonable. Vegetation control also requires continuous monitoring and sensitive treatment. These operations should be done in the future in col-laboration with the APSARA Authority. The drainage system that they propose is a large-scale intervention. We hope they make a careful and harmonious arrangement of the drainage system throughout the whole sanctuary. Overall, we highly appreciate the methodology and ongoing work being performed by Archaeological Survey of India.”

II.3.4. Mr Bouchenaki (report given by Mr Beschaouch):

“I can make this brief because in the first section of this report by Mr Bouchenaki,

Beng Mealea and the two temples associated with it, the comments and recommendations are very similar, especially those made by Professor Lablaude, so they do not need repeat-ing. In the concluding recommendations, kindly allow your Secretariat to make a blanket





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recommendation that will cover all the sites that we visited: Beng Mealea, Chao Say Vibol, etc. The second comment is an extremely important one, dealing with the remarkable link between the natural setting and the monument. This is true of both the large Beng Mealea temple and the two minor temples connected to it. As a result, Mr Bouchenaki has made the following recommendations with the agreement of the body of experts. Let me explain how things are done. All of the experts make a visit of the sites together. The ex-perts for development went along with us and shared their viewpoint with us. We have a meeting each day in which we take stock of things. One of us is assigned to do the report, but the report is binding on everyone. In this way, we do more than express personal viewpoints, but provide you with a professional report. The basic point for Beng Mealea and the other two temples is that the intervention should be kept to the strict minimum, in other words, don’t undertake any major restora-tion operations. The temple entrances have to be restored, their appearance should be more readable, but without any major intervention. Lastly, we agreed to commend the AP-SARA Authority, commend Mr Seung Kong and his team for the outstanding work they were able to do in just a few months using limited resources as we saw last year at Koh Ker. We ask for your support to include in our recommendation that resources be made available. Because these resources will enable this team to do a job that will bring honor to APSARA and contribute to safeguarding sites outside of the Angkor hub that is inscribed on the World Heritage List. Thank you.” GENERAL DISCUSSION Comment by the Japanese Co-chairman, Mr Norio Maruyama: “I thank our Permanent Sec-retary. I think that you have noted the small change I made to today’s agenda. There was to be a general discussion, and I mentioned how important that would be. However, I felt that the report from the group of experts would be longer and that the things they would talk about would be linked to the APSARA Authority presentation. So I think that with all the information you now have, you have the tools for a very interesting discussion. I would like to open the floor to the discussion, but before that I would like to ask a couple of small favors for the smooth flow of the session. First, please raise your hand high so that I can see who would like the floor. When called on, kindly introduce yourself so that all of us know who is talking. Then say whether your point is a question or an opinion. If it’s a ques-tion, please say to whom you are addressing it. That way, the person can respond. If it’s an opinion, there may not be a need for any response. But if someone else would also like to say what he or she thinks on the same subject, I am fully in agreement for that person to share in the discussion. So that will be our approach to this general discussion session.” Question from Mr Santoro, Italian team: [OrigE] “My name is Walter Santoro from the Italian team project. My question is half a question, half an opinion and is related to the Western Baray project. I appreciated very much the presentation of Mr Hang Peou and Mr Michel Verrot about the reconstruction and rehabilitation operations, using urgent measures on the embankment of the Western Baray on the south dike. I would like to ask whether or not, and this is related to the question raised of Professor Croci of the ad hoc experts, if some measures for the drainage of the embankment were provided. As drainage is very impor-tant in my opinion for this type of work, because of the variation of the water level within the Baray due to the heavy rainfall that can cause some problems or back pressures inside the embankment, as we saw on the last collapses in the embankment of the moat of Ang-kor Wat, on the west moat during the mid-90s when a rapid variation of the water level due to the flow out caused collapses. In these instances, there was a lack of drainage, and this caused pressure to back up inside the embankment.”





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Comment by the Japanese Co-chairman, Mr Norio Maruyama: “I thank you very much for your question and opinion. I would like to give the floor to Mr Hang Peou because the ques-tion was addressed to him. Kindly give us your response.” Response from Mr Hang Peou, APSARA National Authority: “We worked on ways of treating the Western Baray embankment. There was some mesh, although it did now show up very clearly in the picture. We are working up layer by layer after putting in the footings. The surface is cleaned. Each layer is compacted and hardened. Using the data gleaned from the geological analysis, we can determine how much impact to use so that this soil will hold the old embankment. As you saw in the presentation, we analyzed the soil in different areas of the Baray to find precisely the same composition for the soil used for the rest of the opera-tion.

As far as the drainage is concerned, this picture shows the slope and depending on the type of soil, we planted trees that are found throughout Siem Reap province. Their roots hold the soil. We also created an inclined drainage system to lessen the slope of the terrain. We planted a type of tree in the lower area that can break the wave rolling onto the embankment. This type of tree can stand both drought and immersion under water. We found this type of tree on the Northern Baray. It is ideal for protecting the embankment and the inside of the Baray. That is the system that we used. We planted these trees on the test area in order to protect the embankment. Thank you.” Opinion expressed by an unidentified member of the audience: “Allow me to express an opinion on the presentation we heard from Mr Hang Peou on restoring the hydraulic func-tion of the Northern Baray, the idea of looking for remnants of this ancient hydraulic function. I feel that all of those working on ancient monuments always swing between to myths, two pitfalls. The first myth is that of the Golden Age, thinking that everything that existed before was better, that the ancient techniques were better and that now we can’t do as good as they did in olden times. That’s the first myth that we might call the backward-looking myth. The second myth is just the opposite. That is the myth of cheerful tomorrows, think-ing that everything will be better tomorrow than it is today, that modern techniques will always be better than ancient techniques. When it comes to heritage interventions, we are always caught between these two extremes: Should we restore what once existed? Or ra-ther should we capitalize on technological progress in our restoration work? I must say that I am very impressed with what has been done to identify the old structures, to see where they might have failed, how they could be repaired in a simple fashion. We have to ask if it can be taken full circle or not. We can simply say that all who work in the field of restoring landscapes or historical gardens have come to appreciate that in the end, even if we cannot find obvious vestiges of the past, these can be identified very precisely by some analytical work, and we were presented with evidence that such analyti-cal work had been done and that history can easily be repeated. Stepping back into history is often the simplest, the least invasive way of doing things, as well as the most economi-cal. So I would like to say just how impressed I am with the work that Mr Hang Peou is directing. True, this idea or project of refilling the Northern Baray is something fascinating and I feel it has the potential of changing significantly the image of Angkor in the years to come.” Opinion from Mr Beschaouch, Secretariat of UNESCO: “What I have to say is not in the realm of personal opinion but is informational. In my capacity of Secretary I have been ob-serving out in the field all of these problems that have come up over the last few months. I share the feeling of admiration that our colleague has for Mr Hang Peou. I was out in the field and could see what a challenge it is. I would like to add two points of information.





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First, what he is doing is being done in utmost liaison with the communities. I was

most impressed by the fact that the government has not intervened on any matter. I have to say this and I was out there with him. A lot of water is being lost because people in the communities have broken into the ancient dikes. This is not a matter of condemning what they have done, but a matter of dialogue. For the first time, there is a 100-percent Khmer run operation here on the Northern Baray, and a lot of care is being put into it. Secondly, I would like to draw your attention to another area that really impressed me. One day, His Excellency the Governor of Siem Reap province went along with us at the request of APSARA and Mr Hang Peou to talk with the people. This gives us assurance that the work will move along very smoothly. I felt I had to add this because we often tend to overlook the importance of the community factor in what we do. You have a 40,000-ha site with 100,000 people living on it. If you don’t go out and talk with the people, you are going to have problems. So I am sharing this with you and invite the APSARA Authority to do even more along these lines.” Question from an unidentified member of the audience: “I have a question for Mr Hang Peou. We are talking about developing the area north of Angkor. Every year it suffers from drought during the dry season. I would like to know how the people will benefit from the water stored up in the Northern Baray during this season.” Response from Mr Hang Peou, APSARA National Authority: “For the time being we have been envisioning the repair of the dike as shown in the picture only because of problems associated with water management. Obviously, the various phases of the project include irrigation projects for the benefit of the people. On this part of the picture, we plan to put in irrigation systems using raised canals. We don’t know the precise number of people who will benefit from this, but it is something that we can do from the surface. As I mentioned in my presentation, we sought to explain the project to the people. However, I did not count the number of people who will benefit from this. We can determine the reach of the project zone. A very large surface area is involved in this project when both of its phases will be completed.” Question from an unidentified member of the audience: “Both Mr Beschaouch and Mr Lablaude mentioned that the Western Baray is not considered simply as a water reser-voir. Because of the linkage between conservation, protection and sustainable development, three objectives have emerged. The first is tourism development; the second is to have the Northern and Western Barays developed as water reservoirs for irrigation. The third objective is archaeology. And now it is not easy to strike a balance between the various stakeholders, first of all the donors, then the internal level among the teams and thirdly the internal stakeholders and donors. So I would like to propose a harmonization on the vision, on the objectives, with regard to repairing the two Barays. Where are we going? What is the purpose, the objective: tourism development, an irrigation reserve or conserva-tion? I would like to suggest that we have a meeting of minds on this. Thank you.” Response from Mr Hang Peou, APSARA National Authority: “In brief, we of course have to harmonize things on these two ventures.” Opinion of Christophe Pottier, EFEO: “Considering the very limited knowledge we have of ancient hydraulic structures and given the scope of the work and modifications made to the Western Baray and resulting from the Northern Baray refilling project, and therefore the whole northern area, this is to some degree a threat, but also a unique opportunity to get some accurate knowledge of these structures that we really know very little about, the functions they served, and I am using the word functions in the plural, and their history, which is not necessary one-dimensional. So for the work that is on the drawing board, I





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think it would be a good idea to push the archaeological investigations beyond the strict minimum involved in archaeological surveying.” Question from Yoshinori Iwasaki, JASA: [OrigE] “My name is Yoshinori Iwasaki, JASA. Regard-ing geotechnical engineering, the restoration of the Western Baray on the embankments and the trenching work are very useful for the archaeological study. At the same time I wonder if there is any study of the strengths of the old field materials, of the densities compared to the maximum densities available in terms of geotechnical engineering, also the water content. Such kinds of geotechnical qualities are needed to assess the safety of the slopes. Thank you.” Comment from the Japanese Co-chairman, Mr Norio Maruyama: [OrigE] “Thank you very much Professor Iwasaki. May I ask is that your opinion or was it a question?” Question from M. Yoshinori Iwasaki, JASA: [OrigE] “Okay, it was a question. If there are such tests that have been carried out, I would like to know. If not, are they going to be carried out in the future? Thank you.” Answer from Mr Giorgio Croci, ad hoc expert: [OrigE] “Both interventions, that of Mr Santoro and that of Mr Iwasaki, are very useful because we have not spoken of the structure and geotechnical analyses of the embankment. And this is a very important point that abso-lutely has to be made, before starting the work. In particular for the drainage it is indispensable, because as was already said, we have two problems of stability. One is the change of the friction, and that happens usually when the water level increases, or when the pressure inside due to water infiltration is not in equilibrium with the water outside, so it becomes dangerous and increases when the water level goes down. So water drainage is indispensable in addition to protection from the vegetation, etc. On the other hand, there are today possibilities of analyses that can foresee the behavior, so all that was said about the inclination of the slope, etc. is relevant.” Question from Mr Beschaouch, UNESCO Secretariat: “Mr Khuon Khun Neay, this marvelous Run Ta Ek project that you outlined for us, it’s a major undertaking. We are all wondering if it has gotten underway yet. You showed us the studies, but we also want to know the time frames. You have 1,000 ha to become home to 5,000 people. We are interested in knowing when it all will take place.” Reply from Mr Khuon Khun Neay, APSARA National Authority: “First, the land has been pur-chased. Second, we put a canal in around the full perimeter of the land. We put a road around the site. We have done the topographical and soil studies. Now that the planning is completed, we are going to start putting the internal roads in. The APSARA Authority will start on this in the next few months. We will start with a dirt road that we will build with village labor. With this internal labor supply, we will put trees in along these roads, and so on. Then we are going to have a detailed hydrological study done for irrigating the land.

The six villages will go up in phases, because we can’t handle 5,000 people in one go. We will move along step by step with one village at a time. As for the museum, we have received funding from Japan already, for which we thank them, because that is going to be a development engine. We would like to appeal to all countries, to all organizations involved, for any assistance they might be able to give us. Each could handle a certain as-pect or type of work that needs to be done, infrastructure or irrigation, for instance. Please, we would be very happy to hear from you, and I am making a formal appeal to all here present to help get this site up and running for the sake of sustainable development. Thank you.”





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Comment from the Japanese Co-chairman, Mr Norio Maruyama: “I would now like to draw this discussion session to a close. Thank you for your kind support. This is just what we wanted—an in-depth, informative discussion along with the presentations.”

[Noon break] Comment from the French Co-Chairman, Mr Dominique Freslon: “We have quite a number of points on our agenda, seven topics altogether and twelve contributors. I would like to ask each of them to kindly stay within his or her time allotment so that we do not go over-time. Thank you in advance. I would also like to remind to turn your telephones off the ring mode.”

II.4. Activity Reports from International Teams

II.4.1. Bayon Temple Safeguarding, JASA (Japan-Cambodia) Project; New Framework for Implementation of the Bayon Safeguarding Project, by Professor Takeshi Nakagawa, Co-director

[OrigE] “On behalf of the directors of JASA, I would like to explain our activities, espe-

cially about new framework for a cooperative execution of the Bayon safeguarding project.

An introduction and the six summaries of our project are given in my paper that was passed out to you. The presentation will be made by JASA’s Cambodian expert, Mr Cheam Pross, the second item by JASA expert, Dr Yoshinori Iwasaki, who is well known to you. Af-ter my introduction, we will hear first of all from Mr Cheam Pross, then Mr Iwasaki.

1. Study on methods of preserving the bas-reliefs in the inner gallery

The bas-reliefs of Bayon are slowly but surely disappearing. The bas-reliefs in the gallery are suffering serious damage caused by a complex combination of effects of various factors, such as organisms growing on the surface of walls, salt weathering and seepage of rainwater from behind the walls. In this project, we are making comprehensive studies in the fields of conservation science, petrology and biology to develop methods for permanent conservation of the bas-reliefs.

This research project is being carried out in cooperation with the ‘Study on Conser-vation Methods for the Bas-Reliefs at Bayon Temple, Angkor’ (representative: Prof. Masaaki Sawada), a study subsidized by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. 2. Bayon 3D project

We are currently engaging in a project to preserve Bayon’s unique appearance in digital format, as the world’s first attempt to measure such an enormous monument in three dimensions. We aim to use the 3D information to create an archive of various study materials and a virtual forum for use in the tourism and education fields. This project is be-ing conducted in cooperation with the research laboratory of Prof. Katsushi Ikeuchi at the University of Tokyo. 3. Angkor Thom ceramic project

A vast number of pieces of ceramic ware from China, Vietnam and Thailand have been unearthed in excavations conducted around the Royal Plaza and Bayon temple. Using these trade goods as clues, we are working to shed light on international affairs that sur-





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rounded Angkor back then, and are also directing our efforts to studying Khmer earthen-ware whose sequence has yet to be determined.

This research project is being carried out in cooperation with the ‘Elucidation of the

Meaning of Traded Ceramic Ware Unearthed from the Angkor Monuments’ (representative: Prof. Nobuo Yamamoto), a study subsidized by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. 4. Project on galleries in Khmer monuments

Many noteworthy monuments are actually scattered throughout Cambodia. Among such monument groups, this project focuses on the provinces of Preah Vihear and Kom-pong Thom, where especially large monuments are concentrated, and aims to uncover the original concept of the magnificent Khmer culture through an analysis of the locations of the monuments and a comparative study of styles and design methods of representative temples. We are also considering formulating a master plan—of course in cooperation with APSARA and the Cambodian government—that would encourage tourists, whose are pri-marily attracted by the Angkor monuments, to travel to other parts of Cambodia and deepen their understanding of Cambodian culture. This research project is being carried out in cooperation with the ‘Study on Urban Monuments and Temple Buildings in Regional Bases of the Khmer Empire’ (representative: Prof. Akinori Mizoguchi), a study subsidized by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Thank you.” Mr Cheam Pross: Progress Report on the Bayon Southern Library Restoration Project [OrigE] “This is our activity from 2006 until June 2007. The preservation was divided into three areas. First the Southern Library, second the stone storage yard at the south of the Bayon in order to work on the scattered and dismantled stones from the Bayon. The third is located north of the Bayon where we repair old sandstone elements and process new sandstone elements for assembly work and also keep the dismantled elements from the Southern Library. The dismantling and transporting of piled and scattered stone: 1,190 blocks of stone and 432 of the scattered stones were dismantled from the Bayon. These stones were lo-cated at the south side of the Bayon Library. The dismantling started from topmost layer until the lower part on the ground. All elements are recorded and all information is entered into a database. We dis-mantled the main structure and the southwest corner platform of the Southern Library. The Southern library contains a total of 2,600 sandstone blocks, and now we estimate to have 1,656 blocks dismantled. Complete sandstone blocks dismantled total 718, along with 102 laterite blocks, so the total of complete sandstone and laterite elements is 820 blocks. Out of the 102 laterite blocks, 15 percent are in a decayed condition and we are considering what action should be taken. This slide shows the process of dismantling the main structure of the Southern Library. This is the southwestern corner platform of the Southern Library. Dismantling of the platform has enabled us to do geotechnical investiga-tions, soil-water penetration tests and soil-water compression tests. We also opened an excavation trench at the west side of the Southern Library to investigate the relationship between the courtyard pavement and the entrance passage to the Southern Library. Also we conducted excavations in the central sanctuary of the Southern Library and we found one most important object, a metal item coated with gold that is displayed here. Before dismantling the structure we estimated that the decayed elements needing to be treated numbered 300, but during dismantling this number increased and the total will





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be known once the dismantling is complete. For new stone processing, the requirement for the amount of new stone blocks is 175. Now we are trimming and rubbing before merging with the new stone blocks, overall 42. From this prospective plan we hope that the project will be complete by 2010. Thank you.” Mr Yoshinori Iwasaki: Deformation Characteristics on the Central Tower [OrigE] “The first topic is that we are planning investigation in the central well here on the picture. The second topic is the tower top dissymmetry. The third is the tower founda-tion, the outward inclination of these pillars. And finally we did a geographical survey and the preliminary results will be explained. In 1933, the EFEO excavated the central well and they found at that time a Buddha statue. They excavated down to 14 meters, then encountered water, so they stopped. At around 12.5 meters they extended the sounding. And all around 2 to 3 meters were stone, so probably the width of the well is about 3 meters, maybe more. At the same time they put ultrasound up to 15 meters where the condition of the soil is very loose. So later they put soil back in. However, to study the well structure we are planning to investigate in the near future. The shape has lost its symmetry. In 1930’s in this picture, and at the present time, you can see the difference, this portion probably collapsed. As explained in the past, strong winds might have caused this portion to fall. We have measured the horizontal inclination of the pillars. All the pillars incline out-wards like on this picture. This is the chamber on the north-northwest direction. You can see these gaps increasing from the bottom to the top and finally the 150-mm wide opening. On this picture is the width opening and the outward inclination in different directions. If I put together the graph of the inclination and the opening, there is a very positive relation-ship between the inclination and the opening. The idea or the reason why the inclination increasing so much is due to the movement of the upper stone elements outward. We have to do something in the next phase. From a geophysical prospect, we did a magnetic and an electric survey. On this picture you can see the corner of the north and the west where we did the electro-magnetic survey, putting sensors on this line. We are still doing analyses at this moment. We have the archeological trench and we put in an electric pole to carry out the electric survey. On this picture is the archeological trench section with the natural soil. On this one, the manmade hill, and you can see clear boundaries thanks to the electric survey tomography. Actually on this graph is the low resistivity, and here on this graph the high electric resistivity. Thank you for your attention.” Comment from the French Co-chairman, Mr Dominique Freslon: “Thank you for your very clear and explicit presentation. What I mean to say is that I am totally unknowledgeable in this field and could understand.”

II.4.2. Activities of the World Monuments Fund, Presented by John Stubbs, Vice President for Field Projects

[OrigE] “It’s a pleasure to be before you again to present the accomplishments of the

World Monuments Fund at Angkor this year. I will present the first two briefly, then hand over the presentation to colleagues on two other sites. Phnom Bakheng: The final phase for the three-year Conservation and Interpretation Planning and Emergency Stabilization Project at Phnom Bakheng is drawing to a conclusion at this time





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with all that remains at this point being the completion of a pilot repair project at the southeast corner of the monument. The three volumes Plan for the Conservation and Interpretation of Phnom Bakheng were recently revised to incorporate modifications presented to the APSARA Authority one year ago. WMF is pleased with the holistic and integrated approach used in the production of this document and thanks all of those who participated in the process including represen-tatives from several departments of the APSARA Authority, a delegation of experts from the Amis d’Angkor organization and several others of you present today who contributed to it for their participation. WMF is officially submitting this document to the APSARA Authority at this time. I have a copy right here and am happy to show it to anyone today or tomor-row. The pilot conservation work on the southeast corner monument of Phnom Bakheng has yielded a variety of useful lessons including information on 10th-century stone construc-tion technology and what it takes to repair partially or wholly collapsed sandstone walls as applied to shaped bedrock. This demonstration project has proven to be a sizable undertak-ing in part because of the policy of using new stone only where necessary in the anastylosis work. It is expected that the test project will be completed in November 2007 and WMF looks forward to reporting on results in detail at the next ICC Technical Meeting. Additional site security measures have included propping of an additional structure for a total of 23 structural shoring interventions at this time, the reinstallation of double-lined sandbags to prevent further water intrusion in certain areas and, after careful docu-mentation, the tidying up of loose stones on the temple’s highest platform in order to reduce tripping hazards to tourists. As you can see on this slide, the larger image is an im-provement compared to the lower image which in fact is was a hazard situation as this stone tended to rock back and forth as people attempted to climb around it.

However, we are not so sure about a recent decision to install telescopes on the edge of the temple platform as you see here, where six can be used to see Angkor Wat. I think there are a dozen of those telescopes. They have a practical purpose, I am sure. Tourists will enjoy them, but it would be interesting to consider such an addition in the light of interpretation planning that I know we have done in the past. I think they are brand new and may be have not even be used yet. With the Master Plan for Conserving and Presenting Phnom Bakheng in hand and a good knowledge of what it takes to implement this project, all that is needed to complete the project is financing. The delegates of the ICC will remember that the United States De-partment of State’s grant of $550,000 that launched this project was for planning and emergency stabilization purposes only. Since presentation of the project to the ad hoc group of experts on the occasion of the December 2006 ICC meeting, WMF has sought the interest of conservation teams and delegates represented here today in joining the project through financial and technical partnership. The estimated cost of the overall project is ap-proximately US$3.6 million. If there are any who may be interested in joining the project, or know of other entities who may be interested, please let us know during this meeting. Otherwise, the project stands the risk of stalling. Preah Khan:

Very briefly, maintenance work continues at this time during WMF’s 16th year of conserving and presenting Preah Khan. This work has mainly entailed keeping the site clean and presentable, structural propping and continuing with conservation of the monu-mental garudas conservation program. Work continues on the renovation of the existing Preah Khan visitor’s center with fresh exhibition material. A jointly authored monograph on Preah Khan is planned and should be completed in the next 12 to 18 months.





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Since February, a new addition to our team, Konstanze von zur Muehlen, an expert on stone conservation, is helping specifically in improvement of the approach we are using in the conservation of the famous garudas on the perimeter wall of the Preah Khan. I have asked her to say a few words about her approach to this project and its status at this time.” Ms Konstanze von zur Muehlen: WMF Garuda Assessment and Conservation Program [OrigE] “I would like to present briefly some new approaches on the documentation and preservation of the garudas located at the external wall of Preah Khan. The conserva-tion work on the garudas of Preah Khan that has been underway since the late 1990’s has been slowed down to enable a review and a revision of the documentation method, re-search methods, conservation treatments and quality control. In this aim an assessment of the work done up to now has been conducted and we hope to develop improved methods for conservation and documentation.

Following an initial period for the 72 garudas, 24 of which have been addressed thus far, a test program has been defined and conservation research is underway. This has a led to a priority map of the garudas which assesses the current state of conservation and pres-ervation. The ranking is based on level of deterioration determined through conditions surveys, mapping of weathering forms of stone decay and the quality of prior conservation intervention. The priority map is expected to serve as a basis for a comprehensive program for conservation action. In the research phase we are addressing the following: examination of the original materials and their configuration, investigation of deterioration processes, and evaluation of conservation treatments and materials. To this end, analysis, and both field and laboratory research are underway to get information on conservation activities and to enrich our knowledge of original installing and configuration methods. For example, an in-vestigation of foundations and wind forces has resulted in recommendations for an appropriate anchoring system for the garudas. The scope of conservation issues faced includes: structural consolidation, conserva-tion of sandstone, control of vegetation and control of termite infestations. We hope that our revised approach will include preventive conservation strategies to slow down the proc-ess of deterioration and assure optimum performance of conservation treatments. Moreover, we are aiming at sustainable solutions with the development to permit applica-bility of established methods for the long term. To this end, a variety of conservation materials and treatments has been researched and tested to date to address the various conservation issues faced with the sculptures. For example we are conducting tests of her-bicides and baits containing growth regulator that hopefully will lead us to the establishment of methods to control both growth of trees and termite infestations. Plans for controlling the quality of the conservation work will be accompanied by a teaching program aimed at improving the technical conservation skills and enhancing the field staff’s understanding of general conservation principles. Furthermore, the management structure is currently under revision, and this is ex-pected to have a positive impact on the performance of conservation work. International consultancy and supervision will be present to ensure the quality of work. We look forward to presenting the first results of this research at the next meeting of the ICC and to implementing improved and sustainable conservation methods which meet international standards in all respects. Finally we hope that our knowledge and skills obtained throughout this process will be of use to the WMF’s other field projects at Angkor and to other interested persons. Thank you.”





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Additional remarks from John Stubbs, WMF: “I would like to turn your attention to the site of Ta Som. Conservation of the entirely Khmer managed project of Ta Som has progressed well in the past year. We were held back somewhat last fall due to a delay in a donation of scaffolding by the British firm of JCB Ltd. that was sent from India, though since January WMF’s field team under the direction of architect Hem Sinath has been back at work open-ing the northern axial entrance to the site.” Hem Sinath, WMF: Presentation of Recent Accomplishments at Ta Som

[OrigK] “This project involves interpretation of the monument and making the site safe for tourists who come to visit it. In the temple enclosure we opened up an access point in front of the first gate to the north and tidied up the temple entrance way outside of the walls. We also made a survey of the fallen stones and documented them.

We did structural consolidation work, including a cleanup of the front entrance. The drainage system was restored in order to take rainwater out of the temple enclosure. Dur-ing the structuring work and stone restoration operations that accompanied the structural consolidation, we collected stones that had fallen, reattached broken pieces of stone and statues and put some lintels back together. For the documentation, we first did research and drew up plans using AutoCAD software to produce blueprints and elevations, including an analysis of the building and working plans for conservation work.

During the stone gathering operation, we salvaged broken stone on the site. Each

piece was documented and a catalogue was made of all new stones that were identified. They were laid out in an orderly fashion to facilitate reassembly. This operation included the participation of expert archaeologists who performed excavations to remove soil that was clogging up the ancient water system. Some sections of pediments and pillars that had col-lapsed in front of the southern gate of the first temple to the north, between the central temple and the northern gate, were restored and reassembled. To achieve this, some lin-tels and both pillars were put back together so they could be restored to their original positions.

For the stone repair work, we had to restore the top parts of the pillars by replacing

them with new sandstone for stability and resetting. To make the sculptures more attrac-tive, we glued back on all the small bits of stone from the pediments on the first gate to the north, thus setting them back up and displaying them. This will enable tourists to safely go through the Ta Som temple using any of the four access points located in the four cardinal points, thus achieving the goal of the World Monuments Fund to make things safe for tour-ist traffic.

In the next phase, if we have enough support, we hope to continue the survey work

and related structural consolidation, do restoration work on parts of the complex with ac-cess being opened, pathways being cleaned and resetting more stones in the courtyards to the northeast and southwest.” Additional remarks from John Stubbs WMF: [OrigE] “We are very proud of our Khmer staff who I remind you are the only ones working at Ta Som. There are no foreign assistants to this group and they are doing a marvelous job.

Finally, we have the presentation of the Churning of the Sea of Milk at Angkor Wat. After many years of study and preparation, WMF’s proposed project for the repair and wa-terproofing of the primary roof vaulting of the Churning of the Sea of Milk Gallery at Angkor Wat was approved by the ad hoc experts and the APSARA Authority in December 2006. The WMF team responsible for this project has been working hard since January in mobilizing this complex project. Progress to date on preparing for the conservation and repair inter-





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ventions at the gallery will be presented by WMF’s Technical Director for Field Projects at Angkor, Glenn Boornazian.” Glenn Boornazian, WMF Technical Director: Angkor Wat Churning of the Sea of Milk (CSM) Gallery [OrigE] “The scope of this first phase is limited to about one third of the gallery or the first five bays beginning at the south end and moving northward. Since January both our Cambodian and international teams have been working very hard to finalize designs, mobi-lize our office facilities, make management modifications and move forward with specific project requirements for the work. You can see in this picture the first five bays on the up-per section in detail lower down. Since January there have also been four major international planning missions to Siem Reap related to this project, constant daily communication and coordination between the international teams and the supplier of the gantry crane in Bangkok. In early February, John Stubbs with local WMF Indian staff met in New Delhi with Mr Kanade from the ASI and select members of the ASI team who worked on the Churning of the Sea of Milk Gallery in the 1980’s. This meeting took place to review their methods and materials. In addition, with the assistance and goodwill of the ASI, the WMF hired a researcher to review and re-port on the CSM files in New Delhi relevant to our upcoming work and carry out interviews with some of the key members of the previous ASI CSM team.

On Monday of this week, the WMF project team met with Mr Kanade and Mr D. S. Sood on site and had a most productive meeting reviewing all the aspects of their previous work and how that related to the scope that we will be implementing. Mr Kanade has also offered to provide us with all the hard work that he and his team carried out in the 1980’s, deciphering the very precise French stone-by-stone numbering system. We thank Mr Ka-nade and the ASI team for their team spirit and generosity and hope we will be collaborating with them as our project proceeds. Working closely with HE Ros Borath and his staff at the APSARA Authority, WMF has designed the layout for the work site and completed the details for the mobilization phase of work. This work has been approved by the APSARA Authority. Since this first phase is the restoration of the five southernmost bays, mobilization for the complete project is re-quired. Given the complex nature of this project, mobilization and planning for the work has been very time consuming. Although there is not a great deal to see at the site at the moment, many people in many places have been working and continue to work very hard in a coordinated effort to have the site ready for the gantry crane to be erected in approxi-mately six to eight weeks. Non-destructive removal of the roof stones will require a motorized gantry crane, that you see on this drawing, that will move along a track at the base of the gallery on both the east and west sides. Such a gantry will allow us to have precise control over how each stone is lifted and moved around the site. The crane was designed by the WMF team in co-ordination with a supplier in Thailand. The WMF allocated additional money to construct the crane from high quality materials to ensure its longevity and potential use by the APSARA Authority or other projects if desired. The work site will also include a stone storage yard and stone conservation work-shop behind the CSM Gallery. Here on this picture is the crane, our conservation workshop and the location for stones yet to be conserved or stones having been finished. At the pe-rimeter of the site we will have an electric generator and water supply. The APSARA Authority has kindly allowed us the use of their well for the duration of the project. Al-though not much water will be required for this work, a water collection and evaporation system will be employed where water will be used.





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During the course of this project both the APSARA Authority and the WMF intend to allow tourist access to as much of the CSM bas-relief as possible by providing public steps and walkways which will allow tourists to navigate around the active work area. These stairs and walkways will be relocated as the project progresses to the north. Since the bas-relief carving must be protected in the active work area, it will temporarily be out of view in this specific location. However, as the work progresses north we will move the temporary shoring and bas-relief protection, install a temporary enclosure over the bas-relief wall for protection from the environment, but which will also permit close-up tourist viewing, similar to the one currently used by the JASA at the Bayon. The WMF intends to use this public by-pass and the worksite behind the gallery as a place to exhibit information about the project to enhance the visitor experience and understanding of this effort.

As presented to the ICC on a number of occasions, the WMF Phase One plan in-cludes:

• Site mobilization. • The use of a total station to document exact dimensions and locations of specific

units and strategic points along the gallery. • Use of monitors and the total station over the life of the project to monitor move-

ments and ensure proper and exact reassembly. • Detailed documentation of each stone unit will include original location, existing

condition, storage location, prescribed conservation treatment, work carried out and resetting details.

• Systematic non-destructive disassembly program. • Construction of a test section of the roof with conserved stone and waterproofing

details. • Implementation of accelerated weathering on the test section on the ground to fine

tune waterproof details. With approval of the final details the WMF team will proceed with the balance of the work in close coordination with the APSARA Authority. At this time the WMF estimates that it will take approximately six weeks to get the gantry crane in place and working by mid-August 2007, and the test section will be ready for review prior to the next ICC meeting. Thank you very much.”

II.4.3. GACP Flying Squad Activities in Angkor, Kulen and Koh Ker, by Pro-fessor Hans Leisen

[OrigE] “The GACP continues to follow the indications supplied on the risk map for

Angkor Wat and Angkor Park that was defined and compiled and as work has proceeded this has always been updated. As conservation activities are concluded, the levels of risk are diminished and new areas take precedence on the list. This working method gives a systematic plan to the activities of the team and enables GACP to program and implement work according to the needs of the decorations in a scientific way. At the end of 2006 the German government approved our proposal for the implementation of the flying squad ga-ruda project, after several years of GACP emergency and maintenance activities at several temples in Angkor such as East Mebon, Lolei, Batchum, Beng Mealea and Angkor Thom. This activity report gives a brief overview of the various projects at Angkor Wat and in Ang-kor Park. After we concluded work on the sites on the east side of Angkor Wat beginning this year, we installed several new scaffoldings on the western part after approval was given by the APSARA National Authority. The largest work site being carried out at the moment is the conservation of the bas-reliefs in the northwest pavilion of the third enclosure, inside





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and outside. This work started in 2006 and is still in progress. Four walls inside have been already completed and it is expected that this work will be concluded sometime in 2008. The GACP finished the major inventory in risk-assessment of all the statuary that remains in Angkor Wat, and is developing proposals for the first conservation activities based on the result of this research. Work will focus initially on the two large Vishnus standing on the right side in the south gopura of the second enclosure, which pose interesting and complex conservation issues. The GACP continues to work on a number of other sites, as I mentioned already, where serious conservation problems have been identified. The implementation of the ga-ruda flying squad started at the beginning of 2007, with the aim to provide more information about the risks for the decoration and sculpture fragments in other temples like in Koh Ker or Phnom Kulen. Each of these investigations may be considered individually and they have been prepared in such a way as to allow them to be included in a broader framework of a master plan prepared by the APSARA Authority.

During an earlier visit to Koh Ker temple the GACP teams discovered wall paintings in the central shrine and in the northern shrine; you can see them on the plan on top. All the drawings and wall painting discovered in the Angkor region up to now will be studied in the framework of a diploma thesis of a student specialized in wall paintings conservation. On the picture on the left-hand side you almost see nothing, you have to focus on this little white spot on top; this is enlarged on the right side. These wall paintings are only visible after special enhancement of the photographs, and they show some decoration, which is similar to the stucco decoration outside on the brick towers. These documents and observa-tions will be the basis for the planning of further investigations and recommendations. The studies on sculpture fragments will provide the GACP and the APSARA Authority with the necessary information for planning the immediate and mid-term conservation and restora-tion operations necessary for the conservation of the more severely endangered parts of the sculptures and decoration elements at Koh Ker temple site. Several objects are being investigated already. For each of these objects a conservation proposal has been prepared, and it will be handed over to the APSARA Authority very soon. During earlier visits to the Prasat Damrei site on Phnom Kulen, the GACP team de-tected severe damage to the animals due to natural bedding and jointing of the bedrock of the monolithic animals. In April 2007, a photographic documentation of the animals was prepared and used as a basis for the detailed mapping and inventory. After the preparation of the risk map, students on the Khmer team and from Germany carried out emergency interventions to protect the precious objects. Here for example is the connection of differ-ent joints and bedding plates. One of the big pieces could be moved out. It was falling down already and is now fixed back temporarily, and when the full conservation work starts it will be treated again. We continued with our studies on the stone material in Angkor as we have extend-ing the work to several other temples, for example the petrography and physical and mechanical properties. We can see for example on the left lower picture the distribution of minerals of different samples from Angkor temples. The investigations have been summa-rized in a comprehensive research operation by diploma thesis student Robin Reucher. This data will be the basis for the definition of requirements for conservation interventions and the adaptation and modification of the conservation materials used by GACP for the specific temples. Even though GACP is not of the opinion that a general cleaning and biocidal treat-ment is appropriate to Angkor Wat, research into microbiological treatments continued. The purpose is to define an ecological and sustainable way of controlling the microbiology on carved stone surfaces if appropriate. The oldest test areas on the upper left picture show a





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very good appearance in some cases and it will be investigated 10 years after these test areas have been established.

On May 4 the exhibition ‘Conservation of the Reliefs in Angkor, Cambodia’ showing GACP’s work in Angkor, together with the ‘Angkor-Göttliches Erbe Kambodschas Exhibition’ was opened by Deputy Prime Minister Sok An together with the Secretary of State and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Boomgaarden, whom you can see on the first row of the opening session. Thank you very much for your attention.”

II.4.4. Baphuon Temple Restoration Program: Progress Report, by Mr Pascal Royère, EFEO-FSP

“I will dispense with a presentation of the historical context and restoration issues

facing us on the Bayon project that most of you have already become familiar with, as this material has been presented at previous meetings of the Technical Committee and Plenary Session. I would like to highlight, though, that 2007 marks a turning point as far as our pro-ject is concerned. We are now starting to anticipate the conclusion of general consolidation work on the monument. Indeed, the invasive task involving consolidation of the western third tier wall bases was completed about a week ago. This campaign that we started in December 2006 was fraught with difficulties, which might not seem worth mentioning given the twelve consolidation campaigns conducted since 1995, but we are now at the stage where over 80 percent of the total surface of wall bases on the pyramid have finally been stabilized. So if the dry season ends as usual this year, the next consolidation campaign scheduled to start in November 2007 will enable us to complete stabilization of the temple by treating the collapse that is in fact the last niggling problem on this work site. In order to complete this campaign, we boosted the number of workers in the field with an additional 25 persons who were recruited on a fixed-term basis, bringing our on-site staff up to 204. Similarly, with a view to bringing this work site to completion in the next couple of years, we have recruited an architect whose specific job will be to join the existing work site design team and help us with the graphic definition of the finishing de-tails on the temple’s various masonry structures. Here is a picture showing all the work that took place in the first six months of 2007. From the top right you see first the paving slabs on the second tier being cleaned off. Then there is the treatment of the east stairway, second tier, opposite the access pavilion opened up for tourists. Thirdly, you see consolidation work being done at the base of the eastern gopura, third tier, and finally the southern face being cleared off after insertion of masonry work on the third tier, also treatment of the flagstone floor of the southeastern courtyard on the second tier. On the western half of the temple we consolidated the last section of wall bases on the third tier. Let me say a bit more about this consolidation of the entire western face that involved taking things down and putting in drainage and structures for consolidation. This was rounded out by restoration operations on the Reclining Buddha statue. Here is a pic-ture that shows the work done on restoration of the pavement floor of the second tier courtyard in the northeastern corner of the temple. This courtyard is bounded by the sec-ond tier gallery and wall bases, their base on the third tier. This included compacting the entire fill, putting in the drainage system and making connection with the main collectors so that all water accumulating on these pavement floors could be removed. Then the pavement floors themselves had to be completed. In all cases, these floors are made up of





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original sandstone blocks recovered from the stone storage fields along with additional pieces of sandstone cut to size and inserted by our stone cutting teams. Here is the eastern face on the second tier where we just completed the sandstone block insertions and these enormous string walls or foundations. They provide a framework for the step arrangements that allow access to the second tier pavilion. As everyone knows, the Baphuon suffered from various collapses. Stones were removed to put up the Buddha statue in the 16th century, to such an extent that these string walls had a tremendous amount of material missing. So we are endeavoring to restore the volume consistently and provide a stable footing using the few original blocks that we could find, along with some insertion of new sandstone where necessary both for stability and to give a more pleasing appearance to the area once restored. We try to add as little new sandstone as possible. This is another view of this work site, and here you see the final result. We took the scaffolding off the structures about two weeks ago. You can still see the newly-inserted sandstone which stands out in contrast to the old stone, but after just one rainy season, these stones are washed off and develop a natural patina. Here we are on the third tier with consolidation being put on in the eastern gopura on this tier. We had to put in backfill to hold up this pavilion that is connected to various gallery components. To get the backfill in, we had to put in the two foundations that give it support, and here you see the final outcome. The backfill is supported by the foundation. In the next couple of weeks we will have the pavement floor in that will support the pavilion. Let’s now take a look at the southern face of the third tier. Here we have to com-plete restoration of the two walls that make up the eastern wing of the third tier; they are in fact two enormous sleeper walls. These two illustrations show you what things looked like when the work just got started, with the current results shown on this picture. This was all completed just two weeks ago as part of the dry season campaign. The step feature was treated, and in this picture you have an overview from the second tier courtyard. Similar operations were performed on the paved floors of the southeastern corner of the second tier, as well as on the gallery and bays that occur regularly on the elevations of this gallery. This is the western face of the temple, with part of the sleeper wall that had not previously been consolidated. It is the link between the sleeper wall and the southern staircase feature on the third tier. We consolidated this section and are now starting to put the masonry work back up in front of this consolidation element. Now we are coming to what I will call the big chunk of our 2006-2007 consolidation campaign. This is the treatment of the whole western face on the third tier. This involves a length of some 50 m along the face, and a height of 10.6 m. Here you can see what this was like, on this picture the condition of the masonry work. What happened was that the upper section was tending to slide or collapse and was pushing down on the whole lower section. So much for the southern section, while on the western section, it had already col-lapsed, perhaps even before the Reclining Buddha was constructed. That makes it a very old collapse. This cross section shows the huge heap of totally jumbled masonry work from the first step arrangement. To achieve stability, as was the case in previous steps, we had to put in a stabilizing panel between the masonry work and the sand backfill, which entailed a tremendous amount of excavation work. In just five months, we handled about 1,200 m3 of earth. This pictures show various phases of this operation, and finally the result after consolidation was completed. This phase of work has now been completed. We are finally arriving at the concluding phase on this work site, and that is restora-tion of the Buddha image on the western face. For practical considerations and to optimize work on the structures to be consolidated, including those on the western face, work on the





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Reclining Buddha statue was suspended between February and early June. This allowed us to assign a greater number of workers to the consolidation operations. This picture shows you a view of the sections that have yet to be put back up, half of the face of the statue. Here is a detail where we are fastening things down, putting in bracing, to keep the statue from falling down where it leans outward. These anchoring devices are put in such a way that the parts of the masonry that stick out are anchored to parts in behind them. During the second half of 2007, we will continue working on the Reclining Buddha, in hopes of completing work by December. We will be able to put up a pavilion and second public access point inside the temple on the western face, rounding out what we did on the eastern face. We will continue putting things back up and putting in any additions required. In November we are going to undertake the final consolidation campaign and finally get to work on our strategy to reopen the monument to the public. This includes doing a study of the perimeter access area of the temple. That means working closely with the APSARA Au-thority’s Landscaping and Perimeter Area Development Department, and if things go as planned, we hope to have our documentation completed on this subject for the next Ple-nary Session in December. Thank you.”

II.4.5. Outline of the 2007 Excavation Campaign, France-Cambodia Mission on Structuring of Angkorian Territory, by Christophe Pottier, EFEO

“Reports on the numerous campaigns to study structuring of the Angkorian territory

have regularly been presented to the ICC. This mission has the set objective of studying the initial phases of occupational structuring in the Angkor region, particularly in the West-ern Baray region, where we worked initially from 2000 to 2005 on sites referred to as 6th or 7th century, as well as on some prehistoric sites, both inside and outside the Baray dikes. Since 2004, our excavation campaigns have refocused on Roluos, the city of Hariharalaya, the first capital considered to be ‘Angkorian’.

Here you see an overview, with the Lolei Baray above, Preah Ko, Bakong, and a

string with this vast Prei Monti enclosure to the south, then a number of sites including Trapeang Phong. This capital, as you can see, features a duality between major geometric patterns, Bakong, Preah Ko, the Baray, etc., along with many minor settlements of a gen-erally rural type. Our campaigns focus on two types of sites. Trapeang Phong is typical of these rural settlements. Given the many small middens that may indicate habitat, we put in numerous small-scale test pits, I believe a total of 25 for two campaigns, which enabled us not only to highlight the pre-11th century changes, but also to find the original nucleus of this site that goes back to the pre-Angkorian period. At the same time, we undertook campaigns at Ba-kong temple, the centre of this capital. Here you have an aerial view showing the pyramid in the middle of its first moat, still covered in vegetation at the time, as well as the vast en-closure all around this site. I would like to very quickly mention the rather complex architectural chronology and the additions that can be discerned within the monument, just to give you this picture showing a restored final state, circa 12th century, but our excavation campaigns actually focused much more on the very large space encircling the temple which we perhaps too hastily refer to as a city. From 2004 to 2006, we dug a series of long test trenches through this enclosed area, and this led to establishing the chronology of the construction of these enclosed areas as well as finding evidence of occupancy, habitat pits, albeit rather small. By last year we had come up with quite a fund of information regarding the Bakong, this cen-terpiece of the city, which turns out to be more of a ritual center, while Trapeang Phong is characteristic of the many small outlying shrines.





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We still did not have a third component that would be a prerequisite of a capital,

and that was the royal palace. The royal palace of Roluos was never really seriously inves-tigated. In a 1938 conference Georges Coedès hypothesized that this palace could be visualized either at Prei Monti or Preah Ko. Both of these sites are found within a very vast enclosure completely bereft of architectural clues. For a reason that I will not go into here, we concentrated this year on Prei Monti. Here you see the vast enclosure area around this zone, over 800 m long by 730 m wide, with the only known architectural remains being this small three-towered brick shrine that had never been completed. It was summarily cleared in the 1940s by Maurice Glaize. The basis for dating it is essentially the stylistic bases that go back to the end of Indravarman’s reign.

This vast enclosure area is partially covered by trees, rice paddies and a village that

spans the entire site. Late last year we started a very precise topographical survey of this enclosure. We discovered, as you can see here, a central platform, something hitherto un-seen, that stands over 3 m above the surrounding soil. This gives structure to this space and suggests a specific occupancy in the central section. We also see that the temple, lo-cated in a somewhat unorthodox manner in relation to the enclosure, is found almost on its own on a midden.

So the first series of test pits that we put it during March and April was part of six

sometimes rather long pits, totaling about 400 m in length, with stretches of stratigraphy, whereby we attempted to link the various components structuring the site, including the moat, temple and central platform. We spent most of our time in the northeast quadrant of this site.

Here are some pictures of these components. In particular here at the edge of the

temple we discovered two brick enclosures put up on beds of laterite. This sheds some new light on the size of this monument and how it might have been occupied. Further on, still in the temple perimeter area, we discovered evidence of occupancy, some of it probably dat-ing back prior to the 11th century and indicating a re-occupation of the site. To the east we attempted to link the temple to the central platform in the middle of the forest, digging a continuous trench over 200 m long. This trench yielded evidence of a structured drainage system and another test pit some foundation trenches for wooden buildings. We found the bases for these, some perfectly preserved big wooden stringers, giving evidence of a rather extensive wooden architecture. The artifacts we collected, the tiles in particular, give us a clearer vision of the occu-pation of the site. We also found a large quantity of pearls that appeared to have been melted and refused together, suggesting perhaps a fire, along with something quite un-usual, some pieces of glass. But the key finding was the large volume, proportion and quality of imported ceramics that were unearthed, especially Chinese ceramics and Tang ceramics, which I believe are quite rare at Angkor. This allows us to date the occupation to approximately the 9th century if not a little earlier.

Something even more unusual was the discovery of a very large quantity of ceram-ics from the Middle East, Iran or Irak, that also date back to the 9th or 8th century. They are very rare in Southeast Asia, having only been found to date in port storehouses in southern Thailand or Malaysia, or directly in China. This is the first time they were discovered so far inland. So this type of luxury artifact along with the large size of the architectural struc-tures suggests something elitist about the place we excavated. These, of course, are only preliminary observations.

I am not going to say that we found the Hariharâlaya royal palace, despite the simi-

larity. At any rate, we found the first clues that could lead to that conclusion, but we need to do more test pits, and these will be undertaken in a future campaign next year. We very





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recently started some georadar tests on a trial basis for assessing structures underground and seeing where they go without having to open up such long test pits. In conclusion, let me make a short parenthetical statement to underscore the impor-tance of the ceramic kilns that were discovered a few months ago north of Roluos, just north of Lolei. A series of quite a few kilns that are significant not only to understand the production, the material culture of that time, but are of even greater significance given that they are contemporaneous with the city of Hariharâlaya. They are the first kiln sites in Ang-korian history where we see Angkor sandstone being used, unglazed sandstone, but sandstone nevertheless. This is a particularly significant technological cleavage to grasp the material culture changes in Angkorian civilization. Let me thank all the institutions that gave us their support, and the members of the team that are too numerous to mention here. Thank you very much.”

II.4.6. New Archaeological Data on the Angkor Thom Outer Moat, by Professor Jacques Gaucher, Director, French Archaeological Mission at Angkor Thom, EFEO Scientific Research

“Very briefly, the project that I am in charge of is an urban archaeology project with

the title ‘From Yaçodharapura to Angkor Thom.’ Its purpose is to study the history of the central site of Angkor, its structure and development. When a city has to be dissected in time when there is little available written material, the archaeologist has to dissect it in space. I have therefore spent five years with my team in the Angkor Thom forest to bring to light the city’s overall layout. When I say ‘overall layout,’ I mean a great deal of informa-tion pertaining to the layout that expresses the history of the site. This layout will be published somewhat later on, along with 7,000 archaeological test pits of which we have now just completed the visualization. The material therefore covers both the soil surface and subsoil. The document will be made available to everyone. Thus, an analysis of a city in time means dissecting it in space, and in this way dissecting it into urban forms. I found fourteen such forms which, although not being architectural forms, may be regular networks, figures of regularity. We have fourteen such elements that shed light on the history of this city. The first phase of structuring in the space has been com-pleted. The second, which mainly involves the chronology of this city, is now beginning. It just started with an excavation that was completed two days ago. The field documentation has been completed, but it now has to be tidied up. I will show you some outlines, but I don’t think the architects will have any issue with this as they are used working with this type of field documents. For the last three months, we have been working on the Angkor Thom moat, on its southern and eastern sections. Here is the Angkor Thom southern moat with Phnom Ba-keng up here and the southwest corner of the city and main southern entrance causeway over here. The Eastern Baray is at the top of the picture. In February-March 2007, the AP-SARA Authority cut two trenches inside the southern moat, east side, then made a series of small test pits in the moat. The main purpose of these excavations was to determine the thickness of the sedimentation right here in this moat with the idea of clearing it out later on. A clearing out operation had been done to the west of the entrance causeway. When I saw this initial work APSARA had done, a number of things became evident. First, the se-dimentation was not very deep, varying from 20 to 40 cm. However, in the three trenches there were some discrepancies from the north to the south as well as discrepancies be-tween the two middle and east trenches and the west trench, although I will not develop that point here.





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This picture shows something interesting, not just the trench but the cow, found here on a green space where grass is growing. So it’s not on the same type of sediment that we find out in the middle of the moat. So here you can go out in the field and follow this green space which is in fact a sprawling dike once found outside of Angkor Thom. The dike had eroded away. You can get a complete reading of this out in the field, and this is backed up clearly by the west trench that APSARA put in. At this point, with permission from APSARA and from Ros Borath to whom I am grateful for coming out to take a look at the work site, I started four archaeological test pits. Three extend out from the moat up to the city enclosure wall, and one of them outside on the southern embankment. The purpose of these test pits was to connect our findings regarding the sedimentation of the moat at the Angkor Thom wall and, you will see, behind all that, to the enclosure wall of the city.

Here is where the test pits were located where we started our work, showing the wall, the moat and the sediments. On the northern embankment we see some laterite curb-ing that had collapsed. Here is another location, near Prasat Chrung, a test pit that runs from the lower part of the dike up to the enclosure wall.

In most of the test pits that we put in on this southern moat, we find sediment that originates from the erosion of the abandoned area near the enclosure wall. Then we see a change in the course of the steps bordering the moat, followed by a layer of sandy clay, which is backfill but which bears a very perplexing resemblance to the clay substrate of the moat. This picture shows trenches exposing the foundation of the moat. The most interest-ing feature starts with this layer of sand interrupted by a layer of clay humus, covered by a layer of sand, and so on. This was discussed, and I am led to believe that this sand fill came from a river. Here is another test pit with a very special type of sand, extremely fine, a layer of clay, then alternating layers, including layers of fine gravel.

Another test pit is shown in this picture, which we took down to 2 m. Here is the

stratigraphy of another one of these pits, a series of layers of sand with very different dips, and once again an alternating of a micro-stratigraphy of fine sand and coarser sand. This is not backfill at all, but suggests a relatively regular water flow, but of sufficient strength to wash along this fine gravel.

Take a look at the even sand in this picture. The fine gravel here is either separate

or mingled within the layers. This type of gravel is sourced from a river. This is an ex-tremely important find. I never found any gravel like that in Angkor Thom with a diameter of 1 cm or 7 or 8 mm and in such abundance. That means that there was a very strong wa-ter flow to carry such gravel along. The shards of ceramic ware and pieces of eroded terra cotta show considerable wear.

Here is a test pit where there is still a layer of clay, sand, then clay and sand. Then

we encounter some fragments of laterite mixed with some charred wood, then a large quantity of ceramics. We went down 1 to 1.20 m. Here we have a site with hydromorphic sediments, probably a canal or ditch. The ceramics taken from this ditch were extremely homogenous, gray sandstone or sandstone with a pale yellow or green-colored glazing that can be dated back to the 10th century. Some date it even further back, but we are certainly safe in dating this mix of Chinese ceramic ware from the 10th century or the early 11th cen-tury at the latest. There is no evidence of shards from the 13th or 14th centuries of which quite a number had been found in Angkor Thom. These are fragments of Chinese ceramics dated 960, corresponding to some pieces found in the Angkor Thom Royal Palace.

Here you have this structure that comes under the sedimentation in the moat; this

is the end of it here. These three test pits plus some open windows show that there was a canal south of Angkor Thom that was fed by a river in one of three possible ways: directly





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from east of the Siem Reap River, from the north of the city or from a combination of the two. I therefore dug some 20 m in the east moat of Angkor Thom, and it was again very clear: we were looking at a canal that had been filled with sand and clay. So we are in a hydraulic structure of which this is the end, an 18-m long canal in the Angkor Thom moat. Further exploratory pits were dug to the east of Angkor Thom where a similar type of stra-tigraphy was evident, although much more complex. . . .

To the east of Angkor Thom is a ditch that was fed from above. Here, at the junction of this canal with the east structure, I had a pit put in, and we came up with the same thing. You can see the junction of the ditch sedimentation with the canal. Here is a picture from the southeastern corner of Angkor Thom where you can see the feeder canal which would feed the new southern ditch of Angkor Thom.

Above we find the embankment of the big moat, with two stair features. In all cases the test pits encounter a 2-m free space. We excavated this free space in several locations and found above and below the steps this same ditch with the sand and small gravel sedi-ment. We then dug out the ground sill at the base of the enclosure wall. It has no paving or there is some remnant of a paved floor at the foot of the enclosure wall. In another test pit, we see this paving coming up to and covering over the slab of the enclosure. So we are left wondering about the relationship between what we just discovered, i.e. the ditch that predates the big moat, and all that is found under the enclosure wall and under the floor slope which, as I said before, runs for 80 m. This work was done with three junior APSARA archaeologists and a wonderful team of workers. The main conclusion that opens things up to a great many questions is that there is this minor moat right within the Angkor Thom moat, measuring 21 m x 12 m, at least in the southern and eastern sections, dating from the 12th century or early 11th cen-tury. That would mean that Jayavarman VII was the builder, if as Georges Coedès said back in 1952, the enclosure wall on a preexisting structure, i.e. the existing city, of which I suspect the existence based on the number of things we found inside Angkor Thom. Thank you for your attention.” Comment from the French Co-chairman, M. Dominique Freslon: “Thank you, Mr Gaucher. An interesting subject may make a speaker go overtime, but it penalizes those who made the effort stay within their time allotment.”

II.4.7. Petrographic and Elemental Characterization of the Sandstone Used in Construction of the Angkor Monuments, by Dr Jan Kucera et al,1 Nuclear Physics Institute, ASCR, Czech Republic

[OrigE] Introduction

Apart from laterite and bricks, sandstone is the major material used in the construc-tion of the Angkor monuments. Uchida et al. (1998, 2007) classified the sandstone used for the construction for the Angkor monuments into three types on the basis of their colour, constituent minerals and texture as (1) grey to yellowish brown sandstone, (2) red sand-stone and (3) greenish greywacke. Whereas the grey to yellowish brown sandstone was used in the construction of some 40 major temples located in the Angkor area, the use of the latter two types was limited. The red sandstone was used only in Banteay Srei and partly in North and South Khleangs. The greenish greywacke has also been rarely used, e.g., in the sanctuaries of Ta Keo. These sandstones have presumably been formed in the Mesozoic Khorat Basin, a basin filled with a thick continental sequences from the Indosinian Orogeny. The hills in the Angkor region, such as Mt. Kulen (487 m a.s.l.), Mt. Krom (137 m





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a.s.l.), Mt. Bakheng (67 m a.s.l.), and Mt. Boc (247 m a.s.l.) represent erosional basin remnants. The sources of the sandstone used in various constructions during the Angkor period as briefly mentioned by Delvert (1963) need closer inspection to be properly identi-fied.

Uchida et al (2007) found no systematic differences in either the bulk chemical compo-

sition, including minor elements, or in the mineral composition of grey to yellowish sandstone of the Angkor monuments and concluded that the construction materials used can be classified petrologically into the same type of sandstone (Uchida et al 1998, 2007). The chemical composition of the greenish greywacke was found to be similar to the grey/ yellowish brown sandstone type in spite of a difference in the texture. On the other hand, the red sandstone was found to be enriched in SiO2 (Uchida et al., 1998).

In this work, we decided to re-examine the properties of the Angkor sandstones

concerning both their chemical composition and petrology. For this purpose we used im-proved sampling techniques, more detailed petrological characterization, including electron microprobe investigation and low uncertainty elemental analysis of sandstone samples that __________ 1 J. Kučera (Nuclear Physics Institute ASCR; Research Centre, Řež, Czech Republic), J.K. Novák (Geological Insti-tute ASCR, Prague, Czech Republic), K. Kranda (Nuclear Physics Institute ASCR, Řež; Research Centre, Řež, Czech Republic), J. Poncar (Cologne University of Applied Sciences, Cologne, Germany), O. Cunin (Center for Khmer Stu-dies, Siem Reap, Cambodia).





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were collected in 19 Angkor temples using instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA). A new sandstone block used for reconstruction of the Chau Say Tevoda temple was also sampled. The primary purpose of our investigation was to find out whether different archi-tectural styles (and periods of building) of the Angkor monuments and the above features can be can attributed to and are characterized by the elemental composition of the building material. For this purpose, we scrutinized the results obtained by cluster analysis as one of the powerful multivariate statistical techniques. Here we report our initial findings. Sampling and sample preparation

We sampled sandstone from building blocks of individual temples. The cores of up to 7 cm long, were drilled with a diamond core drill bit with an inner diameter of 12 mm. Only the innermost part of core (core sections 4 to 5 cm distant from the surface layer) was used for elemental analysis to exclude the influence of weathering, growth of lichens, and other stone biodegradation processes (e.g. caused by bat guano) on the surface layer of the sandstone. In few cases, we also examined samples taken from various distances from the surface of the sandstone blocks to investigate the above influence of weathering and/or biodeterorioration processes on the element contents. The core section selected for analysis were crushed in a die made from cemented steel and ground and homogenized in an agate ball mill (Pulverizette 5, Fritsch). The fine powder, whose grain size was bellow 200 mesh, was portioned into 100 – 200 mg lots that were used for analysis.

For petrological characterization, 30 mm longitudinal thin/polished sections were

prepared from the cores for examination with an optical microscope, X-ray diffractography (Phillips X’pert) and electron microprobe analysis (CAMECA SX100). Elemental analysis

INAA was employed for elemental characterization of the sandstone samples using both short- and long-time irradiation (1 min. and 2 hours), respectively in the LVR-15 ex-perimental reactor in Řež in a neutron fluence rate of 5·1013 cm-2·s-1. Gamma-ray spectra of the induced radionuclides were measured using high purity germanium (HPGe) detectors

of high resolution and high effi-ciency that were coupled to a computer controlled gamma-ray spectrometer (Canberra Genie 2000). Various decay and count-ing times were employed in order to be able determine as many elements as possible with a low degree of uncertainty.

Results and discussion

In all samples we deter-mined the contents of 35 major, minor and trace elements, namely Na, Mg, Al, Si, K, Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Zn, Rb, Sr,

Zr, Sb, Cs, Ba, La, Ce, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Tm, Yb, Lu, Hf, Ta, Th, and U. Fig. 1 shows significant deple-

tion of Ca and changes of other element contents in the surface layers of a sandstone block from the Chau Say Tevoda temple. However, this was not a universal feature as different patterns of element contents were found in surface layers of sandstone blocks from other temples. For this reason samples taken from surface layers of sandstone blocks are unsuit-

0.6

0.8

1.0

1.2

0 1 2 3 4 5

rela

tive c

on

ten

t

distance from surface, cm

Na

MgAl

Fig. 1. Relative element contents in various distances from surface of a sandstone block





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able for elemental analysis aimed at identification of a source quarry or a building period (architectural style). This is documented in Fig. 1 that shows that the concentration of ele-ments in the surface layers may either increase (e.g. Ca) or decrease (K) with increasing depth from the surface. Thus only samples taken from depth of 4-5 cm that minimize the influence of external factors are suitable for comparative purposes.

The element contents in conjunction with the above petrological examination meth-

ods were also used to evaluate the occurrence of minerals in the samples collected. The following major and minor minerals were identified in the samples examined: quartz, or-thoclase, albite, anorthite, biotite, muscovite, garnet, secondary chlorite, kaolinite, magnetite, ilmenite, hematite, and apatite.

Cluster analysis using Euclidean distance and average linkage was applied to both

elemental and mineralogical composition of the sandstone samples. Fig. 2 shows results of cluster analysis of elemental contents in sandstone blocks used in the Bayon temple during different construction periods. The resulting clusters of elemental content, only in some cases correspond to the individual construction peri-od. A similar pattern was also de-tected for content of minerals in the sandstone blocks. From the results obtained, we pro-pose that

(i) it is either the inhomo-geneous nature of the yellowish-brown sandstone that impedes the possibility to determine a representative elemental composition of a building block from the 150-mg test portion taken from ~ 2

g of a homogenised analytical sam-ple or (ii) during a particular

construction, the building blocks were not necessarily taken form one location but may have originated from different quarries.

References: 1. Uchida, E., Ogawa, Y., Nakagawa, T. (1998). The stone materials of the Angkor monu-

ments, Cambodia – The magnetic susceptibility and the orientation of the bedding plane of sandstones. J. Miner. Petr. Econ. Geology 93, 411-426.

2. Uchida, E., Cunin, O., Suda, C., Ueno, A., Nakagawa, T. (2007). Consideration on the construction process and the sandstone quarries during the Angkor period based on the magnetic susceptibility. J. Archeol. Sci., 34, 924-935.

3. Delvert, J. (1963). Recherches sur l’érosion des grès des monuments d’Angkor. Bull. EFEO LI-2, 453-534.

Comment from Japanese Co-chairman, Mr Norio Maruyama: “You know that we only have a few hours left, and I am sure you agree that we won’t be able to finish off by 5 p.m., but let’s try to do as best we can. I would like to ask all to cooperate, especially the first person to speak.”

Bayon Northern Library

Bayon causeway

Bayon Gallery 62

Bayon causeway

Bayon Tower 32

Bayon Tower 6

Bayon Tower 7

Bayon Gallery 62

Bayon Northern Library

Bayon Tower 31

Bayon Room H

Construction period: 1st 2nd 3rd, 1st phase 3rd, 2nd phase 3rd, 3rd phase

Euclidean distance

Fig. 2. Dendrogram of elemental composition of sandstone blocks from the Bayon temple





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II.4.8. Safeguarding Ta Prohm Temple, by Mr Vijai Madan, Director General of ASI

[OrigE] “I have already circulated a brief statement which I place on record for you to read later. In order to save time I will only mention two or three sections. The ASI has been interested in the conservation strategy and implementation for the Ta Prohm project. We have now undertaken a number of measures, which are reversible measures and the idea behind these reversible measures is that we can continue to provide the necessary support system for the structure and the dangerously poised portions of the temple. For the moment we can stabilize it and subsequently these measures will give newer and more permanent measures as new solutions emerge. On this project we have been working very closely with the APSARA National Au-thority. There has been a lot of archaeological work as well, particularly in the areas where restoration work has to take place. We have done the archaeological work in two portions, details of which will be presented in later papers which will be made by Mr Kanade and Dr Mohile. The remarkable achievements of this is that the old drainage system—the origi-nal drainage system that has been discovered, which lies under the built structure of the Ta Prohm temple—gives us an opportunity to showcase the great work of the engineers of the past, who created this underground drainage system. And at the same time it also gives us an opportunity to emulate them by picking up traces from there and to think of a drainage system for inside the temple complex which follows the principles that they followed. More detail on this to come. I want to make one more point, which is that we have been working closely with APSARA Authority and the idea, indeed the intention, is a commitment which is that the ar-chaeologists, architects, engineers and other experts from the APSARA Authority remained fully involved and engaged in the interventions that are being done in the Ta Prohm temple in order that independent actions can be undertaken by them when the time comes. I am very grateful for the visit of the ad hoc experts yesterday. It was a very fruitful visit. We got a number of valuable suggestions from them and their recommendations have already been mentioned in this morning’s session. We have noted the recommendations from the experts and this will definitely help us to improve the implementation of the various pro-jects. I will now invite Mr Kanade to make a presentation. Thank you.” Mr Kanade, ASI, Presentation on Structural Conservation Aspects of the Temple:

[OrigE] “I am making a presentation on reversible interventions and monitoring sys-tems at Ta Prohm temple. ASI carried out structural and geotechnical studies, and we have conceptualized reversible interventions at nine locations. Laboratory studies have been car-ried out for the supporting of the vaults and other structures. Structural analysis has already been undertaken for vaults and towers. We have identified nine locations in this complex from the fifth enclosure to the first enclosure. This picture shows you where those critical locations are located in the complex. Some of them are associated with the trees and structures.

On this picture is the pavilion on the eastern end. It consists of a water structure and semi-water structure. It is supported inside with the help of several timber members. Even these windows are also supported with timber members. What we now propose is to replace these timber supports with better ones, tubular props, consisting of two vertical props connecting the bracings horizontally as well as connecting in a diagonal fashion.

This is the front elevation where stone-by-stone documentation was carried out for

this entire pavilion in a digital format. The central door at the moment is not functional as it





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is closed with wooden members. We propose to actually make it functional by putting in this tubular vertical support as well as erecting support. This picture shows an arrangement for supporting vaulted roof. This is the central part. It reaches a height of nearly 6 m. So in this section, two levels of the top stones are supported with a tubular structure. This is another arrangement on this picture to support the porch of the same pavilion. On this picture is another case, a tower. In the Ta Prohm temple we have pavilions and we also have towers. These towers are tied with the help of a wire rope. To study the behavior of the structure we are carrying out an FEM (finite ele-ment method) analysis and numerical analysis for this tower.

These pictures present different views of this aerial model. Without any deflection, computer models will look like this. During the past centuries this tower has undergone several deflections. A deflection analysis was carried out and it showed the deflections con-tours at several points. Deflection is maximum at the top and minimum at the bottom. An FEM analysis was carried out for the strength distribution and it seems that compression is maximum at the bottom. These are the compression contours. It circulates at the bottom and tensions also exist at certain points where the openings are. This is one of the pavilions of the first enclosure. It is completely leaning outwards so we decided to support it with the help of these inclined props and at the same time with these vertical props.

On this picture it is a different part, this is the pavilion of the third enclosure. It is huge with this tree standing on the entire center of the structure, and the cracks are widen-ing. Currently, the temple is supported with the help of wooden structures that are not sufficient. There is still movement in progress and we want to support it in a better way by these rakers in two positions, and this will be also monitored. The inside arrangements for supporting arrangements will be organized with two vertical tubulars, one prop and there will be a brace placed horizontally. Also a truss will be provided to support this stone sec-tion and it will also support partially the tree. When these interventions are carried out they have to be monitored properly.

All the following parameters will be monitored: tilting of the stone, linear displace-

ment, changes in the cracks, everything will be monitored. This is the flow diagram of the monitoring. Here it shows the monitoring on three locations. All the data whether crack width or tilting will be transmitted by radio signal in our center. This picture shows you that our monitoring equipment will be placed at strategic points to monitor the effect of the in-tervention. This is the monitoring of the tower. Now we would like to monitor the cracks in the roof and simultaneously the deflection with the help of cable-free instruments. Here are some other cable-free instruments. In order to record the weather parameters we propose to set up an automatic weather station. Here is a beautiful example of architecture in the Ta Prohm temple, the Hall of Dancers. It is 20 x 30 meters, supported by eight pillars. They have used successfully the whole and semi-wall combinations. For air and ventilation, four openings have been pro-vided. We have prepared a conjectural sectional elevation. It is oriented completely along the axis of the temple. It has three door openings and three false doors. Subsequent to the recommendations made at the previous ICC meeting we have prepared this computer 3-D model of the Hall of Dancers which we are presenting to you now. On this photo is the pre-sent condition of the Hall of Dancers. Most of the walls have fallen, there are two big trees growing at the southern corner and it’s mostly in dilapidated condition. This is an aerial view, computer model, of the Hall of Dancers. Now, I will present our current activities during this year. We have started with mending broken stones. On this picture you can see the mending operation going on and





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where the stone is broken. And now you can see how it looks after mending. For the mend-ing we use epoxy resin, and as a filler material cement mortar with stone powder and stone dust. For reinforcement, we used 8-mm stainless steel bars. In order to facilitate tourist diversion we have provided this wooden footbridge. Here is a picture of the work in progress on the causeway with stone-by-stone documentation that is being carried out. The layers of both sandstone and laterite have been completely dismantled and stacked for reuse. This graph presents the study of the foundations of this causeway, and we found that the foundations consist of a single layer of sandstone, below which there is a layer of laterite and sand layers nearly 50 cm deep. The conditions inside are similar. Thank you for your attention.” Dr Mohile, WAPCOS: Presentation on Water Stagnation Problems of the Temple Complex [OrigE] “Water was an important part of the Khmer civilization. The objectives of the studies are to decide the causes of water-logging, finding solutions and recommending proper water management practices. We did topographic surveys, water cross-section sur-veys and hydrogeological studies. We also conducted ground penetrating radar studies particularly because there are a lot of tree roots inside the complex, which may affect the drainage. On this picture the layout of the built-up area of the temple structure with its en-closures.

This is the built-up area and the outside grounds and as you can see there are inner moats, outer moats and a number of water pools in the ground. Our proposal is that in the built-up area we will have cut-and-cover type drainage, underground with perforated pipes below the roots in a relatively open area. In order to cross obstructions, walls, etc., we are proposing small diameter trenchless tunnels dug through the shafts. In the outside built-up area in the ground, we propose to interconnect moats with themselves and with the low ponds. Some desilting of the inner moats may be necessary. There is a canal going on the outside and its capacity may have to be increased as water from outside which enters the temple complex may have to be blocked and diverted to the river or some other drainage by APSARA, so that the water-logging problem is reduced. On this picture you can see the groundwater drainage proposals. We found that it is a local problem, that it is not directly related with the flooding of the Siem Reap River. We also found that it would be important to control both the maximum water level and the minimum water level and allow the water in the moats to fluctuate within these levels. This is just a water balance study of the rainfall and its disposal month by month. . . . Rainfall is generally sufficient for filling the moats. In wet years overflows may occur for which a small drainage from the moat to the outside would be necessary. In the dry months, the ponds and therefore the moats can dry up, so some major refill sources may have to be provided to maintain the minimum level. Interconnections would be beneficial and the moats as permanent water bodies would be esthetically pleasing. As I mentioned on the northeast there is an outside canal which flows and a drain of a flow of about 1.6 m3 per second has been proposed to evacuate the water. Within the inner temple complex, an-other system is proposed that we will expose in detail. In the general hydrogeological findings, we found that the groundwater seems to be in regimen and may not cause many problems. Here is the inside area drainage proposal. One particular problem is the very large number of tree roots found at low levels. The disturbance from these should be minimized. The ancient drainage system is also another special feature. We have proposed, as said earlier, trenchless technology of directional drilling which was developed from the 1970s onwards and is widely used for water supply, drainage, oil pipelines, electrical cables, etc.





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The advantages of this technology are minimum environmental problems, minimum surface disturbance and minimum space and right-of-way problems. There are various methods of trenchless technology. With a proper method, the disturbance through vibrations, etc. is minimal. The method has been used in very highly congested areas. For Ta Prohm we pro-pose to use this method but we will also install instrumentation to see what is happening to the structure.

As mentioned earlier tree roots were a special problem and a number of lines as you can see on this picture were surveyed using ground-penetrating radar. This graph shows one of the samples of the interpretative data. Each of the blue dots represents the tree roots in the cross-section. We found that some of the tree roots are on the surface, the ma-jority of them 0.7 m under the surface, only a few roots go down to 1.2 m. A recent finding is the original drainage system found by ASI and the APSARA Au-thority. This seems to consist of arched openings of about 180 mm diameter at the original ground level which is now about 0.8 m below the present ground. Here are pictures of the ancient drainage. You can see the roots coming out of the drainage, which is probably an easy way for them to travel. We only excavated one of the lengths of the drainage and to see more it would require several excavations and time, and would probably disturb the tourist flow, etc.

The ancient drainage is shallow and right at that level there are many tree roots. It is likely that many of the holes are occupied by tree roots so it might be difficult to revive the ancient system. We plan to preserve the unearthed part and to install a new system separately. The system we propose consists of open sections over the blue line at compara-tively shallow levels and with trenchless tunnels. The open trenches will have a sink inlaid at various points with proper grills and silt traps, whereas the shafts will be a little larger and they can be easily cleaned up if necessary. For example, one of the line sections will look like this graph: at the higher level with sinks, in the lower portion then when we will have to cross the walls we will go for tunneling. In this graph the tunnel opens directly into the moat because the distance from the second wall is short; otherwise, we would have to build a shaft and take it to the upper level and so on. The conclusions are that the control of moat levels is important. Drainage of three parts is needed: inside the inner moats through this trenchless tunnel, in the rest of the temple areas through interconnections and so on, and outside areas to make sure water does not enter if necessary. It is also necessary to use trenchless technology to avoid dis-turbances. Thank you.” Comment from the Japanese Co-chairman : [OrigE] “The 20 minutes allocated to the Indian team have already expired, so please be as quick as possible. I give you three minutes.” Mr Ven Sophorn, ANA Archaeologist: Presentation of Archaeological Excavation

[OrigE] “On this picture is the location of the excavation we have done on the cause-way. We did test pits for subsidiary connections of the causeway for the conservation. As you can see on this graph in the southern gallery and on the back area circled in yellow are the test pits. It is a graph of the main trench where we did excavations to find out the con-ditions. The focus of the study was to:

- Ascertain the conditions of the eastern gallery. - Retrieve architectural elements that collapsed from the gallery and on the

ground. - Study the movement of tree roots that penetrate in the basement of the gallery.

These are pictures of the excavation process. On the right you can see before exca-vation and a picture after excavation with the buried stones lying on the ground. This is





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how the stones were positioned buried underground. On the stratigraphy you can read the records: the upper surface where you can see the natural occupation, the subsequent lay-ers with the falling stones, and compacted soil, including pottery and sandstone chips. This is a profile drawing of the third enclosure gallery. From the bottom until the top you can see the natural soil and pure sand compacted, laterite and the basement. Here is the embankment that was made to protect the foundation and this is the compacted sand and what we call the protection layer, which means waterproof layer. This layer is very strong so the foundation of the Ta Prohm is very stable. On these pictures are the new artifacts discovered in Ta Prohm: pottery, iron pieces, and bronze. All the pottery that we unearthed is glazed stoneware. As for the iron pieces, we found intact nails and hooks. We also found a bronze support decorated with a three-headed Naga. At the bottom of the picture is a piece of crystal. We also found the face of a statue. Then another discovery on the 33-m long gallery was the ancient drainage system coming from the east. To gather and monitor more information on the objects we found and the drainage system, we decided to do a test pit in the back area where we found the same drainage system. The excavation of the gallery can be read and understand well, because the condi-tion of the gallery is very stable, showing no cracks. It is a very good support for the base. We will study the sandstones blocks that we collected from the trenches. We collected 275 blocks. Most of them are still in good conditions for reuse and restoration work. We also found three minor risks caused by the roots of the trees penetrating in the base, one in the south, one in the north and one in the center. Thank you very much for your attention.” Remark from the Japanese Co-chairman: [OrigE] “I would like to thank the Indian team for having shortened their presentation.”

II.4.9. Activities of the Sophia University International Mission at Angkor M. Nubuo Endo:

[OrigE] “On behalf of Mr Ishizawa, President of Sophia University and Chief of the So-phia Mission, we present our three main projects in the region of Siem Reap. I would like to introduce Mr Miwa, Ms Abe and Professor Endo. Mr Satoru Miwa: Conservation Project on the Western Causeway of Angkor Wat. Update on the Past, Present and Future of Phase One [OrigE] “I would like to give a presentation on the conservation project of the western causeway of Angkor Wat, Phase 1. Restoration work on the western causeway was done in the 1960s. Some previous interventions can be identified, including an emergency interven-tion after the collapse that occurred in October 1952. There was no more intervention after this because of civil unrest. The restoration work on the western causeway was restarted in the 1990s by the Sophia International Mission in cooperation with the APSARA Authority. I would like to summarize our work from the beginning until today. Prior to the start of restoration work we trained stonemasons from 1995 onwards. We also trained architecture students from the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh. We did surveys with partial dismantling and we made drawings of the causeway with the RUFA students. We started actual site work in May 1998. We needed to put up cofferdams





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to work on it because at that time the base of the western causeway was under the water of the moat. And we had to keep the southern part free for the tourists and protect the sandstone pavement that was repaired in previous interventions in the 1960s. We started to receive a budget from the APSARA Authority in late 1999 in order to pay Cambodian experts and workers. We started the full-scale dismantling of Area One in early 2000. We removed a total of 4,300 stones. On this picture you can see both the southern part and the northern part. The struc-tures under the sandstone were completely changed in the right side. In our work we always try to keep the original methods as much as we can. We started to install laterite stones in the basement and the wall in July 2001. We installed the buttress to reinforce the original wall structure. Here you have pictures from 2002 then in 2003, 2004 and 2005. We finished installing the laterite blocks on top of the wall in September 2005 and we finished installing the laterite pavement in March 2006. We started installing sandstone blocks in the pavement in April 2006. The method for sandstones pavement was approved by the ad hoc experts in June 2006. We installed sandstone pavement to the same height as the southern part. We started to repair the sandstones parts of beams and columns in May this year, in cooperation with the stone conservation unit of the APSARA Authority, a new unit which just started this year. They consist of experts coming from the GACP team. All the experts and workers on the causeway site are approved by the APSARA Authority. It is a great pleasure to contribute to the APSARA Authority from the standpoint of human resources because we on the Sophia Mission believe that human resources are very important, as Professor Endo will mention later. The restoration of the western causeway of Angkor Wat has been implemented in close cooperation with the APSARA Authority. Work Area One will be completely finished by the end of 2007. Thank you for your attention.” Ms Chie Abe, Researcher: Preah Norodom Sihanouk-Angkor Museum Construction Project [OrigE] “First I would like to talk about the process that led to the building of this mu-seum. From 2000 to 2001, a total of 274 Buddha statues were excavated at Banteay Kdei temple by the Sophia University Angkor International Mission. At the request of APSARA Authority and the Royal Government of Cambodia, all these statues were studied and kept in the Sophia Asia Center for Research and Human Development in Siem Reap. On March 2004, the honorary Chairman of the AEON Corporation paid a visit to the Sophia Center in Siem Reap while he was in Cambodia on a tree-planting mission. He was very moved after viewing those statues, and he suggested that AEON would be interested in contributing to the construction of a building to present and display these invaluable statues to a larger public. He provided approximately US$ 1.5 million for the construction of the museum. Construction of the museum has progressed as follows: On March 31, 2007, Professor Ishisawa, Director of the Sophia Mission, met with former King Norodom Sihanouk in Beijing, China, who allowed the use of his name and the national emblem of Cambodia on the building of the museum. The museum is located north of the new APSARA headquarters, just outside of Zone 2 of Angkor Archaeological Park. The land is 13,140 m2. The building occupies 1,821 m2 of the land. It is a two-storey reinforced concrete building with a total surface of 2,534 m2. In 2005 the concept and basic design of the museum was initiated, and in June 2006 construction started with the permission of the APSARA Authority and its Department of Urban Development.





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Now in July 2007 more than 95 percent of the construction is finished. An inaugura-tion ceremony is scheduled for November 2007. Once the museum is completed it will be donated and transferred to the Royal Government of Cambodia. The museum will be oper-ated by the APSARA Authority. The building has different spaces for exhibitions. On the ground floor, the discovery space will show the archaeological and historical value of the Buddha statues. There will also be a room where work on restoration of ceramics or other materials will be displayed. Then the main exhibition room and open gallery exhibition room will be on the first floor. The exhibition schedule is as follows: In collaboration with the APSARA Authority and National Museum in Phnom Penh, we are cleaning as well as restoring Buddha statues. This work will be finished in August 2007. In September 2007, these Buddha statues and artifacts will be transferred from Sophia Asia Center to the museum under the direction of the APSARA Authority and with the technical advice of the National Museum, after which an exhibition of the works will be launched. The exhibition was designed by the Japanese art director from the Mori Arts Mu-seum in Tokyo. Some selected Buddha statues and ceramics will be displayed. The stone pillar of a thousand seated Buddhas will be displayed in the center of the main exhibition hall. Firstly I would mention here the academic significance of the construction of the museum, first as a research and education center. A laboratory and library will be pre-pared, so the museum will become a research center of Angkor monuments and an education center for future Cambodian experts, such as archaeologists, architects and con-servators. Second, the museum will provide people with a good opportunity to understand the excavated relics or artifacts and study the history of Angkor as well as get a better under-standing of Khmer culture. From 2002 to 2007, 700 tourists visited our center to view these Buddha statues. These Buddha statues were discarded at the time and the museum will assist both national and international tourists will enhance their understanding of Khmer history and culture. Third, regarding the nature and people of Angkor, the museum should be a holy space for people to pray to Buddha as well as a place where visitors can feel the Khmer atmosphere. The Sophia Mission and AEON 1% Club are very concerned with environmental matters, because the forest is one of the important elements of Angkor. In front of the mu-seum, more than 200 trees have been planted in order to give it in the future the same atmosphere as the forest-covered Angkor monuments. I thank you for your attention.” M. Nobuo Endo: Report on Achievements of the first year of the Program on Inter-national Cooperation to Aid the Cultural Heritage Education Strategy [OrigE] “This program is called Cultural Heritage Education for Khmer Students and Sophia Students. It is a four-year project approved and selected by the Japanese Ministry of Culture out of 770 universities. Last year and this year we have already implemented twice this program. It was composed of lectures and field work with 15 students from Cam-bodia and nine instructors from Cambodia and Japan. Next year the program will take place for one month in March and one month in August or September. The Cambodian Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts that is in charge of RUFA approached Sophia through SPAFA (SEAMO Regional Center for Archaeology and Fine Arts) inquiring if it was possible for the Ministry to be involved in the program. The UNESCO-Cambodia Commission also approached Sophia through the APSARA Authority inquiring if it was possible for the Commission to be involved in the program. Sophia University will discuss the issue and decide if these groups could be invited to the program in the year 2008. Thank you very much attention.”





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II.4.10. Report on the Restoration Work on Chau Say Tevoda Temple from January to June 2007, Presented by Dr Wu Yuhua, CSA (China)

[OrigE] “I am very happy to have the chance to attend this ICC meeting, and also am

honored to give a short presentation on behalf the Chinese Government Team for Safe-guarding Angkor (CSA) under the title ‘Progress Report on the Restoration and Conservation of Chau Say Tevoda.’ In the first part, I would like to give a simple report on the work that has been completed or that is underway, and in the second part, I will pre-sent two kinds of processing methods used for restoration and conservation.

On the site of the north library, we finished the work of replacing and supplementing on the west gateway. On the site of the central sanctuary, the floor of the antechamber has been paved with sandstone. We finished restoring the enclosure between the east gopura and the north gopura. Pillars on both sides of the divine path, in the eastern part of the cross terrace, have been repaired and rearranged. We have finished installing the causeway between the central sanctuary and the north gopura. The work of repairing and installing slabs on the northern part of the raised causeway is underway. Some detailed carving work is being done.

The first method of treatment involves the eastern causeway. You can see the origi-nal state before restoration. The restoration of this raised causeway can be programmed into two stages: In April-July, 2000, we finished the work such as tree removal, repair of the cracked components and supplementing the missing components. In 2007, we have paved the raised causeway slabs. The causeway between the east gopura and the central sanctuary is fully paved. The causeway between the east gopura and the terracing is half paved. In this two kinds of pavement, we make the most of the original components.

There are four kinds of ways of treating the newly added components: The first me-

thod is to carve them in a way that is completely identical to the original component. The second method is to carve in a way that is quite identical to the original component. The third method is using only some main form lines that are carved, for example the figure of a man. The last method is to replace the components with no carvings, simply keeping the same dimensions of the original components. Thank you very much.”

II.4.11. The Ta Keo Project: Evaluation of the Impact of Tree Removal on the Acceleration of Stone Weathering on the Angkor Site, by Professor Marie-Françoise André, Blaise Pascal University, Clermont-Ferrand, France

“The purpose of the Ta Keo project is to assess the impact of tree removal on the acceleration of stone weathering. It is directly in keeping with the strategic analysis being undertaken by the APSARA Authority and the ICC with regard to sustainable, integrated management of the Angkor site. Clearing off the temples and opening up vast perspectives are part of showcasing the site, but what we are looking at today is the issue of whether or not further clearing of the temples should be done and if so, to what extent? This morning, Professor Lablaude pointed out the ambivalent role of tree cover, which can cause destabilization in some in-stances but provide protection in others. It is very important to consider the existence of a microclimate under the tree cover that protects the stone from environmental stress. And we require ways of proving that climatic stress induced by clearing the trees away from a temple actually promotes weathering. This can be done if we choose a temple that is clearly dated and, more importantly, that has never been restored, where its condition prior to be-ing cleared away has been documented, thus allowing any changes in it since being cleared off to be monitored.





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These requirements are found at Ta Keo, which has remained ‘in its own juice’ since the year 1000, buried under forest for the past six centuries, so much so that in 1866, Francis Garnier passed right by this 40-m high mountain-temple without even seeing it. The temple was cleared of its trees in 1920 and studied in detail by scholars from the École française d’Extrême-Orient, most notably by engineer Jacques Dumarçay, who made de-tailed surveys of it in 1967. We are indebted to Mr Dumarçay who is working closely with our project and to Ms Brigitte Groslier, wife of conservator Bernard-Philippe Groslier, for making available to us an iconographic documentation that will enable us to go back in time, using a spatialized diagnostic analysis of the current condition of the moldings, and rebuild the scenario and tempo of weathering on these moldings over the last one hundred years. The Ta Keo project was launched in February 2006 with the support of the APSARA Authority when an exploratory mission was conducted in order to characterize the various erosion phenomena affecting the moldings. The initial results are now being interpreted in cooperation with Professor Leisen and Dr Warscheid. A first presentation before the CIC led to final approval for the project under Recommendation No. 5 adopted in June 2006. In or-der to undertake the three-year quantification phase, we need a budget of 261,000 euros, 20 percent for the on-site missions that will be conducted by our seven-member team and 80 percent for equipment that will combine high-resolution lasergrammetry and stereopho-togrammetry. We looked into all possible funding sources and eventually the French government provided an exceptional funding package of 210,000 euros through our line ministry, the Ministry of Higher Education and Research. This will cover all of the equipment costs for the next three years. I would like to express my deep appreciation to the APSARA Authority and ICC, because the recommendation adopted last June was of considerable help in obtaining this financial assistance. With regard to the mission costs amounting to 51,000 euros over three years or an average of 17,000 euros a year, we submitted an application to the Embassy of France in Cambodia. In December 2006 our Co-chairman Mr Dominique Freslon informed us that the necessary assistance would be granted on the condition that the APSARA Authority renews its official support. I would therefore be very grateful if HE Mr Bun Narith would kindly make an expression of his renewed support and if the current Co-chairman with the Em-bassy of France could do everything he can to work through the paperwork needed so that these funds can be available by fall 2007. Thank you.”

II.4.12. Investigation and Research on Prasat Top West, by Messrs Susumu Morimoto and Keo Sok Sovannara, Nara National Research Institute for Cul-tural Properties, Japan

Introduction (unidentified speaker):

“The Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties is continuing studies in cooperation with the APSARA Authority on the Prasat Top West temple in Angkor Park. Our colleague Mr Keo will make the presentation.” Presentation by Mr Keo: [OrigE] “I would like to present the research activities conducted at the Prasat Top West temple from 2002 until 2006. I will focus on the results we have achieved these past few years by showing you the activities we have carried out to obtain the results and cru-cial data for our future research.





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In 2003, the Nara Institute started a new project in the Angkor Thom area concern-ing the Prasat Top West temple, monument number 486 according to the inventory given by Mr. Lemonnier, located 500 m west of the Bayon temple. On this slide you can see the location of the temple, which was chosen for archaeo-logical research and future reconstruction projects. We proceeded by starting to understand the construction of the original tower of the 10th-century temple, then by trying to under-stand the middle period tower and the Buddhist terrace. We also collected crucial data for future reconstruction work and future research. The archaeological research in this area focuses on three main aspects. But first, what does the archaeological research involve? Archaeological research was done in order to find out and understand the construction process of the temple, the Buddhist terrace and the laterite enclosure as shown in the pictures. We also wanted to find the layers and foun-dation structures of the temple and its relationship to the Buddhist terrace and the laterite enclosure. In August 2002 we made a topographic map of the area around the temple, as pre-sented in this picture, in order to understand its stratigraphy and ground level. We also researched some stone blocks scattered around this area which had fallen from the temple. In August 2003 we started excavating from the southern part of the Buddhist terrace. Then we excavated further up to the northern part of the enclosure. We gathered information ranging from the 10th century to the middle period construction work. We also carried out architectural research around this temple. In 2004 we conducted an inventory of the scat-tered stone blocks around the temple, giving them a code number, taking photographs, and drawing them on the plan. We then created a database for the stone blocks that were scattered. We also started research on the moulded stones of the temple. We began with sandstone blocks located in the Buddhist terrace. A Japanese expert, Miss Kawaguchi, car-ried out research on the temple and made an inventory of some important sandstone and laterite blocks that can be useful in the reconstruction project of the original tower of the Buddhist terrace. In her first study, she did a 3-D model of the Prasat Top West temple and the Buddhist terrace. She presented this 3-D model at the last ICC meeting. Our institution invited some professional photographers to help prepare the 3-D model of the temple. The last type of research work we conducted at this site is scientific research. In 2006 we invited specialists from the Nara Institute to research and study the weathering effect. They especially studied the stone quality and the impact of natural factors such as water, sunlight and humidity. This study will try to understand how the temple is affected or destroyed by nature and how to control and protect the temple from these factors. The results of this study will be used for the future reconstruction work process. On this picture you can see how we measured the weathering on the stones by us-ing this machine. Here is the process for water testing. We use blocks of sandstone that have been left untouched for one or two years, after which we proceed with the analysis. We also got important data from the excavation work on the Buddhist terrace, which provides information from the 10th century to the middle period (14-15th century). This will help understand the construction process from the 10th century tower until the middle pe-riod construction of the Buddhist terrace. The results from this excavation will be used in the construction process. Thank you very much.”





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II.4.13. Joint Research Project on Stone Conservation at Ta Nei, presented by Ms Yoko Futagami and Ms Tomoko Uno, Researchers, Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Japan

[OrigE] “We would like to present you our joint research on stone conservation at Ta Nei in 2006. In the Angkor area the effect of plants on stone monuments has been an im-portant issue. In this context, the APSARA Authority and the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo, have conducted joint research projects on the conservation of stone monuments. We chose Ta Nei for field studies, the reasons for which are as follows:

- Plants cause disfigurement to the monuments. Microorganisms on carved reliefs hide some of the details from the general public. On the other hand, plants can some-times give unique features to the stones of the monuments.

- Physical effects: the growth of tree roots can cause the structures to collapse. It is also said that lichen and mosses can be a breeding ground for higher plants such as grass and trees, and that microorganisms can protect the stones by covering the surface. Additionally, the rhizoids of lichen can penetrate and deteriorate the stone surface, although it is still not clear if this phenomenon exists or not.

- Chemical effects: lichen acid or other secreted materials are said to deteriorate stone surface but some specialists question the effect of lichen acid on stone as it is not soluble.

On this slide are possible approaches to prevent the negative impact of plants on stone monuments. First we must consider if lichen or mosses are harmful to monuments or not. Therefore it is necessary to identify the microorganisms, in order to know which spe-cies exist on the monuments and the characteristics of each of those species. It is essential to clarify the direct influence of microorganisms on the stones and to assess the effects of cleaning or consolidation of stones which is often applied in conserving stone monuments. Surface characteristics such as color and the water permeability of stones can be changed by these procedures. If the treatment is not harmful, we must also make an assessment of its durability and cost-effectiveness. There is also a more indirect approach to preventing biological deterioration through environmental control. This requires an analysis of the rela-tionship between the level of growth of microorganisms and the surrounding environments.

According to a study on lichen and mosses carried out in 2005, a wider variety and amount of microorganisms were observed in the inside of the sanctuary than on the outside. It was also found that the north and east facing walls have more variety of microorganisms. In order for those plants to grow, several environmental aspects can have an influence. Among those factors we chose light as a factor of the environment by checking the level of growth of the mosses on roofs and walls. We also calculated the dimension of the sky cov-ered by trees. The relationships between plant growth and surrounding environment should be investigated further. On this picture you can see the difference in appearance between the facings of the monument. On the wall facing north inside the sanctuary the moss is relatively abundant and on the wall facing south inside the monastery, a lot of lichen was noticed but not as many mosses were detected. On the wall facing north outside of the monastery moss exists on the scattered stones but there is hardly any on the walls. We chose 13 points that show the different rates of moss growth relating to the sky area thanks to a camera located 13 cm from the wall and 1.3 m from the ground. We took four to five sky images at each point. The white pixels in the images were counted to calcu-late the percentage of the sky coverage. On this picture are the different sky images. You can find the difference of the percentage covered by the sky and the amount of microor-ganisms on the wall. The level of microorganisms is represented from level 1 to 5, in which 5 means that the level of microorganisms is the most abundant. Moss is abundant on the





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inside wall facing north and on the outside of the wall facing south. Moss levels reached 4 or 5.

The inside wall facing south has a significantly lower amount of moss. Therefore we can say that the growth of moss on the roofs and walls depends on the percentage of ground densities. Thus, the growth of moss tends to be less on the walls and roofs when the amount of illumination exceeds a certain amount, even if there is enough water content to facilitate growth. So it can be possible to control the growth of moss by controlling the illumination when we cannot control the influence of water. We also identified the species of lichen and moss on stone monuments following the investigation in 2005. For lichen, 41 species representing 33 genera, including Cyanobacte-ria and green algae, have been identified. Some of the species were found in Cambodia for the first time. The results can be also potentially important. The dominant species with a presence exceeding 90 percent, are:

• On laterite: Cyanobacteria, Endocarpon, Enterographa, Fellhanera, Lepararia, Porina, Trentepohria, Verrucaria

• On sandstone: Crypthethecia, Cyanobacteria, Enterographa, Porina. Most species have been identified both on sandstone and laterite, but dominant species are different depending on the substrates. We also identified the moss: 9 species of Bryopsida, representing 8 genera and 8 families, 2 species of Hepaticae, representing 1 genus and 2 families, were identified by the study carried out in 2005 and 2006. Habitat segregation and competition between species of lichen and moss is observed on different parts of the same substrate. An investigation on the relationship between species is necessary on order to consider the effect of microorgan-isms on monuments. We must conduct further analyses on different species in different environments to reconstruct the effect of microorganisms on stone monuments. On this picture is an example of habitat segregation and competition between moss species, on this other picture the competition between moss and lichen. The future tasks of our project are:

• Identification of lichen will continue with the cooperation of researchers on crusta-ceous lichen.

• Investigation of the existence and rate of direct impact of microorganisms by using several methods such as botanical or petrological methods.

• Analysis of the relationship between various environmental factors on the growth of moss on the walls by using GIS.

• Assessment of the effect of cleaning and consolidation on stone monuments in tropi-cal areas because of the demand to assess treatments for the study of sculptures or inscriptions. However we consider that minimum intervention is desirable. Despite the fact that our research is being carried out on a small-scale, we believe

that it will contribute to the conservation of stone monuments in this area. Thank you very much.”

II.4.14. Joint Project on the Banteay Srei Temple Approach Area Conducted by BSCP (Switzerland) and the APSARA Authority (Cambodia), by Mr Ueli Salzman, Director of the Banteay Srei Project

[OrigE] “As announced this morning by the General Director of the APSARA Authority, Switzerland is now officially back, working in close cooperation with the APSARA Authority on the parvis or approach area project of the Banteay Srei temple.





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As some of you may know in the year 2004 BSCP already released a report on visi-tor flows and highlighted the problems and dangers faced by the monument due to visitor overcrowding. During the beginning of Phase 1, the first discussions about a future coop-eration took place under certain conditions. Today I was able to hand out the official commitment of the Swiss government to HE Mr Bun Narith regarding the second phase of the project. From now to the end of July, BSCP will build up its full team consisting of archi-tects, archaeologists and specialists according to needs which may arise during the project course. The commitment is limited due to administrative matters until the end of 2008. Therefore we are looking forward to starting the implementation of the parvis project with no further delay. The main objectives of the parvis project are:

- Protection of the temple from overstress due to visitors by limiting the number of visitors in the temple perimeter.

- Publication of historical and cultural information about the temple for visitors. - Integrating and highlighting the surrounding landscape with the visitor tours.

A more detailed description of the project will be done to tomorrow morning by Ms Chau Sun Kérya in the report prepared by the working group. The main work of the Swiss team will focus on the general planning approach to the whole parvis and then focus on two main subjects. The first one I will call reception centre, ‘centre d’accueil’, and the second one is the site museum. But it is not so much a museum as an interpretation centre where previous restorations, the history of the temple, etc., are explained. Community development has to be given attention in the near future. There is a team from New Zealand in this working group as well, which is carrying out a study on community development, and as you may know New Zealand and Switzerland enjoyed re-cently a fine cooperation project over in Spain. I would like to take the opportunity to once more ask the different departments and projects to take the chance to publish their reports and findings on the web pages of AP-SARA. For example, we learned so much today and we have seen so many nice presentations, and I think it would be very good to have them published on the website. I am sure you all know that the APSARA web team was trained by the BSCP in the year 2004. Now we are looking forward to a second phase with close and friendly cooperation with the Cambodian authorities. Thank you very much.” Remark from the Japanese Co-chairman: [OrigE] “Before we hear from Mr Evans of the Uni-versity of Sydney, I understand that he has been kind enough to give a little of his time to Her Excellency, the Ambassador of Australia. Your Excellency, you have the floor.”

II.4.15. A New Comprehensive Map of the Archaeological Region of Greater Angkor, by Mr Damian Evans, University of Sydney, Australia

Introduction, Australian Ambassador, Ms Adamson: [OrigE] “I do appreciate the opportunity to take the floor very briefly. I just wish to announce that today the Australian team in collaboration with the APSARA National Author-ity, UNESCO and the EFEO, is formally presenting the new comprehensive map of the archaeological region of Angkor.





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The map is the result of research by Dr Christophe Pottier of the EFEO and Mr Damian Evans of the University of Sydney. Australia's contribution which is being funded by my government has been carried out under the Greater Angkor Project and the Living with Heritage Project. It gives me great pleasure to present this map to APSARA as the re-sponsible national authority of the Royal Government of Cambodia in order to contribute to further research as well as to strengthen integrated planning and management in response to interlocking heritage, social, economic and environmental challenges in the Angkor re-gion as a whole. I would like now to introduce Dr Pottier who will then introduce Dr Evans to elabo-rate briefly on the mapping project itself. Thank you very much.” Mr Christophe Pottier: “I will just speak for a minute. Without going into the details on mapping work that has been going on in the Angkor region for over 150 years now, a tremendous leap forward was made in the 1990s with the ZEMP project funded by UNESCO, which led to this primary mapping. From 1993 to 1999 it was extended out to the southern and central sections of Angkor using remote sensing based on existing aerial photographs, documentary collec-tions and archives, along with systematic field exploration. We mapped minor temples, moats, trapeangs, reservoirs, habitat platforms, etc., as well as more or less visible linear structures, such as those of a hydrological nature, roadways, causeways, and even, inter-estingly enough, the ancient agrarian structure of the Angkorian landscape. This mapping work was completed in 1999 and presented to the ICC Plenary Com-mittee on June 20, 2000. It has subsequently been used by the various APSARA departments as a management tool for heritage protection. I will turn the floor over to my colleague.” Mr Damian Evans: [OrigE] “The University of Sydney’s involvement in primary mapping work at Angkor began in 2000 when Professor Roland Fletcher purchased data over Angkor from the NASA on behalf of the Greater Angkor Project. This was of course a continuation of many years of NASA involvement in radar missions over Angkor, a collaboration that was pioneered in the 1990s by the World Monuments Fund and the Royal Angkor Foundation. These radar mis-sions in the 1990s have given us an idea of the scale and complexity of the urban fabric of Angkor to the north. After Professor Pottier’s work it remained an urgent task to map this area in detail. The radar data from 2000 allowed us to do that for the first time. From 2000 to 2002, we very quickly completed a preliminary archaeological map of the northern area of Angkor based on radar data alone. It provided us with the first real picture of the settlements in that particular area. It showed in particular that the hydraulic network was extremely complex and also that the urban fabric of Angkor stretched much of the way to Phnom Kulen. Through this first phase it was decided that it was necessary and quite urgent to expand the mapping efforts to produce a much more detailed and very comprehensive picture of settlements across the Angkor region.

Whereas previous maps had used arbitrary boundaries and focused only on con-strained areas, we decided after 2002 to use the entire water catchment area for the Angkor region as the boundary for our mapping efforts. It is an area of around 3,000 km2 and includes all the water resources that were used during Angkorian times. Several years of mapping effort since then have resulted very recently in this now completed map. It combines all previous maps—including Christophe’s 1999 survey—into one comprehensive and comparable view of the landscape. During this final stage we used a range of data





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sources to do the mapping, including radar images, aerial photographs and a number of different types of satellite data. Many field trips have been spent with the colleagues from APSARA and the EFEO ve-rifying new features on the ground using GPS. The map shows that an area of around 2,000 km2 was intensively manipulated by the Angkorian people, with the central 1,000 km2 the focus of a massive series of hydraulic constructions, most of them connect-ing ultimately with the Baray. Many thousands of new features have been documented during this process including some hundreds of small local temples and water control struc-tures. In conclusion, we can estimate from these maps that Angkor was a vast and popu-lous network of settlement space and agricultural space, whose delicate traces cover practically almost every single square kilometer within 30 km of the shoreline of the Great Lake, the Tonle Sap. In fact, the maps revealed that Angkor is an engineered landscape that is perhaps unparalleled in the pre-industrialized world. This, in turn, presents some fundamental challenges for heritage management and conservation and here we hope and expect that the digital mapping database we produced will be of great value. It is a great pleasure therefore, as Ambassador Adamson mentioned, on behalf of the Greater Angkor Project and the Living with Heritage Project, to be able to deliver the finalized digital map-ping database to APSARA at this meeting of the ICC. Thank you very much for your attention.”

II.4.16. Conservation and Context—Collections and Historical Sites, by Mr Beschaouch on Behalf of ICCROM

“In just a few words let me explain that ICCROM is a UNESCO agency. Over the last ten years in particular it has developed a training program in the field of collection invento-ries. The important thing in what ICCROM is proposing, in agreement with the APSARA National Authority and the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, is that collections should not simply be viewed as so many artifacts or archaeological findings, but should be linked to the historical context. In this case, any collection study is a classification with a reference to the archeological context and a much broader reference to chronology and history. This was behind the project that ICCROM put before the APSARA National Authority, one that will be important on two fronts. First in the area of developing reasoned collections, but al-so with the idea that this can facilitate the return of cultural property that may have unfortunately gone out of the country during the dark years of the war and occupation. We have an example: The UNESCO Office in Phnom Penh was notified by the AP-SARA National Authority regarding the return of a property. And the return of this property was able to take place due to this approach that ICCROM has named ‘CollAsia,’ or Collec-tion of Asia. This approach makes it possible to recognize stolen artifacts from documentation that has been established on the basis of all existing archives, in particular those of the EFEO.” GENERAL DISCUSSION Comment from the Japanese Co-chairman: “It’s now 5:30, so we are 30 minutes overtime. I would still like to propose that we have a quick general discussion of about 10 minutes. Remember our game rule: you introduce yourself, say whether you are stating an opinion or asking a question and if it’s a question, to who it is addressed. Thank you.”





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Clarification from Mr Beschaouch: “In the presentation made by Miss Abe on the Preah No-rodom Sihanouk Angkor Museum, we had the title in the introduction and then we read ‘former title’ and it had been changed. This decision was made in Tokyo in the presence of the university rector and the benefactor, the president of the AEON corporate group, as well as the first Ambassador of Japan who shared in the process of implementing this Committee. The decision was therefore made to name this museum not just the ‘Preah Si-hanouk Museum’ because it could lead to some confusion, leading people to believe that it is a museum about the life of His Majesty the King-Father. So the name was chosen to es-tablish the link between the name of His Majesty and the name Angkor. After informing Their Majesties the King-Father and King Sihamoni, I think it is important to confirm this and avoid confusing the official name and the name used in a presentation that mentioned both the old name and new name.

Another thing is that out on the work site there is still a large sign that does not re-flect the official decision that was made. It would be good to take that sign down as it is no longer up to date. It shows the older name used until a couple of years ago. Lastly, for tomorrow, as you know, the Secretariat will put forward a proposal for our next meeting. But the Co-chairmen representing their embassies and ministries are in-vited to consider selecting a date for the opening of this museum slated for November. Don’t you think it would be good if it could be as close as possible to the next meeting of our Committee? That way our Committee can be in on the event. After all, it’s the first mu-seum that was conceived and brought to fruition right here. It was proposed in Tokyo and confirmed in Paris. So I would like to suggest that the Japanese side think about bringing the event in line with our schedule so that everyone can be in on it. Thank you.” Comment from the Japanese Co-chairman: “Thank you very much for making this clarifica-tion and proposal. We will talk about it with the Sophia team to see how they feel about it.” Question from Mr Harada, Cambodian Ministry of Public Works and Transport, advisor dis-patched by the Japanese government at the request of the Government of Cambodia, ICC ad hoc expert for sustainable development: [OrigE] “My question concerns the gentlemen from the University of Sydney. I am very impressed by the great effort made by the Uni-versity of Sydney to make a new consolidated archaeological map of the Angkor region. And I believe this will serve not only for people who are involved in the preservation of the archaeological sites but also for people involved in the development of this region. So my question is how can we access this data, this consolidated map, and is it free of charge or will you charge something for providing this data and map? Thank you.” Answer from M. Evans, University of Sydney: [OrigE] “The simple answer to that is that we intend to pass over full responsibility for distributing the map and the ownership of its intel-lectual property to the APSARA Authority. We have no problem with the map being freely available and distributed, however and to whomever APSARA decides to.” Question from Mr Beschaouch: “Allow me to ask Professor Endo a question. He kindly ex-plained to me something I knew by name only, and that is the ISO label. He informed me that Cambodia was one of the leading countries in this area. If so, could he kindly explain what benefit there is for the Angkor site to use this label in promoting this World Heritage Site. Thank you.” Answer from Mr Endo: [OrigE] “Thank you very much for this question, but I am very sorry, I am not qualified to answer this question. So I want to transfer your question to Professor Ishizawa in Japan.” Mr Beschaouch: [OrigE] “But we have with us APSARA’s representative for ISO.”





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Clarification from Mr Tan Sambon, APSARA National Authority, Environmental Protection Department: “I have been working for four years now for ISO 14001 certification. In an-swer to Mr Beschaouch’s question, I can only reply briefly, as ISO is very complicated and it would take a long time to explain it. ISO stands for International Organization for Stan-dardization. This is an international organization for standardization and is mainly known for issues involving quality. You all know about ISO 9001 which involves the certification of goods. Another well-known international standard that people are looking for is ISO 14001 that has to do with environmental protection. ISO is an international network. About a hun-dred different countries world over have standardization institutes. The purpose of ISO is to facilitate the marketing of goods and services throughout the world, and this requires a pa-rallel exchange at the international level as far as standards are concerned. Thank you.” Answer from Mr Endo: [OrigE] “I am sorry. I was confused and misunderstood the question Mr Beschaouch asked. ISO 14001 is very important and concerns 830 World Heritage Sites throughout the world. Cambodia only got the ISO certification last year. My opinion is that it should be mentioned on all the tickets and on all the APSARA logos. Thank you very much.” Question from Mr Tan Bunsuy, APSARA National Authority: “I have a question for the WMF on repairs to the ‘Churning of the Sea of Milk’ gallery. Although not an expert, I know that Khmer temples were designed in such a way that the roof would keep things dry. However, soil moves in time, and I would like to know if the repair operations have taken into ac-count the underground soil factor. Thank you.” Answer from Michael Schuller, structural engineer and WMF consultant for projects on Ang-kor: [OrigE] “The conditions of the soil under the ‘Churning of the Sea of Milk Gallery’ have been considered. It is important to remember that the foundation system under that gallery was entirely reconstructed by French teams a few decades ago. So the soil condition in the gallery itself under the bas-relief panel remains in its original condition, but the foundation under the vault and the column on the eastern side of the bas-relief have been recon-structed with concrete foundation. So considering that part of the work that has been conducted over the years on the gallery and the installation of a drainage system to mini-mize water and moisture accumulation, also the monitoring system that has been in place for several years, which shows that there are no additional movements, we believe that the soil condition on the Churning of the Sea of Milk Gallery has been addressed properly. Thank you.” Question from Mr Si Pei Sei, Director, APSARA Department of Adminsitration: “I was most interested in the presentation by the University of Sydney. If I understood correctly, we are going to have a DIS or database integrated system. I am interested in this DIS, a database on the geographical position of the sites. But there are now eight different departments un-der APSARA, such as the Department of Water and Forestry, which has its own database on water and the forests. So will APSARA and UNESCO be thinking about centralizing all of this on one database that will contain all data in just one system? That will help us with our re-search. And it would be good if the public and other researchers could have ready access to this information. Thank you.” Answer from Mr Evans, University of Sydney: [OrigE] “Thank you for your question. In fact, in collaboration with the University of Sydney, APSARA has underway the Living with Heritage Project whose precise mission is to establish a centralized database system. It is the aim to make that data available to as many researchers who might find it useful as possible and I have been involved in discussion with a certain number of colleagues at APSARA who are strongly supporting our Living with Heritage Project and the construction of this type of da-tabase. So our view is that such a database is feasible and is in the process of being created.”





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Comment from the Japanese Co-Chairman: “I think that our Secretariat has an announce-ment just before we close the session.” Announcement by Mr Beschaouch: “I would like to say on behalf of the APSARA National Authority but in particular on behalf of HE the Governor, that you are all invited tonight starting at 8 p.m. to visit the night market that the Governor and the APSARA Authority are launching in order to enhance the tourist attraction of the old town. This part of the town contains what is referred to as colonial architecture, but I prefer the way the Cambodians call it with reference to their heritage. They call it the ‘Franco-Khmer’ style, which is more elegant and realistic than reference to colonial. If anyone does not have a means of trans-portation, you can see Ms Chau Sun Kérya. She is making up a list and the APSARA National Authority will make a minibus and a few cars available.” Comment from the Japanese Co-chairman: “Thank you, Mr Beschaouch. This brings to a close our proceedings for the first day. I would like to thank everyone for their most inter-esting contributions. We will start the session tomorrow at 8:30 a.m., but before that we will have a showing of a 3-D film on Angkor.”

SECOND DAY’S SESSION

Preview of 3-D Film on Angkor Film, Comments by Mr Oliver Hauck, University of Darmstadt, Germany

[OrigE] “Let me introduce myself and our institute from Darmstadt University. I work with the chair of Professor Kop. The institute is called Information and Communication Technology in Architecture, and we are located in the Faculty of Architecture. I and all the staff are architects and urban planners who participated in the realization of this 3-D film. The chair of Professor Kop is famous for 3-D visualizations. It started early in the 1980s with work similar to this. One of the first projects was Cluny 3-D in Burgundy, France, in 1989. Also another milestone was the Vatican in 1993. We have other projects all over the world. As for me, I started working in 3-D visualization with Sofia Cathedral in Istanbul where we did daylight simulation. The project is called reconstructing, simulating and visu-alizing Angkor. It started in 2004 and will end in September this year. The occasion to do this was the great Angkor exhibition in the Art and Exhibition Hall in Bonn, Republic of Germany, which started in December last year and ended in April this year and which is now being shown in Berlin and will go to Zurich. The primary objectives of the project were creating a three-dimensional database, reconstructing and simulating a model of the Ang-kor region, not only a few buildings, but the whole region, explaining Khmer culture to visitors of the exhibition on a large scale. Another objective was to embed the exhibition esplanades into their architectural context and to show the immense dimension of the Khmer monuments in the Angkor region, not only the temples but also all the infrastructure and other facilities. I shall conclude by showing you a 15- to 20-minute film, which was shown at the exhibition in Bonn and will be shown at other locations where this exhibition is scheduled. In addition to that, we started a second project with two Cambodians working with us in Darmstadt. We will hand over the data to the APSARA Authority in September this year and the documentation of this model will be finished.”

[Film showing in German]





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III. Sustainable Development Comment from the French Co-chairman: “The record of the proceedings of the 16th meeting of the Technical Committee will be based on the working documents presented at this meeting. We would like to have these documents in digital form and ask you to turn them in before leaving. If you should overlook doing so, they unfortunately cannot be included in the record. So please do not forget. Thank you very much. This half day is set aside for the theme of sustainable development.”

III.1. Report on Temple Approach Area Work and Work on the Banteay Srei Approach Area, by Ms Chau Sun Kérya, Director, Angkor Tourism Development Department

“It is an honor for me to give you a progress report on the Banteay Srei temple ap-proach area. We have been thinking about approach areas for almost ten years now and, as you can appreciate, it is not easy to carry out such a project in an inhabited area where many different activities are taking place.

I would like to outline the basic spirit of the project. Slides will provide details, but I will not dwell on the points that have already been developed on several occasions at our ICC meetings. This approach area is very important as it will be used as a model for the structuring of other approach areas. Several years of research and study were necessary and I would like to thank the technical team who put this presentation together. If you have any questions on technical details, the technicians are on hand to answer them. The APSARA Authority set up a technical committee made up of several departments to develop this approach area. I emphasize that such projects are always inter-departmental, as you will see as this presentation unfolds. This technical committee has what is called a steering committee that makes decisions on the solutions presented. The first point, land acquisition, has to do with the situation in the country. The Government had to intervene so that we could purchase the land needed to put in the ap-proach area. As you know, the longer things go on, the more space becomes occupied. The presentation will include five parts, first an introduction to the site, the way things stand now, the principles followed for structuring, the feasibility study and finally the approach area project itself. As for the introduction to the site, we will start with the location. The temple is lo-cated 20 km from Angkor Thom as the crow files, or about 30 km by road. Banteay Srei temple is laid in an east-west pattern, like most of the temples of Angkor, and is tied in to a nearby mountain, Phnom Dei. As for the infrastructure, the main access to the temple is a road that runs along the southwest of the temple and then moves onto the historical axis. A recent road links this road with the highway and the village of Toul Kralanh northeast to the pagoda to the south. A bypass road was put in based on the zoning work done in 2002 by the Temple Perimeter Area Management Unit in order to take vehicle traffic away from the immediate perimeter of the temple. Then consideration had to be given to occupancy of the site, the main village and pagoda located south of the temple. Meanwhile a new village has sprung up east of the trapeang. Shops and parking areas are located along the road. A police station is located north of the temple entrance. Toilets were put in to the east in 2003.





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As for the way things stand now, the green area of the site includes trapeangs and marshy areas, rice paddies, orchards and gardens, with some tree growth taking over agri-cultural land that had been left fallow. There is also some ancient forest of tall trees. Here is a sketch showing the various features of the green area. The hydraulics system also has to be taken into account. The trapeang has at times overflowed during the rainy season. The Department of Water and Forestry team has iden-tified two outlet structures, A and B on the diagram, south and west of the trapeang. Structure A has suffered considerable deterioration while structure B is in relatively good condition. There is only one inlet point fed by another reservoir to the north. Part of the re-servoir north of the trapeang (C) is in a damaged state. Let’s now move to landscape and function changes. The approach area will be de-veloped based on the principle of the monument’s traditional layout. You can see that the diagonal thoroughfare linking the northeast village to the pagoda to the south has disrupted the historical axis. The major problem right now is the growing number of tourists. I will not dwell on this point, as we have discussed it on several occasions at the ICC. Banteay Srei is one of the most popular monuments. Its architectural features make it a very fragile site. The build-up of buses right at the gate of the monument causes interference as one approaches the monument. The approach area project is therefore designed to control the number of visitors both in time and space. Risks on the monument have been analyzed. In 2001, the monument’s condition was diagnosed and areas with significant damage were located. Because of its size and the great finesse of its components, Banteay Srei is an extremely fragile temple. Risks were identified, including the growth of microbiology, a worn-down central causeway and looting. Emergency measures were taken in order to deal with these risks:

- Barriers were put up to cordon areas off, controlling access and keeping people from going inside the central shrine where structures are particularly fragile.

- Protective flooring was put over sculptured thresholds. - Directional signing was put up.

On the next point, principles for structuring the area, three key principles were iden-tified based on the initial zoning elements, in keeping with the major structuring principles outlined at the Paris Conference in 2003: Put in the entryway to the east, provide a buffer space to properly set off the monument and showcase the arrival segment to the temple.

Structuring the approach area basically focuses on two zones, the temple protection zone and its enclosing frame to the west and the structured approach area to the east. The west-east axis that links the temple to Phnom Dei temple is highlighted, providing view-points that allow the monument to be fitted into its expanded context. As for the feasibility study, in order to apply the policy of linking safeguarding to de-velopment, initial archaeological survey operations have been carried out, revealing two basic features. First, the rectangular mound in an east-west direction and two trapeangs separating the two structured zones of the approach area. Some clues were found. The mound is sur-rounded by small moats to the east and south. The two depressions are probably the location of ancient trapeangs put in north and south of the axis. Some ceramic shards and a tile shard were found on the mound, although the surface is devoid of any architectural remains.





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Another important feature involves the communities and the site. In February 2007, a census was made of the selling booths along the southeast thoroughfare of the temple in which they were categorized by type and size. As for the recurring problem of tourist crowding, the peak time of 9:30 to 10 a.m. was identified. Groups pour in and head to the west. Travel itineraries are cut-and-dried, so tour guides only take tourists to see the points considered to be the most interesting, which of course includes the bas-reliefs, the most fragile point of all. Shown in yellow on this slide is the most commonly used routing at the present time; it also highlights the points of sa-turation, which are found in front of the most impressive sculptures. This was explained at our last ICC meeting. A zoning plan was drawn up for the approach area project that focuses on organiz-ing two sections, the actual approach area and the temple zone itself, working out from the visitor center. The temple involves the temple structure and its immediate sur-roundings, part of which has an existing landscape to be preserved and an area in which landscaping has to be done. The approach area includes the parking area, amenities zone, landscaped commercial zone and archaeological zone—the mound and two trapeangs—, along with the visitor and control center. This will be rounded out by the interpretation cen-ter alluded to yesterday by Mr Salzman, thus providing a facility of a cultural nature.

Priority will be given to relocating the selling booths and parking lots, cordoning off the heritage zone and setting up a temporary intake centre. As a first step, this will limit access to the heritage zone, and that requires setting up the intake center as a buffer and closing down the existing access road. The visitor center can therefore be used as a tempo-rary facility to control visitor arrivals.

There will be an area set aside for passenger arrivals and another for departures in the amenities and intake zone. This will include a landscaped parking lot for 30 large buses, 20 ten-seater minibuses, 40 cars and 20 tuk-tuks. Visitors can go through the selling area either on their way to the intake center or after they get back from their tour of the temple. The booths will be grouped according to activity type and will be fitted in with the overall traffic routing in the approach area. Archaeological surveying will take place in the zones that you see here. There are six altogether. I will spare you the details as you can ask questions of the technicians later. Zone 6 has been declared free of archaeological encumbrance and can now move into the structuring phase. Survey operations will be continued in the other zones. Moving now to the tour itinerary, visitors will enter the temple from the intake cen-ter, which will provide a buffer function. Once tourists have gone through the intake area, traffic will move in one-way. They can head in a westward direction without having to re-trace their steps. In order to keep tourists moving through the most fragile part of the monument, the visitor flow will keep to the right. Tourists can visit all or part of the central zone and leave through the western gopura of the third enclosure. Two studies on the dynamic capacity of the monument were conducted in 2003 and 2004, one by the Public Observatory and the other by the Banteay Srei Conservation Pro-ject. Based on the very recent daily visitor figures collected by the Public Observatory for the first six months of 2007, as well as prospects for a rapid increase in these figures, the average number of visitors going through the temple at any one time should be kept down to 150 persons every 20 minutes, or 75 persons every 10 minutes, to a maximum of 4,500 tourists per day. And we are easily exceeding the figure of 5,000 persons per day during the high season. The internal routing was outlined at the previous ICC meeting. Tourists who come on their own may take a routing that differs from that of tourists who come in groups. Indi-





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viduals can take their time for the visit, while groups will be spread out depending on how much time they have available, with routings that take 37 minutes, 55 minutes or an hour and 15 minutes. These routings have been extended to include the natural setting. The natural setting will be developed in order to enable longer visits as a means of relieving congestion and unblock the approach areas. We have given thought to the necessary waiting area that will have the primary function of visitor intake or buffer area for ticket control. It will contain a Public Observatory office or annex for counting visitor numbers, providing information on tourist attractions, letting people know about site regulations and encouraging them to be respectful the mo-numents, as well as an APSARA boutique for the sale of by-products.

The interpretation center will provide visitors with information about the history of the monument, the temple, the site and perspectives, with emphasis on the archaeological reserves and lapidary art. Here are a few slides that show the space perspectives.

In conclusion I would like to say a few words about community involvement. The

APSARA National Authority has given consideration to the needs of the communities, espe-cially the poorest, and is helping the people to both carry on with their activities and benefit from the economic spin-offs of tourism. The bilateral cooperation project with New Zealand is based on community involvement. I would like to express appreciation for the interna-tional cooperation, starting with the ad hoc experts and UNESCO and Switzerland in particular for having granted a considerable amount of technical assistance for safeguarding and rehabilitating the temple. Now that the second phase is starting, as Mr Salzman indi-cated yesterday, Switzerland will also be providing funds for some infrastructure work. And going back to the communities, the New Zealand project has gotten underway and the people were consulted by the department in charge of population, so this project will be a model one and can start very quickly because the financial constraint outlined by Mr Salzman will conclude in late 2008. Thank you for your attention.”

III.2. Urban Heritage Rehabilitation, With Particular Focus on Current Efforts to Clean Up the Seam Reap River Banks, by Mme Tep Vattho, Director, Department of Urban Planning and Development of the Siem Reap / Angkor Region

“With regard to the Siem Reap River Rehabilitation Project, we will speak about the work that is now being done, as we have already spoken about the technical studies at pre-vious meetings of the ICC. This project originates with the province of Siem Reap. Our department provided assistance for technical document preparation, fundraising and tech-nical support for the committee in charge of the riverbank beautification project. We will look at three areas:

- Project context and rationale. - Negative impact of tourism growth on the river. - Description of tasks and project implementation.

The Siem Reap River is a source of water for Siem Reap town. Its headwaters are in the Kulen Plateau, where Buddhist monks like to go on retreats. The river supplies water for the surrounding fields before it ends in the Tonle Sap Great Lake. It plays a fundamen-tal role in the prosperity and development of the Angkor Region. On either side of its course are found stretches of tropical forest, the Angkor temples and vast expanses of rice paddy. Its banks are lined with orchards, traditional villages, pagodas and the colonial town of Siem Reap. All of this forms an outstanding conservatory of greenery and vernacular co-lonial architectural heritage. With the rapid growth of tourism in the last ten years and varied investment schemes, the town of Siem Ream and the river are losing from one day to the next their dreamy, romantic charm, not to mention the urban quality.





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Siem Reap as a tourist town offers many employment opportunities. People moving

in from other provinces are increasing squatter settlements along the river. The province has a current count of some 600 families of illegal occupants along the section of the river running from Wat Svay Pagoda up to the archaeological park boundary. If we estimate that one person from these squatter zones produces 0.2 to 0.5 kg of garbage per day, we come to a total discharge of 600 to 1,500 kg of solid waste dumped into the river every day by these 600 families that average five persons per household. And in addition to this solid waste, the people also dispose of their sewage water in the river.

Unfortunately some nice hotels and restaurants are going in along the river with no

attention given to the matter of spoiling or polluting it. The banks are used as parking lots, electrical generator stations, garbage dumps, etc. This ‘anything goes’ development is gradually turning the sacred river with its once beneficent waters into one huge open sew-er. The APSARA Authority and province are both aware of the problem and have scheduled some priority operations but with a limited budget. These operations include dredging the riverbed, putting in tourist amenities along the banks, from the crocodile farm to the ar-chaeological park boundary. Tourist projects involve putting in tourist information booths, cordoning off sections of the banks, opening up access to the main pagodas, planting trees along the streets of the historic quarter, dressing up the colonial market traffic circle, pro-tecting the architectural heritage and developing eco-villages along the river. Another cluster of larger projects has also been identified for a holistic approach to sustainable structuring of the Siem Reap River. These long-term projects need to go through the preliminary technical study stage. Much will be needed by way of financial re-sources. Two of these projects were previously identified by the Group 8 study in December 1999. These involve rehabilitation of the Frenchmen’s Dam and the Crocodile Dam. These two hydraulic structures play an important regulating role on the Siem Reap River.

For four years now, the province and the APSARA Authority have been cleaning two kilometers of banks and doing daily upkeep on that stretch. As shown on the map here, this involves the whole section in yellow, where APSARA and the province are working. The purpose of this operation is to keep the informal pocket settlements from growing, enable the people to live in a pleasant, clean environment and have safety measures in place in the event of flooding or epidemic. The tourism facilities put in along the banks will enable the people to enjoy a better living standard as tourists stay longer. These operations had not yet been put under any external funding program.

In 2006 the province obtained outside assistance from the Association Internationale

des Maires Francophones (International Association of Francophone Mayors - AIMF) to start working on the ‘Siem Reap River Rebirth’ project, a major building program. It is actually Phase I of the Siem Reap River clean-up and beautification program involving a stretch of 2.5 km from the Royal Palace bridge to the crocodile farm. Under the impetus of HE Gover-nor Sou Phirin, the province got the people convinced to share in this Siem Reap River revival operation through awareness raising, education and getting the people to work to-gether throughout 2006 and into early 2007. This project received considerable support, with many people turning out to help. The work is being funded by means of a grant from the AIMF along with a contribution from the province of Siem Reap representing 25 percent of the total operating budget. The fol-lowing operations are being carried out:

- Putting in pedestrian walkways in the form of a 2-m wide strip of sidewalk from the bus station intersection to the crocodile farm.

- Shaping or contouring the banks and firming them up. Where the slope is gentle, the shaping is done by putting in earth fill and compacting it, followed by putting in a grass cover and aquatic plants at the foot of the slope to provide consolida-





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tion due to their root system. This picture shows the conclusion of the grass planting operation. In another couple of weeks we will be putting in plants at the base of the slopes to keep them in place. Where the slope is very steep, we will put in wood forms and stabilization piling. This will be rounded out by putting in vegetation for consolidation.

- Siem Reap River clean-out operations involve the section from the Royal Palace to the Preah Prohm Roat Pagoda bridge where the greatest amount of silting has taken place. This involves digging a 10-m wide, 1.5-m deep trench in the middle of the river over a length of 785 m. This will improve the overall flow capacity of the river, and this will help preserve all the structuring that has already been done.

- Garbage removal along the banks. This picture shows that there are real gar-bage dumps in some places. An excavator is being used to do the clean-up and reshape the banks. Initially we tried using suction to draw this garbage out of the river. We had to give up because the river bottom is very polluted with such things as plastic bags, even school bags, shoes, etc., which means we can’t use a pumping out system. So excavators have to be used. We will show you a video to give you an idea of how the clean-up work is proceeding.

- Work on the vegetation, including cutting down trees or shrubs where there is a health issue or where they interfere with the view of the river. Trees and shrubs are being planted to beautify the banks, along with grass being put in on the slopes to consolidate them.

Just before concluding, the Governor would like to show you a video that will be used in our river clean-up and beautification campaign. The video is intended for the com-munity at large to encourage the people to help out in our operation. Thank you for your attention.”

[Video projection]

III.3. APSARA-New Zealand Cooperation: Bilateral Community Involvement Project in Angkor Park, by HE Mr Uk Someth, Deputy Director General of the APSARA National Authority, Ms Lynn de Silva, Reprentative of NZAID, and Mr John Howse, NZAID

Mr Uk Someth: [OrigE] “I would just like to say a few words about this project. First, why did we start this project and how did New Zealand AID come to help with it? This project was designed to deal with three main problems facing us, particularly regarding the protection of the temples in Zones 1 and 2. Those problems are urban pressure, pressure from the increas-ing population living in those areas and finally destruction of the environment. As you know, forests have been cut down illegally. We tried to define a new approach. The concept is to protect the temples by means of a development process. Protection and development should be tied up together. As you know, we cannot protect the temples if we do not develop. So there is a need for a synergy between the two objectives. And through this concept, we hope to have a new approach. The population living in the area and evolving with it should be involved directly in the pro-ject. They are the ones who have been living in the area for generations; they therefore have the right to be involved with this project. We hope that by helping them, that they finally will help us to protect the temples. We consider them as the real guardians of the temples. But to make them the guardians of the temples, we have to find solutions to im-prove their living conditions. With their cooperation, we are sure they are going to protect the temples from degradation.





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Beyond this we also hope that the APSARA Authority will not play the role of the de-cider. It will play the role of consultant, a technical consultant who will advise the population on the wishes, on the projects and on the work. The offices of the governorship will be responsible for civil order, social order and legal aspects for the government and the province. These partnerships have three components: the population through community development, APSARA technical advisors, and the governorship for civil order and legal or-der. We hope to bind these projects into one project that will streamline the development and help protect the temples. I will not go into details. I only pointed out the key issues, the key problems and the key approaches to bring us to the solution. And we hope that this will be an example that could be replicable to all projects involving the temples. Yesterday, Mr Khuon Khun Neay talked about the Run Ta Ek project and the new process of synergy between population, law and order and technical advisors. This project will be based mainly on natural re-sources, building up natural resources so they can generate other products and the population can use these products to generate resources. It is a natural process of recycling and cycling, the phenomena of nature. I would like to thank New Zealand AID once again for helping us to carry out this project. And we hope that this project will be replicable. And if this project is replicable then the protection of the temples is ensured, not only in one area but in all areas as we will create a series of satellite towns, like Run Ta Ek. Actually, maybe it would be nicer to call them villages. This type of eco-village would be positioned as satellites all around the temples and this is one way to protect them materially and in-tentionally with the help of the population involved in this process. I thank you very much for your attention.” Ms Lynn de Silva: [OrigE] “It is my pleasure again to participate to this forum and provide some com-ments on NZAID medium- and long-term support to sustainable community development around the Angkor Park area. NZAID was indeed pleased to have assisted the APSARA Au-thority in putting in place a full management plan for the Angkor Park. This management plan covers all aspects that the APSARA Authority is responsible for. Mr John Howse, the next speaker, will be elaborating on what these plans entail. Although NZAID has funded the full management plan it will concentrate its assistance in the next five years largely on four areas:

- Building a sound foundation for sustainable community development in and around the park through targeted activities.

- Strengthening the capacities of the community. - Institutional capacity building of the APSARA Authority to manage its responsi-

bilities targeting some of the tourism aspects that impact on communities. - And finally embedding the core management principles that we exposed at the

ICC in June 2006. The end goal is to make sure that Angkor Park remains a viable living park with the involvement of local communities as partners in sustainable development and hopefully in the long run as protectors of the park and the monuments. To achieve this aim, empower-ment of the local community is an essential ingredient. The desired long-term ownership-partnership goal between the APSARA Authority and the communities could only be fos-tered through sound empowerment processes leading to greater trust between the local communities and the local authorities. Linked closely with this empowerment process is the development of sustainable livelihood activities, which will allow the park dwellers to con-tribute to and benefit from tourism and at the same time manage the resources sustainably.





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Improvement in the living standards of the park residents is a must in order to allow the partnership process between the local authorities and the local communities including the APSARA Authority to flourish. A core part of a credible community development ap-proach is strengthening the capacities of communities to act collectively, not only to improve the infrastructures of the communities but also to enable them to better articulate their needs. Empowerment of local communities will also in the long-term provide them with much needed understanding, as the survival of the park is vital to their survival as well. Tourism revenues generated by the park to date have done little to improve the lot of the local communities or for that matter provide the APSARA Authority with sufficient in-come for it to improve its institutional capacity to manage its responsibilities as well. When implementing the sustainable community development program, the APSARA Authority and NZAID will be looking to establish an integrated approach to development. Hopefully other government agencies, donors, NGOs, private and other sector agencies al-ready engaged or wanting to be involved either in the community development or other aspects of Angkor Park development will look to establish linkages with this project. The APSARA Authority and NZAID will work hard in the next initial five years to continue to ex-pand the linkages that have been established and create new ones where desirable as it will allow Angkor Park to be managed in an integrated and sustainable manner. In the next couple of months NZAID will work closely with the APSARA Authority and the local park communities to develop a detailed implementation plan for community development based on the management plan prepared for the APSARA Authority.

As noted earlier when developing the community development implementation plan including the detailed activities to be funded for the next five years, linkages will be estab-lished with other government agencies, donors, NGOs, private and other sectors agencies working in Siem Reap and more particularly within Angkor Park. It is envisaged that the required contractual agreement arrangements to implement the sustainable community de-velopment in and around the park project would be in place by the end of this year. There are other vital components identified in the management plan such as the landscape management program, the broader aspects of the tourism program which is just outside the community development program that we are involved in and other ongoing initiatives. They will continue to require support from government, other donors, the pri-vate sector and NGOs. The NZAID-funded community development program will look at ways, very feasible, of aligning closely with these other components of the program. NZAID looks forwards to work with the APSARA Authority in this fruitful venture. Be-fore I conclude, I would like to take the opportunity to thank the APSARA Authority for its hard work in the production of the very detailed management plan that has now been ap-proved by the government. Thank you for your attention.” Mr John Howes: [OrigE] “My intention today is to give a background on the New Zealand AID funded project, outline the Angkor Management Plan and what it entails and particularly provide some of the key findings and conclusions and an explanation of their importance for sus-tainable management of the park. Several years ago I reported on a study we did in 1998. In a study of the community we found there were deep-seated poverty issues within the community. We find that eight years later, in our current project, little has changed. The population has doubled and the poverty level is about 60 percent in most of the park popu-lation. The Management Plan flows directly from the 2003 decision of the Paris Conference where the decision was made that the park could be removed from the List of World Heri-tage in Danger. But there were new efforts required to bring sustainable development,





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especially to the landscape, environment, ecosystem, livelihoods and lifestyle of the park communities. And this is what the Management Plan sets out to address. The Management Plan itself is quite a complex document but it's a summary of extensive work with APSARA in consultation with communities over 12 months. That consultation and the work we pre-pared are detailed in separate reports which have been summarized into the Management Plan. The Angkor Management Plan and the NZ AID project have two distinct phases. The first is the Management Plan and the framework it provides for other management plans. The second phase is an implementation of community development on environmental im-provement projects and capacity building for APSARA over a five-year period. The Angkor Management Plan is simple in its concept. It brings together information on the park and it is listed on this slide. The key issue is that it brings together immediate, medium- and long-term programs with the action plans and budget displays for the park management and the government.

The key issues are identified as community development and community or pro-poor tourism, forests and water depletion, land use planning, settlements and population growth. And implicit in all those issues is the strict reshaping of APSARA institutional strengthening and further capacity building. The Management Plan and its integrated pro-gram provide the foundation for addressing this. More importantly it’s a foundation which has been agreed with APSARA through extensive consultation. The outcomes and risks of these issues are not addressed but are quite apparent:

- Economic growth. - Lifestyle and opportunities. - Dwindling resources. - Inability to sustain these resources. - Depredation of the social, economic, archaeological landscape and biodiversity. - Accelerating urban development. - Loss of archaeological heritage values. - Above all, the inability to achieve the vision that’s been set in the inscription for

the park. - Compromised and reduced tourism values.

The temples are a vital economic asset for community development. The temples are located in a neighborhood of over 100,000 people whose forest and water ecosystems are under threat. Tourism is important to Cambodia. A World Travel and Tourist Council study suggests that 7.2 percent of Khmer are directly employed by tourism, 15.3 percent employed directly and indirectly and 23.3 percent of the GDP comes from tourism. So among all the issues on communities, we have to ensure that tourism is sustainable as well as the park. And we need to bring benefits to the park communities. The actions required are self-evident. We have to move from a dependence on natural resources to the devel-opment of tourist-based livelihoods, effective pro-poor livelihoods and above all effective land use planning to manage the land within the park. On the next slide we show the program objectives for community development: - Increasing opportunities for livelihoods, particularly those derived from tourism. - Empowering the community economically and socially. - And involving the communities in sustainable development. The second risk was the depletion of water and forest resources. There have been significant losses of forest over the last few decades. This affects the water in the park and the water resources overall. There is a need to restore considerable areas of forest, 2,481 ha at present to 10,094 ha of primary forest, 1,883 ha of dense forest compared to 4,370 ha before, while at the same time preserving the heritage values of the monuments. The intent is to place a green belt between the town and the monuments and strengthen this





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with an arboretum or a national botanical garden located north of the town to ease the pressure of the town moving into the park and the core zone areas. As you see on the slide, that green belt goes from Phnom Kulen down to the river. This gives a representation of how the park might look like if the forest replacement is effective, preserving the historic rice fields but restoring the forest. Now, I will speak about land use planning. The Angkor landscape is an agricultural landscape in various stages of decline. Uncontrolled settlements, population growth, deple-tion of water and forest confront the park and its management as a World Heritage Site. Land use planning, development and management is presently ad hoc. The actions required are simple but need to be done:

- Establish a land use framework for the use and management of the park land-scapes and agricultural resources.

- Prepare that plan in consultation with the support of the results. - Extend that land use planning north of the park to the non-cordoned area of the

park. The final issue is the one of settlements and population growth. When the park was inscribed in 1992 there were 20,000 people within it. Now, 15 years later, there are over 100,000 people. The commune records show the population within the park growing at a rate of 4.8 percent per annum. In a report published earlier this year the World Bank indi-cated that the urban population in Asia will balloon between 2000 and 2030. It cites Cambodia as the largest growth area with a fourfold growth in that period. Now on this slide you see the effects of the population growth over the years: 2010, 2020, and urban development on the frontage of Angkor Wat. This is real; it is taken from the current growth scenario and taken from the current plot of the land occupation. Without manage-ment, this is a threat and a risk.

The other option is management through land use planning, the protection of that area as horticultural forest, arboretum, botanical garden and the management of the town growth south of Zone 2. This means urgent implementation of effective land use planning, not next year, but this year. It means management of all areas in terms of land use as ap-propriate to the rights of the communities as it is appropriate to the park. And it is so important that it has to be implemented and completed within the next nine months. The actions for Siem Reap are the following: urgent decisions to implement a JICA study carried out in 2006 where one of the major recommendations was the implementa-tion of effective urban planning and hopefully within that framework the implementation of a managed urban plan by 2009 or sooner, if possible. Thank you.”

III.4. Report on Establishment of the Regional Heritage Training Center, by Mr Bruno Favel, Head of Mission, European and International Affairs, Architecture and Heritage Branch, and Ms Natacha Pakka, Official Representative, Chaillot Center of Advanced Studies

Mr Bruno Favel: “Before starting, I have best wishes to convey to you on behalf of Ms Christine Al-banel, Minister of Culture and Communication, who attended this meeting last year in her capacity as chairperson of the Versailles Public Institution, a major partner of APSARA and Angkor temple rehabilitation projects. Ms Albanel wishes all of us success in our proceed-ings and hopes to visit Cambodia again soon.





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Along with Natasha Pakker who is an architect and official representative of the Chaillot School, we will be presenting one of the training departments of the Architecture and Heritage Campus. The Regional Heritage Training Center which will be established in Cambodia at the start of the new academic year is an inter-ministerial and intergovernmen-tal project. This center will provide training for Cambodian, Vietnamese and Laotian architects and heritage specialists. It comes under a Priority Solidarity Fund (FSP), ‘Angkor Heritage and Sustainable Development,’ with implementation by the [French] Ministry of Foreign Af-fairs and Ministry of Culture and Communication. It comes in response to a report that I wrote with Alexandre Métro, a former director of the Chaillot Center in the 1970’s, 80’s and 90’s. The report made a case for the need to train specialized architects dedicated to the field of heritage. The challenge then was tourism development. Heritage had to be pro-tected from damage by private promoters or people who didn’t know what they were doing in the field of heritage restoration. This project is the result of a series of missions to Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. It involved the Cooperation and Cultural Affairs Departments of the three French embassies in the concerned countries. These missions afforded us the opportunity of mobilizing many interesting partners who will work with us to get this project up and running with the start of the new academic year in October. The training is intended for Cambodian, Laotian and Vietnamese professionals. It will put them in a position to conduct studies for the protection of monuments and monument perimeter areas, urban neighborhoods, villages and projects for restoration and presentation, with due consideration given to the constraints entailed by the rapid growth of tourism. Such specialists have been in demand for years now in minis-terial and provincial departments in both large and small cities, as well as by the APSARA National Authority. It is anticipated that they will also be brought to the level of taking on missions later on as project owners or implementers and see to the administration of na-tional policies. The training will be given in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I will now give the floor to Natacha Pakker who will introduce the Chaillot School.” Ms Natacha Pakker:

“The Chaillot School is in charge of center’s curriculum and scientific approach. The school has been functioning for over 120 now as a training ground for architects desirous of specializing in the urban architectural field. It trains heritage architects in France, including those working with historical heritage—such as Mr Lablaude here who gave us a presenta-tion yesterday—as well as government architects and urban planners, Architectes des Bâtiments de France, and conducts operations and classes abroad, including Syria, Bul-garia, China, India and soon Cambodia.” Mr Bruno Favel:

“How is the selecting handled? Simply. Two committees have been established, the first one being a general steering committee. This committee meets in Paris and has al-ready held one meeting. It is chaired by the Ministries of Culture and Foreign Affairs and is made up of representatives of the École française d’Extrême-Orient—currently Mr Franciscus Verellen, director of the EFEO, of the Chaillot School—through the office of Ms Mireille Gruber, of the Ministries of Culture of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, of the French Embassy’s Cooperation and Cultural Affairs Department in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, of UNESCO—Ms Françoise Rivière, Deputy Director-General for Culture or her special advisor, and of ICCOMOS which is a leading organization in the field.

Joint local coordinating committees have also been formed. They were the means used to select the persons in each country who will start their training in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh starting in October. The local joint committee had the job of approving the





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training curriculum, identifying the teachers, coaches and lecturers who will work in Cam-bodia, do a short listing, then follow through upon and coordinate the teaching. The central joint committee is made up of a French Embassy Cooperation and Cul-tural Affairs representative, the local EFEO representative, the representative of the Regional Heritage Training Center, a representative of the Ministry of Culture of the country and two qualified local officials. There is one exception in Cambodia. The local committee additionally includes the UNESCO Office Director in Phnom Penh. This is in harmony with what we wanted, given that UNESCO is very present in providing the services of general secretariat for the ICC. UNESCO absolutely had to be on hand for its advice and important work. Natacha Pakker will now speak to us about how the students are selected.” Ms Natacha Pakker: “The training will target 24 to 29 students, 7 or 8 from each country. They may be architects, urban planners, archaeologists or engineers, with the proviso that they are al-ready working in the heritage field. In each country, a local joint coordinating committee will short-list about 30 applicants for three years, i.e. 7 or 8 per year. Pre-selection is based on the applicant’s personal résumé and other listed requirements. The training will be based on the study of methods and include theory presentations, lectures, workshops and work site visits. Classes will have supervised practical work, case studies that will give rise to individual projects on the part of the students. In particular, each student will conduct a long-term project on a building or site that he or she has cho-sen. The course pattern is ten periods of one week per month. Instruction will be given in English and French with simultaneous translation. At the end of the training, a certificate will be issued.

The content of the training is as follows: It involves knowledge, inventory and tech-nical analysis of urban and landscape architectural heritage looked at from the angle of its protection, maintenance, restoration and reinsertion into contemporary society. The in-struction is divided into two fields, one focusing on buildings and monuments (Architecture Field), the other on built or open complexes (City Field). History and doctrines are dealt with in both fields. Both ancient and recent heritage features are considered.” Mr Bruno Favel:

“So there you have the time line. Back in June the local selection committees screened the various applicants. On July 13, the steering committee met at the Architecture and Heritage Campus in Paris. In early October there will be an official opening of the Re-gional Center. It is our hope that it will operate for a very long time. I would like to convey a special word of thanks to HE Mr Bun Narith who has been particularly helpful to us, as well as to thank Mr Freslon, the Cultural Advisor from the Embassy of France who spared no effort to get this major project up and running with our Ambassador, the Municipality of Paris, the cabinet of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Francine d’Orgeval who you all know but who was unable to make it today. I also thank UNESCO and our colleagues with the EFEO. Thank you for your attention.”

III.5. UNESCO Project in the RUFA: Progress Report by Mr Teruo Jinnai, Representative of UNESCO in Cambodia

[OrigE] “My presentation is about the Japanese Funds-in-Trust with UNESCO for the

Preservation of World Cultural Heritage, in particular capacity building and human re-





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sources development being carried out at the Royal University of Fine Arts, in its Faculty of Archaeology and Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning. After almost three decades of internal conflict in Cambodia, on February 23, 1991 a Peace Agreement was signed in Paris. Four days later, the then Prince Norodom Sihanouk visited the office of UNESCO in Paris and requested UNESCO’s assistance to inscribe the Angkor temples on the World Heritage List. The Angkor temples were listed on the World Heritage List in December 1992, during the meeting of the World Heritage Committee in Santa Fe, USA. However, many major things needed to be undertaken to ensure the pro-tection, conservation and restoration. International teams began to arrive to respond to this necessity. Those countries were France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy and Japan, along with the World Monuments Fund. But at the same time the Royal Government and the donor communities became aware of the need to develop national professional activi-ties related to the conservation, management and development of the Khmer historical heritage. In order to carry out this task, a new generation of Cambodian experts had to be educated. In 1993, the Japanese government responded and UNESCO with the Japanese Funds-in-Trust established a training project. Since then 14 years of this ongoing capacity building project have already gone by, with the exception of 1994 and 2002, during which years the project was reviewed and redesigned. Advice for the institutional management and future involvement of the newly graduated students in the conservation and heritage activities was considered. In 2006-2007, the project is now in its post-reform phase. Now the rectorate has a very good institutional capacity and is managing the project on its own. UNESCO used to dispatch a project coordinator or project manager within the campus of the Royal Univer-sity of Fine Arts; however, this is not the case anymore. Our project manager is now working within the UNESCO office and there is constant communication between RUFA and UNESCO. The current project in 2006-2007 has focused on providing various forms of sup-port, especially on the administration side of the administrative staff. Financial support continues for Cambodian lecturers. Support also continues for the organization of training and field trips, equipment is being purchased and the organization of conferences and seminars is also supported. For the last three years scholarships have been provided for our very distinguished students. This year UNESCO and the Japanese Funds-in-Trust are supporting both faculties to establish the publication of a bulletin. This slide with graphs shows you some statistics. This year, 89 students have grad-uated and this has been the case for the past 14 years.

Now let’s speak about future challenges. In the post-reform phase we are advising RUFA on how to find new partners. They have already found many partners, but they still need more and we are asking potential partners to contact UNESCO or to contact directly the Royal University of Fine Arts if they are interested in providing assistance. Thank you very much.”

III.6. Report on the Green Belt Project, by His Excellency Mr Pius Fisher, Ambassador of Germany

[OrigE] “It gives me great pleasure to inform you about a forthcoming Cambodian-

German development project. The so-called ‘green belt’ project goes back to an initiative by HE Deputy Prime Minister Sok An, and its design and implementation were decided on the occasion of the last German-Cambodian government negotiations on development co-





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operation. The € 5.5 million project will start immediately provided that the Royal Govern-ment of Cambodia confirms the contribution of the agreed counterpart funds.

We all recognize the fast development of Siem Reap town, the apparent economic

boom and the fast growing numbers of visitors to the historical site of Angkor. However if we move out of Siem Reap in the countryside only a few kilometers away there is a differ-ent reality and we find ourselves in one of the poorest rural areas of Cambodia. We believe that sustainable development not only depends on the conservation of the historical sites and monuments of Angkor and on tourism, but likewise on the social and economic condi-tion of the population living around the ancient temples of Angkor. So far it seems too little benefits from the Siem Reap tourism economy have accrued to the Cambodian population, especially the poor. Rather the gap between the poor and the rich is dangerously increas-ing, as it has been clearly shown in a recently published World Bank report on equity and development.

This report clearly shows that the rural poor are benefiting under-proportionately

from the economic growth in Cambodia. The overriding theme and the big challenge of the future project therefore are to create constructive linkages between the booming tourism economy and rural development, leading to poverty alleviation. The objective of the project is to improve the participation of the rural poor in the value creation resulting from the tourism economy of Siem Reap and to ensure a fairer share of the poor in the benefits of the national heritage of Angkor. In order to achieve these objectives, the project will sup-port its Cambodian partners to remove many access barriers of the rural population and the poor to market and services. The project basically has three components: 1. Original partnership for rural development: The project will promote better cooperation

between the public sector, private businesses and civil society institutions to develop a joint vision for balanced and fair development. Joint initiatives for regional economic development and employment promotions shall help to better link the poor of the pe-ripheral district to the economic opportunities of Siem Reap.

2. Market participation of the poor: The project will promote agricultural and handicraft

production and productivity to ensure a bigger share of local and Cambodian products in the Siem Reap market. Specific obstacles challenge the poor when attempting to com-pete with agricultural and handicraft products. We are all aware that the big hotels here in Siem Reap depend largely on imports of vegetable, meat and other products from neighboring countries, and the target of this project is also to substitute for these im-ports.

3. Local governance and improved service provision: It will support the implementation in

Cambodia of decentralization and deconcentration reform in the areas important for ru-ral development and poverty alleviation. Activities will address the capacity of rural citizens to play an active role in local government and to improve the accessibility and quality of government services. This component will further provide capacity building services on the commune, district and provincial level.

Different institutions of the German Development Corporation will join to support this project, first of all GTZ, the German agency for local development, then the German development service DED. They will second advisers and volunteers for capacity develop-ment. They will work together with their Cambodian counterparts to develop appropriate innovations and solutions and to apply new tools and procedures to improve local govern-ance and market access and participation of the poor. Another German agency, Invent, will give capacity building support in the field of regional rural development through carefully chosen training measures, and the German development bank KfW will provide grant finan-cial assistance to improve rural infrastructures, in particular rural roads, to facilitate access to services and markets in the poorest districts of the province. We are confident that this





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project will have an impact in the form of more equitable income generation for the poor based on tourism in Siem Reap province. After listening to the presentation made by the representatives of New Zealand AID, I think there is some need of coordination to avoid overlap between our projects and to create synergies between our efforts. Thank you.” Comment from the French Co-chairman: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Ambassador of Germany. You have to be on your way in a short while and leave Cambodia. I would like to thank you for your loyalty to the cause of Angkor and for your commitment and determination regarding safeguarding the temples.”

III.7. Local Governance Project in Siem Reap “Asia Urbs 3,” by Ms Ruth Gruber, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS)

[OrigE] “It is a great honor to have the opportunity to present briefly the so-called ‘Asia Urbs’ Project. You are certainly wondering what the reform of district administration has to do with all the other topics that have been discussed in the past days. Let me try to answer this question and to trace the past from the cultural heritage site of Angkor to the district administration in Siem Reap. More than one million visitors come to Cambodia every year in order to visit the Angkor temples and the number is increasing rapidly. This is good for Cambodia, especially for economic development, but it also brings serious problems not just in terms of temple protection. The town of Siem Reap itself stands before a great challenge of coping with the flood of tourists. The town is growing quickly, perhaps too quickly. Electricity and water demand, piles of garbage and the traffic are also increasing. The city is also growing to large extent without a real or concrete plan. A concept for the long-term development of the city does not exist yet. This is one of the reasons why the Royal Government of Cam-bodia has agreed to construct a new administration system in the Siem Reap district. It has delegated responsibilities to this administration that in other parts of Cambodia are nor-mally retained by the ministries or the line departments at the provincial level. The structure of the new district administration was developed under the framework of this so-called ‘Asia Urbs’ Project co-financed by the European Union. The administration was officially opened in 2005. The responsibilities of this district administration are exten-sive and I would like to present just three components. The district administration has a team which is working on the land use plan for Siem Reap district. With the support of the German development service DED, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the ‘Asia Urbs’ Project, a plan was drafted as to how Siem Reap should develop until the year 2020, describing which areas should be used for residential areas, business, parks and public institutions. The draft land use plan has already been presented to the Siem Reap District Council—which is also a special feature here in the dis-trict—, to the province and the provincial departments as well to the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction. Later in July this year, the District Council will debate the plan for finalization. Afterwards, the province will hopefully quickly adopt this plan. Siem Reap needs this plan urgently and this plan is a requirement for city devel-opment which must address the needs of the citizens, businesspeople and tourists as well as ensure protection of the temples. It is a requirement for making Siem Reap a town where citizens and tourists will feel comfortable. The second point of interest to you in relation with the reform is that the district has an office and a working group for tourism development. The working group has already started a number of initiatives. The first concrete result is the Road of Khmer Traditions. This road leads from the middle of Angkor Wat to the Tonle Sap and offers everything





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which could interest tourists in addition to the wonderful temples: Cambodian handicrafts, ox-cart tours, old pagodas, dance schools in which traditional dances are taught and the floating villages. In mid-May of this year the district began advertising this Road of Khmer Tradition. The number of tourists making side trips from the temples to the surrounding villages is still low but we are optimistic and think that the number will rise. And we hope that this will motivate the villagers to keep their villages clean and develop some of the types of tourism offerings. The goal is to encourage tourists to plan longer stays in Siem Reap to give the villagers responsibilities so tourists get in touch with the country and the people, and to create additional income sources for the populations. Since May of this year the Siem Reap district has its own Internet presence. The dis-trict not only offers information and an administrative service, but also wants to open the web portal for others institutions, organizations and businesses to put their information on this website. The advantage of this portal is that it has an official government address www.siemreap-town.gov.kh, and all are welcome to link with the district web portal. In conclusion, although there are still many interesting details about the new ad-ministration that we could talk about, I think the most important thing is that the administration has begun to form the basis for sustainable town and tourism development. It still needs support to reach its goal. It is, however, a reliable partner for all parties that work in and around Siem Reap. Thank you very much for your attention.”

III.8. Angkor Wat Safety and Comfortable Tourism, by Mr Makoto Akai, JICA Expert, Advisor to the Ministry of Tourism of Cambodia

[OrigE] “It is a great honor to be here on behalf of many travel agents from Japan. As

I am working for the Ministry of Tourism of Cambodia, I have big obligations in maximizing the number of tourists coming to this country. But at the moment, I have some big anxie-ties. This concerns tourists visiting Angkor Wat. As you know, the front staircase of Angkor Wat has been blocked, and as you can see on this picture this is the usual staircase leading to the central tower. Because of a collapse several years ago, this safety staircase was built. Here is a signboard on this picture telling you that you climb up at your own risk. The number of tourists coming to visit Angkor Wat has increased rapidly. A 20-percent increase is anticipated based on 2006 figures. In a few years there will be more than two million vis-itors to Angkor Wat per year, at the moment climbing to the top of the central tower using a very steep staircase with narrow steps.

As you can see on this picture, on the left-hand side of the staircase there is only

one handrail. I counted several times in one year. In one hour only 360 persons can use this handrail. On busy days many people must wait almost an hour to get to the top of the tower. Regarding those conditions, I have had many discussions with travel agents and our safety team as well as with the APSARA Authority. Many points were raised and the general consensus is that we need this tourism from abroad, but if we don’t remedy the situation we have at present we may not have a smooth stream of tourists. What I am trying to prove here is if ever a serious accident should occur, we will lose credibility in the international community. Please remember the recent plane accident, the aircraft was departing from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville. Days after this accident, Prime Minister Hun Sen did a very good job and he helped the victims in a thoughtful manner and many people expressed deep appreciation to Prime Minister Hun Sen. I am worried. Please look at this picture. I am very worried that someday someone will fall from the top of the tower. There are many people standing down below. If we had this type of accident, the mass media would highlight the dark side as they are prone to do regarding the dark side of the history of this country. I hope we will not have this type of accident.





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I would like to show you why action must be taken in order to avoid this type of ac-cident. As you well know June and July are the low season. In June 2000 we only had 9,000 tourists which, divided by 30, makes only 300 tourists per day. But in 2006 we had 43,000 tourists per month which, divided by 30, makes almost 1,500 tourists per day. In Decem-ber last year we had more than 100,000 tourists, which makes in a day more than 3,000 persons visiting Angkor Wat. These figures are based on the number of paying visitors. If the situation continues, we may even in the low season have almost 100,000 visitors in a month. At the moment we have a dangerous situation. Do we need more handrails, or should we put in another safety staircase? I have had conversations with many people and we came up with this idea. As you know, you cannot touch Mona Lisa and you cannot even take a picture of her. Nevertheless, I would like to visit Paris again. Now I would like to strongly recommend that climbing onto the central tower be prohibited until we establish reasonable ways to manage the flow of people to achieve a situation of safety and comfort. I thank you very much.”

III.9. Present State of Air Pollution and Damage to the Environment in the Angkor World Heritage Site, by the ERDAC Group, Japan

[OrigE] “I am actually a geologist and I have worked in Cambodia for 15 years mainly

on geological development in this country and its natural environment. When I started working here I settled three programs for myself. The first one was concerning geology, the second one was a description of the natural environment, and in the final stage I went on to evaluate the harshness of the environment in Cambodia. Two years ago I found out that we cannot wait any longer. I would like to announce many developments, many projects, many discoveries here, but to be honest I will be talking about the dark side of develop-ment in this area. During our last program on evaluation of biodiversity, we measured the air pollution and I must say this was done incidentally. This was done in the area of Angkor Wat and, please, take a look at the figures on these graphs. This is the concentration of PAH in five areas. PAH stands for polyaromatic hydrocarbon, a carcinogen, so it’s a very dangerous pollutant. I will not go into details but please understand that each high column represents the air pollution. On this graph you can see the pollution level in Bangkok city center, a city famous for its polluted air. Here is the concentration of air pollution in the entrance of Ang-kor Wat. And this is the pollution in the city center of Siem Reap in front of Ta Prohm Hotel. It’s higher than the city center of Bangkok.

On the other graph you can see the level in the city center of Phnom Penh near the Central Market which is seven times higher than the pollution in Bangkok. That means that if you stay one day in a Phnom Penh it equals to staying seven days in Bangkok. And this is the level in Kanazawa, a city that is a famous tourist attraction Japan. And here’s an aver-age of pollution levels in Japanese cities. So we were very surprised to find this data. Therefore we decided to do continuous monitoring together with the Department of Water and Forestry led by Mr Hang Peou. The next slide shows you something that everybody knows but not everybody wants to see. There are many sources of environmental pollution and disruption, including the de-struction of forests, very dirty water, river erosion, etc. Pollution is also caused by many motorbikes and cars. So we have to address this problem as fast as possible and therefore we established a team to develop research on the natural environment of the Angkor mo-





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nument area to sustain and preserve the monuments as well as the health of the people and to maintain the great biodiversity of Cambodia. We developed two programs supported by JSPS and UNESCO. The first one is the geological development of Cambodia. The second is the evolution of biodiversity in the Tonle Sap. As far as the geological development of Cambodia is concerned, the environmental setting of Cambodia is mostly stable. The biodiversity side includes the vegetation and wa-ter quality. This is basic information to be gathered in order to know the extent of environmental pollution and disruption of the monument area. We now know 158 species of fish in the lake, but we only know of eight species of fish in the moats of Angkor Wat. So when you go from the lake to the moat, biodiversity changes a lot and we don’t know the reason. We work on the atmosphere, forest and water which can be divided into water en-vironment, aquatic biodiversity, river and soil. We are working in close corporation with the APSARA Authority and especially the Water and Forestry Department. Our target is to iden-tify the actual sources of pollutants and hopefully to stop them or decrease them at least. Thank you very much.”

III.10. ANGKORICA: A Project by Rise Entertainment, by Ms Zile Montvilaite (Russia)

A video is played: [OrigE] “Screens. Curtains. Gowns. All white... Jewels. Flaming torches. Brocade. Sparkling sunset. Milky clouds of dawn. Tents are white, and elephants covered with white and gold cloth. Eternal monks and guardians. Their clothes make all guests’ white and gold gowns look even brighter. White contains all colors of the Universe. Gold arouses your imagination. It doesn’t matter where you came from. All white… A city appearing all of a sudden and existing only for three days – looks like a dream of what could be here 1000 years before or in 1000 years in the future.” The city becomes alive for a week thanks to artists’ and musicians’ fantasies, and when the week is over, everything stops. And the city stands still in eternity fathered by its true creators. See the contrast of Angkor - so quick, so fast, so fluent like any of our lives, and of a dif-ferent Angkor – eternal, everlasting, ageless – the one that is left keeping memories of millions of its inhabitants. This idea is the major art image of the festival. Appearing and disappearing – that is true and genuine art and you can never see the line where it begins and ends”. End of video. Presenters:

[OrigE] “ANGKORICA is an international annual festival on the territory of the Angkor complex, Cambodia, a unique event aimed at popularizing Khmer, Asian and other cultures and developing mutual understanding among nations and religions. The goals of the event are to attract more tourists to Cambodia as well as to improve their quality level.





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Development stages: During the first three years the event will take place around the major roads and in places that pose no threat to the monuments and buildings of the Angkor complex. Later on in the festival will be extended towards Siem Reap and the Tonle Sap Lake and in several years only exclusive unique events will be held in the complex. Non-invasive for the monuments: Acoustic sound equipment will be used, which will not cause any harm to the ancient buildings. Placement of protection barriers and other ready-made constructions which will prevent spectators from entering restricted zones, providing warnings and instructions to spectators and native people alike, arrangements of a post and routes for security purposes in restricted access areas. Development of sanitation zones, transport and service zones. There are four components to the heart and soul of the festival. The first one is spi-ritual practices which includes yoga and meditation. The second is theatre which includes visual performances. The third is music, a cappella and acoustics. The last one is art. Now we would like to present you the program of Angkorica 2008. We prepared five programs, called Angkor City, Legend of the Bayon, Voices Over the Centuries, Apsara Dancing and Memories of the Future. The Angkor City Program: In order to connect with Angkor to make it a living city we have in mind to invite different teachers of Buddhism practice, yoga and meditation. For the opening and closing of the festival we would like to make two grand meditation ses-sions with monks and the audience together. Also to build the city further we will include contemporary artists, who will try to capture the heart and soul of Angkor through the in-stallation. It will be site specific. These artists have worked at World Heritage Sites before recently at this year Venice Biennale. The Legend of Bayon: The subject will be the Bayon temple. I am a theater director and found this play written by Mishima, a famous Japanese writer, and this is his last play written in 1969 when he was travelling in Cambodia. The story is about one of the most famous Cambodian kings, Jayavarman VII, his life, his idea to build the Bayon and how his soul goes to the temple. It is a great play and we have copies available if anybody is inter-ested. Voices Over the Centuries, Program at Angkor Wat: We will attempt to create a brand new sound using traditional Khmer and Asian music mixed with top international mu-sicians. You can imagine the Icelandic singer Björk in a traditional Khmer dress singing a cappella at Angkor Wat sunrise. Also, for the Apsara Dance Program and a night carnival at Angkor Thom, we would like to use the traditional Khmer apsaras for a night carnival show. The last program is Memories of the Future at Neak Pean. It is a fantasy of the fu-ture and the past that opens to the eye the areas and natural borders separating Neak Pean from the jungle as well as correcting the geometrical form of Neak Pean to allow us to do an amazing video installation. This installation with the help of 3-D technology creates a basis for meditation for experimental outer vision performances. And, of course, the off-program in Siem Reap, including thematic exhibitions and informal artist performances.





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Benefits: Besides all the cultural and social benefits for Cambodia and the interna-tional community as well, we know that increased revenues will not only benefit the Angkor complex but Cambodian society as a whole. Rise Entertainment Company is part of a group of promoter companies that hold major brand name festivals in the US and Europe and are interested in attracting their up-scale clients to visit the Angkor complex where the festival will be held. Rise Entertainment Company is planning to invest $3.5 to $5 million in the next three years. To conclude: With the help of new technologies and connection of cultural traditions and innovative methods of popularization, the event will attract not only people interested in modern and traditional art, but also the best representatives of the arts, religion and so-ciety of the world. Thank you very much.” Comment from the French Co-chairman: “A general discussion was to take place, and there is no change to that. We have fallen behind schedule, but lunch was scheduled at a time that made allowance for our lack of discipline. So the 30 minutes set aside for the general discussion can start now. Remember the rules that Mr Maruyama stated yesterday. Say whether you have a comment or a question and, if so, to whom it is directed and from whom you would like an answer. Thank you very much.” GENERAL DISCUSSION Question from Mr Beschaouch: “We would like to follow the presentations in the order in which they were given. The first one was really a good one that I greet with pleasure and satisfaction. We have had temple approach areas on the agenda for so many years now, including Banteay Srei. I would like to ask this question of Mr Bun Narith, Director General of APSARA, or of Ms. Chau Sun Kérya, the Director in charge of the department. Do we have a time frame for completion of the work? I think our Committee would like to be in-formed so that progress reports can be submitted to us, all the more so since we were told that the big problem with land has been resolved. The land has been purchased, so the on-ly thing left to do is implementation.” Reply from Mr Bun Narith: “The project dragged on for a long time due to land difficulties, but now that this has been resolved, we are soon going to get down to project execution. As the Swiss representative stated, APSARA and Switzerland are cooperating to get a num-ber of infrastructure items in place. The parking lot and business zone are among the priorities, and we can assure the Committee that in the next six months we are going to have a big part of this project completed.” Remark from Mr Favel: “To my way of my thinking, Angkor is a sacred site, a spiritual one. It’s a place where millions of Buddhists come to meditate. Other people also come to con-template. The last project outlined used words or terms like carnival, a break, of things that have been done in certain countries. That smacks of a very western vision of things, of Eu-ropean chauvinism. Personally, I would like to see that people who propose projects comply with the charters of the European Union, Council of Europe and UNESCO that highlight the need to be respectful of the site in which projects are presented. The images had some-thing provocative about them that I found personally very upsetting. I have had personal experience working with avant-garde theater with Peter Brook. So I know what I’m talking about as far as theater presentations are concerned. I am rather perturbed as I speak, as I was very upset with the pictures that were shown in the last project. Thank you.” Remark by Mr Beschaouch: “Just as a matter of procedure, even though I personally agree with what my colleague and friend just said, I would like to reassure everyone that the presentations made at meetings of the Technical Committee are proposals only. That’s the





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procedure and it will be written that way in the future statutes of this Committee. The pro-cedure is that an idea is presented, regardless of its nature, and is taken under advisement by the APSARA Authority, then submitted to the experts as well for their input regarding impact on the monuments and development. Then, after the experts have expressed an opinion, it is up to the Chairman of the APSARA Authority who is also Deputy Prime Minister of the Government, Mr Sok An, to have a decision made. Then it comes back to this Com-mittee at its Plenary Session, at which time a decision is made. So there are many precautions taken and thank you for this feedback, for it will help the APSARA Authority in its study.” Question from an unidentified participant: “APSARA has a number of missions from conser-vation to sustainable development. This morning, the presentations on the green belt project all showed the value of tying these missions in with development and poverty re-duction. I would therefore like to know if the ICC can invite other participants from the World Bank or the ADB and if there is a way of including them in the ICC framework. The second point involves the management of Angkor Park and other projects. Can these pro-jects work if the Siem Reap and Region Master Plan still has not been adopted? That’s my question. Can the Governor of Siem Reap alone handle all the problems involving illegal oc-cupation of the Siem Reap River without help or support from other partners?” Reply from Mr Beschaouch: “This Committee was put in place at the request of the Royal Government and upon the personal intervention of His Majesty the King-Father with UNES-CO. And it was with the agreement of the French and Japanese governments that this Committee was set up. This Committee advises the Royal Government and APSARA and has been following the rules for 16 years now. So I would ask our newly arrived colleagues on APSARA to not change the rules. It is not up to us to say how such and such a thing should be done. As for the Asian Development Bank or World Bank, we were once honored with the presence of its Director at one session. We send out the program to everyone and those who want to come are free to come, but we have never eliminated anything. Our work plan is not established as a function of who attend. I am a little ashamed to take over from HE the Director General of APSARA, but I will do so.

The mission of the ICC is written in Cambodian law: conservation, tourism, water and forestry, working with the province and hence the Governor, on all problems having to do with the town of Siem Reap and Angkor, that is the heritage core of Siem Reap town. We are duty-bound to be advisors for the Royal Government of Cambodia and APSARA. So for anything involving the district, hence the town of Siem Reap, the World Heritage Site and the 5,000 ha, it was brought up in Tokyo. The APSARA Authority is not only involved in caring for Angkor, monuments or restoration. We’ve been given a job to do by the Gov-ernment. And my colleague, the Interim Director, can confirm this. He represents not only UNESCO but also all United Nations agencies, including the UNDP. We have rules. A com-mittee needs rules; it needs discipline, so let us abide by these.” Question from an unnamed participant: [OrigE] “I would like to talk about the presentation of Mrs. Vattho on beautification of the town. I really respect this project because it is essential for the development of the town. The more comfortable the city is, the longer the tourists will stay. And this will provide more tourism income in this area. I think to carry out such a project to maintain the beauty of the river is a very difficult task. The project also of edu-cating the illegal settlers is indispensable as is the control of the illegal occupancy along the river to stop newcomers. My concern is that the Siem Reap area is developing very rapidly and that people living in neighboring provinces may come to Siem Reap to seek jobs and some of them may settle along the river. The more people settle along the river the bigger the negative impact for the river. So in order to avoid an increase of people living along the river a type of control or enforcement is necessary. So I would like to ask Ms Tep Vattho if she knows anything about activities or control over people living illegally along the river.”





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Reply from Ms Vattho: “The squatter problem along the river is a problem for the town au-thorities as well as APSARA. Since 2000, we’ve been struggling with limited means to clean up, occupy and develop spaces with no squatters. This year the budget picture is better and we have completed a major clean-up operation. The sanitation issue is the greatest con-cern. As for your question, right now the district of Siem Reap has taken a count of this community along the banks from Wat Svay Pagoda up to the Angkor Park boundary. We want to develop this zone for tourism. The province counted 600 families and is now look-ing for ways to relocate them. First of all, it needs a budget to acquire the land for the future relocation, if possible close to the squatter zone.” Opinion from Takeshi Nakagawa, JASA: [OrigE] “I would like to come back to the presentation from our colleague on safety. I agree that it would be good to have safety everywhere and I know there are very steep steps to climb to the top of Angkor Wat and that safety there is required. At the same time from the top of Angkor Wat, one can feel something special with the beautiful view of the ancient Khmer world. I would like to point out that cultural tourism is to obtain the realization of a special experience, and at the same time one should con-sider how to behave by himself to reach such an experience. There was also a very important presentation on the necessity of sustainable devel-opment in the wider region either environmentally or for the capacity building of human resources. However, I would like to point out that we should keep in mind that Angkor ex-ists through the authenticity of its monuments and we should not make any modifications or alteration without deep prior consideration.

They are two points I would like to mention on the safeguarding of the Angkor mo-numents. The first involves carvings that are made almost exactly like the originals. This detailed carving is a new trend that is different from what have been practicing in the safe-guarding of Angkor. We need deep discussion on how the carvings should be. For example, take the restoration work on the causeway of Angkor Wat carried out by the Sophia mis-sion, for which I would like to see more detailed reports. However, I anticipate possible different settlements between the original and the concrete basement of the causeway. We need consideration to anticipate the different settlement and the countermeasures that could be taken if necessary.” Remark by Mr Beschaouch: “I would like to commend the APSARA Authority and the Gov-ernor here present for the tremendous work that is being done along the river. You really deserve this praise because things have gotten underway in an effective manner. I would like to as Ms Vattho to tell us again what AIMF stands for.” Reply from Ms Vattho: “It’s the Association Internationale des Maires Francophones (Inter-national Association of Francophone Mayors).” Question from Mr Beschaouch: “I would like to ask a question of the Governor. Is there some administrative roadblock for the garbage, or worse, the out-of-service electrical equipment like the generators? Can you not issue an order for those things to be removed from along the river?” Reply from Mr Bun Narith: “Unfortunately His Excellency the Governor has left. He had some important matters to care for, and regrettably I don’t think there is anyone who can answer Mr Beschaouch’s question.” Question from Mr Beschaouch: “So could APSARA’s Chairman perhaps ask this question, because I’ve seen the situation getting worse over the last three years.” Comment from the French Co-chairman: “Mr Bun Narith, let me relay the question back to you so that we can get an answer from the Siem Reap Governor on this matter of heavy equipment cluttering the river.”





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Remark from Mr Pottier, EFEO: “Getting back to these operations, we as persons living in Siem Reap are the first to be happy about it. But I would like to stress the archaeological value of the river. It is more of a man-made canal than it is a natural river. It is especially interesting to understand ancient hydraulic works despite the fact that it was extensively remodeled during the 20th century. We have found archaeological remains right downtown, right in the middle of the river. So the working being done now is a unique opportunity to do some archaeological research on the history of structuring in Angkor. So if any archaeo-logical information is found while this work is being carried out, we would be the first to welcome the opportunity to look into what was found.” Opinion of Mr Yoshinori Iwasaki, JASA: [OrigE] “I have been working since 1994 in the field of geotechnical engineering and underground engineering and watching what is happening here. The hotels are taking underground water from very deep. Two years ago JICA in-stalled a pumping station pumping 8,000 to 9,000 tons per day and very recently we have reached up to 14,000 tons per day. In Bangkok, pumping underground water started in the 1970s and within 20 years the underground water dried up. There is no endless source of groundwater. In the area, several monitoring wells have been set up and are controlled by different agencies. What we should do is gather our data to see what is happening. Then we could estimate what the underground condition would be like in 20 to 30 years. So I would like Mr Beschaouch to put in the recommendation that we need such monitoring data open to the public, to the academic world so they could estimate what it would be like in the future. I think in two of five years there won’t be any problem but in 10, 20 or 50 years when we will have all gone our way, you will see what is happening here.” Remark by Mr Uk Someth, APSARA National Authority: “APSARA has its own development philosophy, a very simple one: Look for a balance between the three key pillars of man and his culture, the environment and its nature, all linked to social development and economic growth. All APSARA wants to do is achieve this balance or equilibrium. Various principles flow from this philosophy and will make it possible to achieve the objectives. Take Angkor Wat, a heritage, an identity, a culture of the Khmer people. Angkor must not be used as a commercial feature. That would be disrespectful of the Khmer nature or identity. All initia-tives undertaken by APSARA hinge on this central point, the very essence of the Angkor site or Angkor monuments.

This morning you were given a document that explains all that has been done in the mid- and long-term, for specific reasons of urgency, because these projects are the basis for long-term projects. All these projects have been submitted to UNESCO or to the ICC. If things keep on going like they have for the last ten years or so, I cannot see how we are going to achieve sustainable development, mainly because concessions, building permits have been given out haphazardly. We have to correct what has been done, because if we don’t, there will be no such thing as balanced development. The philosophy that seeks a balance among the three elements will be meaningless. I hope that all people fighting for sustainable development are hearing this, and I hope it will bear fruit.” Remark from Mr Beschaouch: “The remarks made have been noted so that the Secretariat reflects the spirit and very letter of our discussions. I have a remark on the local govern-ance project. We are very happy with it and it is important that it be carried out. But we need to know what is taking place between the APSARA Authority and the province, be-cause they are empowered to carry it out, in particular with regard to taking measures enforceable against the citizen. So the proposals made by Ms Gruber could easily move into the action stage. But I feel that the pollution problem is very serious, because when pollu-tion here is higher than that of the most polluted city in Japan and higher than in Bangkok, reputed to be one of the most polluted cities in Southeast Asia, something has to be done about it.





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I would like our friend to share this data with APSARA as well as the Government. And I think that the ERDAC Group should become the advisor to the ministries concerned with these problems, because it involves public health and development issues in this re-gion. The Secretariat will make a special recommendation, but I would like to ask our colleague to kindly approach all the ministries concerned and to come back regularly to our meetings to give us a status report on the problem and the solutions being applied.” Comment from the Japanese Co-chairman: “Before going on to the recommendations, I have some good news for you. The Governor has replied to Mr Beschaouch’s question on the garbage situation. Mr Bun Narith will share his answer with us.” Reply from Mr Bun Narith: “I took advantage of our coffee break to telephone HE the Gov-ernor and got his response to the question raised by Mr Beschaouch: The Siem Reap River beautification project includes removal of the generators set up along the banks of the riv-er. But for the time being, the downtown core is short of electricity and sometimes these generators still have to be used. However, the Government has plans to purchase electric-ity from Thailand. You can see power poles and wires being put in up to the Thai border. There were some problems in recent months with the border, so the electricity system has not yet been hooked up with Thailand. Progress has been made and we hope that by No-vember the Cambodian power grid will be connected to Thailand. We anticipate at that time to have enough electricity to meet the needs of the town of Siem Reap and the generators can be pulled out, especially those near the Old Market.” IV. General Recommendations, by Mr Beschaouch, Permanent Secretary of the ICC “The recommendations reflect the presentations given, remarks and suggestions, or even an opinion where it has significance. We saw this when the matter of pollution was discussed, and a recommendation is made to try to address the issue. I would like to re-mind all of the procedure. We aren’t going to adopt these recommendations today. We are letting you know what was done and objections can be expressed where appropriate. The Co-chairmen and members of the Plenary Session will adopt them next December.”

IV.1. SAFEGUARDING

1. Western Baray a) The Committee is proud of the outstanding work carried out from March until June

2007, under the supervision of Dr HANG Peou, Director of the Department of Water and Forestry (APSARA National Authority) and with the technical support of Mr Michel Ver-rot, architect consultant (FSP, Embassy of France).

b) The Committee is pleased to note the spirit of cooperation and complementarity among the various stakeholders for the implementation of the program: - Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology. - APSARA National Authority - Indian partners: i. WAPCOS Group. ii. ANGELIQUE Public Works Company.

c) The Committee recommends that the Commission set up following Samdech the Prime Minister’s decision should continue to meet as often as needed under the chairmanship of HE Mr CHUCH Phoeun, Secretary of State for Culture.

d) The Committee particularly recommends that the upcoming program, currently being developed, continue in the direction given, namely balancing between:





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- The necessary rehabilitation of the WESTERN BARAY, keeping its historic authentic-ity with its full landscape profile and in accordance with the outstanding heritage values associated with it;

- The need to develop the economic and ecological potential of this huge water reser-voir.

2. Enhancement of the Beng Melea monument complex a) The Committee wishes to congratulate the APSARA National Authority for the measures

taken and for the first program implemented at Beng Melea and its surrounding areas (Prasat Chrey and Prasat Kong Phluk) in order to highlight this unique cluster of three temples linked together by a large baray, located in a recently demined zone. Work was carefully carried out despite limited resources and scarce archaeological documentation.

b) The Committee strongly recommends that this documentation be completed by using archives (especially those from the EFEO) and new surveys (including photogrammet-ric).

c) Regarding the work to be carried out, the Committee recommends minimal interven-tions, restricting operations to facilitating the understanding of the monuments and opening access to safe areas:

- Brush clearance. - Management of the tree cover. - Rehabilitation of the collapsed pilasters to recreate the original access align-

ments. - If possible, rehabilitation of access areas.

d) Finally, the Committee supports an intelligent inventory program for the architectural components and sculpture fragments scattered over the site.

The programs recommended above require that Mr Seung Kong’s team of architects (at least 2) be available and have proper computer equipment (at least 3 computers), appro-priate premises for archaeological management and storage, as well as the means so that the APSARA National Authority quickly acquires the land in the archaeological areas.

IV.2. DEVELOPMENT 1. A territory-wide master plan Obviously the issues regarding the sustainable safeguarding of the Angkor site bear a cru-cial territorial dimension, including the ancient network of roads, hydraulic infrastructures, the cultural landscape and also projects aiming at setting up eco-villages for the benefit of local communities in the heritage zone.

The original zoning carried out fifteen years ago under the so-called “ZEMP” project (Zoning Environmental Management Plan) only provides partial solutions to territorial management and sustainable development issues concerning the World Heritage Site. Therefore, the Committee highly recommends the drafting a territory-wide master plan.

Such a master plan will conform to current references and practices in the Southeast Asian region. In order to efficiently and harmoniously implement this Master Plan, the Committee recommends that a pilot land management project aiming at improving local community development and involvement be set up. 2. Temple approach area structuring In order to develop cultural tourism in Angkor, the Committee once more wishes to insist on the urgent need to develop a visitor and information center on the approach areas of the main temples. The Committee strongly recommends that the APSARA National Authority hasten the implementation of the programs regarding Banteay Srei, Ta Prohm and the Srah Srang complex. 3. Safety, site integrity and visitor comfort





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The Committee wishes to stress the importance of ensuring overall safety within the Angkor Park. The Committee is pleased with the growing number of visitors and opportunities for them to extend the length of their stay, notably by promoting specific itineraries and high quality events. The Committee strongly recommends that appropriate safety conditions and resources within the Angkor space continue to be made available for visitor comfort on the various itineraries.

The Committee particularly recommends that the sacredness of the Angkor space, its pres-tige and unique charm be preserved, preventing it from being trivialized.

Finally, the Committee recommends that the needed promotion of tourism should never be carried out without due respect for cultural heritage and the authenticity of the monu-ments.

IV.3. RESEARCH

1. Research on economic and social features of the Khmer empire: Example of the road from Angkor to Phimai The Committee was greatly interested in the paper presenting the initial findings of this im-portant multi-faceted and interdisciplinary research. The Committee makes the following recommendations to the APSARA National Authority: a) Publish the findings of the research in Khmer and in one of the international lan-

guages. b) Strengthen the human and material resources allocated to conduct the next stage of

this research. c) See that this research conducted under the aegis of the ANA Director General is not

interrupted. 2. Deforestation and stone weathering: Case of sandstone wear at Ta Keo Obviously the sustainable management of Angkor Park also implies sustainable stone con-servation.

The preliminary assessment work carried out within the framework of the Ta Keo Project by Professor Marie-Françoise André (Université Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand) has high-lighted the link between tree removal and acceleration of the stone decay process.

Given the importance of this issue, the Committee recommends that the project be contin-ued with the approval of the APSARA National Authority and be granted the additional funding it needs. 3. Pollution control Following ongoing studies and data gathered by the Japanese research group ERDAC, the Committee is alarmed by the increase of various forms of pollution in the Siem Reap / Ang-kor region.

The Committee recommends that the ERDAC Group and any other group specializing in this field continue their survey work, regularly brief the ICC and, most importantly, submit a master plan of remedial measures to the Government.

IV.4. TRAINING 1. RUFA training program The Committee wishes to pay tribute to the government of Japan, the donor, and to UNES-CO, the administrator of the major training program for archaeologists and architects at the Royal University of Fine Arts.





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This program with a record of well over a decade has yielded remarkable results and has enabled the APSARA National Authority, the Project Owner in Angkor, to strengthen the skills and professionalism of its senior staff in charge of archaeology, architectural conser-vation and site structuring for sustainable development.

In order to continue supporting this significant training program at RUFA, the Committee is calling for urgently needed contributions through the generosity of countries, universities, public and private institutions and donors. 2. Regional Heritage Training Center The Committee is pleased with the establishment of the Regional Heritage Training Center. It recommends that the APSARA Authority fully support the implementation of the Center’s curriculum in Cambodia and that the Center should keep the Committee informed of its ac-tivities and, wherever appropriate, link it with a cooperation arrangement that includes APSARA National Authority. Comment from Japanese Co-chairman: “These recommendations will therefore be submit-ted to the consideration of the Plenary Session. I would like to give the floor back to the Permanent Secretary who has some comments on the dates of the future Plenary Session along with some other observations.” Comment from Mr Beschaouch: “The proposal for the next meeting: The location will be Siem Reap and it will take place in the first two weeks of December 2007. It is understood, of course, that this will be with the agreement of the two Co-chairman, Paris and Tokyo, as well as UNESCO. The next Plenary Meeting of the ICC in 2007 will be chaired by France and Japan, somewhere within the first two weeks of December 2007. The Phnom Penh Office will confirm the exact dates, which will be decided before the end of September, if you agree.” Comment from the Japanese Co-chairman: “We agree.”

New Publications Released in the Framework of the ICC, by Mr Azedine Beschaouch, ICC Permanent Secretary

“We would like to inform the ICC of some interesting new publications, starting with

APSARA. With funding assistance from the AFD, APSARA was able to compile a map of the monuments in English and French, including updated notations printed with a 3-D effect. This map has been produced in Japanese as well. I was closely involved in this undertaking and can assure you that the APSARA Authority is deeply grateful to JICA for its assistance in updating the notations. Ms Kérya will pass out copies of the map to our Japanese col-leagues. Next we have two books. The first [on Ta Prohm temple,] is from the former Ambas-sador of India to Cambodia who has remained very devoted to the temples. He has just given us a beautiful 208-page book printed on quarto pages, including 64 pages of texts, 211 beautiful explanatory figures and maps that provide new insight since the Archaeologi-cal Survey of India took on this major temple. What makes this book so interesting is that it covers archaeology, epigraphy and heritage. It contains an archaeological monograph describing the site and providing current findings. The section on epigraphy gives us an overview of the religious life and monastic activity in the temple. It’s not just a history book but one that deals with heritage, as it devotes a number of pages to conservation and the lay-out approach. I think that APSARA will get a lot out of it when it receives copies of the book, especially for the Angkor Documentation Center that was put up by UNESCO but ma-naged by APSARA.





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The second book is by Professor Jacques Gaucher. It is a folio of 511 pages. The EFEO published it in a collection called Les mémoires archéologiques (Archaelogical Mem-oirs). But it is not just archaeology, because in addition to archaeological discoveries, the author’s architectural inclinations get the best of him and he provides a study of urban structures and city morphologies. He gave it to me yesterday and everyone could see that I was a little out of it for an hour or so, because I stayed up late last night to read part of it. I appreciate his approach which is that of an architect who is seeking to uncover the urban form and that of an archaeologist who is trying to understand how the city is made, how it developed, on the basis of excavations. He extrapolates from the city-temple in Southern India and that is of particular interest to us here, because we are in a setting replete with city-temples from ‘overseas’ India. This book will be very helpful in gaining insight about the Angkorian city. Thank you.” V. CLOSING SESSION

V.1 Statement by the Co-chairman for Japan, Mr Norio Maruyama, Minister with the Embassy of Japan in Cambodia

“His Excellency Mr Veng Sereyvuth, Senior Minister in Charge of the National Tourism Au-thority, His Excellency Mr Bun Narith, Director General of the APSARA National Authority Excellencies, My Co-chairman and Dear Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen: We have just completed the proceedings of the 16th Technical Committee meeting of the ICC. At the outset, I said that we had a real challenge before us. I think that at the conclusion of our intense session, everyone will agree with me that we did remarkably well. The richness of the information, the in-depth discussions and relevance of the recommen-dations, along with the spirit of cooperation that prevailed in this room, are evidence of the high caliber of this committee, one that is unique in the world. I had no reason to be concerned about the quality of the presentation with such eminent specialists from around the world here present. That can be nothing other than something outstanding. The success of our meeting depended then to a considerable extent on how such rich information would be highlighted. The Co-chairmen endeavored to set sufficient time aside for discussion. In this way, further clarification could be given to the valuable information presentated, just like a mo-nument under illumination. It is gradually moved out of the darkness enshrouding it to reveal itself in its full splendor. Your intellectual illumination set off all the presentations and revealed the splendor of this great monument—international cooperation for the resto-ration of the Angkor site. I would like to convey my thanks to all the contributors: to the APSARA National Au-thority headed by HE Exc. Mr Bun Narith, to the international teams, to the ad hoc experts and in particular those who shared in our proceedings for the first time. You did an out-standing job. Furthermore, this intellectual illumination went beyond illumination per se. Illumina-tion per se is to show only the nice things, while intellectual illumination is the use of human intelligence to see the other side of a monument, things that need to be looked af-ter. So as we conclude here, I think I was right yesterday when stressing the need to make a clearer distinction between the two levels of ICC meetings.





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Annual activity reports, contributions of a formal nature, expressions of thanks or announcements that pertain to a broad audience are appropriately scheduled for Plenary Sessions. On the other hand, specific information regarding the reality of the field or insight gleaned from scientific research will be kept for Technical Committee meetings. So I would like to ask the Secretariat to kindly keep in mind the specific nature of these two meetings when preparing the agenda for the next Plenary Session. As for the Co-chairmen, we will start discussions immediately on the agenda for the Technical Committee meeting. This Technical Committee meeting needs a better organized, more specific agen-da. Yesterday I stressed the importance of keeping our session performance-oriented. If you feel as I do that we succeeded in doing just that, it is of course due to the efforts of all the participants, to whom I again would like to express my thanks. But I would also like to mention that this is also due to the superhuman effort put forth by our interpreters who met our needs. Let’s have a big hand for the good job they did. Of course, I want to thank the UNESCO delegation headed by the Representative of the Director-General of UNESCO, Mr Teruo Jinai, and our Standing Secretariat who met the requirements for a high-level international meeting. Without their professionalism based on experience in multilateral meetings, and especially that of our Permanent Secretary, Mr Azedine Beshaouch, I don’t know how we would ever pull these meetings off. In conclusion, I want tell my Co-chairman how much I value his cooperation. Thanks to his encouragement I was able to hang in there until the end. Please accept my heartfelt thanks. Thank you for your attention.”

V.2. Statement by the Co-chairman for France, Mr Dominique Freslon, Counsellor for Cooperation and Cultural Affairs, Embassy of France in Cambodia

“Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:

In a few more minutes we will be parting company after two rich and meaningful days of work. The ICC was established as a space for interchange and dialogue and this session showed that this was true in both the spirit and letter of that objective.

Mr Beschaouch, Permanent Secretary of the ICC, just read us the recommendations from this 16th Technical Committee meeting. Implementation of these recommendations will be monitored by the ICC Secretariat. They reflect well the concern that pervaded the presentations made over these two days: ensure balanced development for the sake of the Angkor sites, the monuments and the people.

A few points from this session might be mentioned here to serve as benchmarks for

future activities: - The sustainable development of Angkor requires a holistic approach that links ar-chaeology, restoration and investments. - Priority must be given to dialogue with the communities on the site. - A number of issues that involve water, forestry, demographic pressure, having the communities take ownership of their heritage, land ownership, etc., need to be han-dled as a matter of urgency.





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- The benefits of multi-disciplinarity and partnerships, which are sources of neces-sary synergies. - The challenges involving training must be met in order to ensure sustainability. In conclusion, I would like to look beyond the scientific and technical qualifications of

each person here. Over and above the high level of expertise that you possess, I must say that I was impressed with the personal commitment and enthusiasm you all displayed.

Days like yesterday and today are proof that your motivation and commitment will

bear fruit in the months to come. Getting a development process underway for all and to keep it harmonious is an ambitious undertaking. The work to be done requires tremendous determination. These conditions have been met and there is every reason to be satisfied with what has been put in place.

I thank the Representative of the Royal Government of Cambodia, HE Mr Seng Ser-

eyvuth, Senior Minister, as well as HE Mr Oum Weackchiravuth, Representative of His Majesty King Norodom Sihamoni, who by their presence have signaled the commitment and determination of their country.

Let me also thank all the administrative and technical teams under the general di-

rection of the APSARA National Authority as well as the representation from UNESCO who saw to the very smooth running of this 16th Session of the ICC. I also thank the Co-chairman for Japan. I think that the two of us worked very well together. And of course the interpreters who made an important contribution by removing the language barrier.

See you again at the next Technical Committee meeting.”

V.3. Speech by the Representative of the UNESCO Director-General, Mr Teruo Jinnai “Honorable Co-chairman, Excellency, Head of the Cambodian Delegation, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Colleagues: We are about to conclude this 16th meeting of the ICC Technical Committee that in-volved a day and a half of first-rate presentations and discussions. The first point in conclusion, I feel, is that our Committee can be satisfied with the way in which the technicality of the presentations and debates was maintained. We thereby achieved one of the objectives set before us. This meeting was supposed to be a technical meeting and indeed it was. The quality of the presentations and debates was all the better for this and I would like to commend all of you sincerely on behalf of UNESCO. I note with satisfaction that this session highlighted capacity building for this Com-mittee, putting it in better stead to meet the increasingly difficult and complex challenges that are being encountered on the Angkor site. The ad hoc group of experts has been ex-panded and now includes sustainable development specialists. They have come to play a crucial, complementary role alongside the four veterans in the field of conservation. An-other positive change is the appointment of our highly respected Permanent Secretary, Professor Azedine Beschaouch, to the position of Special Advisor to UNESCO’s Deputy Di-rector-General for Culture. This will ensure greater efficiency and consistency in the work done by your Secretariat.





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But I would also like to add that the quality of the technical presentations made not only by the Cambodian members of international teams, but also by representatives of the APSARA National Authority, in particular Ms Chau Sun Kérya, Ms Tep Vattho and Dr Hang Peou, merit not only our congratulations, but also our warmest encouragement. They are evidence that Cambodia is forging ahead in its efforts to build high-caliber human re-sources, just as His Majesty the King-Father Norodom Sihanouk wished in 1993 in his message to the Tokyo Conference. Honorable Co-chairmen, the success of this ICC meeting is also ultimately due to your skillful handling of the discussion sessions. Let me thank you for this and express my warm congratulations for the most successful handling of your duties. Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen: We concluded this Technical Session with a series of recommendations that are both specific and significant. They need to be followed through upon with determination and ri-gor. As always, UNESCO, to whom you have given the honor of providing the services of Standing Secretariat for the ICC, will continue with the greatest diligence to follow up on these recommendations that are key elements to the Angkor safeguarding exercise. It will do so in a spirit of ongoing cooperation and trust alongside the APSARA National Authority. The World Heritage Center and the Phnom Penh Office of UNESCO are working closely with the APSARA Authority for implementation of the ICC’s recommendations. My colleague from the World Heritage Center here present, Mr Giovanni Boccardi, can testify in this regard to the unfailing devotion of HE Mr Koichiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, to this model of management in partnership, the ICC-Angkor. This is a most outstanding model in the world, and it’s working. Let’s work together to keep this success going. Thank you.”

V.4. Statement by HE Mr Veng Sereyvuth, Senior Minister in charge of the Na-tional Tourism Authority

[OrigE] “Dear Co-chairmen: I think you have been sharing in these meetings for a long time now and have be-come accustomed to hearing very technical presentations from many countries. You have skilfully allowed the discussions to flow. I believe the meeting was conducted in a very dy-namic way and that you were able to lead this meeting to very fruitful conclusions thanks to your professional input which should be appreciated by the other delegates. My appre-ciation also goes to the ambassadors and experts of many countries. You all have shown us your passion and dedication for the protection of Angkor and we Cambodians should be humbled by this. I also think that this meeting is an educational process for you all. The task ahead of us is enormous; we need to continue. It is sure that Cambodia cannot go it alone in this task and therefore I would like to say thank you very much for your ongoing contribution to meet the challenges ahead, which are to preserve the cultural heritage for our future generations. I would like to thank the Representative of the Director-General of UNESCO in Cam-bodia, Mr Jinnai, whose work has always been dedicated to this process. I would also like to thank Mr Beschaouch who has shown so much enthusiasm and is always informing us on the progress. We appreciate your work and that of your staff. I also would like to thank my





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own colleagues on the APSARA Authority which presented to you their specialties and ex-pertise in a very professional manner. The Cambodians will continue to assist and to cooperate with you all. I would like to conclude by saying that on behalf of Deputy Prime Minister Mr Sok An, the ongoing task is not getting smaller but bigger and that some projects require ur-gent attention, others our attention for the future. So again it’s a long road ahead of us and you will continue to assist us in order to lead our work to fruitful success. We all have one goal, which is the preservation of cultural heritage for future generations. We all have a re-sponsibility and I don’t speak because I am Cambodian but because this heritage belongs to all humankind. We have to use our skills, passion and resources to maintain this heri-tage. I thank you for your attention.”





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Sixteenth Meeting of the ICC-Angkor Technical Committee at Sokha Angkor Hotel, July 5 and 6, 2007

List of Participants No. Name Title Organization Email/Tel

OFFICALS Royal Palace

1 OUM Weakchiravuth (HE) Representative of His Majesty the King

Royal Palace

Official Royal Government Delegation

1 Veng Sereyvuth (HE) Delegation of Deputy Prime Minister, S.E.M. Sok An

Council of Ministers [email protected]

2 YIM Nolla (HE) President for OBSES Council of Ministers 3 CHEA Sophorn (HE) Secretary of State 012 171 9769 4 TAN Theany General Secretary of National Com-

mission for UNESCO National Commission for UNESCO

[email protected] 023 210 369

5 SOU Phirin (HE) Governor Siem Reap Province Delegation of the DPM

1 MAO Savuth Secretary of HE CHEA Sophorn Council of Ministers 016 89 41 06 2 Koy Sorn D.O.T Council of Ministers 012 63 00 66

Delegation of Representative of Ministries 1 HEM Yim Eng (HE) Advisor Ministry of Transportation

and Public Work 012 189 9561

2 HANG Bunnak Department Director Ministry of Transportation and Public Works 012 892 725

3 HONG Daravuth Deputy Director Department of Environ-ment, Siem Reap

4 HAN Sothy Deputy Director Ministry of Interior 016 854 369 Siem Reap Province

1 SAM Siyan Chief of Tourism Police 012 969 991 2 TEP Bunchhay District Governor Siem Reap District 012 213 624 3 TES Chankiry District Governor Bouk District 4 CHOA Sen District Governor Bakorng District 092 914 631 5 BUT Cary District Governor Angkor Thom District 6 ORN Vong District Governor Banteay Srey District 7 SIN Run District Governor Svay Leu District 012 207 462

APSARA Authority 1 BUN Narith General Director APSARA Authority 2 TAN Sambon Deputy Director APSARA Authority 012 757 940 3 UK Someth Deputy Director General APSARA Authority 012586758 4 KHOUN Khun Neay Department Director APSARA Authority [email protected] 5 HOK Peng Se Department Director APSARA Authority 6 Gen. SITH Saroeun Department Director APSARA Authority 012 867 947 7 LIM Eng Deputy Director of Department APSARA Authority 8 LIM Ourk Deputy Director of Department APSARA Authority 9 CHHONG Vira Deputy Director of Department APSARA Authority 012 315 786

Technical Personnel 1 ROS Ratheany Security Department APSARA Authority 2 NGETH Chanly Administrative Department APSARA Authority 3 DENG Sambat Administrative Department APSARA Authority 4 KIM Chay Department of Archaeology I APSARA Authority 5 SRUN Tech Department of Archaeology I APSARA Authority 012 264 663 6 Marie KITAMURA Department of Archaeology I APSARA Authority 012 172 5492 7 Caterine BLOUP Department of Archaeology I APSARA Authority 092 635 671 8 TOUS Somaneath Department of Archaeology II APSARA Authority 9 KHIEU Chan Department of Archaeology II APSARA Authority

10 OUK Socheathy Department of Archaeology II APSARA Authority 012 452 236





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11 CHHUON Samedi Department of Archaeology II APSARA Authority 12 ANG Sokun Department Tourism Development APSARA Authority 012 817 616 13 CHHENG Kunmalys Department Tourism Development APSARA Authority 012 986 875 14 CHAM Samnang Department Tourism Development APSARA Authority 012 403 967 15 CHEA Sopheak Department Tourism Development APSARA Authority 012 686 980 16 Isabelle Brianso Department Tourism Development APSARA Authority 17 Sophie Lizeray Department of Water and Forestry APSARA Authority 092 857 504 18 CHHAY Bunthorn Department of Water and Forestry APSARA Authority 19 SAKON Borin Department of Water and Forestry APSARA Authority 012 891 729 20 IM Sok Rithy Department of Demography and De-

velopment APSARA Authority 012 943 202

21 PEOU Radaly Department of Demography and De-velopment

APSARA Authority 012 454 239

22 MAO Mithuna Department of Demography and De-velopment

APSARA Authority 016 650 969

23 LY Vanna Department of Koh Ker APSARA Authority 092 224 371 24 EA Darith Department of Koh Ker APSARA Authority 012 922 644 25 P.K. Murthy Other Staff APSARA Authority 26 Jeremy Berthelomeau Other Staff APSARA Authority 012 974 803 27 SUN Sonimoul Other Staff APSARA Authority 016 750 771

ICC Secretariat, APSARA Authority 1 Azedine Beschaouch ICC Scientific Secretary UNESCO Paris 2 CHAU Sun Kerya Department Director/ ICC Secretariat APSARA Authority [email protected] 3 ROS Try APSARA Authority 016793879 4 YOU Chantha APSARA Authority [email protected] 5 YOS Chamnan APSARA Authority 6 TEANG Kanha Sothy APSARA Authority 012 453 829 7 HOK Ratha APSARA Authority 012 486 039 8 OUK Marady APSARA Authority 016 947 409 9 EM Srey Peou APSARA Authority 012 515 908

10 Marie-Pirerre Denedetti APSARA Authority 11 Anne-Catherine Dupuch APSARA Authority 092635671

UNESCO UNESCO Delegation

1 Blaise Kilian ICC Secretariat UNESCO Phnom Penh [email protected] 2 Gioranni Boccardi UNESCO Paris (WHC) [email protected] 3 LIM Bun Hok National Program Officer UNESCO Phnom Penh [email protected] 4 Philippe Delanghe Culture Program Specialist UNESCO Phnom Penh [email protected] 5 Teruo Jinnai UNESCO Representative in Cambo-

dia UNESCO Phnom Penh [email protected]

6 PROM Chak Project Coordinator UNESCO Phnom Penh [email protected] Ad hoc Experts

1 Giorgio Croci Ad hoc Expert [email protected] 2 Hiroyuki Suzuki Ad hoc Expert [email protected]

tokyo.ac.jp 3 Mounir Bouchenaki Director General ICCROM [email protected] 4 Pierre-Andre Lablaude Ad hoc Expert ICCROM [email protected]

COUNTRIES French Delegation

1 Dominique Freslon Cultural Affairs French Embassy Dominique. [email protected]

Japanese Delegation 1 Norio Maruyama Minister Embassy of Japan 2 Izumi Seki Deputy Director, Multilateral Culture

Cooperation Division Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan [email protected]

3 Kayoko Tanaka Culture Attaché Embassy of Japan [email protected] Australian Delegation

1 Margaret Adamson Ambassador Embassy of Australia [email protected]





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Belgium Delegation 1 Dirk Heuts Minister Councillor Belgium Embassy dirk.heuts@oliflokelbe

Canadian Delegation 1 Donica Pottie Ambassador Canadian Embassy [email protected]

German Delegation 1 Pius Fischer Ambassador Embassy of Germany [email protected] 2 Ruth Gruber/Ms. (KAS, Asia Urbs) Embassy of Germany 016 552 164 3 Wolfgang Moellers (DED Country Director) Embassy of Germany 012 552 164 4 Olivier Hauck 3D Visualisation Embassy of Germany [email protected]

Indian Delegation 1 A.C.Roy Indian Embassy [email protected] 2 D.S. Sood Indian Embassy 3 Parimal Kar Second Secretary Indian Embassy [email protected] 4 R.P. Dubey Indian Embassy 5 P. Arya Indian Embassy

INTERNATIONAL TEAMS Archaeological Survey of India

1 A.D. Mohile Consultant, WAPCOS, Delhi ASI 2 M.M. Kanade SAE ASI [email protected] 3 Vijay S. Madam Addl. D.G. ASI

Blaise Pascal University Delegation 1 Marie-Francoise André Prof.of Physical Geography Ta Keo Project m-francoise.andre@univ-

bpcfermant.fr BSCP

1 Romana Tedeschi BSCP [email protected] 2 Ueli Salzmann Co-Director of the project BSCP [email protected]

Centre Culturel Français du Cambodge 1 Evelise Bruneau/Ms. CCF evelise.bruneau@ccf-

cambodge.org Czech Project

1 J. Kucera Czech Project [email protected] 2 J. Poncar Czech Project jponcar@fh-koelud 3 Karel Kranda Chief Coordinator of the Project Czech Project karel@uif,zas.cz

Chicargo University 1 Dr. Jeremy Jammes Chicago University

CKS Delegation 1 Ayrine UK Director Operation CKS [email protected] 2 Lesley Perlman Deputy Director CKS 3 Philppe Peycam Director CKS [email protected]

CSA Delegation 1 Jiang Huaiying Director of CSA CSA 2 SO Cheang Deputy Director CSA [email protected] 3 Wu Yuhua CSA

EFEO Delegation 1 Bertrand Porte National Museum EFEO [email protected] 2 Christophe Pottier Director EFEO [email protected] 3 Jacques Gaucher EFEO [email protected] 4 KEAV Buntheoun EFEO 012 280 413 5 KIM Sothin EFEO 012 625 157 6 Pascal Royère Architect EFEO-Baphuon 012 634 906 7 Marie EFEO

FSP Delegation 1 Michel Verrot Architect FSP 012 836 724 2 Eric Llopis Architect FSP 012 594 075 3 Shinji Tsukawak Wanzawa University [email protected]

GACP Delegation 1 Anna Marie Flub-Grossmann Student GACP [email protected] 2 Hans Leisen Project Director GACP [email protected]





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3 Thomas Warscheid Microbiologies GACP [email protected] I.Ge.S. Delegation

1 Francesco Falciani Geologist Investigation Coordinator I. Ge. S. 2 KONG Kanty Chief of Cambodian Staff I. Ge. S. 012 864 066 3 Valter M. Santoro Head of Project I. Ge. S. [email protected]

JASA Delegation 1 CHEAM Pross Technical chief staff JASA 012 892 676 2 Ichita Shimoda Technical Advisor JASA [email protected] 3 Iwasaki Yoshinori DCCT, Bayon Temple JASA [email protected] 4 Takeshi Nakagawa Director General JASA [email protected]

JICA Delegation 1 Matthew Akai Senior Volunteer JICA [email protected]

NRICP Nara 1 KEO Sok Sovannara Presentator Nara Institute [email protected] 2 Morimoto Susumo Presentator Nara Institute 3 Sato Yuni Nara Institute

NRICP Nara 1 Uno Tomoko Reserch Fellow Tokyo Institute [email protected] 2 Yoko Futagam Senior Reseacher Tokyo Institute [email protected]

Rise Entertainment 1 Flemming Nielson Rise Entertainment 2 Meskey Vladimir Rise Entertainment [email protected] 3 Zhivile Montvilaite Rise Entertainment [email protected]

Royal Angkor Foundation 1 Janos Jelen Chairman of the Board of Trustees RAF

Sophia Mission Delegation 1 Chie Abe Sophia Mission [email protected] 2 Nobuo Endo Sophia Mission [email protected] 3 Satoru Miwa Sophia Mission [email protected]

Sydney University Delegation 1 Damian Evans Sydney University 2 Roland Fletcher Professor Sydney University [email protected]

WMF Delegation 1 Glenn Boornazian Technical Director for WMF for Field

Project at Angkor World Monuments Fund

2 Hem Sinath Engineer World Monuments Fund 3 John H. Stubbs Vice-President for field projects World Monuments Fund [email protected] 4 Konstanze Von Zur Meuhen Speciality Materials Conservation World Monuments Fund

PRESS 1 HANG Sobrat Savyouth Reporter Radio Free Asia [email protected] 2 VONG Dara Reporter V.O.A. [email protected]

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