Photo of S K MONOHA at Stung Sangker, Battambang, 2008.
By S K MONOHA of Cambodia, France
While walking among the ruins of Angkor's temples, it allows us to admire the magnificent architecture built in sandstone and laterite to honour the BRAHMIN HINDOU Kings and gods of Angkor, such an experience gives us a very incomplete understanding of what Angkor was like as a city. The majority of everyday architecture, erected in timbers, bamboo and palm fronds, has disappeared almost without a trace. This makes it very difficult to reconstruct an image of the city, to understand the extent and structure of different suburbs and to imagine the everyday life that existed in them. Ponds, medieval earth platforms, embankments, canals and ancient habitation mounds give us some idea, but there is another common feature of the landscape that may also prove to be useful in facing this challenging task- ricefields.
The agricultural landscape of ricefields was integral to the composition and layout of the city during the time of Angkor. We know this from looking at aerial photographs and satellite imagery that show the alignments of the fields, and through excavations at Siem Reap airport.
In Angkorian times, ricefields were arranged according to the alignments of urban elements such as temples and ponds, forming a geometric settlement pattern that was at once functional and symbolic.
The ricefields formed part of a sacred geography usually arranged on axial alignments. By understanding the patches of ricefields around the temples it is possible to gain an idea of the physical precinct the temple had jurisdiction over. Ricefields were also arranged according to natural features within the landscape such as streams and rivers and the natural topography.
The ricefields can therefore inform us about three things ; the hydraulic technology of Khmer Angkor,the ecology of the city, and the structure of the city itself. While the medieval city is in ruins,many of its ricefields are still used to grow rice. It is usually more convenient to manage existing networks of ricefields rather than constructing a new network.
This has resulted in a large range of ricefield patterns from different periods of time and constructed in relation to different temples and landscape elements as successive landscapes were transformed from forest or previous uses. Eventually,different patches of ricefields have been joined to form a physical,interconnected network that is massive in its extent.
By looking at this landscape of patches, a new image of Angkor may arise as a series of patches and precincts rather than isolated temples and ponds. Each period of history has left different spatial signatures on the landscapes. The Khmer rouge pattern of 1 ha square fields is easy to recognise, even though it has been largely abandoned in some areas and the smaller square fields of Angkorian settlements are also relatively easy to recognise. We can call the landscape a palimpset as it is like a parchment that has been written on many times with successive texts still partially visibly.
Though mapping the ricefields,additional information will be uncovered about medieval waterways, Angkorian channels and prehistoric ecology, Christophe Pottier the current director of the Ecole Française d'Extrême-Orient, ( EFEO ) has already conducted studies of settlement patterns and ricefields using their layout to understand how water may have been distributed from the West Baray.
Of course, knowledge of historical landscape hydrology and ecology is not an end in itself. It is a critical aspect of building sustainable cities. The management of water is critical to any city ans especially to the cities of Siem Reap and Angkor built on the ancient floodplain of the Tonlé Sap. A better understanding of past cities and management practices may provide answers for tomorrow's hydraulic challenges.
Massive changes lie ahead. As canals are filled in and motorised transport becomes more prevalent,the permeability of the landscape and its ability to disperse and filter water through ricefields is becoming more limited. There are many concerns about the level of the water table, wastewater treatment,irrigation and drinking water. The growth of the city, its heritage and development of new economic opportunities need to be balanced against the right of local farmers to continue farming as they have for hundreds of year.
While walking among the ruins of Angkor's temples, it allows us to admire the magnificent architecture built in sandstone and laterite to honour the BRAHMIN HINDOU Kings and gods of Angkor, such an experience gives us a very incomplete understanding of what Angkor was like as a city. The majority of everyday architecture, erected in timbers, bamboo and palm fronds, has disappeared almost without a trace. This makes it very difficult to reconstruct an image of the city, to understand the extent and structure of different suburbs and to imagine the everyday life that existed in them. Ponds, medieval earth platforms, embankments, canals and ancient habitation mounds give us some idea, but there is another common feature of the landscape that may also prove to be useful in facing this challenging task- ricefields.
The agricultural landscape of ricefields was integral to the composition and layout of the city during the time of Angkor. We know this from looking at aerial photographs and satellite imagery that show the alignments of the fields, and through excavations at Siem Reap airport.
In Angkorian times, ricefields were arranged according to the alignments of urban elements such as temples and ponds, forming a geometric settlement pattern that was at once functional and symbolic.
The ricefields formed part of a sacred geography usually arranged on axial alignments. By understanding the patches of ricefields around the temples it is possible to gain an idea of the physical precinct the temple had jurisdiction over. Ricefields were also arranged according to natural features within the landscape such as streams and rivers and the natural topography.
The ricefields can therefore inform us about three things ; the hydraulic technology of Khmer Angkor,the ecology of the city, and the structure of the city itself. While the medieval city is in ruins,many of its ricefields are still used to grow rice. It is usually more convenient to manage existing networks of ricefields rather than constructing a new network.
This has resulted in a large range of ricefield patterns from different periods of time and constructed in relation to different temples and landscape elements as successive landscapes were transformed from forest or previous uses. Eventually,different patches of ricefields have been joined to form a physical,interconnected network that is massive in its extent.
By looking at this landscape of patches, a new image of Angkor may arise as a series of patches and precincts rather than isolated temples and ponds. Each period of history has left different spatial signatures on the landscapes. The Khmer rouge pattern of 1 ha square fields is easy to recognise, even though it has been largely abandoned in some areas and the smaller square fields of Angkorian settlements are also relatively easy to recognise. We can call the landscape a palimpset as it is like a parchment that has been written on many times with successive texts still partially visibly.
Though mapping the ricefields,additional information will be uncovered about medieval waterways, Angkorian channels and prehistoric ecology, Christophe Pottier the current director of the Ecole Française d'Extrême-Orient, ( EFEO ) has already conducted studies of settlement patterns and ricefields using their layout to understand how water may have been distributed from the West Baray.
Of course, knowledge of historical landscape hydrology and ecology is not an end in itself. It is a critical aspect of building sustainable cities. The management of water is critical to any city ans especially to the cities of Siem Reap and Angkor built on the ancient floodplain of the Tonlé Sap. A better understanding of past cities and management practices may provide answers for tomorrow's hydraulic challenges.
Massive changes lie ahead. As canals are filled in and motorised transport becomes more prevalent,the permeability of the landscape and its ability to disperse and filter water through ricefields is becoming more limited. There are many concerns about the level of the water table, wastewater treatment,irrigation and drinking water. The growth of the city, its heritage and development of new economic opportunities need to be balanced against the right of local farmers to continue farming as they have for hundreds of year.
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