A Change of Guard

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Tuesday 5 July 2011

New Delhi, July 4 (IANS) India will set up a chair of Buddhist and Sanskrit Studies at Cambodia’s Preah Sihanouk Raja Buddhist University for four years from 2011 to strengthen bilateral ties between the two countries, it was officially announced here.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed in Phnom Penh between visiting Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) president Karan Singh and Cambodian Religion Minister Min Khin on behalf of the ICCR and the university Monday, an ICCR statement said.

Karan Singh, who arrived in the Cambodian capital July 2, also met former king Norodom Sihanouk and his consort Monineath Sihanouk at the royal palace Monday.

During the meeting, Sihanouk, who had abdicated in favour of his son, and Karan Singh traced historical and civilizational roots between India and Cambodia.

The former king and the queen remembered their visits to India and their association with Jawaharlal Nehru. Karan Singh acknowledged the significant role played by Norodom Sihanouk as a great stabilising force in Cambodia.

The ICCR president was conferred an honorary D.Litt by Preah Sihanouk Raja Buddhist University in recognition of his contribution to the India-Cambodia friendship and intellectual achievements.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

May be Indian faithfully copy Khmer art, we never know. If we compare the temple in Cambodia and temple in India there is none of Indian temple like Cambodian temple, Indian temples are relatively small and its art like doll display. If Hindu is biggest religion of Indian why Hindu temple builded by Khmer are vast concentration in Cambodia during Angkorian period rather than India?

Remember Indian expert used acid to clean up Angkor Wat but now the sand stone decay and melt down and her art form are disappeared, these damages is irreversible.

Please do not trust India, poor country do poor thing, when I made visit to Angkor Thom which under Indian renovation and I did not see any progress except I did see Indian expert hanging around and bossy to Cambodia labours. I do no know where these Indian expertises try to copy or steal the art model or just figure out what to do or to steal.

We Khmer who build countless temple we should be the one who expert for fixing our temple. Of course we need fund.

Anonymous said...

True, no one know more about Khmer arts than Khmer themselves. Sometime these so-called " Experts" on arts do not necessarily mean that they are an expert in Khmer arts just because they earned certain type of degree in their profession of non-related Khmer arts.

It's true that Indian religion and arts were heavily influenced Champa, Funan and Chenla, but not as much with Khmer. If you look and study Khmer arts closely, it's more related to Java(Chwea)of Indonesia. Bali, Indonesia is a good example. Java had greater influence from India than Khmer. Sometime in 6th century, the last Chanla king and his son prince Jayavarman II was supposely held as prisoners in Javanese court after Chanla kingdom was sacked by Java. When he escaped or released, he re-established a new kingdom after Chanla and later known as Khmer. Khmer language derived from Palli(Java) and Sangskrit(India). If you looked at Javanese alphabet characters, they are very similar to Khmer. It maybe possible that Khmer artisans gain their knowledge from Java or Champa. So I don't think Indian arts and culture are that much influential for Khmer. To have an Indian expert working on Khmer sculptures might not be a good idea.