(Locates in Champasak, south Laos)
Brief Description:
The Champasak cultural landscape, including the Vat Phou Temple complex, is a remarkably well-preserved planned landscape more than 1,000 years old. It was shaped to express the Hindu vision of the relationship between nature and humanity, using an axis from mountain top to river bank to lay out a geometric pattern of temples, shrines and waterworks extending over some 10 km. Two planned cities on the banks of the Mekong River are also part of the site, as well as Phou Kao mountain. The whole represents a development ranging from the 5th to 15th centuries, mainly associated with the Khmer Empire (whc.unesco.org).
The Champasak cultural landscape, including the Vat Phou Temple complex, is a remarkably well-preserved planned landscape more than 1,000 years old. It was shaped to express the Hindu vision of the relationship between nature and humanity, using an axis from mountain top to river bank to lay out a geometric pattern of temples, shrines and waterworks extending over some 10 km. Two planned cities on the banks of the Mekong River are also part of the site, as well as Phou Kao mountain. The whole represents a development ranging from the 5th to 15th centuries, mainly associated with the Khmer Empire (whc.unesco.org).
3 comments:
Can we reclaim back Vat Phou fom Lao. I'm so sad that we been lost alot of land and Temple to Lao, Vietcong and Siamese.
Ancient Khmer built too many temples but forgot the basic things "procreation" and that why Khmer loss so many territories. Khmer guys and girls nowadays should not overlook that shortcoming! And why some stupid guy rape then kill girl?
Frick directly that handheld porn device! or use your brain stooges if not your available instructional manual!
Yes, it is sad to see these temples now under foreign ownerships. There are Khmer ruins to be found today in places as distant from Cambodia as the Thai-Burma border and the Malaysian peninsula. Like Roman ruins that still populate various nations today (from Libya and Turkey to Britain) they testify to the existence of a once great civilisation and a reminder of our creative potential as humans.
We may not be able to reclaim any of the Khmer sacred prasats back from foreign states, but Cambodia will do well if she has the means to restore and repair some of the hundreds of prasats that still lie scattered across her present territoties.
On a sad note, present Khmer rulers are more concerned to build personal villas and luxurious mansions than they are to conserve national heritage that embodies the collective soul of the nation. To even repair some of the temples requires the Cambodian government to take up foreign loans, whilst the revenue generated from the great influx of visiting tourists every year appears to be making no difference to the Khmer people's economic well-being.
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