Indian copy of Angkor Wat irritates Cambodia

A foreign tourist poses for a picture at the Bayon temple in Angkor National Park, Siem Reap province some 300 kilometers northwest of Phnom Penh on June 17, 2011. A Hindu trust in India on Monday, March 5 started a 10-year project to build a taller replica of Cambodia's Angkor Wat temple on the banks of the holy Ganges river. (AFP)

Updated Thursday, March 8, 2012
TWN, dpa and The China Post

PHNOM PENH -- The Cambodian government said Wednesday the decision by a Hindu trust to build a full-scale replica in India of the Angkor Wat temple was a shameful act.

Government spokesman Phay Siphan said imitating Cambodia's best-known structure and key tourist draw was a deliberate attempt to undermine its universal value.

“Angkor Wat is Angkor Wat, it is unique,” he said of the 12th-century temple that was listed as a World Heritage site in 1992.

“They are raising this to be confrontational (and) it is provocative of the World Heritage principle,” he said. “We won't let anyone confuse the world that there are two Angkor Wats.”

The Bihar Mahavir Mandir Trust, a Hindu organization, reportedly started work Monday on a US$20 million stone replica in India's eastern state of Bihar.

Phay Siphan said Phnom Penh would raise its concerns with the Indian government.

“(The two nations) have good relations and good cooperation, so we are looking for that to solve this issue,” he said, adding that there was little chance the Indian copy would damage tourism.

“The tourists who come to visit Angkor Wat are not seeing it simply as a stone building,” Phay Siphan said. “They come here to see the culture and to learn.”

Angkor Wat attracted nearly 3 million foreign tourists last year. The temple, which appears on the flag, is a centerpiece of national identity and pride.

Although Cambodia is today a predominantly Buddhist nation, Angkor Wat, near the northwestern city of Siem Reap, was built as a Hindu temple.