Cambodians Wary of Angkor Museum

World Hum
7.7.08

A new Thai-backed museum/mall complex located a few miles from Angkor Wat is drawing fire from Cambodians skeptical of the enterprise’s motives. The New York Times reports that restoration specialists are unhappy with the Angkor National Museum’s “aesthetics” and lack of scholarly content, while others suspect that the Thais have designs on Cambodia’s architectural heritage. In fact, anti-Thai riots erupted in 2003 over the issue of Angkor’s provenance.

Given that the for-profit museum is borrowing relics from Cambodia’s National Museum to lend its collection legitimacy, it seems little more than a “cultural mall,” as one Unesco official put it. Unfortunately, it’s a mall that could stir nationalist sentiments.