Restoring Cambodia’s Heritage:
Piece by piece, Cambodia’s glorious heritage is being restored and this story today from the Apsara National Authority in Siem Reap, is a perfect example. In 1927 a damaged though rarely-depicted head of Buddha was retrieved from inside Ta Prohm temple at Angkor and has been kept at the Angkor Conservation depot ever since, under inventory number DCA.6883. Recent excavations by Apsara and their partner, the Archaeological Research of India (ASI) team, have unearthed a series of buried sculptural elements and last month the torso of a bejeweled Buddhist statue from the late twelfth century was found. A fine piece of detective work and the use of modern scanning equipment have now matched the torso to an arm and feet with pedestal which were unearthed in July 2024, as well as the head at the Angkor Conservation HQ to produce an almost complete statue. The numerous fragments of sculptures excavated at Ta Prohm in recent times could well generate other re-assembled statues in the future.Credit By :
Andy Brouwer
