Park’s special status ‘at risk’ over drilling hole

By Phatarawadee Phataranawik 
The Nation 

 

Photo courtesy of Sri Thep Historical Park

 

Thailand’s Sri Thep Historical Park in Phetchabun may lose the chance to become a World Heritage Site if the government allows an oil company to build a drilling hole nearby, according to Wison Kosotanon, president of the Phetchabun Culture Council.

 

His warning came after a company, ECO Orient Resources (Thailand), called earlier this week for a public hearing process in order to prepare an Environment Impact Assessment report. The company plans to build the drilling hole near the 1,300 year-old Khao Kwang Nok Stupa located inside the park. 

 

“The new drilling hole is too close – just over 100 metres to the historical stupa – it will be harmful to our heritage and will lose us the chance to get the recognition as a World Heritage Site by Unesco,” Wison explained.

 

Opinion is divided over the company’s application – at the first public hearing, many culture experts and local officials  opposed its construction and claimed they had concerns about the cultural and environmental impacts it would have, but some villagers supported it in the hope it might provide them with employment. 

 

Anan Choochote, director of the Culture Ministry’s Fine Arts Department, has assigned his archaeological teams to study the merits of the company’s application.

 

“Our officers are studying its impact. If there is harm to our heritage, we will work with other governmental agencies to stop the project,” Anan said. “We are now gathering more information and we will submit it to Unesco later this year.”

 

The proposal for Sri Thep to be listed as a World Heritage Site is expected to be approved by the cabinet and the National Committee on the World Heritage Commission Convention on March 8.

 

Anan added that Sri Thep Historical Park had been listed as a national archaeological site since 1935 and also dates back some 2,500 years like prehistoric Ban Chiang. Therefore, he said, it also warranted being listed as a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco). 

 

Ban Chiang, an archeological site in Nong Han District, Udon Thani Province, has been on the Unesco World Heritage list since 1992.

 

Following the Phetchabun Culture Council’s controversial opposition to the drilling project, ECO Orient Resources may postpone the second round of public hearings currently due to be held in April.

 

“As the result of the objection raised at the public hearing, senior officials at our head office will carefully study whether the firm should hold a second round of public hearings or drop it,” said company spokesman Navin Panphan.

 

The firm has been drilling for oil in Sri Thep for more than a decade but the latest plan to build a new hole near the stupa has raised concerns on cultural, environmental and tourism grounds.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30364996

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-03-01

Many of the structures in that park are not only very old, but they are very fragile as well. Bringing in heavy equipment and drilling within 100 meters of some of the structures ?

 

What happens when ground vibrations from the drilling and/or heavy equipment causes some of the old structures to collapse ?

I've been to Sri Thep twice now - these are from my last trip in Dec 2017 - https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10155588525649220&type=1&l=e840442b8c

It is a pretty big park, with structures scattered over a large area. Parts of it are far older than some better known sites like Phimai or Phanom Rung and it doesn't appear they've tried to "reconstruct" many of the structures like they've done at other sites.

 

I'd also find it hard to believe that they couldn't drill at a site that was kilometers away and still hit the same deposit. It's not like the oil is in a tiny shaft that you have to drill into with needle like precision. 

I'd suspect it has more to do with someone hoping they can do the drilling without having to pay anyone else for the rights to drill on their property. The area around Sri Thep is mostly farmers fields though. I doubt they'd have much problem finding an alternative drilling site that is much further away from the park.
It really should be a no-brainer to deny this and tell the company to find a different location.

 

As well, they should look at making a law prohibiting drilling or blasting within a certain distance of any ancient structures. Most of them were not built that strongly to begin with, as they never developed cement or mortar back in those times. Many structures used durable Laterite stones for the base and softer Sandstone (or mud brick) for the upper parts. The stones are literally just stacked on top of each other and where they wanted a stone roof, they would overlap stones to create "arches" as they also never developed rafters or trusses.

Note the Laterite stones that make up the base of this structure, and the Sandstone bricks used for the walls. The overlapping bricks are held in place by other bricks on top and at the rear of the lower stones. This is one way to make arches/roofs without trusses.

Many of the smaller structures found in various Historic Parks have no roofs at all because they used (presumably) bamboo and grass mats (like you see on many huts to this day).

Natural erosion, plant growth and the occasional minor quake have caused many of the ancient structures in Thailand (and elsewhere) to collapse already, many of which will never be fully restored. I have noted that, in some places, they are trying to preserve existing structures, but that mostly consists of just trying to prop them up so they don't collapse. I don't think they have the money (or expertise) to do much more than that unfortunately. Most of their resources go towards the "nicer" places like Phimai and Phanom Rung.

This prang at Prasat Si Khoraphum (Surin) has developed quite  lean to it. Eventually they will try to brace it to prevent it from collapsing but that is a temporary solution.


At this site (also in Surin) they've just braced the prangs while at this site in Sa Kaeo they've gone a little further but basically it's just propping it up.

  

Once those structures collapse I suspect they won't even try to restore them. Si Khoraphum is a nice site but the other 2 pictured above are off the beaten track and not popular "tourist" sites so they won't warrant a lot of attention. (By "tourists" I mean domestic - I usually don't see a lot of foreigners at any of these sites.)

As you can probably imagine, bringing in loads of heavy equipment (trucks and drilling rigs) and then trying to drill for oil within 100 meters of some of the structures pictured could easily lead to them collapsing. 

That would be sad as that is a lot of ancient history that could possibly be destroyed, mainly by greed and indifference. History that can never be replaced.

(Bonus - finding out I can simply click/drag a pic that is in a Facebook album and drop it directly into a post, instead of having to search for it on my computer, uploading it, then clicking on it to insert into post. Learn something new everyday !)

Does seem odd they think they need to drill in one spot given there is directional drilling.   I wonder how deep they plan to go.