Banteay Chhmar, protecting Cambodia's 'second Angkor'

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Banteay Chhmar, protecting Cambodia's 'second Angkor'

DENIS D. GRAY, Contributing writer

Wielding spears, warriors of the 13th century clash with enemies. The temple’s bas-reliefs celebrate the victories of Jayavarman VII, the greatest of the Angkorian kings. (Photo by Denis D. Gray)

SIEM REAP PROVINCE, Cambodia -- Sunset approaches at one of the world's greatest, man-made wonders. Soft light burnishes the weathered stones, the images of gods and kings. It's party time at Cambodia's Angkorian temples.

Backpackers, beer cans in hand, queue up to wedge into the crowd atop Bakheng, a sacred hill which affords spectacular views of that jewel in the crown, Angkor Wat. And around its vast moat, a seamless motorcade circles, wreathing the edifice with exhaust fumes. In brief, Angkor is being besieged by mass tourism.

Some 170 kilometers to the northwest lies Banteay Chhmar, another grand edifice from the glory days of the ancient Khmer empire, and while it is often called "the second Angkor" it could not be more removed from the crowds and blighted atmosphere around Cambodia's most exalted temple. So far, that is.

A 63-meter wide moat girds the expansive temple which encompasses sanctuaries, galleries, artificial pools and 37 ‘’face towers.’’ (Photo by Denis D. Gray)

At this remote 13th century complex, only the rustle of falling leaves, birdsong and distant music are heard, with just an occasional visitor intruding. Jungle vines snake up leaning walls and massive tree roots strangle collapsing shrines. Then suddenly, from a shadowy niche, a curvaceous celestial dancer, an apsara, stops you in your tracks with a sensual smile cast over 800 years.

A mere 1,392 tourists entered this haunting precinct last year -- about as many as visit the main Angkor temples in less than three hours every day. While there are more than 20,000 hotel and guesthouse rooms available in Siem Reap, the mushrooming city near the Angkor temples, the village of Banteay Chhmar can only host about 50 overnight guests at nine humble homestays and two luxury tents.

Can Banteay Chhmar avoid invasion by mass tourism, and why has it not already been overwhelmed?

For seven centuries, Banteay Chhmar was cocooned in obscurity, and safe access was not possible until 2007, the year the last landmines were cleared following the end of the Khmer Rouge reign of terror and civil war. Its location was and remains relatively remote. Scholars are still puzzled why Jayavarman VII, the greatest of the Khmer kings, undertook such a vast project in one of Cambodia's driest regions some distance from his capital at Angkor.

Unlike the main temples of Angkor, only some 20% of Banteay Chhmar is still intact and requires urgent repair and restoration to halt further deterioration (Photo by Denis D. Gray)

But build he did, and the results were magnificent. Measuring 770 by 690 meters, Banteay Chhmar is almost as extensive as Angkor Wat, its 538 meters of lifelike reliefs originally protected by colonnaded galleries nearly twice as long as the better known ones at the Bayon temple at Angkor. And like at the Bayon, "face towers," 37 of them, rise in the inner precinct, with their mysterious, smiling faces carved into the upper reaches that have been described by one archaeologist as a wondrous bridge between sculpture and architecture.

Prey to looters and the continual lashing by monsoon rains and invasive vegetation, Banteay Chhmar finally commanded serious attention in 2007 when the U.S.-based Global Heritage Fund and Cambodia's Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts targeted several areas of the temple for restoration while simultaneously promoting low-impact tourism to avoid the pitfalls of Angkor and improve the marginal livelihoods of villagers.

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