A HERITAGE WATCH PROJECT IN RURAL CAMBODIA HOPES TO PROTECT KOH KER’S ANCIENT RUINS AND THE COMMUNITY LIVING AROUND IT

THREE MONTHS AGO, Rey could not read or write. Yet today, standing in front of the classroom, her pen forms a sentence on the white board. It reads: “Koh Ker temple was built by our ancestors in 921” in tentative Khmer script. She pauses at some points, struggling to remember the 33-letter alphabet that she has only recently learnt. Her classmates are just as new to writing, but they prompt her by shouting out the answers, their voices carrying across the makeshift school.

The open-air building is surrounded by jungle in the village of Koh Ker, a three-hour drive from Siem Reap via a recently paved road. The students there are not your usual school children, but five men and six women, aged between 20 and 45 years old. And these are not ordinary lessons either, but part of a special education programme by Heritage Watch, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in Phnom Penh.

Just metres from the classroom is a slide and simple playground where 20 or so children are playing noisily, waiting for their parents to finish the day’s lesson. The jungle gym keeps the kids occupied while their mums and dads learn how to read, write and count, as well as the basics of running a business. They are here every day between 7.30 to 10am, Monday to Friday, picking up skills that Heritage Watch hopes will empower them to supplement their subsistence farming. And yes, they do need the help.

“Most of them farm enough rice to last them for six months of the year, so for the other six months, they don’t have enough food for themselves and their families,” says Bou Rithy, field manager of the Koh Ker programme. Rithy has been running the project since its inception in August 2006 and, together with another educator, Pin Sam, teaches the group of 11 students.

The innovation of the project is brilliant in its simplicity. Rithy is sourcing for a qualified instructor to teach the art of traditional pottery in a small ceramics workshop behind the classroom, which would allow these locals to sell handmade wares to tourists. Plans are also in place for villagers to conduct ox-cart tours of the temple grounds for visitors in the future. It is a simple idea that is sure to bring in some much-needed income.

The NGO is also teaching these students the significance of the nearby temples. Although only walking distance from their attap hut homes, the villagers know nothing about the history of these relics that were built in the 10th century during the Angkorian period.

The group of 30 structures was the capital of the Angkorian kingdom during the reign of Jayavarman IV, who moved the capital from Angkor back to Koh Ker, thought to be his hometown. Although it was the first city for only 16 years, the site is home of some fantastic sculptural artefacts. Many are now on display at the National Museum in Phnom Penh, sheltered from the elements. Unfortunately, those beautiful and significant artefacts that remain have been ravaged by something more destructive than the weather.

Since the 1990s, thieves have brought crude tools to the temples and attempted to chip away beautiful apsara dancers and other stone treasures, leaving them headless or badly cracked. The looters are not from around here, but some Koh Ker locals were so poor that they had no choice but to steal from the gentle stone giants to earn a bit of money.

Selling a landmark like this means that they are losing their own history, and unknowingly chipping away at the pride of Cambodia. If the looting continues, future generations of Khmer may never know how wondrous their forefathers were, and they could forget that the country was once a glorious, thriving, artistic one.

Now, with the help of Heritage Watch, the villagers have a daily patrol roster and they walk in pairs around the ruins, literally leaving no stone unturned. Any suspicious activity is reported to the local police, who are stationed near the temple premises for the same reason.

Since they began patrols in June last year, Rithy has seen a reduction in theft from the temples. To Rithy and Heritage Watch, getting locals involved in protecting and preserving the ancient structures is crucial – but it is something that is still quite new to them. Until recently, they did not even know what the structures were, let alone their historical significance.

This NGO was started in 2003 by a group of archaeologists aiming to “preserve the past and enrich the future” of Cambodia. Firstly, through protection of its architectural heritage, and secondly, by raising awareness on the need to end looting of the country’s temples. The sustainable tourism project at Koh Ker is the first programme of its kind by Heritage Watch, and is funded by donations and grants from the private and public sectors. For more information or to make a donation, log onto www.heritagewatch.org

Trailing Rey and her friends back to their village, I see the homes of the students – attap huts the size of an average hotel bathroom. These tiny spaces house families of up to four, where the demarcation between sleeping quarters and kitchen is a flimsy screen. These are some of Cambodia’s most impoverished people, and times are tough for them.

Paal, 32, and her husband Mo have had empty rice bowls for almost eight months of the year. “We only have very little to eat,” says Mo, 50, a father of three. “I don’t have enough food to feed my kids, so I earn some money by cutting trees or hunting turtles.”

The NGO has given 25kg of rice to the family of each person who is involved in their training programme. But Paal’s hope for the future lies in the lessons she’s receiving from Heritage Watch. It is not easy though.

“It’s difficult for me to learn to count and write because I’ve never been to school before,” she says, sitting next to Mo outside her small, raised hut. “My memory isn’t so good. But I want to improve my knowledge so that we can start a small ceramics shop or make palm sugar sweets to sell to the visitors who come here.”

One or two cars on the road attest to the tourists (almost 1,000 last year) who have been coming to see these off-the-beaten-track temples. In them lies the hope that Koh Ker’s residents can benefit from the monument’s growing commercialisation.

Despite its slowly increasing popularity, I find myself wandering virtually alone around the main monument at Koh Ker. The only noise that surrounds is the sound of the forest.

The long, sheltered walkway that once led to the pyramid has collapsed. The remains look like felled Jenga pieces buried two or three feet in earth, their angular bits sticking out of the ground, pointing in all directions. The jungle has not attacked this site as it has the famous Ta Phrom near Angkor Wat, where roots tear apart the bricks of the ancient structure. Rather than ploughing through, nature provides decoration here. Electric green sprouts from nooks and crannies. Silvery tree roots curl and twist in mid-air, the earth around them long fallen away.

that said, Prasat Th om is by no means in mint condition. Only part of the walls remain and the broken head of Nandin, the bull that serves as Shiva’s mount, lies strewn, seemingly exhausted from 1,000 odd years of standing up straight. The central seven-tiered pyramid is 40m high, and steep stairs leading to its peak are labelled “Climb at your own risk”.

Oversized sandstone boulders lie strewn like a child’s play blocks, their rain-worn surfaces a distinctive pinkish grey. A site so old, so fragile and so full of secrets should be treated with reverence – and yet, near the base of the temple is mindless graffiti. A stain on the face of an ancient treasure which has been around far longer than the chalk, pens or spray paint that now deface it.

Th ankfully, the Heritage Watch programme is dedicated to preserving the site. As do its newest and hopefully most fervent protectors: the residents of Koh Ker village.

This NGO was started in 2003 by a group of archaeologists aiming to “preserve the past and enrich the future” of Cambodia. Firstly, through protection of its architectural heritage, and secondly, by raising awareness on the need to end looting of the country’s temples. The sustainable tourism project at Koh Ker is the first programme of its kind by Heritage Watch, and is funded by donations and grants from the private and public sectors. For more information or to make a donation, log onto www.heritagewatch.org

GET THERE
Koh Ker is a three-hour drive from Siem Reap. Hire a car and a driver for the journey through your hotel or book with Nut hat +855 (0)12 837434. Expect to pay between US$70-90 (including cost of petrol). Entry to the temples costs US$10. Many people (even tour operators) are not familiar with Koh Ker, so bring a map or ask for a driver who has made the trip before.