Press Releases

Global Heritage Fund Paticipates in Second International Conference to Achieve Conservation Support for The Banteay Chhmar Temple Complex

September 11, 2009

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
GHF Public Relations
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
+1.650.325.7520

GLOBAL HERITAGE FUND PARTICIPATES IN SECOND
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE TO ACHIEVE CONSERVATION
SUPPORT FOR THE BANTEAY CHHMAR TEMPLE COMPLEX

Over 200 People Attend Conference to Discuss Planning, Conservation, Training, Sustainable Tourism and Protection of the 12th Century Cambodian Site

September 11, 2009 - Palo Alto, California USA – Global Heritage Fund together with the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, the Banteay Meanchey Provincial Government, Friends of Khmer Culture and UNESCO sponsored the Second International Banteay Chhmar Conference held August 8-10, 2009 in Sisophon, Cambodia.  The goal of the conference was to focus on tourism development, and the preparation of a masterplan for the tentatively listed World Heritage Site of Banteay Chhmar.

In 2008, GHF began working on site at Banteay Chhmar and is supporting the following initiatives: creation and implementation of a site master plan, preservation of the bas-relief galleries, stabilization of the central temple complex; aid to the community in developing tourism to the site and preparing for the increased impact on infrastructure; and assistance to the Cambodian government in the UNESCO World Heritage Site nomination and inscription process.  GHF joined with partners from Heidelberg University, the South Asian Conservation and Restoration Agency (SACRA), and the Community Based Tourism (CBT) organization in Banteay Chhmar to give a special tour to the more than 200 conference attendees, highlighting GHF’s accomplishments on August 8th.

“We congratulate our partners in organizing and hosting the conference to support our conservation efforts at Banteay Chhmar,” said Jeff Morgan, Executive Director of GHF.  “Our team is partnering with a special team of individuals from a cross-section of organizations – academic, technical, and government – to collaboratively protect the treasures of the temple by introducing programs for planning, conservation, responsible tourism and development.”

The Banteay Chhmar Temple is thought by scholars to be the most important Angkorian-period temple in existence after the Bayon and Angkor Wat itself, all built by King Jayavarman VII during the 12th Century AD.  Among Banteay Chhmar’s unique features are the galleries of bas-reliefs sculpted on a 750-meter long sandstone wall enclosing the complex.  The structures within the enclosed wall consisted of tower shrines, courtyards and linking corridors, many of which have collapsed.

As a dramatic opening to the event, the conference’s host, the Governor of Banteay Meanchey, Excellency Oung Oeung, released 50 endangered turtles in the moat around Banteay Chhmar.  The turtles had been confiscated from poachers trying to sell them across the border to Thailand.

“I would like to commend Governor Oung Oeung for his tireless efforts in supporting the event,” said Joyce Clark, Vice President, Friends of Khmer Culture “The conference was successful in engaging the interests of international and Cambodian scholars to further investigate the location of the site, its iconography, inscriptions, and ritual in their continuing discovery of Jayavarman VII’s role in Cambodian history.”

Special guests in attendance at the conference included H.E. Kim Sarith Secretary representing the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, Dr. Helen Jessup, the President of Friends of Khmer Culture, and John Sanday, GHF’s Field Director.

“Integrating the local community into the project is key to success,” said John Sanday, GHF’s Field Director.  “We are engaging the community with our overall plan to train local people to manage and monitor the historic structures, and to protect the site from unplanned development and threats of mass tourism.”

About Global Heritage Fund
Global Heritage Fund is an international conservancy dedicated to preserving endangered world heritage sites in developing countries to improve lives of local people. GHF enables successful, long-term preservation of the developing world’s most important archaeological sites and ancient townscapes in developing countries, creating new opportunities for economic growth. To achieve this, Global Heritage Fund deploys a well-proven Preservation by Design methodology: 1) comprehensive master conservation planning, 2) sustained preservation through local community involvement, 3) excellence in scientific conservation, and 4) partnerships and complementary funding. Global Heritage Fund is a registered non-profit international conservancy based in Palo Alto, California and London, U.K..  Web site: http://www.globalheritagefund.org.