PILGRIMAGE TO ASIA, continued

The temple was discovered in the jungle, around 1914, by the French. It was cleared of the jungle around 1924. Around that time a huge scandal or international proportions erupted when a young and bold Frenchman by the name of Andre Malraux (later to become a famous writer, and ironically, ministry of culture in Paris), meticulously planned a secret expedition to steal several important sculptures and lintels from this temple, and by night, secretly transport them to France. Malraux and the thieves were discovered and put under house arrest in Phnom Penh and released only after the return of the stolen pieces. I suppose Malraux was only part of an endless procession of temple thieves and, sadly, you see everywhere, bas-reliefs, and gods and goddesses cut out of their enshrined area, and only a flat stone surface left. It is said that these treasures are currently being traded on the open market in Bangkok. Now the government, aware of the revenue potential of these temple through tourism has set up guards everywhere. Rather sleepy ones, but guards, nonetheless.

After walking through different galleries, or alleyways, you reach the center of the temple, the most beautiful part. The three central shrines are entirely decorated with exquisite sculptures of mythical figures, gods fighting demons, and beautiful goddesses protecting, nurturing and dancing.

The shrines are guarded by strange mythical figures, half animal, half human, which seem to have been built at another epoch and are of a completely different style.

What struck me particularly, as I was ready to leave, is the strange foot, nailed to the socle, no leg or animal left, right in front of the central shrine. It looked like those flying body parts in a Salvador Dali painting. This stone claw nailed down, and nothing left but this limb? Like the limbs of the hundreds of thousands of people blown away by the land mines left everywhere in Cambodia. Hundreds of thousands of women, children, people innocently walking down their field and suddenly, a mine explodes in their face, and they are maimed for life. It costs around $50,000 to rehabilitate a person wounded by a land mine. And the government does not have the time or the money. Of course, politically, death comes easy. Preserving life is a much greater challenge.