After Angkor mess, India gets another clean-up call from Cambodia

After an MoU is signed in Phnom Penh during Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s visit to Cambodia next week, India will undertake the massive restoration project at Ta Prohm. This is an important signal since the Indians had faced criticism from French experts in the eighties when they worked for seven long years at Angkor Vat over the kind of cement used and other aspects.

Kasturi Gupta Menon, Director General of the Archaelogical Survey of India (ASI), who will also be going to Cambodia, says even the French have now acknowledged the Indian contribution.

‘‘The Ta Prohm project is an even bigger challenge for us and may take even more than seven years to complete. The temples are completely overrun by forests. In fact, the roots of the trees are now holding the temples together.’’

ASI officials say the Indian government will spend around Rs 25 crore and dedicate a team of about 25 restorers and consultants for the project.

The Cambodian government has so far promised to attach one archaeologist and one architect with the Indian team and said they would decide one sensitive point: the fate of Ta Prohm’s magnificent silk cotton trees.

ASI’s Director of Conservation, who has been to Ta Prohm for a survey, says the MoU is a result of a series of bilateral visits, with the June 2001 visit of Vice-President Krishan Kant to Cambodia providing the impetus. ‘‘For us, Ta Prohm is like a gigantic jigsaw puzzle which we have to put together,’’ he explained. ‘‘Our approach will be to look back and go forward.’’ The ASI has a detailed project report ready, highlighting the problems posed by the ravages of time and abundance of trees.

‘‘The Ta Prohm structures have endured very harsh environmental conditions due to the tropical climate. After the abandonment, most of the structures were invaded by jungle growth and the ensuring damage was caused by vegetation, tree roots and water percolation,’’ says the report.

After Angkor Vat and Bayon, Ta Prohm is the third most important temple complex in Cambodia, located to the east of Angkor Thom. ASI officials have photograped the ruins and the serpentine tree roots to help them mount the project design.

Vajpayee’s visit and his trip to Angkor Vat, it was decided, was the best time to ink the agreement for restoring Ta Prohm’s lost glory.