The contrast between the grandeur of uncle, thes large stone monuments, and the contemporary cambodiain inthe nineteenth century was so sharp that through the eyes of t te colonial explorers, theras no way modern cambodia could build these temples. So that came the dea of lost, lost civilization, the degenerated race from the d decmi uncle to the modern cambody. But that was the colonial ideal, because that a idealogy of an plored civilizations,. The civilization that was in need of french colonial help to restore it back to its glory. In competition with with the british possession of india, drove the french a colonization to camb
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the largest and arguably the most astonishing religious structure on Earth, built for Suryavarman II in the 12th Century in modern-day Cambodia. It is said to have more stone in it than the Great Pyramid of Giza, and much of the surface is intricately carved and remarkably well preserved. For the last 900 years Angkor Wat has been a centre of religion, whether Hinduism, Buddhism or Animism or a combination of those, and a source of wonder to Cambodians and visitors from around the world.
With
Piphal Heng
Postdoctoral scholar at the Cotsen Institute and the Programme for Early Modern Southeast Asia at UCLA
Ashley Thompson
Hiram W Woodward Chair of Southeast Asian Art at SOAS University of London
And
Simon Warrack
A stone conservator who has worked extensively at Angkor Wat
Producer: Simon Tillotson