Duck tours conversation effort at Banteay Chhmar

Following an official visit to South Korea during which  he represent the Britain?s  Royal Family, the Duke of Gloucester flew in Seam Reap City on Saturday  night for the sole  pure pose of touring Banteay  Chhmar temple in Banteay Meanchey  province and few monument at Angkor.

The duke, born Prince Richard of Gloucester, spent yesterday morning at banteay Chhmar, Where British conservation architect John Sanday showed  him restoration being done on the 12th century temple.

The 65 years old duke, who is a first cousin of Queen Elizabeth, is patron of the international Council on Monument and Sites in the UK and highly interested in heritage conservation, said Mr Sanday who is in charge of banteay Chhmar?s restoration.

The duke is actually an architect, he said? He was very keen to come ? here and at Angkor, one of the reasons being that as a tourist VIP tourist no doubt he was in Cambodian in 1969?.

Although the duke?s visit is a private one, provincial governor Oung Oeurn and local dignitaries were on hand to welcome him, and British Ambassador Andrew Mace accompanying him.

The restoration of Banteay Chhmar was lunched in 2008 by in the antinational organization Global Heritage Fund in cooperation with the ministry of Cutler with plans to submit the inclusion on the UN Work heritage list, on witch the Angkor Archaeological park and Prea Vihea Temple already appear.

Banteay Chhmar is a site of global significance that has under studied, under conserved , said James Hooper, Global Heritage Fund manager for the UK who was at the monument yesterday.?GHF is talking the opportunity to act as a catalyst to reverse these three trends .?

Unlike monument at Angkor, witch French archeologist started rescuing from the jungle more than the century ago, Banteay Chhmar had never been restored. Built during the reign of king Javaraman VII, it is on of only three monuments along with Angkor?s Bayon Temple and Angkor Wat to feature elaborate wall carvings.

One of the problems Mr. Sanday?s team faced was that one section of the wall with carving had weakened to the point of collapse because tree root that had expended next to it.

The pressure of three roots is enormous, said Mr. Sanday, who has been restoring monument in Cambodia since 1992. ?We discovered there were really no good foundations under the bas-relief wall, ?Mr. Sanday said.

On Sunday, the Duke of Gloucester returned to Sieam Reap City, where he toured an exhibition at Hotel de la paix of the first contemporary stone sculptures ever created by Cambodian artists as part of a project by sculpture Sasha Constable.