Fury at plan for Indian replica of Angkor Wat

Nayan, I get your point. But there is a little difference between making a temporary structure and an ambitious project of building the biggest temple on earth. The letter case when imitates a monument of rich historical and heritage value, their degree of respect for the original one is really questionable.

Re replicas in museum too, there is no question of comparison between it and the original.

Creating a replica even after discarding one full dimension????

Painting is always two dimensional, there is no third dimension in a painting, and so is the photograph of that painting.

The virtual 3D paintings are like these 3D Paintings

I was not sure but believe me, I always liked the Avatar.

As for the other comment, the best you can do is to take photographs, this is the easiest way of showing appreciation (That is why no one is interested in taking my snap!)

If you had the capacity, you would probably move higher in trying to get as close as possible, to the original thing. As Nayan mentioned, snap is just another form of replica, a simpler version.

I wasn't denying that, but I call into question the notion of any great united Hindu empire. (Note how glorious Hindu empires doesn't equate glorious Hindu empire.)

Buddhism in India came into decline from the 12th-13th century AD, though of course it started spreading early and was to make itself felt ever the stronger in much of Asia until today. Java is said to have been Hinduized in the earlier centuries AD, later came under the influence of Buddhism, indeed.

If you mean to say people who had been converted or subjugated for hundreds of years and now themselves spread their influence were still to be considered "Indian" (or even originally so), then I guess go right ahead. Yes, the cultural heritage is of course there.

(It does touch on another oft-heard notion, that the ancient spread of Hinduism, or indeed even Buddhism later, had always been peaceful. Well, some texts I was going over just now clearly mention invasions, and decisive battles.

You don't seriously think some Javanese and Balinese and Sri Lankans and Cambodians etc. were welcoming Hindu or other Indian culture with open arms, do you? Woo-hoo, here comes civilization! Just what we'd needed for all this time!

I should really study this in some depth some time, and I'm sure there must be good studies on it. One has more to do, but for the time being I just ain't buying it. Do we know any such example in history, ever or anywhere, of people welcoming their invaders or supplanters?)

Yes, but so this took place back then, not in more modern times. In shall we say the ever-shifting evolution of things. (The adaptation here would certainly seem to have been a process of cultural assimilation, no?) It certainly had nothing to do with the modern Vietnam War or the Khmer Rouge or no nothing of that.

Be careful of getting yourself into a hopeless twist here: Would you like to claim Buddhism as an Indian phenomenon, or rather discard it as a non-Hindu phenomenon and intrusion?

If this replica is being built by some private group and not the Government of India, how is a diplomatic intervention going to stop it? I don't think there are any laws by which the government can say "you cannot build a copy of Angkor Wat"..or Taj Mahal for that matter.

or is there?

Also,
Taj Mahal Bangladesh

NRIs to build Taj Mahal replica in New Zealand

I also read a report about a person building a Taj replica (in India) as the final resting place of him and his wife a few years ago; can't seem to find it now.

Oh, you are of course right, DarkLord; as far as I'm concerned, let anyone build any silly effigies religious or otherwise and copy them ad infinitum, what should I care. (Maybe pay a thought to feeding the poor as those religions call for while you're at it.) The Egyptian pyramids or Machu Picchu? Pah, imperialist regimes based on slave labor, I say.

I was mostly surprised at this sanctimonious surprise that the Cambodian authorities might take offense here.

I am not surprised at their surprise or fury, which I think is justified. I am actually surprised at their path of "confrontation" or "worsening relation" with India. Whatever pressure Cambodia brings to bear on India, GoI will be legally powerless to stop the construction.

Yes, you're right. I'm sure it will soon disappear among so many news blips, anyway And so maybe and as so often, the soup will not be eaten as hot as it's been served, as we say in my country.

(And so I mean in the actual news as such. I guess the dice on this forum have been cast, and so maybe we'll be getting into one another's hairs over it for years to come )

This argument and counterargument will go on unless one among us presses the stop button. So please allow me to do so. Jitu and Nayan, I respect both of your viewpoints.

@Jitu: Thanks for the link of 3D paintings. And also thanks a lot for liking my avatar.

Prince09, you have to keep in mind that the chola temples came up 4000 years after the Pyramids and people during that age had access to better tools and techniques than the Egyptians in Giza and Nile valley. They also had beasts of burden to move their loads (elephants, for one) which the egyptians did not have. And wooden tools vs Metal tools.

Anyways, speaking of this whole Angkorwat India project....... Bihar is a state that has no proper infrastructure or even basic sanitation and then we have all the railway crossings in India which are unmanned and no gates etc and the first order of business is to construct a temple that looks like Angkorwat and is larger than that? The irony of that is killing me. Who comes up with these ideas?

What is at the pity core of this pilpul ? Building a bigger/biggest temple or the replica of Angkor Wat ?

Why do we go and admire or visit ruins and ancient monuments (religious or non) ?

Taking the last question first; I'd posit that much of the tourist attraction to ruins and monuments of the past focuses on admiration and the heroics or audacity of the culture and the polity that built it. Part of it is the engineering feat given the resources (Pyramids, Great Wall...) part of it is aesthetic marvel (Parthenon, Taj), part of extinct or near extinct cultures (Chichen Itza, Machu Picchu, Cappadocia or Angkor Complex) or the functional continuity of traditions (St. Peter's Basillica, Golden temple, Blue Mosque, Mt. Abu...)

Only the literate uneducated would mistake these architectural icons for anything other than its present day opperant symbols, for there are bigger functioning mega churches, mosques, temples, and other religious edifices which are primarily for the devotees and pilgrims, sans non-believer tourists. It is invariably through strictures, or happenstances that these places have no tourist traffic (or footfalls)

No one really worries that Rev. Holy Chittybang Rumpamore in GallonHat, Texas built a stadium size church (O.K maybe Jerry Jones does ) and fills it with believers who think that life begins before conception... or Han Chen plans to build Golden Buddha the size of Kremlin (O.K maybe some IMer might object)

Which brings us to one of the pilpul - Replicas.

Affluent, vain, and superstitious immigrants have in their adopted lands built cheap miniature clones (not replicas since the material and construction do differ) from Birmingham to Malibu, From London to Livermore, From Australia to Aurora, Ill. They have copied and they have cloned, poured monies to vastu Shilpaist to ward off evil, yet no one has got their chuddsinabunch.


In modern day world, I doubt USG ever complained when Taiwan built Taipei101, or Taiwan complain about Petronas Tower, or Malaysia about Al Khalifa Tower ? After all they are all temples to commerce So it finally comes down to size !

Finally the issue of big/bigger/biggest. Of what ?

Having spent some serious time in the area, I'd say that Angkor Wat is just not the temple itself but the whole complex with the terraces and the palace, all in various stages of decay and erosion. With exception of a gompa or two; Wat, Thom Preah Khan, all are tourist/preservation sites. The proposed project in India, at best, be a functioning temple on steroids.

The big question remains - If you build it will they come ?

Nicely stated. As a counterpoint, 20,000 years from now, most folks may not care which was original vs. not - they are both old. 100,000 years from now, they are both (the structures, at least) gone anyway. The vain and the spectacular - leveled wonderfully by time.

Adiyogi

Or should we say, of Wat?

Better not tell them about this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10321180@N08/4632024314/

I couldn't have said it any better, nycank!

Well as long as they are building the neo Angkorwat, why don't they put some blackjack and craps tables inside and offer me free drinks during play and a bed to crash and I'll come. And so will the people.

Oh and some Cirque de Soleil type entertainment in the evening just in case you have to go there with the girlfriend so you can while away a few hours there and drop a few hundred in tickets to make her happy.

And lets not forget the strip clubs for the desperately seeking lonely hearted souls.

Trump Angkor Wat, here I come.

Thanks to you actually, for getting my attention to another unknown place that I will surely visit.