APSARA
Authority for the Protection and Management of Angkor and
the Region of Siem Reap
Phnom Penh:
#187, Pasteur St, Chaktomuk, Daun Penh
Tel: +855 23 720 315
Fax: +855 23 990 185
[email protected]
Siemreap:
ANGKOR COEX Compound, Apsara road,
Bœung Don Pa Village, Slakram Commune, Siem Reap District, Siem Reap Province, CAMBODIA
Tel : +855 63 63 000 12
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APSARA, if it is strong-willed and single-minded, will
put the management, the promotion and the exploration of
the Khmer cultural heritage into Khmer hands, even while
it is a world heritage, into the same hands that sculpted
it, that caressed it and protected it for so many centuries.
And it will do this in the only way possible : by helping
to form a new generation of qualified, caring Khmer specialists
- technicians - intellectuals - thinkers and doers, who
will be capable, on this international stage, of standing
in the present with an arm around the past and eyes on the
future.
His Majesty Norodom Sihanouk, King of Cambodia.
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In Angkor - a geographical region, an archaeological site
and a cultural concept - lies much of Cambodia's future.
The Angkorian heritage offers incomparable potential for
economic prosperity, which can in turn provide a favorable
climate and the means necessary for true protection of the
Khmer heritage for the generations to come. Under the present
conditions of persistent national poverty in economic as
well as administrative terms, and confronted with the opening
of Cambodia to a rapidly expanding regional market, the
potential wealth of the region lies exposed to unrational
exploitation on an unprecedented scale.
It is only in a context of well regulated economic dynamism
that the cultural heritage can be protected and can further
prosper; in turn, a protected and prospering cultural heritage
will make an essential contribution to permanent economic
stabilization, ensuring durable international and national
interest in Angkor. The enormous challenge facing the Royal
Khmer Government at Angkor is thus to transform potentially
conflicting interests into permanent resources actively
serving the needs of the region and indeed the nation.
To this end, the government has created APSARA, the Authority
for the Protection and Management of Angkor and the Region
of Siem Reap, in charge of research, protection and conservation
of cultural heritage, as well as urban and tourist development.
This legislative and institutional framework marks the beginning
of a new active role Cambodia will take, responding to the
call of her own people in the voice of her King, as well
as to that of the international community, in managing Angkor
as a national and world heritage for the generations to
come.
The creation of APSARA also corresponds to the request
of the World Heritage Committee, which temporarily inscribed
Angkor on the List of World Heritage Sites in Danger in
december 1992. Permanent inscription was at that point dependent
upon the Cambodian government taking concrete action in
the field. Acknowledging the three years of progress made
toward establishing national responsibility in site protection
and management, in December of 1995 the World Heritage Committee
confirmed Angkor's permanent inscription on the World Heritage
List. |
