Cambodia against plan to build replica Angkor Wat in India

March 10, 2012
BERNAMA

PHNOM PENH: Cambodia does not support an India's Hindu Trust Organisation for its plan to construct a replica of Cambodia's Angkor Wat temple in India, warning that such action could affect the two nations bilateral ties.

"There is only one Angkor Wat in the world, it is the Cambodia 's Angkor Wat temple, which was listed as one of the World Heritage Sites in 1992," Cambodian Minister of Culture and Fine Arts Him Chhem told reporters yesterday.

He added that Cambodia does not support the construction of the duplicated new Angkor Wat temple in India, China's Xinhua news agency reported.

Chhem made these remarks after a news report reported that the Bihar Mahavir Mandir Trust, a Hindu organisation on March 5 started work on a US$20 million stone replica of Angkor Wat in India's eastern state of Bihar.

The project was reportedly planned to complete in 10 years.

The minister said that the replica of Angkor Wat by the Hindu Trust could affect the friendship between Cambodia and India.

Cambodia's Angkor Wat temple was built in the late 11th century and the early 12th century by King Suryavarman II. The temple attracted 1.6 million foreign tourists last year, an increase of 23 percent from 1.3 million a year earlier, according to the statistics of the Ministry of Tourism.