Bokor Mountain church to be restored for worship

Cambodia news in English! Here you'll find all the breaking news from Cambodia translated into English for our international readership and expat community to read and comment on. The majority of our news stories are gathered from the local Khmer newspapers, but we also bring you newsworthy media from Cambodia before you read them anywhere else. Because of the huge population of the capital city, most articles are from Phnom Penh, but Siem Reap, Sihanoukville, and Kampot often make the headlines as well. We report on all arrests and deaths of foreigners in Cambodia, and the details often come from the Cambodian police or local Khmer journalists. As an ASEAN news outlet, we also publish regional news and events from our neighboring countries. We also share local Khmer news stories that you won't find in English anywhere else. If you're looking for a certain article, you may use our site's search feature to find it quickly.
User avatar
Duncan
Sir Duncan
Posts: 8149
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2014 8:22 pm
Reputation: 2357
Location: Wonder Why Central

Re: Bokor Mountain church to be restored for worship

Post by Duncan »

John Bingham wrote: Tue Dec 26, 2017 11:58 am
CEOCambodiaNews wrote: Tue Dec 26, 2017 10:43 am

The church was built in 1917 by French colonials atop Bokor Mountain.
No it wasn't, nothing was built till after the road was made in the mid 20s.

No matter when,,, if it was put into it's original state, with everything around it in a 1920 's theme , horse and carts or old cars and everyone like tour guides dresses in old 1920 style clothing,,,,, then Cambodia would have a draw card.
Cambodia,,,, Don't fall in love with her.
Like the spoilt child she is, she will not be happy till she destroys herself from within and breaks your heart.
User avatar
Kuroneko
Expatriate
Posts: 3809
Joined: Thu May 15, 2014 11:18 am
Reputation: 879

Re: Bokor Mountain church to be restored for worship

Post by Kuroneko »

John Bingham wrote: Tue Dec 26, 2017 11:58 am
CEOCambodiaNews wrote: Tue Dec 26, 2017 10:43 am

The church was built in 1917 by French colonials atop Bokor Mountain.
No it wasn't, nothing was built till after the road was made in the mid 20s.
Old Catholic Church

The Old Catholic Church was built by the French in the early 1920s as part of the French township on Bokor Mountain. The church’s interior is surprisingly well kept. http://www.sokhahotels.com/kampot/desti ... r-mountain

Bokor Mountain was found by the French in 1917 and developed into a resort in 1921. It was the famous summer escape for the French elites and royal family. https://www.sokhahotels.com/kampot/did-you-know/history
User avatar
John Bingham
Expatriate
Posts: 13674
Joined: Sun Dec 07, 2014 11:26 pm
Reputation: 8893
Cambodia

Re: Bokor Mountain church to be restored for worship

Post by John Bingham »

Kuroneko wrote: Tue Dec 26, 2017 5:46 pm
John Bingham wrote: Tue Dec 26, 2017 11:58 am
CEOCambodiaNews wrote: Tue Dec 26, 2017 10:43 am

The church was built in 1917 by French colonials atop Bokor Mountain.
No it wasn't, nothing was built till after the road was made in the mid 20s.
Old Catholic Church

The Old Catholic Church was built by the French in the early 1920s as part of the French township on Bokor Mountain. The church’s interior is surprisingly well kept. http://www.sokhahotels.com/kampot/desti ... r-mountain

Bokor Mountain was found by the French in 1917 and developed into a resort in 1921. It was the famous summer escape for the French elites and royal family. https://www.sokhahotels.com/kampot/did-you-know/history
Sokha haven't really done their research. The road was only completed in 1921, and it took three more years to build the Bokor Palace Hotel, which was only officially opened on Valentine's Day 1925. It was advertised as a resort as early as 1921 in the Bangkok Times English edition, but there was nothing much up there yet. The port serving it was at Ream, quite some distance. The Bokor Palace Hotel is often called a casino, but it only had a casino on the premises for a very brief period in the early 60s.

The First Indochina War saw large bands of Viet Minh and sometimes allied Khmer Minh/Issaraks taking refuge in the Elephant Mountains, and the casino was torched by some "Black Dragon" bandits in 1949 and the resort was abandoned. It was only in the late 50s after independence that the place was refurbished and then officially reopened in 1962 as "Cité du Bokor", many of the building date from this period, such as the Hotel Sangkum and Hotel Kiri near the lake, which had casinos. The Mayor's office was also built at this time.

Image
That's one of the hotel/casinos to the left of the mushroom cupola in Duncan's picture.

As for "The church’s interior is surprisingly well kept", I'm not sure what they mean. It's just concrete walls and a concrete altar in there, that used to be covered with obscene graffiti done by soldiers. It's also very small, I can't imagine they'd fit more than 30 people in there with benches. The vestry (back part) seems to take up about 1/3 of the floor plan. It's probably part of an effort to get weddings going up there.

Image

Good article from 1997: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/w ... r-mountain
Silence, exile, and cunning.
pczz
Expatriate
Posts: 3204
Joined: Sun Mar 22, 2015 1:00 pm
Reputation: 807
Location: phnom penh
Great Britain

Re: Bokor Mountain church to be restored for worship

Post by pczz »

PSD-Kiwi wrote: Tue Dec 26, 2017 1:00 pm Uuuurgh, they should leave it as is, maybe just clean up the shitty graffiti, draws more tourists in its present state than it ever will If it is refurbished...I don’t think many people bother to visit the the old casino anymore, lost its attraction once they started refurbishing it.
And talking of tourists how about fixing the ski lift. that would be a money spinner.
User avatar
John Bingham
Expatriate
Posts: 13674
Joined: Sun Dec 07, 2014 11:26 pm
Reputation: 8893
Cambodia

Re: Bokor Mountain church to be restored for worship

Post by John Bingham »

pczz wrote: Tue Dec 26, 2017 10:06 pm
PSD-Kiwi wrote: Tue Dec 26, 2017 1:00 pm Uuuurgh, they should leave it as is, maybe just clean up the shitty graffiti, draws more tourists in its present state than it ever will If it is refurbished...I don’t think many people bother to visit the the old casino anymore, lost its attraction once they started refurbishing it.
And talking of tourists how about fixing the ski lift. that would be a money spinner.
What ski lift? They were talking about putting in a cable lift around the time they started building the new road, but it seemed very ambitious given the distance from the base of the hill and never came to anything.
Silence, exile, and cunning.
pczz
Expatriate
Posts: 3204
Joined: Sun Mar 22, 2015 1:00 pm
Reputation: 807
Location: phnom penh
Great Britain

Re: Bokor Mountain church to be restored for worship

Post by pczz »

Interesting. I was told by a local guide they had used the cable car to bring building materials up back when the French were still here.
User avatar
John Bingham
Expatriate
Posts: 13674
Joined: Sun Dec 07, 2014 11:26 pm
Reputation: 8893
Cambodia

Re: Bokor Mountain church to be restored for worship

Post by John Bingham »

pczz wrote: Tue Dec 26, 2017 10:33 pm Interesting. I was told by a local guide they had used the cable car to bring building materials up back when the French were still here.
I have never heard of any cable lift there. It's possible that small pulley systems were built along the route during construction, or even a light railcarts. As far as I can work out it was just hewn out of the jungle by convicts and adzes. A cable lift up from the plain past the escarpment to the plateau would be amazing, but even the best modern Swiss engineers would have problems figuring that one out, it's a huge distance through deep jungle with massive cliffs.

This is the only picture I can find of the church when it wasn't moldy and covered in orange lichen, and when it was:

Image
Silence, exile, and cunning.
User avatar
John Bingham
Expatriate
Posts: 13674
Joined: Sun Dec 07, 2014 11:26 pm
Reputation: 8893
Cambodia

Re: Bokor Mountain church to be restored for worship

Post by John Bingham »

Image

Image

Image
Silence, exile, and cunning.
willyhilly
Expatriate
Posts: 1758
Joined: Sun Jan 17, 2016 7:11 am
Reputation: 357
Location: Australia
Albania

Re: Bokor Mountain church to be restored for worship

Post by willyhilly »

The church is a mess and ruined by graffiti. I thought the graffiti was by tourists, not soldiers. I was told that either the Viets or the KR held out in the church and battled the opposition in a nearby building. Then the Viets brought tanks up the mountain and settled it.
User avatar
John Bingham
Expatriate
Posts: 13674
Joined: Sun Dec 07, 2014 11:26 pm
Reputation: 8893
Cambodia

Re: Bokor Mountain church to be restored for worship

Post by John Bingham »

willyhilly wrote: Wed Dec 27, 2017 3:28 am I thought the graffiti was by tourists, not soldiers.
It's quite likely that there is more tourist graffiti by now.
Silence, exile, and cunning.
Post Reply Previous topicNext topic
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: ali baba, barang_TK, Bing [Bot], Bluenose, Clutch Cargo, Deefer, Kayve, khmerhamster, KunKhmerSR, Old8404, Province, Spigzy and 1442 guests