John Bingham wrote: ↑Thu Jul 08, 2021 7:52 am

AndyKK wrote: ↑Thu Jul 08, 2021 2:37 am Whay are the people upset if someone or some country built a copy of Angkor, do Cambodia not copy buildings of other countries?

Those are not religious buildings.

What is this one then?

Looks somewhat like the Vatican. They get their feathers ruffled a bit too easily and do have a sort of double standard when it comes to this sort of thing. They should just enjoy the free advertising. It's not like it's going to deter people from visiting the real thing, especially when it's just a few hundred km away.

Culture Ministry spokesman Long Ponnasirivath said that it will work with the Foreign Affairs Ministry to arrange a discussion with Vietnam’s authorities on the international copyright law and the accuracy of the replica temple.

International copyright laws... Really?

He explained that the temple replica could be considered as a quote from an author. If people who quote that author also mention the source and the name of the author, it will only be legal to do so with the consent from the author.

What is he saying? That's not at all how quoting works, lol. Not in real life, not in academia either. What a weird analogy.

Ministry taking steps over Thai ‘replica’ of Angkor Wat
Samban Chandara | Publication date 01 October 2023 | 20:58 ICT

The Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts has dispatched experts to inspect the ongoing construction of a temple in Wat Phu Man Fah, located in Thailand’s Buriram province. This temple appears to be a replica of Cambodia’s renowned Angkor Wat.

The ministry said it is committed to safeguarding the integrity of ancestral heritage and will take all necessary measures to address this concern.

In response to concerns expressed by Cambodian citizens, particularly on social media, calling for the government and relevant institutions to intervene in the construction of the structure that closely resembles the World Heritage site, the ministry said it has been closely monitoring construction activities at the site since they first became aware of the issue in 2021.

Previous actions taken by the ministry have primarily involved diplomatic discussions with their counterparts at the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh and the Thai culture ministry.

“After sending experts to inspect the construction site at Wat Phu Man Fah, we found that no additional construction has taken place,” said the Cambodian culture ministry in a September 26 statement.

“When we dispatch experts to inspect and negotiate, we maintain a strong stance against any attempts to replicate our national identity. We do this through diplomatic engagement, technical verifications, direct site inspections and adherence to both national and international legal frameworks,” it explained.
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ ... angkor-wat

As for all the questions as to why Cambodians are so prickly when Thailand does or says anything pertaining to Angkor Wat, Khmer are understandably sensitive since the Thai literally tried to steal it stone-by-stone and reassemble it in Bangkok before giving up as it was met with too much resistance:

Speaking at a Thursday panel, Khmer expert and historian Santi Pakdeekham recounted the bizarre and ambitious project that has been mostly forgotten today, which, had it succeeded, would have relocated parts of the nearly millennium-old temple – the world’s largest religious structure – next to where CentralWorld now stands in Bangkok.

The plot to steal Angkor Wat was hatched by King Rama IV in 1859, a year before French explorer Henri Mouhout’s journey to the massive temple that brought it to the world attention.

“His royal wish was to have the temple dismantled,” said Santi, who teaches at Sri Nakarinwiroj University.

In an order passed by the monarch, Siamese troops were to travel to Angkor and disassemble parts of the site so they can be rebuilt at Wat Pathum, which now sits between two major shopping mall complexes in Bangkok’s Siam area.

Another imitation Angkor Wat was also to be reassembled in Phetchaburi province, where the king had a palace built on a mountain.

Explaining the king’s motive, Santi said Khmer culture was deeply intertwined with Thailand’s monarchy, which recognizes itself as descended from the once-powerful Khmer Empire. In one instance, King Narai insisted to Portuguese emissaries that his dynasty could be traced back to the rulers of Angkor.

So while China may build Angkor Wat replicas of their own, China has never attempted to claim Khmer culture or to be the natural heirs to it either, as Thailand has done many, many times over the centuries. This is also probably why the "replica" of Angkor Wat in Da Nang has failed to attract much attention, since Vietnam (despite all the bad-blood with Cambodia) has never tried to claim the cultural and civilisational inheritance of the Khmer Empire as their own, having their own proud culture that isn't riddled with an inferiority complex towards a nation that was once greater and more powerful than theirs.