Closing the Phimai chapter

A small but perfectly formed lintel of Vishnu riding Garuda with dancers, nagas and vegetal scrolling

This is a final look at some of the iconography and sculptures on show at Phimai Museum in Isaan (northeast Thailand), which I visited last October. I couldn't gain access to the indoor exhibitions as the museum was closed on the day of my visit (Monday) but there is a wealth of carvings in an outdoor storage area that reminded me of the compound at Angkor Conservation in Siem Reap. Over 350,000 visitors go to Prasat Phimai each year but only 10% of those visit the museum.
On a totally separate note, the offices at Hanuman are a buzz of activity just now as Hollywood are here... well, not Hollywood exactly but a National Geographic film crew are using the building to recreate an office environment for a television programme they are filming here called Banged Up Abroad. A few of the Hanuman staff have been drafted in as extras, so they'll be able to see themselves on the international Nat Geo channel in a few months, which will be a wonderful experience for them.

A massive statue of Shiva in the outdoor storage area at Phimai Museum

As everyone will know, this Phimai lintel shows Krishna killing the serpent Kaliya

This delightful lintel comes from Prasat Muang Tam and shows a deity, possibly Vishnu with followers above a kala head

A large pediment on the outside wall of the museum buildings, from Prasat Phimai, showing Indra as the central theme

Close-up detail of Indra aboard his 3-headed vehicle, Airavata

Another Phimai lintel, this time showing 2 monkeys attacking a deity, taken from the Ramayana story

A line of Buddhas meditate above a row of hamsas, again from Prasat Phimai

Bookshelf news

Time for a sneak preview into what books are coming out, or one's that I've missed and are already in the public domain. Let's look first at the travel guidebooks on Cambodia and I see that the National Geographic Traveller Cambodia book, a first edition and edited by Trevor Ranges, will be out in February 2010 - 320 pages. Resisting the temptation to put Angkor Wat on the book cover, Nat Geo look to have gone for the ever-popular monk shot! The following month the first Frommer's Cambodia and Laos guidebook, edited by Daniel White will be published. 352 pages. Both editors live in Thailand I believe - couldn't they find anyone in Cambodia itself? A new historical fiction piece, about the US Navy's involvement in Cambodia in the early 70s, has been self-published by HL Serra via AuthorHouse. It's called NILO Ha Tien: A novel of Navy Intelligence in Cambodia. 400 pages, published this month. Another July release is Joshua Hallsey's 120 page attempt to produce a coherent narrative of US policies here titled US Foreign Policy in Cambodia 1945-1993. Last month, Isabelle Chan's 148-page thesis was published, titled Rethinking Transtitional Justice: Cambodia, Genocide, and a Victim-Centered Model. Another new book which most likely won't find its way to my bookshelf is Beyond Democracy in Cambodia: Political Reconstruction in a Post-conflict Society by Joakim Ojendal and Mona Lilja, only because I won't have time to read it.

A few books that I missed when they were published. In April, Tola Ferris, a high school student in the US, published her 85 page effort called My Life Far Away: Adventures in Cambodia, about her recollections from growing up in her homeland. In October 2008 Bangkok-based photographer Mat Roe self-published Dear Cambodia, 108 pages of his pictures documented from over a dozen trips here. Last but not least is a book by Jay Eric Kanter, a real life explorer and adventurer in the Indiana Jones mould (yeah right). In December of last year he published via Pre Saa press his 165 page book, Way Beyond Angkor: Exploring the Lost Temples of Cambodia in which he makes his way around Cambodia discovering a series of ancient temples, alongwith meeting various odd-balls en route. Talking of odd-balls, I'm surprised I've never bumped into him on my own travels. By the way he lives in New Jersey and Thailand when he's not unearthing all these temples in Cambodia.

The death of Angkor

A re-enactment of the canal building process for the film Secrets of Angkor (Image courtesy Anna Pfluger/Spiegel TV media)

In a story that pops up on the international newswires every month it seems, National Geographic have gone to town on the 'Angkor fell due to water shortages and climate change' theme in the July edition of the Nat Geo Magazine. Read the full story, Divining Angkor, by Richard Stone here. At the same time, the Nat Geo tv channel is showing the documentary Secrets of Angkor. This was shot in 2008 with the help of Hanuman Films, who were selected as the local production company for the National Geographic and ZDF (German television) drama-documentary on the history of Angkor. This was the story of the incredible hydraulic system of Angkor and how it ultimately contributed to both the rise and the fall of this great civilization. Several actors flew in from Germany for the drama scenes, which included the recreation of an Angkor-era market and the opening of an ancient canal, complete with dozens of labourers in ancient costume. Locations included many of the leading temples at Angkor such as Angkor Wat, Bayon, Ta Prohm, Preah Khan, Beng Mealea, Kbal Spean and Phnom Kulen.