Temple And Its Ownership History History Essay

October 20, 2017 History

Preah Vihear temple is an ancient memorial which located on the drop of Dang Rek Mountain in Choim Ksant District, Preah Vihear Province, Cambodia. This old memorial was started to construct during the early ninth century. This first male monarch that started this great mountain temple undertaking is King Yasovarman I ( 889-910AD ) and finished in the reign of King Suryavarman II ( 1112-1152AD ) . Actually, this temple was built before Angkor Wat temple which considered as the most cherished memorial during the Khmer Empire. Preah Vihear temple was built for spiritual intent which dedicated to Shiva, the God in Hinduism. Reason of constructing the temple in this location is that during that period of clip, Khmer Empire had a really large district which the temple ‘s location was in the centre. Therefore, it was a great topographic point to construct the holy topographic point to observe spiritual festival.

Before spells for the item about the complicated ownership of the temple, the synergistic history between Cambodia and Thailand should be described foremost. As we know that Khmer is an old state in southeast Asia that existed for long clip ago since the early twelvemonth of Common Era. Later, foremost Khmer land was established as Kingdom of Funan ( 68 AD – 550 AD ) followed by Kingdom of Chenla ( 550 AD – 802 AD ) and became Khmer Empire ( 802 AD – 1431 AD ) , yet Thailand was merely existed in the 13th ( 1238 AD ) as Sukhothai land while Khmer already reached its glorious clip of its history. Although Sukhothai was a freshly established province, it tried to occupy Khmer imperium many times. Actually, Thailand or Siam successfully invaded and occupied Khmer imperium twice ( 1352-1357 AD and 1393 ) . However, Khmer King Ponhea Yat fought back to acquire the metropolis. This period is really of import to history of these states since they made Thai people mentally think that Angkor Wat belongs to them. Perceptibly, if we looked back to Cambodia ‘s history, we will see the competitions and invasion between Thailand and Vietnam over Cambodia. It showed that province sovereignty was still weak at that clip. In fact, from 1771 until 19th century, Seim Reap ( Preah Vihear temple located in Seim Reap state that clip ) and Battambong were officially added to Thai ‘s district. Because of these menaces, Cambodia ( King Ang Doung ) requested France to be the protecter and became a Gallic settlement in King Norodom ‘s reign. During that clip, Thailand ( King Rama V ) gave back Cambodia ‘s states to France in order to maintain Thailand safe and remain off from colonial power. As a consequence, 1907 Franco-Siamese pact was singed by Thai ‘s King and French President. By the map of this pact, Preah Vihear temple and some others overlapping countries such as the pagoda are wholly stand on Cambodia ‘s district. Significantly, French ‘s power seemed weaken after 1941 Franco-Siam war. Consequently, Gallic left Cambodia, and it was the World War II.

Following, Japan appeared as another colonised histrion during the World War II which considered as Nipponese business Era ( 1941-1945 ) . Meanwhile, Thai allied with Japan and took advantage to occupy Cambodia. As a consequence, Battambong and Siem harvest states were back to Thai ‘s control. However, Nipponese functions in Cambodia did non last any longer after it lost the World War II, and the former colonial power, France, was back. However, France did non pay much attending on Preah Vihear temple.

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Subsequently, we can see some nationalist motions against Gallic authorities demanded for independency, but they were non successful instantly. The battles kept happening in the states led by King Norodom Sihanouk. Finally France ceded the colonised power and grant independent to Cambodia in 1953.

Consequently, we can see that Cambodia and Thailand did non hold a faithful relation with each other due to the greedy invasions, the competitions in Khmer royalty in the ancient clip. However, these two states still can populate near each other for centuries even though they normally fight for territory enlargement. Anyway, the relationship between these two states gained as the universe traveling on. We started to see the political relations power competitions between Thailand and Vietnam over Cambodia which showed that these parts were non isolated ; they did interact with each others. Furthermore, we besides can see many international histrions that involved in the ownership of Preah Vihear Temple between Thailand and Cambodia. This complex international relation gives you an thought about how planetary administration looks like at that clip.

In decision, the masterpiece temple of Cambodia, Preah Vihear temple, was owned by Thailand many times. The ownership was besides transferred back and Forth to Cambodia, which make Thailand thought that it belonged to them since the temple used to be in its district. Personally, non speaking about the ancient clip, Thailand ever took opportunity to command the temple whenever Cambodia was weak. For case, during the 19th centuries and perceptibly during the Nipponese business, Thailand still desired to have the temple even there was a pact which clearly said that the temple is in Cambodia ‘s sovereignty. Yet, it is besides the error of the western colonisers who remained boundary line jobs to their settlements such as Cambodia and other states in Southeast Asia and Africa. The temple difference can considered as a consequence of colonisation instead than the avaricious invasion in the ancient clip. However, there are others ground that cause the differences. One of the of import grounds is that, Thai authorities takes it as a tool for their political intent. Actually, it is complicated to cognize clearly about what is the existent purpose of Thai authorities behind the smoke screen since the universe globalized. Beside that, minority of Thai patriots still mentally think that the temple was theirs non Cambodia ‘s. Therefore, many Kampuchean people do non truly like Thai.

In the following composing we will see the function of international histrion ( ICJ ) in judging the ownership of the temple, and we will see the effectivity of ICJ declaration.

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