Angkor Wat: A Transcultural History of Heritage

Description

This book unravels the formation of the modern concept of cultural heritage by charting its colonial, postcolonial-nationalist and global trajectories. By bringing to light many unresearched dimensions of the twelfth-century Cambodian temple of Angkor Wat during its modern history, the study argues for a conceptual, connected history that unfolded within the transcultural interstices of European and Asian projects. With more than 1,400 black-and-white and colour illustrations of historic photographs, architectural plans and samples of public media, the monograph discusses the multiple lives of Angkor Wat over a 150-year-long period from the 1860s to the 2010s. Volume 1 (Angkor in France) reconceptualises the Orientalist, French-colonial ‘discovery’ of the temple in the nineteenth century and brings to light the manifold strategies at play in its physical representations as plaster cast substitutes in museums and as hybrid pavilions in universal and colonial exhibitions in Marseille and Paris from 1867 to 1937. Volume 2 (Angkor in Cambodia) covers, for the first time in this depth, the various on-site restoration efforts inside the ‘Archaeological Park of Angkor’ from 1907 until 1970, and the temple’s gradual canonisation as a symbol of national identity during Cambodia’s troublesome decolonisation (1953–89), from independence to Khmer Rouge terror and Vietnamese occupation, and, finally, as a global icon of UNESCO World Heritage since 1992 until today. Table of Contents Acknowledgements Volume 1: Angkor in France. From Plaster Casts to Exhibition Pavilions Introduction I. Lost in Translation? The Mekong Mission of 1866 and the Plaster Casts from Angkor at the Parisian Universal Exhibition of 1867 II. La Porte d’Entrée from Ethnography to Art: Delaporte’s Missions to Angkor, his Musée Khmer and the Universal Exhibition of 1878 III. Staging Angkor in the Museum IV. The Universal Exhibition of 1889 in Paris: Angkor Wat Goes Pavilion V. The Rise of Angkor in the French Peripheries 1894—1906: From Lyon, Bordeaux, and Rouen to Marseille VI. Representing Angkor as a French patrimoine: The National Colonial Exhibition of Marseille 1922 VII. Going Real Size: Angkor Wat and the 1931 Exposition Coloniale Internationale in Paris VIII. The End of a Seventy-Year Career in France: Angkor at the 1937 Exposition Internationale in Paris Findings and Conclusions for Volume 1 Epilogue to Volume 1 Plates Front Matter 2 Table of Contents Volume 2: Angkor in Camodia. From Jungle Find to Global Icon IX. The French-colonial Making of the Parc Archéologique d’Angkor X. Performing Grandeur — Re-enacting Angkor. Cambodia’s Independence 1953—1970 under Norodom Sihanouk XI. Making Angkor Global (1970—1990): Hot and Cold War Politics, Competing Inheritance Claims and the Invention of Angkor as Heritage of Humanity XII. Angkor as UNESCO World Heritage: The Decisive Years 1987—1993 Findings and Conclusions for Volume 2 Epilogue to Volume 2 Plates Bibliography Index