1

     
MICHAEL FALSER

ANGKOR WAT
This book unravels the formation of the modern concept of cultural heritage by

ANGKOR WAT
MICHAEL FALSER
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.
A T R A N S C U LTU R A L H I STO RY O F H E R I TAGE
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

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.

www.degruyter.com
ISBN 978-3-11-033572-9
 M I C H A E L FA L S E R

ANGKOR WAT
A TR A NSCULTUR A L HIS TORY OF HE RITAGE

VOLUME 1:

A NGKOR IN FR A NCE .
FROM PL A S TE R C A S T S TO E X HIBITION PAV ILIONS

DE GRUYTER
This publication was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation)
within the Cluster of Excellence 270/1 “Asia and Europe in a Global Context” at Heidelberg University/Germany.

This publication was printed with support by the Gerda Henkel Foundation, Düsseldorf/Germany.

ISBN 978-3-11-033572-9
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-033584-2

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019941361

Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek

The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliographie;
detailed bibliographic data are available on the internet at http://dnb.dnb.de

© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Cover illustration: Angkor Wat replica in the 1931 International Exhibition in Paris,
detail from postcard (private collection Michael Falser, compare Fig. VII.22c)
Typesetting: hawemannundmosch, Berlin
Printing and binding: Beltz Grafische Betirebe GmbH, Bad Langensalza

www.degruyter.com
 Table of Contents

Volume 1: Angkor in France.

From Plaster Casts to Exhibition Pavilions

Acknowledgements  XI

Introduction  1
1. Angkor Wat: A transcultural history of heritage  1
1.1. Angkor Wat in Paris: A French lieu de mémoire?   1
1.2. The Heidelberg Cluster of Excellence
Asia and Europe in a Global Context and the
project Heritage as a Transcultural Concept  4
2. The temple of Angkor Wat and its affordance qualities
and actionable capacities  9
2.1. Angkor Wat, approaching its
architectural ­configuration  9
2.2. Angkor Wat’s affordance qualities
and actionable capacities: A
­ rchitectural,
performative, patrimonial  18
3. Preliminary reflections to Volume 1:
Angkor Wat in France — From Plaster Casts to Exhibition Pavilions  30
3.1. From exotic fantasies in garden
landscapes to ‘spectacular’ p ­ avilions
in universal and colonial ­exhibitions  30
3.2. The rediscovery and re-evaluation
of plaster casts  35
3.3. Translational turns, colonial politics of
translation, and the technique of plaster casts  38
3.4. From translation to architectural transfer
and transcultural heritage  41
4. Preliminary reflections to Volume 2:
Angkor Wat in Cambodia — From Jungle Find to Global Icon  43
4.1. From back-translation to third space  43
4.2. A ‘heterotopia’ called Angkor Park:
An ‘enacted utopia’ of cultural heritage?  46
4.3. From world heritage back to world’s fair:
Angkor Park as a theme park?  53

V
 Table of Contents

I. Lost in Translation? The Mekong Mission of 1866 and the Plaster Casts from Angkor
at the Parisian Universal Exhibition of 1867  57

1. Mouhot’s civilising vision from Angkor Wat’s central

passageway  57
2. Footnote 2 on page 48, or: The explorative mission to the
Mekong River (1866—68)  61
3. The polysemy of objects, white spots on the map,
and the casts from Angkor: The Universal Exhibition of 1867
and its classification system  71
4. The relevance of plaster casts around the 1867 Exhibition:
The French ‘art industry’ and ‘industrial arts’ around 1860  78
5. The palais de l’Industrie after 1855: A laboratory for the
Exposition permanente des colonies and the Union centrale
des beaux-arts appliqués à l’industrie  81
6. Back to Egypt: The exotic architectures in the park of the
1867 Exhibition and the role of plaster casts  83

II. La Porte d’Entrée from Ethnography to Art: Delaporte’s Missions to Angkor,

his Musée Khmer and the Universal Exhibition of 1878  89

1. Cracking the translation code of Khmer temple architecture:

Delaporte’s mission to Angkor in 1873  89
2. The musée Khmer in Compiègne  96
3. From the palais d’Industrie to the Universal Exhibition of 1878:
The Muséum ethnographique des missions scientifiques  100
4. The ‘political mandala’ of the palais du Champs-de-Mars’s floor plan
and the double placement of the plaster casts from Angkor  114
5. The Naga balustrade of Preah Khan and the Ethnographie des
peuples étrangers in the Trocadero palace  116

III. Staging Angkor in the Museum  125

1. Archétypes, stage prop façades, and architectural fabriques

in a Parisian convent: Alexandre Lenoir and his musée des
Monuments français in the Petits-Augustins (1793—1816)  125
2. Dissection, comparison, and metonymic display of monumental
architecture: Viollet-le-Duc’s musée de Sculpture comparée in the
palais de Trocadéro  135
3. The French-British connection, or how the London’s
‘exhibitionary complex’ influenced Delaporte’s musée Indo-chinois  144

VI
 Table of Contents

4. Delaporte’s musée Indo-chinois — the first and last

French museum of Angkor  158
5. Competing translations: “Not for show but for the sciences” —
Angkor in the Völkerkundemuseum in Berlin  176
6. Visual fragmentation and physical decontextualisation of Angkor:
Towards the iconisation of cultural heritage — La Nave’s and Delaporte’s
publications after 1900  181

IV. The Universal Exhibition of 1889 in Paris:

Angkor Wat Goes Pavilion  189

1. Changing scales: The world as exhibition  189

2. Visualising mastered space: the exposition coloniale
of the Universal Exhibition of 1889  198
3. The pagode d’Angkor of 1889 — the first open-air pavilion
of Angkor in Europe  205
4. From emprunt and spécimen to a prospective souvenir  210

V. The Rise of Angkor in the French Peripheries 1894—1906:

From Lyon, Bordeaux, and Rouen to Marseille  217

1. Paris 1900: Angkor as a decorative accessory  217

2. Lyon 1894, Bordeaux 1895, and Rouen 1896:
Displaying colonies in the French periphery  226
3. The National Colonial Exhibition of Marseille in 1906:
Representing Angkor in the French periphery before the
Siamese ‘retrocession’ of 1907  233

VI. Representing Angkor as a French patrimoine:

The National Colonial Exhibition of Marseille 1922  247

1. Representing Angkor as a French patrimoine:

The National Colonial Exhibition of Marseille 1922  247
2. The Exposition Nationale Coloniale de Marseille en 1916:
The role of Jean Commaille in a failed project  251
3. The 1922 National Colonial Exhibition of Marseille  255
4. The ‘interpenetration of the métropole and the colonies’:
From the overall bird’s-eye view to the ‘altar of the ancestors’  269

VII
 Table of Contents

VII. Going Real Size: Angkor Wat and the 1931

Exposition Coloniale Internationale in Paris  281

1. ‘Refusing the copy and the pastiche’?

The 1925 Exposition des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes in Paris
and the pavillon de l’Indochine  281
2. Angkor Wat as a permanent colonial museum in Paris?
Discussions around 1927  284
3. Angkor Wat in 1931 Paris: The logistical masterpiece
of applied French Orientalism  287
4. Architectural taxonomies and (anti-)colonial discourses around 1931  323

VIII. The End of a Seventy-Year Career in France: Angkor

at the 1937 Exposition Internationale in Paris  341

1. The regionalist turn, or Le plus grand régionalisme:

From the ‘colonial picturesque’ to the ‘French indigenous’  341
2. Spatialising the last breath of French colonialism:
A Swan Island for the colonies  347
3. The silent end of a seventy-year long era:
The last Angkor-style pavilion in France  356
4. The Colonial and Regional Centres — and Indochina:
Architectural hybrids  368
5. The Colonial and Regional Centres in 1937 — and Indochina:
From architectural pastiches to living heritage performance [artisanat]  376

Findings and Conclusions for Volume 1  391

From Plaster Casts to Exhibition Pavilions: Angkor in Museums,

World and Colonial Exhibitions in France (1867—1937)  391

Epilogue to Volume 1
Back to Asia: From Bangkok 1860 to Bihar 2020  407

1. Visualising cultural inheritance and royal patronage versus

mapping a colonial protectorate: Angkor Wat on Ang Duong’s
coins and for Mongkut’s royal monastery in Bangkok  407
2. Between philanthropy and marketing,
a ‘greater Hindu nation’ and the Internet: A ‘glocalised’ mega translation
of Angkor Wat for Bihar 2020  416

Plates of Volume 1  425

VIII
 2

     
MICHAEL FALSER

ANGKOR WAT
This book unravels the formation of the modern concept of cultural heritage by

ANGKOR WAT
MICHAEL FALSER
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.
A T R A N S C U LTU R A L H I STO RY O F H E R I TAGE
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 2: ANGKOR IN CAMBODIA

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.

www.degruyter.com
ISBN 978-3-11-033572-9
 M I C H A E L FA L S E R

ANGKOR WAT
A TR A NSCULTUR A L HIS TORY OF HE RITAGE

VOLUME 2:

A NGKOR IN C AMBODIA .
FROM J U NGLE FIND TO GLOBA L ICON

DE GRUYTER
This publication was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation)
within the Cluster of Excellence 270/1 “Asia and Europe in a Global Context” at Heidelberg University/Germany.

This publication was printed with support by the Gerda Henkel Foundation, Düsseldorf/Germany.

ISBN 978-3-11-033572-9
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-033584-2

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019941361

Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek

The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliographie;
detailed bibliographic data are available on the internet at http://dnb.dnb.de

© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Cover illustration: Angkor Wat replica in the 1931 International Exhibition in Paris,
detail from postcard (private collection Michael Falser, compare Fig. VII.22c)
Typesetting: hawemannundmosch, Berlin
Printing and binding: Beltz Grafische Betirebe GmbH, Bad Langensalza

www.degruyter.com
 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  1

Giving the Archaeological Park of Angkor a critical history  1

1. Flattening the ground, mapping Angkor: Cartographic strategies
(1860—1910)  9
2. Governmental decrees, first interventions, and the guidebooks:
The spatiotemporal making of Angkor as an archaeological heritage reserve
(1900—1930)  19
3. Re-making the temples of Angkor and the myth of anastylosis
(1930—1973)  48
3.1. The 1920s at Angkor, Henri Marchal
and the issue of “conservation”  51
3.2. Knowledge transfer and heritage diplomacy
between French Indochina and the Dutch East Indies  60
3.3. Nicolas Balanos, the Acropolis, anastylosis,
and the Athens Conference of 1931  84
3.4. Late colonial and early postcolonial archaeology
in Angkor: Maurice Glaize and again Henri Marchal
(the 1940s and 1950s)  98
3.5. An unfinished ’enacted utopia of cultural heritage’:
Bernard Philippe Groslier and his reprise totale
of Angkor Wat (1960—1973)  123

X. Performing Grandeur — Re-enacting Angkor.

Cambodia’s Independence 1953—1970 under Norodom Sihanouk  153

Three comments, working questions, and definitions  153

1. A short introduction: Samdech Upayuvareach or Sihanouk, ‘the prince
who left the throne’ to become a state leader. Political benchmarks between
1941 and 1970  157
2. Norodom Sihanouk as the new Jayavarman VII: Buddhist socialism
à la Angkorienne  164
3. The Politique d’Eau: Remaking Cambodia as a hydraulic empire  173
4. New Khmer Architecture: In the name of Angkor  184
5. Cultural (heritage) diplomacy: From cultural performance
to the re-enactment of Angkor  204

V
 Table of Contents

XI. Making Angkor Global (1970—1990):

Hot and Cold War Politics, Competing Inheritance Claims and the Invention of Angkor
as Heritage of Humanity  235

Regimes changes and inheritance claims: five general observations

and findings  235
1. Heritage politics during the Khmer Republic (1970—1975), or:
The invention of Angkor as a heritage icon for ‘all humanity’  237
1.1. The Hague Convention and Cambodia’s
republican plans for Angkor  238
1.2. F.U.N.K., G.R.U.N.C. and Sihanouk’s
ongoing royalist claim on Angkor  254
2. The Khmer Rouge and Angkor  258
2.1. Framing Khmer Rouge ideology
with the cultural heritage of Angkor  259
2.2. The hydraulic empire of Angkor
as a reference for DK’s hydraulic utopia?  262
2.3. Cultural diplomacy reloaded:
Learning from the French and Sihanouk  267
3. People’s Republic of Kampuchea  273
3.1. India recognises the PRK:
Cultural ties and the diplomatic gift
called Angkor Wat  279
3.2. Asian neighbours — Buddhist traditions?
Japan’s interest in Angkor  290
3.3. Too many Friends of Angkor (Wat), or:
A Socialist brotherhood with Poland  294
3.4. France: Re-claiming its position between
“russification” and internationalisation … 297
3.5. Cambodian refugees: The forgotten voices
of the (trans)cultural memory of Angkor  299
4. Claiming heritage without territory:
The exiled Khmer Rouge regime and its political strategy for Angkor
at UNESCO in Paris during the 1980s  304
4.1. Searching for inner-political consolidation
and an international cultural-political
strategy (1979—82)  306
4.2. The Coalition Government and
its propagandistic mission (1982—85)  313
4.3. The end of the Cold War: Perestroika
for the missions for Angkor (1985—1989)  318

VI
 Table of Contents

XII. Angkor as UNESCO World Heritage: The Decisive Years 1987—1993  323

Introduction  323
1. 1987—1988: UNESCO’s campaign strategies, the blocked entry to Angkor
and the return of the substitute called “plaster cast”  328
2. 1989: Appeals for Angkor and UNESCO’s first action  331
3. 1990: The international rush to Save Angkor gains momentum  336
4. 1991: Making Angkor global. Vann Molyvann  340
5. 1992: Pushing Angkor onto the World Heritage List:
UNESCO’s politics with ‘danger’  353
6. 1993: Archaeological Park of Angkor — Institutionally globalised  370

Findings and Conclusions to Volume 2  387

From Jungle Find to Global Icon: Angkor as Archeological Reserve

and World Heritage (1860s to 2010s)  387

Epilogue to Volume 2
Angkor post-1992: From World Heritage to World’s (Af-)Fair and Theme Park  405

1. Angkor Park post-1992: A World’s (Af)Fair institutionalised and ritualised  407

2. Angkor Park post-1992: A World’s (Af)fair spatialised  416
3. Angkor Park post-1992: A World’s (Af)fair materialised  421
3.1 EFEO’s Baphuon: A late colonial task completed  422
3.2 ASI’s Ta Prohm: A ‘manufactured jungle’ sanitised  424
3.3 A world’s (af)fair called Angkor Wat: Coping with
a late colonial legacy?  425
3.4 APSARA’s Khmer Habitat Interpretation Center  436
4. Greater Angkor Park post-1992: From archaeological reserve to theme park  437
4.1 The Ecovillage of Run Ta-Ek:
archaeological ethnography re-enacted?  438
4.2 The Gates-to-Angkor Hotel Zone:
An archaeologically themed space being super-commercialised?  444
4.3 The Cambodian Cultural Village:
The theme of Angkor as amusement zone?  447
4.4 Angkor Wat and its “Age of Prosperity” revisited —
North Korea’s Angkor (Wat) Panorama  448
4.5 From a Thai museum to a tiny backyard of Siem Reap:
Angkor Wat’s eternal replication  449

Plates of Volume 2  455

Bibliography  577

Index  Names and Institutions  623  Places  633

VII
 Michael Falser

ANGKOR WAT – A
TRANSCULTURAL HISTORY
OF HERITAGE
Volume 1: Angkor in France. From Plaster Casts to Exhibition
Pavilions. Volume 2: Angkor in Cambodia. From Jungle Find to
Global Icon

This book unravels the formation of the modern concept of cultural heritage by xix, 1150 pages
charting its colonial, postcolonial-nationalist and global trajectories. By bringing Hardcover:
to light many unresearched dimensions of the twelfth-century Cambodian RRP *€ [D] 172.95 / *US$ 198.99 /
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temple of Angkor Wat during its modern history, the study argues for a ISBN 978-3-11-033572-9
conceptual, connected history that unfolded within the transcultural interstices of eBook:
European and Asian projects. With more than 1,400 black-and-white and colour RRP *€ [D] 172.95 / *US$ 198.99 /
illustrations of historic photographs, architectural plans and samples of public *GBP 157.00
PDF ISBN 978-3-11-033584-2
media, the monograph discusses the multiple lives of Angkor Wat over a 150-
Date of Publication: December 2019
year-long period from the 1860s to the 2010s.
Language of Publication: English
Volume 1 (Angkor in France) reconceptualises the Orientalist, French-colonial Subjects:
Architecture and Design, other
‘discovery’ of the temple in the nineteenth century and brings to light the Arts, general
manifold strategies at play in its physical representations as plaster cast Topics in History  Cultural History
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.

Michael Falser, University of Heidelberg.

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