Angkor construction technology used to build Hindu temple in West London

The Shree Sanatan Hindu Mandir temple in Wembley, West London

Shree Sanatan Hindu Mandir
The pride of the Hindus

June 20, 2010
By Mithun Dey
Organiser.org

Most of the Mandir parts have been hand-carved in limestone in a small town called Sola, located in Gujarat. About 41 statues of the deities made-up of marble were made in India especially for the Mandir.

I got surprised after receiving an email from one of my friends living in London stating that a new Sanatan Hindu Mandir has been constructed in London. It’s really a great achievement for the Hindus around the world.

The Shree Sanatan Hindu Mandir was constructed at a cost of £16 million i.e. 113,60,00000 crore in Indian currency. It took 14 years to construct the temple in the locality of Wimbley, situated in West London. The technology used in the construction of this temple is similar to that of the world famous Vishnu Temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. The Vishnu Temple of Angkor Wat was built by King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple in the capital city of Khmer empire which Cambodia is now part of. The temple is an of epitome of high classical style of Khmer architecture.

No doubt that the Sanatan Hindu Mandir has been built by great people who must have been working very hard and we cannot take their achievement for granted. The Mandir has been built by using ancient technology based on Hindu sculptures and made of shilpa shastras technique. The Mandir covers an area of 2.4 acres and it is 66ft (20m) tall. Its bright sand-coloured walls stand out in stark contrast to the unassuming surroundings. The Mandir is also known as Wembley’s newest looming landmark.

Most of the Mandir parts have been hand carved in limestone in a small town called Sola, located in Gujarat. About 41 statues of deities made-up of marble were made in India especially for the Mandir.

Famous spiritual leaders and forms of Gods from other religions such as Mother Teresa, Gurunanak Devji, Meerabai, Lord Swaminarayan and many more have been featured in the carvings of the temple. Featuring of other Gods have made the Mandir run into controversies and many have questioned the carving of the image of Mother Teresa on one of its columns, but Dr Raj Pandit Sharma of the Hindu Council UK as well as the chief priest of the Mandir said, "It represents the inclusive nature of the Hindu religion."

The opening ceremony known "Pran Prathistha" was celebrated on May 31, 2010 to "infuse the spirit of God into the statues. The opening ceremony was attended by a large number of distinguished devotees. It is our faith that the Mandir will offer a place of worship for all the Hindus, said Dr Raj.

Dr Raj Pandit Sharma said that the new Mandir not only stand out as a structure but it also fits well with the eclectic local community. He also said, "I think it will add to the charm of the area".

He further said that all Hindu festivals will be celebrated in the Mandir. It is expected that around 400-500 devotees will visit the Mandir during the week days and double that on weekends.

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Reassuring the Khmer Krom

Monday, 14 June 2010 15:02 James O’toole and May Titthara

KRT prosecutor holds meeting with group worried about being overlooked.


Photo by: Courtesy of Rothany Srun/Access to Justice Asia
Khmer Krom residents of Pursat’s Bakan district listen to a presentation about the Khmer Rouge tribunal’s second case on Sunday.

Pursat Province
KHMER Rouge tribunal co-prosecutor Andrew Cayley addressed a group of Khmer Krom residents of Pursat province on Sunday, intent on assuring them that the suffering inflicted upon their community under Democratic Kampuchea will not be overlooked by the court.

In speaking to a group of around 200 in Pursat’s Romlech commune, Bakan district, Cayley made the uncommon move of reaching out and explaining the status of the court’s investigation to survivors who have voiced concern that attacks and alleged genocide against them have yet to be acknowledged.

“I know there is a feeling amongst some of your community that you haven’t been properly considered by the court,” Cayley told the audience, speaking in the dusty courtyard of the Wat Romlech pagoda.

“But I want to say to you today, sincerely, why I’m here is because I do recognise what happened to you as a people.”

“Khmer Krom” is a term for ethnic Khmer with roots in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam.

In January, the court’s co-investigating judges ruled that genocide charges and other offences would not be brought against the Khmer Rouge
leaders currently in detention based on the regime’s treatment of the Khmer Krom.

This decision, court officials emphasised at the time, was based not on a historical judgment that the Khmer Krom were not victims of genocide and other crimes, but on procedural factors: Such offences had not been properly listed in evidentiary submissions by the prosecution.

As a result of this decision, a number of Khmer Krom civil party applicants from Pursat who had been provisionally accepted in Case 002 were rejected, as their claims were deemed to be outside the scope of the court’s investigation. An April ruling from the court’s Pre-Trial Chamber reversed the decision against several of these applicants, though only on the basis that their claims could be connected to crimes in other provinces that had already been established as part of the court’s investigation.

“The rules are ridiculously complicated on the acceptance of civil parties,” Cayley told one woman who approached him after the event to ask about the process.

Assistant prosecutor Dale Lysak explained that although the deadline has passed to add crimes against the Khmer Krom in Pursat to the list of alleged offences being investigated in Case 002, evidence related to the group will nonetheless be utilised in supporting the case for existing crimes under investigation; namely, forced relocations from Eastern Cambodia and genocide of the Vietnamese in Prey Veng, Svay Rieng and across the border in Vietnam.

“This area is very important to both of those, because we have to prove that there was a policy of the Khmer Rouge with respect to the Vietnamese,” Lysak said.

Cayley said that the complexity and the volume of evidence in Case 002 would stretch the trial for “at least two years”. Were the court to properly account for all crimes committed under Democratic Kampuchea, the trial “would go on for 20 years”, Cayley said, though he promised those assembled that the Khmer Krom will not be forgotten during the proceedings.

“We will seek to have evidence from witnesses heard in that trial in respect to crimes committed against the Khmer Krom, so that the judges and the world can hear what happened to you as a people,” he said.

Meas Chanthorn, a Khmer Krom man who was chief of Romlech commune at the time the Khmer Rouge took power, called Cayley’s visit “a historic day” for his community.

“The co-prosecutor came to talk to villagers in this area to show that the court is paying attention to the Khmer Krom case,” Meas Chanthorn said. He called Romlech a “genocide area”, and urged the court to reconsider investigating the charge in the context of the Khmer Krom.

In December, the court announced that the four Khmer Rouge leaders awaiting a first round of indictments were facing genocide charges in connection with the regime’s treatment of Cham Muslims and Vietnamese.

Historians such as David Chandler have argued, however, that Khmer Rouge killings do not fit within the legal definition of genocide: criminal acts committed “with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.


Photo by: James O'toole
Members of the Khmer Krom community review materials distributed by the Documentation Centre of Cambodia concerning the Khmer Rouge tribunal’s second case.

A number of Khmer Krom who gathered in Romlech said they were singled out for persecution under the Khmer Rouge because of their perceived connection to the regime’s enemies in Vietnam.

At a meeting organised in the commune last week by the Documentation Centre of Cambodia (DC-Cam), 42-year-old Peou Sophy recalled an incident in which cadres gathered local residents together and separated them into two groups: “pure” Khmer and Khmer Krom, who were taken away from the village and killed.

“They said they had to kill everyone with Khmer bodies and Vietnamese heads,” said Kim So, another Romlech resident.

John Ciorciari, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan and a senior legal adviser with DC-Cam, said in an email last week that it was unfortunate that the popular and legal uses of the term genocide “have diverged so widely”.

“Many people have come to use ‘genocide’ as a generic label for the most serious mass crimes, which tends to suggest that other similarly heinous crimes are lesser offenses,” he said. Analysis of targeted attacks on the Khmer Krom, however, could help explain the animus that drove Khmer Rouge atrocities, Ciorciari added.

“One important fact for the court to shed light on is the motives for the alleged Khmer Rouge genocide,” he said. “Were victims targeted due to their ethnicity, their perceived nationality, politics, or all three?”

It is this sort of explanation that 51-year-old Pao Sinoun, another Romlech resident, said she hoped to get from the tribunal.

“We want to know the reason why Pol Pot killed the Khmer Krom – they did this for what?” she said.

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Enough headache yet? Maybe it's time to step down?

Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen attends the World Economic Forum on East Asia in Ho Chi Minh City June 6, 2010. Ho Chi Minh City will host the two-day forum on June 6 and 7. (REUTERS/Kham)

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Nine Cambodians arrested for gambling on World Cup

How about this gambler of Cambodia's territorial integrity?

Tue, 15 Jun 2010
DPA

Phnom Penh - Police arrested nine people for illegal gambling on the World Cup, local media reported Tuesday.

Eight men and one woman were held for 24 hours but released Monday without charge, the Cambodia Daily newspaper reported, because the arrests had come early in the tournament.

"But if they commit illegal betting again, the court will charge them," said Kao Ratana, the deputy police chief of Preah Sihanouk province in southern Cambodia.

Kao Ratana said police had seized notebooks listing wagers of up to 30 dollars at a time.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Hun Sen reiterated a ban on all forms of gambling that was introduced last year, and specifically warned people against betting on the football World Cup.

Residents of Phnom Penh told the newspaper they have set up online betting accounts in order to circumvent the ban.

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Even for state audit, Cambodia and Laos must report to Vietnam

VN auditors meet Lao, Cambodian counterparts

06/15/2010
VOV News (Hanoi)

Leaders of state audit agencies of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia met in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on June 14, discussing the role played by state audit in public sector management.

The Vietnamese delegation was headed by State Auditor General Vuong Dinh Hue, while the Lao delegation was headed by Amphonnary Keola, Deputy President of the Lao State Auditing Agency, and the Cambodian delegation, by Uth Chhorn, General Auditor of the Cambodian National Auditing Agency.

They briefed each other about their works and advantages as well as challenges. They also shared experiences in state auditing, which have helped their respective governments in successfully implementing economic strategies.

The senior auditors discussed measures to boost cooperation in sharing professional experiences and personnel training.

Addressing the meeting, Vietnamese chief auditor Hue expressed his hope that cooperation between state audit agencies of three countries would be tightened. He also said Vietnam will exert more efforts to help audit agencies of Laos and Cambodia to raise their capacity.

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Iconic Cyclo Disappearing From Phnom Penh's Streets

Oum Sok began working as a cyclo driver when he was 18. He says the city has become very expensive over the years, making it much harder to earn a living. (Photo: VOA - R. Carmichael)

Robert Carmichael, VOA
Phnom Penh 14 June 2010

The cyclo has been a distinctive feature of Phnom Penh's streets for 70 years, stretching back to the days when Cambodia was a French colony. But this form of transport has begun to fade away.

New York has its yellow cab. London has its red bus. But Phnom Penh has its cyclo - a three-wheeled bicycle with the driver perched on high above the rear wheel, and the passengers in a bucket seat slung between the two front wheels.

This iconic vehicle has proved a comfortable - if slow - way of getting around Cambodia's capital for the best part of a century. But that is changing.

Sharp decline

In the past decade the number of cyclos on the city's streets has declined sharply. Im Sambath heads the Cyclo Conservation and Career Association, which looks out for the interests of the drivers.

"Now we have around 1,300 cyclo drivers in Phnom Penh. But from our survey, in 1999 [we had] around 9,000 cyclos," he notes.

He estimates in five years, there could be only 500 or 600 cyclos left.

Why it's happening

Im Sambath says there are a number of reasons for the decline - from the changing travel habits of the Phnom Penh's citizens to the rise of the tuktuk - a motorized rickshaw.

"And tuktuks are quicker than cyclo, and can take their equipment from the market or something else easier than a cyclo," he says.

Cyclo drivers pay around 25 cents a month to join the Cyclo Association. The hundred or so members get washing facilities, HIV/AIDS education and other health benefits.

But most valuably, they get access to foreign tourists. Im Sambath says as local demand drops, foreign tourists are the future.

The association works with travel agents to arrange cyclo tours of Phnom Penh, in which tourists are pedaled around this flat city's compact array of sights.

Oldest driver

The association's oldest cyclo driver is 75-year-old Oum Sok. He has been pedaling the city's streets since he was 18.

Like most drivers, Oum Sok is from rural Cambodia where there is little work. Like them, he parks his cyclo on the sidewalk each night in a gaggle of other drivers, and sleeps in the bucket seat.

Ferrying tourists provides a reasonable living. Oum Sok earns $8 from the association for a day's work, plus any tips.

But it is no fortune. While waiting outside the city's National Museum for the tourists to emerge, he talks about the changes in his half century of pedaling people around Phnom Penh.

Down, but not out

He says when he was young, he could earn a lot, but now everything is expensive. Another thing is that the customers do not want to take a cyclo with an old man like him driving.

But he acknowledges his age can prove a benefit. In a culture that respects age, Cambodians tend to tip better than the tourists.

But tourists may be the way forward for most cyclo drivers.

Australian Margie Edmonds has just spent the morning as part of a cyclo tour with about 20 tourists.

"Well I just thought it was the most amazing way to do it," she says. "Their [the drivers] understanding of the traffic, and their kindness. It was one of the best experiences I've had in Asia. Great fun, very safe and very comfortable vehicles too."

Back at the association, Im Sambath says the cyclo is down, but not out.

He is optimistic that targeting the two million tourists visiting Cambodia each year will allow the dwindling stock of drivers to provide for their families in the provinces.

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"Chumrum Tuol Krasaing" a Poem in Khmer by Sék Serei & Hin Sithan

Click to Read More...

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New dollar sale to boost riel

Monday, 14 June 2010
Nguon Sovan
The Phnom Penh Post

NBC to off-load additional US$7 million to stabilise struggling local currency

AN additional US$7 million will be put up for sale by the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) this month in the organisation’s latest attempt to stablilse the value of the riel, it was announced Friday.

Banks, private companies and money lenders will be able to use riel to buy seven separate lots of $1 million from NBC.

Bidding on the first sale begins today with the last sell-off scheduled for June 30, according to an announcement signed by the bank’s Secretary General Sum Saniseth and released Friday.

The intervention, aimed at taking supplies of local currency out of the real economy thereby increasing demand for the devalued riel, follows the sale of $10 million carried out by NBC over the last three weeks.

So far, its attempt to revalue the riel has had a small but positive affect.

According to Ly Hour Exchange, the largest money changer in Phnom Penh, one greenback was worth 4,252 riels Sunday, a slight improvement on the 4,265 riels per dollar recorded a week earlier.

This strengthening interrupts a slide that has seen the riel depreciate to record lows.

Its value has fallen 1.47 percent over the past two months, from 4,190 riels per US dollar in mid-April, according to Ly Hour.

The riel “has gradually begun to appreciate after the central bank’s interventions”, said Sieng Lim, the owner of Ly Hour Exchange, on Sunday.

She believes the riel will stabilise when the harvest season begins in September.

It is the NBC’s policy to intervene when the riel depreciates to more than 4,200 riels per US dollar by dipping into its foreign reserves to buy in riel currency.

As of May, according to NBC data, the bank held $2.5 billion worth of foreign reserves.

According to last year’s annual report, in 2009 the NBC put 32 lots of currency worth $54 million on the market to ensure that the riel remained valued at between 4,000 and 4,200 per US dollar.

Cambodia has an estimated $500 million worth of riels in circulation.

Last week, Kang Chandararot, president of Cambodia Institute for Development Study, praised NBC’s interventions.

He said that the riel’s depreciation was the result of a strengthening US dollar – which has been affected by the weakened euro – and a reduced inflow of dollars into Cambodia through trade and investment.

Tal Nay Im, director general of the NBC, and Secretary Genearl Sum Saniseth did not reply to repeated calls for comment Sunday.

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Cambodian Killed on Impact While Gardening [in Thailand]

Monday, June 14, 2010
Pattaya People (Thailand)

The police were called out to an accident after a man had been run over on Sukhumvit Road 34/1, North Pattaya.

At the scene, the police found the body of a man on the ground underneath a car.

Sawangboriboon paramedics were asked to move the body of the deceased to Banglamung Hospital.

Khun Soron, a witness to the tragic accident, told the police that he was driving his pickup in the direction towards Bangkok, when a black Toyota car overtook him erratically, and hit the front of his pick-up to try to go on the motorway.

The car careered into the ditch in the central reservation and ran over one of the gardeners working there, later identified as “ Chuan” and was from Cambodia.

The reckless driver of the car, later identified as Khun Somjai, attempted to run away from the scene, and appeared to be intoxicated.

He was apprehended by police and taken into custardy to undergo further examination.

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