Perched atop a five-hundred-meter cliff in the far north of Cambodia, Preah Vihear ranks among the world’s holiest sites. It was built a millennium ago as a shrine to Hindu god Shiva by the same civilization that gave the world Angkor Wat. Sadly, it has been transformed recently into a battlefield prize, first with Cambodian factions during the Cambodian civil war, and later (to present) it has been the focus of sometimes violent border disputes with Thailand. In ‘Temple in the Clouds’ former Washington Post foreign correspondent John Burgess and author of two previous books on Cambodia, draws on extensive research in Cambodia, Thailand, France and the United States to recount the cliff top monument’s full history, ancient and modern. He reveals previously unknown legal strategies and diplomatic manoeuvring behind a contentious World Court case of 1959-62 that awarded the temple to Cambodia. Written in a lively, accessible style, ‘Temple in the Clouds’ brings new insight to one of Southeast Asia’s greatest temples and most intractable border conflicts. REVIEWS: ‘Temple in the Clouds’ is an accessible, handsomely illustrated book about an imposing Tenth Century Cambodian temple known as Preah Vihear. The temple lies close to the Thai-Cambodian border
a line on maps that didn’t exist until the early 1900s. John Burgess deftly sets Preah Vihear in its religious and architectural context before going on to examine the conflict about ‘ownership’ of the temple that has inflamed Thai-Cambodian relations on and off since the early 1960s. David Chandler, Monash University, author of ‘A History of Cambodia’ (4th edition, 2007). Southeast Asia is largely at peace today, but some disputes linger, sparking military skirmishes from time to time. The mountaintop Preah Vihear temple is one of them. John Burgess has done the region a great favour with his in-depth investigation of the temple
its ancient history and the tragic modern-day conflict. His findings will help to calm the waters
facts should trump myths and speculation. Scholars and policy makers in Southeast Asia and beyond should read this book carefully, as well as anyone curious about a place that is one of the crowning glories of Cambodia’s lost Angkor civilisation. Kishore Mahbubani, Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore and a former Singapore diplomat in Cambodia. 50 colour photos, plans and maps