Siem Reap’s growing Angkor database hosts the story
Siem Reap’s innovative Angkor database is set to expand, adding photo collections to its offering, expanding the range of books and publications in its library, and becoming a full-fledged publishing entity.
“We plan to add photo collections developed by researchers who entrust us with their material,” said Bernard Cohen, founder of Angkor Database.
“We host three important photo collections, the latest being the global research on Khmer art through museum collections initiated by Andy Brouwer, documenting the origin and recent history of Khmer artefacts, a task particularly relevant to a an era of international interest in the restitution of art and the ethical responsibility of museums.
The database will also add and digitize books in a variety of languages, including Chinese, Russian and Japanese, as well as contributions from Indian scholars, while expanding its collection of writings from women traveling to Angkor.
“We also plan to develop our own series of original publications and reference materials in electronic format and in print editions,†says Cohen. “In May, we published our first major printed book, a complete and commented edition of ‘Culinary Art of Cambodia’, the great summary of Cambodian cuisine completed in English and French in 1970, then in Khmer ten years later by the late Princess HRH Norodom Rasmi Sobbhana.
This proposed charity was financially supported by Templation Angkor Resort, and the proceeds from the sale have already funded the first edition of the Samdech Rasmi Sobbhana Scholarship, designed to help female students begin advanced studies at the Royal University of fine arts. “
Angkor Database started in 2015 as an online library and resource for Templation Angkor Resort guests, and the project is almost fully supported by the Phnom Penh-based MAADS and Templation Resort hotel group.
“Templation owner Kru Veasna is a firm believer in community engagement and educational endeavors,†says Cohen. “This is a non-profit operation, independent of any institution or company. For future improvement, we will be asking for individual donations, but we want the site to remain completely access-free and ad-free. “
Cohen quickly realized that the scope of the project could and should be broadened to provide accessible data to researchers around the world, and to help new Cambodian generations access documents, properly digitized books, language resources. foreign but, above all, resources also in Khmer. .
Cohen also wanted information to be easily and quickly accessible.
“Instead of doing tedious research on the Net, why not put together much of the enormous Angkor literature in one easily searchable place,†he says.
“Bernard-Philippe Groslier, the last curator of Angkor who finally had to leave Angkor because of threats from the Khmer Rouge, made two interesting remarks towards the end of his truly fruitful life. First, that the rich complexity of Cambodian history, with its constant incorporation-transformation of external influences, religious concepts, architectural techniques, required a constant effort of comparison, synthesis and processing of data in many fields, archeology, epigraphy, comparative art history, and ethnography.
“Second, that the common prejudice that modern Cambodians had lost interest in their own ancient history was seriously flawed, or that it was mainly the result that a foreign power, France, had virtually monopolized Angkorian studies for more than of a century.
“For example, many reference books and essays on the Angkor civilization are still only available in French. Forty years ago, French was still the language of the scientific community.
This is no longer the case and some individual researchers, like Aedeen Cremin, or Kent Davis on devata.org have worked on translating important texts into English. We are doing our part at Angkor Database – it is imperative that Cambodians themselves have access to this huge historical repository.
Cohen and his team built the database by identifying the books that an Angkor-related library should contain, and started an online “constant bibliography”, adding new publications or rare old books when they are secure.
An original website structure, convenient for an interactive database, was created with the help of IT developer Paul Manem, and is currently being upgraded to make it more user-friendly, allow online contributions and manage data. ever increasing.
“We now have over 3,000 entries in the bibliography, which will soon be available online, some 350 printed books at the library and some 2,500 digitized publications online, as well as some 400 videos and over 10,000 photographs,” he said. Cohen said. .
But a crucial resource missing from the database library is a biography of founder Bernard Cohen – this is because such a book does not exist, but I hope Cohen, now living in a bucolic reverie at the outskirts of Siem Reap, will turn to an autobiography.
Cohen is a former war correspondent, international journalist, transnational literary translator, and a skillful linguist who speaks English, French, Spanish, Russian, Hebrew, Arabic, Portuguese and works on his Khmer.
He began his career as a journalist as a war correspondent for Agence France-Presse for five years from 1979 to 1984 then worked for the French daily “liberal libertarian” Liberation for six years from 1989 to 1995.
In recent years he has worked as an author, scholar and translator, translating mainly from English and Spanish to French, and has translated renowned authors such as Norman Mailer, Hunter Thompson, Dorothy Parker, Tawni O’Dell, Douglas Kennedy, Pedro Juan Guttiérez, Tom Wolfe, Keith Richards and Mohsin Hamid.
He describes the translation as an “act of love” and in fact fell in love with an author whose book he was translating and lived with her for ten years.
But seventeen years ago he found a new love – Cambodia.
“I fell in love with the country in 2004, after decades of traveling the world,†he says. “My wife is from Kratie, a region that is also dear to me, steeped in history, and we have just built a traditional Khmer house in the countryside north of Angkor Thom, to bring us closer to the temple atmosphere. â€