PREAH VIHEA TEMPLE ( CAMBODIA)

Preah Vihear Temple

Preah Vihear Temple is an ancient Hindu temple built during the period of the Khmer Empire, that is situated atop a 525-metre cliff in the Dângrêk Mountains, in the Preah Vihear province, Cambodia.

Managing a perspective for some kilometers over a plain, Prasat Preah Vihear has the most awesome setting of the considerable number of sanctuaries worked amid the six-centuries-in length Khmer Empire. As a key structure of the realm's otherworldly life, it was bolstered and changed by progressive rulers thus bears components of a few building styles. Preah Vihear is abnormal among Khmer sanctuaries in being developed along a long north-south pivot, as opposed to having the routine rectangular arrangement with introduction toward the east. The sanctuary gives its name to Cambodia's Preah Vihear region, in which it is currently situated, and also the Khao Phra Wihan National Park which outskirts it in Thailand's Sisaket area and through which the sanctuary is most effectively available. On July 7, 2008, Preah Vihear was recorded as an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The sanctuary was worked at the highest point of Pey Tadi, a precarious precipice in the Dângrêk Mountain range which are the regular outskirt in the middle of Thailand and Cambodia. 

The Temple is recorded by Thailand as being in Bhumsrol town of Bueng Malu sub-region (now converged with Sao Thong Chai sub-locale), in Kantharalak area of the Sisaket Province of eastern Thailand. It is 110 km from the Mueang Sisaket District, the focal point of Sisaket Province. 

The Temple is additionally recorded by Cambodia as being in Svay Chrum Village, Kan Tout Commune, in Choam Khsant District of Preah Vihear region of northern Cambodia. The sanctuary is 140 km from Angkor Wat and 320 km from Phnom Penh.

Development of the main sanctuary on the site started in the mid ninth century; both then and in the next hundreds of years it was committed to the Hindu god Shiva in his signs as the mountain divine beings Sikharesvara and Bhadresvara. The most punctual surviving parts of the sanctuary, notwithstanding, date from the Koh Ker period in the mid tenth century, when the realm's capital was at the city of that name. Today, components of the Banteay Srei style of the late tenth century can be seen, however the vast majority of the sanctuary was developed amid the rules of the Khmer lords Suryavarman I and Suryavarman II (1113–1150). An engraving found at the sanctuary gives a point by point record of Suryavarman II examining consecrated customs, commending religious celebrations and making endowments, including white parasols, brilliant dishes and elephants, to his profound counselor, the matured Brahmin Divakarapandita. The Brahmin himself took an enthusiasm for the sanctuary, as per the engraving, giving to it a brilliant statue of a moving Shiva known as "Nataraja". In the wake of the decrease of Hinduism in the area the site was changed over to use by Buddhists.

Preah Vihear as a World Heritage Site

On July 8, 2008, the World Heritage Committee decided to add Prasat Preah Vihear, along with 26 other sites, to the World Heritage Site list, despite several protests from Thailand, since the map implied Cambodian ownership of disputed land next to the temple.

As the process of Heritage-listing began, Cambodia announced its intention to apply for World Heritage inscription by UNESCO. Thailand protested that it should be a joint-effort and UNESCO deferred debate at its 2007 meeting.

Taking after this, both Cambodia and Thailand were in full assention that Preah Vihear Temple had "Exceptional Universal Value" and ought to be recorded on the World Heritage List at the earliest opportunity. The two countries concurred that Cambodia ought to propose the site for formal engraving on the World Heritage List at the 32nd session of the World Heritage Committee in 2008 with the dynamic backing of Thailand. This prompted a redrawing of the guide of the range for proposed engraving, leaving just the sanctuary and its quick environs. 

Be that as it may, Thailand's political resistance dispatched an assault on this updated arrangement (see Modern History and Ownership Dispute), guaranteeing the incorporation of Preah Vihear could all things considered "devour" the covering questioned territory close to the sanctuary. In light of the political weight at home, the Thai government pulled back its formal backing for the posting of Preah Vihear Temple as a World Heritage site. 

Cambodia proceeded with the application for World Heritage status and, regardless of authority Thai challenges, on July 7, 2008, Preah Vihear Temple was engraved on the rundown of World Heritage destinations. 

The reestablished national limit question subsequent to 2008 has been an update that in spite of the World Heritage standards of protection for all humankind, working a World Heritage site regularly requires utilization of national power inconsistent with the nearby societies and normal assorted qualities of the scene. Before the posting, Cambodia considered Preah Vihear to be a piece of a Protected Landscape (IUCN class V), characterized as "Broadly critical common and semi-regular scenes which should be kept up to give chances to amusement." However, Category V is for the most part characterized as "Area, with coast and oceans as proper, where the communication of individuals and nature after some time has created a range of particular character with noteworthy stylish, social and/or environmental quality, and frequently with high organic assorted qualities. Defending the respectability of this conventional communication is indispensable to the insurance, upkeep and development of such a range."