The Preah Vihear temple is a 900 year old temple located on a cliff in Cambodia which is in the Dangrek mountains located 525 metres above sea level. It was constructed during the Khmer era and is a place of worship by not only the Cambodians but by also their Thai neighbours. The Ta Muen Thom temple, an 12 th century Shiva shrine, is about 95 km away, to the west.
Despite being majorly outweighed by the popularity of Angkor Wat, this group of temples has been catching the centre of an argument between the two states over 50 years.
The border between Thailand and Cambodia was the scene of renewed clashing on Thursday and this is the most violent outbreak in the last 10 years. The fights resulted in 12 people being dead, dozens, being wounded, and mass evacuations.
This is the latest fighting which started early on Thursday morning in Thailand, Surin Province, around the Ta Muen Thom temple. The Thai version of the events states that the fight started as Cambodian soldiers were using their drones in the air to spy on the Thai military bases. Efforts to calm down by Thai soldiers did not succeed and at 08.20 local time, heavy fire exchanges occurred.
Thailand states that they were under self-defence and had been provoked by the Cambodian units who armed themselves with RPGs. Cambodia, however, accuses Thailand of committing the abuse with its sovereignty.
Thailand bumped up the level of threats to Level 4, which prompted a complete shutdown of all crossings along their mutual border. About 40 000 Thai civilians in 86 villages have been evacuated.
Prehistoric Temples And Tables
The territorial conflict is centered on the issue of ambiguity between the positions of Cambodia and Thailand in most part of the countries, which were obtained during the colonial era.
The International Court of justice (ICJ) in a ruling in 1962 gave judgements in favour of Cambodia and Thailand asked to withdraw the stirring troops and to hand over any artefacts granted since 1954.
It was based on a map drawn by the French in 1907 that placed the temple under the French protectorate that was Cambodia. Thailand (then Siam) had accepted this map by that point but subsequently claimed that it had accepted the map under that misimpression that the boundary line was a natural watershed line. The ICJ realized otherwise, and ascertained that Thailand had acknowledged the map and was a party to it.
In 2013, following renewed conflict between forces at the scene in 2011 ICJ reiterated its first case and declared that Cambodia has sovereign territory over the temple, as well as in areas surrounding it, and ordered Thailand to withdraw its troops.
Ta Muen Thom
The present animosities have centred round Ta Muen Thom temple. This little-known Khmer Hindu complex situated near the steep forested border of the Dangrek Mountains consists of three major temples, Ta Muen Thom, Ta Muen and Ta Muen Tot.
The architecture of Ta Muen Thom is unique as the sanctuary of the region faces the south, this is unlike the Khmer temples, which were built to face east. It has a naturally created Shivling that is enshrined in its sanctum.
Its position has undermined it as a point of repeated crisis. In February Cambodian troops were reported to have sung their national anthem at the temple, resulting in a battle with Thai troops. A video of this confrontation got viral in social media.
Politics And Colonial Borders
After French protection had been established in Cambodia (1863), various agreements between French and Siam were concluded between 1904 and 1907 to clarify the territory demarcation. French surveyors used line of watershed to develop maps and made an exception however close to areas rich with cultural value like Preah Vihear.
Southeast Asian historians have repeatedly observed that boundaries especially those created by Western countries were foreign to local politics of the region.
Cambodia has a particular geo-body as per its French-made maps which underpinned European cartography and Preah Vihear is found slightly within the boundaries of Cambodia. Thailand has always challenged these lines, in particular because more contemporary geographic technologies became available and revealed discrepancies.
Preah Vihear Cambodia managed to have Preah Vihear included in the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2008, which again sparked off the Thai resistance. Then Defender of Thailand Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama, who had been behind the bid, had to ressure after disagreement back at home. Later that year, it erupted into battles near the temple, resulting in the deaths of both sides of the soldier.
Sovereignty in the form of temples
Ta Muen Thom is not the single temple, which slipped into such a geo-political conflict. Others such as the Preah Vihear and Ta Moan Thom are areas of conflict too. The area in question is especially Preah Vihear which has been a matter of bloodshed and contention in courts over the decades.
In 1962, ICJ gave Preah Vihear to Cambodia, which was confirmed in 2013, but Thailand has denied the jurisdiction of the court. Like in the case of Ta Muen Thom, the problem can be dated to a 1907 French colonial age-map, which Cambodia claims to crystallize its claims, but Thailand, claims the map was inaccurate.
Preah Vihear a steep-cliff-top location is a UNESCO World Heritage Site More Preah Vihear was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008. However, this labeling led to the enhancement of nationalistic passion and arms race between the two camps, making the cultural inheritance a war brewer.
The reason behind why the past is still burning in the present
The spine of disagreement on Thailand-Cambodia border disagreement is not necessarily concerning territory. It is a matter of national identity, history and political legitimacy. The temples, which were all built in the time of Khmer Empire when there were no actual borders as there are nowadays, are currently between the national borders of these modern times and the cultural claims of the past.
The fact that sacred Hindu temples, meant for peace and spiritual reflection, are now battlegrounds reflects how history is being reinterpreted for present-day politics. With thousands of troops deployed, fighter jets in the air, and ancient stones standing in the line of fire, it’s a stark reminder of how unresolved history can explode into violence.
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