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National Geographic : 1982 May
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Sentry to the soul of Kampuchea, a militiaman stands guard at the 12th- nearlyunscathedby theyears of war. Ofall the apsarasatAngkorWat itself,only this one isso extensively damaged.She had survivedintactthe 12th-centurysackingby the Cham and the 15th-centurySiamese conquest, but not the recent chaos. Thiounn Prasith,PolPot's DemocraticKampuchean ambassadorto the UnitedNations, recently toldme that the mutilation was almostcertainlythe work of a Vietnamese soldier.Perhaps.Most likely it wasjust senseless vandalism. Whoever didit, andfor whatever reason,the very defacingby the bullets ofwar make it for me a memorialin stone to the horrorsofthe pastdecade. After a thousand-yearcycle of destruction,decay, andrebirth,the ancientcomplex oftemples now desperatelyneeds a renewalof the 550
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