Picking Up the Pieces - Baphuon Temple
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24-Aug-2005
Last Edited
"Go and look behind the
Ranges-something lost behind the Ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go! "
---
Rudyard Kipling
Putting the World's Biggest Jigsaw
Puzzle
Angkor's Baphuon Temple-Back Together Again
By Michelle Vachon
The Cambodia Daily
The Cambodia Daily , WEEKEND Saturday, July 13-14, 2002
A pen and watercolor rendering of the Baphuon temple as it
might have appeared in the 11th century, painted by Lucien Fournereau in
1889
Half of temple's first tier has been restored, the second tier partially reinforced, but nothing has beendone to the third level. Fearing a hasty departure, Groslier makes workers build a laterite envelope to protect the top of the temple and a portion of the second level.
About two years later, the team of the Ecole francaise d'Extreme-Orient, which had been in charge of restoration and research at Angkor since Angkor Conservation was founded in 1908, leaves the Siem Reap area. In 1975, as the Khmer Rouge forces close in on the capital, the EFEO office in Phnom Penh is ransacked and all records on the Baphuon project disappear.
Twenty years later, Pascal Royere, EFEO architect, found himself in the
middle of one of the biggest jigsaw puzzle in restoration history. About
300,000 stones of the Baphuon laid over 10 hectares of jungle. "The stone
field was drowning in vegetation," he said. In addition, a portion of the
temple's second and third levels on the west side had collapsed during the
years of neglect.
The temple had been dismantled in the 1960s, and stones "temporarily"
stocked based on the logic of workers long gone, and numbered according to
work plans that were never recovered. As with any puzzle, each of the
300,000 stones could only fit in one spot. "This is an architectural
tradition in which there is not a square centimeter of stone without
decoration," said Royere. One stone misplaced and the whole sculpted surface
of the temple would be impossible to restore, he said.
The Baphuon dates from the 11th century. Built by King Udayadityavarman
II, it was located near the royal palace, part a city plan of Angkor that
was centuries away from being surrounded by the city walls of Angkor Thom
with its Bayon in the middle.
The Baphuon erected around 1060 was the largest temple of its time, and only
Angkor Wat built in the following century would surpass it. It was
surmounted by what was described as a "bronze tower" by the Chinese diplomat
Zhou Daguan, who visited Angkor at the end of the 13th century.
"It's a very important temple in the history of Khmer art," said Son
Soubert, a member of the Constitutional Council and a professor of
archeology at the Royal University of Phnom Penh. "There is a style that
bears its name-the Baphuon Style-and sculptures from that period are very
distinctive."
The mountain temple, which stands 34.8 meter high without the tower that has
disappeared, went through a major reshaping project probably towards the end
of the 15th century, said Royere. Originally built as a Hindu monument
dedicated to Siva, it was converted into a Buddha temple in a spectacular
way.
A reclining Buddha was built on the second level of the west side. The
sculpture, which is nearly 9-meter high and stretches over 70 meters, was
created by demolishing some sections of the temple to use the stones. This
is probably how the 8-meter tower on top of the monument vanished, said
Royere.
This Buddha aggravated a problem that had afflicted the monument from the
start, he said. The three-tier pyramid had been erected on a giant sandpie
as fill. This was a technique that Angkor builders had used successfully in
the past, said Royere. But the Baphuon-which at ground level is 130-meter
long by 104-meter wide-was the largest structure they had so far worked on.
"With it, they reached the limits of what the technique could handle, and
ended up creating one of Angkor's biggest but also most fragile monuments,"
said Royere.
The instability of the sand fill, due to its weight and the rain filtering
through the stones, caused portions of the temple to collapse. Throughout
the Angkor era, some work was done to prevent the building from caving in,
but to no avail. By the late 1400s, it probably was in poor shape, which
might explain why builders of the time had no qualms about demolishing some
sections to build the Buddha, said Royere.
When the EFEO decided to tackle the Baphuon in 1960, its restoration
called for drastic measures. Its team decided to use anastylosis, which
consists of completely taking a monument apart and rebuilding it in a way
that will stabilize its structure.
The technique had been perfected by the Dutch on restoration projects in
Java, said Vann Molyvann, a senior government advisor, architect and former
director of Apsara Authority. "The EFEO had sent architect Henri Marchal to
Java to look into the technique." Marchal used it for the first time at
Angkor during the restoration of Banteay Srey temple in the 1930s, he said.
The Baphuon and the Borobudur monument in Java are probably the two biggest
structures in Asia to have been restored by anastylosis, said Royere. The
dismantling of the Baphuon went according to plans in the 1960s, and in 1995
Royere inherited the task of putting it back together without a blueprint.
The work includes two major steps. First to stabilize the sand fill,
three huge rectangular boxes made of concrete are poured on top of each
other, the bigger one at the bottom and smaller one at the top, pyramid
style. Then the stones are put back in place, completely hiding the
concrete-box structure.
To lighten the weight of the pyramid, only the stones of the Buddha's outer
shell are installed, said Royere. Laterite will replace standstone for the
backing. In addition, the workers built a slab held by stakes reaching into
the ground to support the sculpture, he said. This measure was suggested by
Cambodian engineers of the Technical Institute of Cambodia who studied the
matter at the request of the EFEO.
To reduce rain damage, a drainage system is being set up and the original
stones protected from any contact with the concrete, which releases salt
when wet.
Once the structure is in place, there remains the task of putting each of
the 300,000 stones where they belong. Royere spent the first two years of
the project trying to figure out how the "field of stones" had been
organized and the best way to deal with the situation.
There were three points in his favor. Jacques Dumarcay, the EFEO architect
who had supervised the Baphuon project in the 1960s, had since retired but
was eager to help to see the work completed, said Royere. "In addition,
about 30 Cambodian workers, who had worked on restoration projects at Angkor
in the 1960s and 1970s, spontaneously came to us." Mith Priem, for instance,
who now supervises a team at the Baphuon site, had worked on the restoration
of Angkor Wat in the 1960s. "He knows how to recognize patterns on stones
and how to manage stone research teams," said Royere. This provided him with
a group of specialized workers who could train others and help organize the
work. With the scientific memory of Dumarcay, an authority on restoration
and Angkor history, and the technical memory of the Cambodian workers, the
project became manageable, said Royere. "Without one or the other, it would
have been very difficult."
Finally, written notes may have been lost, but there still were photo
records of the monument. Since the very beginning of their work at Angkor,
the EFEO researchers had taken photos of monuments, keeping one print of
each at the National Museum in Phnom Penh and sending a duplicate to their
head office in Paris. As a result, there were in Paris 940 photos of the
Baphuon dating as far back as 1910. This has enabled Royere to see what
moldings and other sculpted patterns look like, and which portions of the
pyramid were already missing, not to send workers search for stones that
were never there, he said.
Royere recreated each section of the temple-height, patterns, number and
size of stones-from these visual archives. Armed with the information,
workers have been walking the field searching through thousands and
thousands of stones for the ones that were put side by side a thousand years
ago. "We may find a stone in 10 minutes, or it can take 15 days," said
Royere. All it takes is infinite patience.
By now, Royere, his French assistant Jean-Claude Prigent, and the 200
workers have the work well in hand. Restoration may be completed towards the
end of 2004, as long as unforseen difficulties such as torrential rain do
not hamper the work.
The project, which is funded by France, has a total budget of about $37
million, said EFEO director Jean-Pierre Drege. Why taking over the Baphuon's
restoration after nearly 25 years of interruption? "It was a moral duty," he
said.
For French Ambassador Andre-Jean Libourel, it goes without saying that
France had to complete the project. "The monument was in the process of
collapsing- and you always must finish what you start."
Vann Molyvann sees France's continued involvement at the Baphuon as part of
that country's tradition. "They did it in Egypt against all odds and
historical upheavals."
During his stay in Paris in the mid-1995, Vann Molyvann visited French
President Jacques Chirac, he said. They had first met in 1991 when Chirac,
then mayor of Paris, had come to Cambodia. "(Chirac) told me he wanted the
Baphuon's restoration to be completed before the end of his term in 2002 so
that he could preside at the site's closing ceremony," said Vann Molyvann.
The end of the restoration project may be a couple of years away. But then,
Chirac's latest mandate will end in 2007.