Welcome To Angkor - The Sign
Welcome To Angkor - The Sign
So, you buy your pass to Angkor at the ticket booth and head down the road. Soon, on the right hand side you see the round blue and white "Welcome To Angkor" sign, right?
For years it had driven me nuts. Let's be honest, it looks like hell and needs a new paint job in the worst way.
I mean, c'mon. It's the national symbol of Cambodia for chrissakes. It welcomes people to one of the most amazing places on earth, a place that even though I've been to dozens of times I still never tire of for some odd reason, even when the Koreans swarm around like locusts acting like spoiled teenagers. Even then.
So, I have a tour business interest in SIem Reap with my Khmer "brother", a person who is fairly well known and knew the right people to talk to in the Ministry of Tourism and the Apsara Authority. It took about three months of footwork (a whole lot of folks have to sign off on a thing like this as you can imagine) until we got the green light to do it. From beginning to end, it's almost a story in and of itself.
For example, we found out the last time the sign had been painted was 22 years ago. We used a grinders to peel back the layers of paint and under one was a whole new text! We decided on the colors of green and gold (green for the natural beauty of nature in Cambodia and gold as a nod to the Khmer kings) and some of the students from Artesans Angkor did the black outline trim on the gold letters (sometimes under a make-shift tent with the rain pounding down) that turned out amazing!
Did you know that it's a Cambodian law that when a sign is posted in public in english, that the Khmer lettering used in translation must be bigger than the english lettering and on top of it? It was stuff like that that on one hand was a little maddening but at the same time amusing and gave the project some real character.
We built a small brick wall around the sign, filled it with soil and planted flowers as well. Total cost? Less than $400 (US).
The project was a blast, as well as quite the learning experience. Given how the gears turn in cambodia, it came together a lot smoother (and faster) than you might have expected.
If someone can give a fairly painless tutorial of how to post pictures here, I can give you a before-and-after perspective. Anyway....next time you go to the temples, check out the sign!
For years it had driven me nuts. Let's be honest, it looks like hell and needs a new paint job in the worst way.
I mean, c'mon. It's the national symbol of Cambodia for chrissakes. It welcomes people to one of the most amazing places on earth, a place that even though I've been to dozens of times I still never tire of for some odd reason, even when the Koreans swarm around like locusts acting like spoiled teenagers. Even then.
So, I have a tour business interest in SIem Reap with my Khmer "brother", a person who is fairly well known and knew the right people to talk to in the Ministry of Tourism and the Apsara Authority. It took about three months of footwork (a whole lot of folks have to sign off on a thing like this as you can imagine) until we got the green light to do it. From beginning to end, it's almost a story in and of itself.
For example, we found out the last time the sign had been painted was 22 years ago. We used a grinders to peel back the layers of paint and under one was a whole new text! We decided on the colors of green and gold (green for the natural beauty of nature in Cambodia and gold as a nod to the Khmer kings) and some of the students from Artesans Angkor did the black outline trim on the gold letters (sometimes under a make-shift tent with the rain pounding down) that turned out amazing!
Did you know that it's a Cambodian law that when a sign is posted in public in english, that the Khmer lettering used in translation must be bigger than the english lettering and on top of it? It was stuff like that that on one hand was a little maddening but at the same time amusing and gave the project some real character.
We built a small brick wall around the sign, filled it with soil and planted flowers as well. Total cost? Less than $400 (US).
The project was a blast, as well as quite the learning experience. Given how the gears turn in cambodia, it came together a lot smoother (and faster) than you might have expected.
If someone can give a fairly painless tutorial of how to post pictures here, I can give you a before-and-after perspective. Anyway....next time you go to the temples, check out the sign!
Last edited by Kalakala on Fri Aug 01, 2014 2:27 am, edited 2 times in total.
The truth is that the only thing that matters is what I think because in the end you're going to give me all your money anyway.
Should have just put up a Angkor Beer sign,,, No-one would notice the difference.
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Yeah, I think most businesses are aware of that. The sign that I think you're talking about below has smaller Khmer script than English.Did you know that it's a Cambodian law that when a sign is posted in public in english, that the Khmer lettering used in translation must be bigger than the english lettering and on top of it? It was stuff like that that on one hand was a little maddening but at the same time amusing and gave the project some real character.
It'll probably be torn down soon, should have been blue, white and red.We decided on the colors of green and gold
Well done, but I'm not sure how it ended up costing that much.We built a small brick wall around the sign, filled it with soil and planted flowers as well. Total cost? Less than $400 (US).
The project was a blast
Romantic Cambodia is dead and gone. It's with McKinley in the grave.
LL,
1) Indeed your picture is the sign of which I speak. On the new sign the Khmer letters are larger than the English ones (a stipulation of re-painting the sign).
2) We knew the colors were going to be a problem as everyone has their own opinion of what they should be. We did a computer generated model of different colors, and it was the gold and green that the Ministry of Tourism and AA bought off on.
3) Well, it wasn't just showing up and slopping on the paint. First we had to refurbish the stone, Then we had a printer generate stencils for the letters and paint them on the stone. Then the kids from Artesans Angkor did the black outline. More brickwork and flowers (and I gave the AA kids $120 instead of the $80 they asked for because they did an absolutely great job) and it came to something like $380 or so for the whole shootin' works.
1) Indeed your picture is the sign of which I speak. On the new sign the Khmer letters are larger than the English ones (a stipulation of re-painting the sign).
2) We knew the colors were going to be a problem as everyone has their own opinion of what they should be. We did a computer generated model of different colors, and it was the gold and green that the Ministry of Tourism and AA bought off on.
3) Well, it wasn't just showing up and slopping on the paint. First we had to refurbish the stone, Then we had a printer generate stencils for the letters and paint them on the stone. Then the kids from Artesans Angkor did the black outline. More brickwork and flowers (and I gave the AA kids $120 instead of the $80 they asked for because they did an absolutely great job) and it came to something like $380 or so for the whole shootin' works.
The truth is that the only thing that matters is what I think because in the end you're going to give me all your money anyway.
To be fair, that's because although their writing is quite nice to look at it's about as practical as using a teabag as a prophylactic. It's descended from Pali and is about as much use in the modern age - it's like westerners still writing in florid, caligraphic Latin; it's completely impractical. Proof positive of this can be seen every time you either load up a Thai language version of Windows or try reading the fucking road markings there. I'm not surprised they say it has to be bigger, you couldn't read it from more than a few meters otherwise even if you know what it says. Looks nice on paper, totally bloody useless in practice.Kalakala wrote:Did you know that it's a Cambodian law that when a sign is posted in public in english, that the Khmer lettering used in translation must be bigger than the english lettering...
There's a reason Vietnam, Malaysia & Indonesia ditched their indigenous script years ago.
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The reason is they were forced to change their script by European colonists.
True to some extent but in Vietnam the anti-colonialists, as represented by the Viet Minh but broader groupings as well, thought Quoc Ngu (the Romanized script) was a progressive change, they viewed a literate population as in the revolutionary interest and launched Quoc Ngu literacy campaigns as a primary method of reaching people, particularly the mostly illiterate rural population. While the script was around for hundreds of years it wasn't popularized until the nationalists embraced it in the early decades of the 20th century. Sihanouk, in contrast, wasn't particularly interested in literate revolutionaries.zerotwosixty wrote:The reason is they were forced to change their script by European colonists.
Don't blame me I voted for Sanders
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I don't think Vietnam needed much convincing after being a province of China for 1001 years. It was invented by french missionaries, right? To replace Chinese script already in use.
Khmer script is needed to properly read and pronounce Theravada Buddhist scriptures. The Vietnamese had no such need as they were mostly Catholic or Mahayana Buddhists.
Khmer script is needed to properly read and pronounce Theravada Buddhist scriptures. The Vietnamese had no such need as they were mostly Catholic or Mahayana Buddhists.
Last edited by zerotwosixty on Fri Aug 01, 2014 5:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
That's rather not true. Quoc Ngu had been around since the 1600s and many among the Vietnamese elite would have been happy to stick with Chu-Nom, a writing system utilizing modified Chinese characters but a completely different system from Chinese. It was the French and the left nationalists who made it happen.zerotwosixty wrote:I don't think Vietnam needed much convincing after being a province of China for 1001 years.
Don't blame me I voted for Sanders
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Yeah I just read that, chu nom based on Chinese but adapted to Vietnamese long before the French arrived. Much like the Thai script being adapted from Khmer. The Tai that are still in China have about 5 different scripts.
During the 17th century, Roman Catholic missionaries introduced a Latin-based orthography for Vietnamese, Quốc Ngữ (national language),which has been used ever since. Until the early 20th century, Quốc Ngữ was used in parallel with Chữ-nôm. Today only Quốc Ngữ is used.
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/vietnamese.htm
During the 17th century, Roman Catholic missionaries introduced a Latin-based orthography for Vietnamese, Quốc Ngữ (national language),which has been used ever since. Until the early 20th century, Quốc Ngữ was used in parallel with Chữ-nôm. Today only Quốc Ngữ is used.
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/vietnamese.htm
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Just in case ...
History[edit]
The Thai alphabet is derived from the Old Khmer script (Thai: อักษรขอม, akson khom), which is a southern Brahmic style of writing derived from the south Indian Pallava dynasty called Pallava (Thai: ปัลลวะ).
Supposedly, it was created in 1283 by King Ramkhamhaeng the Great (Thai: พ่อขุนรามคำแหงมหาราช), though this has been challenged
History[edit]
The Thai alphabet is derived from the Old Khmer script (Thai: อักษรขอม, akson khom), which is a southern Brahmic style of writing derived from the south Indian Pallava dynasty called Pallava (Thai: ปัลลวะ).
Supposedly, it was created in 1283 by King Ramkhamhaeng the Great (Thai: พ่อขุนรามคำแหงมหาราช), though this has been challenged
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I'm also pretty sure that most people in Malaysia and Indonesia as well as the Chams in Cambodia and the Hue in China are literate in Arabic. As that is the only way you can truly understand the Koran.
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Aren't those scriptures written in Pali?zerotwosixty wrote: Khmer script is needed to properly read and pronounce Theravada Buddhist scriptures. The Vietnamese had no such need as they were mostly Catholic or Mahayana Buddhists.
Romantic Cambodia is dead and gone. It's with McKinley in the grave.
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