The demolition of three living quarters for monks at Phnom Penh’s Wat Ounalom — to build a mausoleum for the country’s chief monk — continued this week even after the Culture Ministry said they were national heritage sites.
Amid a call to save heritage buildings, a survey of Phnom Penh sites found volleyball courts in a French colonial police station, smartphone billboards wrapped around historical architecture, and a family of teachers keeping watch over a former U.S. Embassy building.
A l’bokator master’s wife is compiling her late husband’s writings into a book; pagodas are opening their gates to Cambodia’s ancient, spirituality-infused martial art; and officials are looking for world-heritage status and pushing a modernized version as an Olympic sport.
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