The Real Tomb Raider

Posted on October 26, 2005 by Chris Mitchell

The looting of tombs and temples is still a huge problem in Cambodia, where the ancient temples of Angkor suffer repeated attacks from thieves. While the more famous temples such as Angkor Wat, the Bayon and Ta Phrom (one of the locations for the first Tomb Raider movie) remain mainly unmolested these days, the dozens of other, more remote temples suffer continual looting, with priceless carvings and statues being chiselled from the centuries-old stones and then spirited away into the thriving antiques black market. During the time of the Khmer Rouge, the temples suffered widespread desecration, but the arrival of peace in Cambodia has not stopped the looters from continuing to chip away at the country's irreplacable heritage.

On a recent visit to Angkor, I found the glossy full colour comic book "Wrath Of The Phantom Army", produced by archaelogical organisation Heritage Watch and illustrated by Cambodian artist Y Lida. The book costs $US5 in English, which helps to distribute the Khmer-language version for free to kids in Cambodian schools. Phantom Army's story depicts the consequences of looting tombs - in this case, not only selling your country's history down the line, but also awaking some very angry ancestors. It's a pretty evocative piece of work that transcends the dull but worthy tag - I imagine kids from any country would be enthralled with it. You can buy the book online from Heritage Watch's site and The Times did a full article about Wrath Of The Phantom Army earlier this month.

That piece points out the big dilemma facing Cambodia - no matter how well you educate your kids to respect their heritage, if people remain dirt poor, they'll turn to pretty much any means to feed themselves and their families. Even so, I think Heritage Watch's comic project deserves support, because it encourages basic literacy as well as history.

Extras: I idly googled "Cambodian comic books" expecting very little and found this site full of Cambodian comix artwork and this rundown of Cambodian comics history, which discusses how they were used to address social issues.

And - a long time ago, I wrote about Douglas Coupland's book on Lara Croft.