A ny visitor to Angkor Wat should have the opportunity to spend the last moments of
the day lingering atop the temple, as the sun sinks into a golden haze of jungle
tree tops. Swallows trace graceful arcs against the darkening blue and the hot bustle
of the day dissolves into a contemplative quiet. On turning at last to leave however,
one realizes that one has not been alone. For there, on the columns and glowing walls
of the summit, names are inscribed in stone. Graffiti some would call it, these scratched
remainders of visitors who have come before. There are Chinese and Japanese characters,
Khmer and English, recent and old. Somewhere carved in stone there is the name "Nutini".
Who was this "Nutini"?, we muse as we climb down into the dark galleries
of descent. What circumstances brought him to Angkor and why did he decide to leave
his name behind for us to read?
The answer can be found in an aging colonial building, nestled behind the National
Library. Here, in the National Archives of Cambodia, musings over long, long-ago
names find all sorts of fabulous answers. Nutini was apparently an errant civil servant
suffering - according to his superiors - from "the obsession of engraving his
name in stone". In file #1995, Henri Marchal, the Conservator of Angkor, details
the first two cases of civil servants caught engraving their names on the walls of
Angkor Wat. "In the case of these engravers", he explains, there is "less
malevolent intent than a kind of unconscious disregard; these people would be incapable
of doing any harm to anybody; their type (and there are many who think like this)
believes that public things do not belong to anyone." It must be made clear,
however, that such acts are actually offenses causing "the deterioration of
public monuments".
This correspondence detailing what was considered as an alarming new phenomena in
1922 can be found in one of the many files recently unearthed from the third floor
of the National Archives. Here the many tens of thousands of files are being stored
that the French colonial administration produced during its lifetime from 1863 to
1953. Next to documents relating to the big issues of history, to war and peace and
to those who decide which one of the two prevails, one finds correspondence, reports,
and pictures that bear witness to those that history usually forgets: the little
stories, the unimportant events, the unspectacular daily life of past generations,
of those who never made it into the headlines, but yet have fascinating, funny, saddening
or grotesque stories to tell.
So, visitors to the Angkor ruins, beware! Think first before you decide to scratch
your initials into the ancient stones: for one it's against the law, but then your
name might also be recorded in another of the National Archives and be kept there
for future generations to see. And wouldn't you prefer to be associated by tomorrow's
researchers with more noble activities than some silly engraving?
- Information for this article was taken from the National Archives of Cambodia,
file #1995 (Détérioration des Monuments d'Angkor). The National Archives
is open Monday - Friday, 8-11am and 2-4:30pm. It is located behind the National Library
alongside the Hotel Royal. All are welcome to come and browse through this vast resource
and discover for themselves an intriguing moment in Cam-bodia's past.
