The UNESCO-listed Preah Vihear Temple in northern Cambodia Photo: VCG

The UNESCO-listed Preah Vihear Temple in northern Cambodia Photo: VCG

China has been playing a crucial role in safeguarding and developing the UNESCO-listed Preah Vihear Temple in northern Cambodia, Cambodian officials said on Wednesday.

Preah Vihear, a Hindu temple, is situated on the top of a 525-meter cliff in the Dangrek Mountains in Preah Vihear Province, about 400 kilometers north of capital Phnom Penh and 200 kilometers northwest of the famed Angkor Archaeological Park in Siem Reap Province.

The 11th century temple was inscribed on the World Heritage List of UNESCO in July 2008.

Kong Puthikar, director-general of the National Authority for Preah Vihear (NAPV), said China is the co-chair of the International Coordinating Committee for the Safeguarding and the Development of Preah Vihear (ICC-Preah Vihear) with India.

Established in 2014, the ICC-Preah Vihear is the international mechanism for coordinating all assistance extended by different countries and organizations for preserving and developing the Preah Vihear.

"This is an important role in assisting the Cambodian government in safeguarding the Temple of Preah Vihear," Puthikar told the Xinhua News Agency.

"In the role as the co-chair, China had pledged to conserve and restore Gopura I, Gopura II and Gopura III [there are five Gopuras for Preah Vihear temple]," he said.

Gopura is the entrance gateway into the temple.

He said China has sent its technical team to study and assess the risks and structure of the three Gopuras already. However, the actual work is not yet started due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We believe that with accumulated experience working with the world heritage sites in China, the Chinese experts will be able to help restore the Temple of Preah Vihear very well in the near future," Puthikar said.

Ea Darith, director of the NAPV's department of conservation and archaeology, said prior to the pandemic, Chinese archaeologists had visited the temple to conduct a conservation study and to assess the extent of work for restoration.

"China is a very important partner to help conserve and restore the ruined Preah Vihear Temple," Darith told Xinhua.

"I'd like to propose Chinese experts to help provide training courses to our Cambodian archaeologists on Geographic Information System and new technical skills for conservation, preservation and stone research and analysis," he said. 

Preah Vihear is one of Cambodia's three heritage sites registered in the World Heritage List. The other two are the Angkor Archaeological Park in northwestern Siem Reap Province and the Sambor Prei Kuk Archaeological Site in central Kampong Thom Province.

Kong Vibol, director of the Preah Vihear Provincial Tourism Department, is confident that the Preah Vihear temple will be a popular destination for Chinese tourists after the Angkor Archaeological Park.

"Thanks to our close relationship, Cambodia's attractive tourism sites and proximity between the two countries, I believe that more Chinese tourists will spend their vacations in Cambodia in the future, and some of them will surely visit the Preah Vihear temple," he told Xinhua.