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126 Reminiscing over the Past Fifty Years –My Gratitude to all our Benefactors– In this book of mine entitled “Angkor Wat and I,” I have taken the liberty to mention several people by name, so as to express my thankfulness to all who have upheld and inspired us thus far. I ask your pardon for having done this without your prior consent. We of the Sophia Mission, have been engaged in works such as human resource development, survey, and research in Cambodia, for about 40 years. This has been possible owing to the fact that we have received and continue to receive a great deal of support from all of you, and for this I wish to thank you all once again. Training in conservation and restoration is an unbroken and dreary task that is carried out face-to-face with the ruins, but in 2001 we were amazed when in the midst of our training 274 Buddhist statues were unearthed from the Banteay Kdei temple. On that occasion, the cheeks of the Cambodian students in charge of the excavation were flushed, and they strove as though imbued with a sense of fulfillment, with a feeling as though they had triumphed. Our human resources development is not limited to merely moving to the sites, providing lectures, and carrying out training. Issues related to the intent and purpose of the program are clarified, such as why a specific place was chosen and what urged us to conduct our training there. The great discovery of the Buddhist statues evoked for us a range of unforeseen effects, but more than anything else, the conviction that “our Cambodian culture is worthy enough to attract the interest of the world” served to renew the people, to such an extent that it dispelled from their hearts the tragedy of the 24 years of civil war. Epilogue