ANGKOR and I

57/194

51 Financial Resources that Supported the Activities of the Study Team I often received questions from people concerning the financial resources of the study team, and so I shall hereafter explain the situation behind the scenes that enabled the study team to continue. I shall have to move back in time a little, but yet I would like to speak about it. The Kingdom of Cambodia was resurrected in 1993, thereby putting an end to the political chaos and civil war that had persisted for 24 years. While the domestic infrastructure had all been destroyed and rebuilding had to be done from scratch, yet the fact that peace had returned was something to be truly happy about. Despite the fact that some confusion still persisted, yet security has been restored, and so people were able to enjoy once more a sound night’s sleep. What was most delightful was the fact that the Angkor monuments had not been razed by the war, and so starting with Japanese, numerous foreign tourists came visiting. This onset of peace was an opportunity for us of the research team to secure our first financial resources. After talks with people in charge of travel agencies, we were able to offer Japanese tourists glimpses of the unspoiled facade of Angkor Wat. The first source of funding was when I escorted some tourists so as to explain the ruins to them, and was paid 50 US dollars per individual. By offering help in the guiding of tourists we were able to secure some financial support to develop human resources, and this served as the salary for the Cambodian guards whom we locally hired. Concurrently, by acquiring an on-site experience of excavation and stone processing, the tourists gained an understanding of the seriousness of preserving the ruins. Until now we have been assisted by numerous Japanese tourists. This type of self-financing was utilized to pay the salaries of Cambodians working at the local center, as gasoline charges for vehicles, for the repair of buildings, and so on. In this