54 Corporation, Fuji Xerox, and the religious corporation Shinnyo-en. Equipment and so on was provided in kind by the Sophian (graduate) Mr. Asano Yuichi, as also by the Toyota Motor Corporation, Mitsubishi Corporation, and Mr. Yamamoto Isamu. I take this occasion to express my gratitude to all these people concerned. We received financial and other aid for human resource development from people both in Japan and overseas, and they also greatly encouraged us in our efforts. We wish to express our sincere gratitude to all of you, and request your continued support and cooperation. I express my thanks you all from the bottom of my heart. A Great and Unexpected Discovery – The 274 Buddhist Statues It was in the year 2001 that 274 Buddhist statues were excavated in the course of the training conducted at the Banteay Kdei temple, and this attracted attention as a discovery of the century. The unearthing of such a large number of Buddhist statues was the first such event in the course of the research and study of the Angkor archaeological site, which has been ongoing since the end of the 19th century. It was a great discovery that occurred in the 11th year, of the onset of archaeological training. At that time, due to the fact that fragments of roof tiles were found on the ground, we believed something was buried beneath, and hence the excavation began. The Buddhist statues excavated in March 2001 numbered 103, and in the month of August, 171 other statues were uncovered on the west side of the first excavation site. The larger statues were of about 1.8 meters in size and the smaller ones of about 20 centimeters, and what was amazing was the fact that almost all were split at the head and torso. It was clear that they were discarded Buddhist statues, and the splits were artificially made. Possibly villagers of those days had come upon the site of the abandoned Buddhist statues, and had buried them as an act of reverence. We came to know that most of those Buddhist statues were created around the time of Jayavarman VII, and they were enshrined at the Banteay Kdei
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