Page:Angkor from Siamese pov - Damrong - 1925.pdf/1



I wish first to thank the President and Committee of the Siam Society for giving me the honour of addressing you to-night, and also to thank all, whether members or friends of the Society, for their kindness in coming to hear me. I hope effort will not make you regret your decision in coming, and, if I should go so far as to give you any satisfaction, that indeed would be most gratifying.

The reason why I chose the subject of the Angkor Monuments for my address tonight is that last November I was able to visit Angkor, through the kind help of the French Government and her officials both of the Bangkok Legation and in Cambodia, and also of the members of the Ecole Française d'Extrême Orient. My hosts arranged for me to see probably all the important monuments of Angkor. After seeing them one begins to wonder at the striking connection with our own, and hence I have undertaken to address you tonight.

These monuments, however, have been exhaustively treated by Western scholars, from both their historical and archaeological standpoints — much more so than I should ever be able to describe them myself. Besides, most of you will no doubt have seen pictures and plans of these famous monuments already, and a good many will also have read the various works thereon. So that it will not the necessary for me to repeat here the results that have been reached by western scholars. I shall, with your leave, treat the subject entirely from the point of view of an Oriental, and especially that of a Siamese who professes the same religion and follows the same manners and customs as the Cambodians.

The word "Angkor", as used by western scholars, is identical with the Sanskrit "Nagara", a city; the town is called "Nagor