À l’école des maîtres angkoriens? – Nouvelle Architecture Khmère, Vann Molyvann, and the postcolonial myth of Angkor (Wat)

“Upon my return to Cambodia in 1956, it was profoundly moving for me to rediscover our monuments of the past and see them in an entirely new light. The easiest decision might have been to content myself with the excellent [French] Beaux-Arts masters and to follow in their path. But this choice would not have aligned with the national course that my country had taken to affirm its Khmer identity. So it was ­entirely natural for me to eagerly learn from the teachings of the ­Angkorian masters [que je me suis mis à l’école des maîtres angkoriens]. 

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