The Thai-Cambodian Temple Dispute

Abstract

a gloomy, rainy atmosphere reported the Bangkok World on 16 July 1962, yesterday at noon surrendered its sovereignty over Khao Phra Viharn Temple. Interior Minister General Praphas Charusathien witnessed the historic event. Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Cambodia's Chief of State, had his hair shaved off in accordance with a vow he had made in connection with the temple dispute. But is the dispute over, or has it been merely suspended? The dispute for the ruins of the ancient Khmer temple, known as Wat Khao Phra Viharn, represented a phase in the historic conflict between Thailand and Cambodia which had achieved new dimensions because of their differing positions in the cold war. The historical basis of the dispute goes back at least five centuries, however. The year 1421 heralded the decline of the Khmer Empire, for that was the year the Thais captured Angkar Wat-the symbol of Khmer glory. The Thais in the west and the Annamese in the east gradually snatched away most of the territory of the onceglorious empire. French expansion into Indochina in the 19th century reversed this trend. In the Franco-Thai Treaties of 1887 and 1893, the Siamese Government renounced all claims to the whole of the territories on the left bank of the Mekong river. By another series of treaties during 1904-07, Thailand ceded to France the border provinces of Battambang, Sisophon and Siem Reap.' Thailand took advantage of the Second World War to regain part of what it had lost. As a reward for their cooperation with the Japanese, Thailand got back the border provinces in the Tokyo convention of March 1941. The termination of hostilities however, saw the restoration of French authority and soon after, the territorial shuttlecock placed once more in the Cambodian court.72 By the treaty of Washington (1946) Thailand ceded the border provinces back to Indochina once again. In 1953, when Cambodia refused to join SEATO, Thailand, under the pretext of strengthening its border, established a police post in the Dang Raek mountains just north of the ruins of Phra Viharn and hoisted the Thai flag over the temple. Thus, the temple dispute has its origin in the border settlement of 1904 and 1907. A protocol attached to the treaty of 25 March 1907 stated that the watershed line in that section of the Dang Raek range demarcated the