The National Museum of Cambodia

So...here it is, I have been writing for my blog, saving them for this website and now, I am finally writing straight up for the website. Excitement for this is my first dream-come-true and some heat for I got to raise it up; I can feel. And the audience, not because I have plenty but I know them and how much they care; I told myself that I can only get better. Thank you.

Been thinking about museums around the world including ours, we got lots of them, and, I decided to pick the coolest of them all, according to Hongyy.

Let's start with The Louvre, since it was the first one to pop up, thanks to The Da Vinci Code, the book, I recognized most of the artworks there, my sweetheart, Mona Lisa, as mystically beautiful as always, and a round of applause for Leonardo as well.

Another one from France, The Musée d'Orsay, the world admits, the French got the skills, they have got my type of buildings, architectonic formations, good-looking, as always; there got to be a reason why 3 million visitors go visit every year and that is that the museum hosts the self-portraits of and by Vincent Van Gogh. Van Gogh wrote to his sister about him making self-portraits: "I am looking for a deeper likeness than that obtained by a photographer." And later to his brother: "People say and I am willing to believe it, that it is hard to know yourself.”

Next up, Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum, China's first and most powerful king, the Terracotta Army, 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses, built in 210–209 BCE, wait... let me calculate a bit, wohh folks! That’s like 2200 years ago; well that's a long ride ago.

This insane-sized ship, known as Vasa, sucked me in right away, I've never in my life seen this humongous ship before, and it's made out of wood, looking great, and literally made a museum out of itself, The Vasa Museum.

Since the making of THE Impression, by Neil Armstrong, of humankind, on the surface of the moon, National Air and Space Museum, storage of tons of aircrafts and space crafts; it’s been recording history in the highest possible HD format, not bad.

As I say, there are a lot more awesome museums around the world, where millions visit, where some remarkable paintings and inventions live: Art Institute of Chicago, The Rijksmuseum, Museo Nacional del Prado, Hermitage Museum, National Museum of Anthropology, these places are worth a visit someday; sooner or later.

The National Museum of Cambodia

History, written or told by those who lived to tell the tales, is the good and the bad; but only told by those who lived to tell the tales. I wonder if you would agree if I say that history is never complete. The death never told their share. Books, music, stories, traditions, celebrations, living ancestors with any kind of history in their bloodlines; all of these have worked together pretty well to maintain it until the Present.

So, I wonder where my bloodline actually originated. A good question indeed! 

As to Us, teenagers, nowadays, History is just another one-of-the-hard-to-digest subjects in our school bags; the dates, hilariously-mind-freaking names of people and places and events which sound so serious like those of Nobel Prize winners and The Lord of the Ring characters and video game names, war madness, the evolved generations and their riots, and all the of it that history has; it never seem to end and it never seem to be complete. It is good to know the history but the question is how much I am going to use it in my future.

Crazy obstacles, twists and turns, wars, disagreements; well, peace was there but not all the time and not everywhere. I can literally picture how prosperous our Kingdom would have been with all that we had; the people, the wealth, the culture, the tradition, the scholars with BIG FAT BRAINS that had built us the Angkor Wat and many more; I have to admit, we Cambodians were better in the past and are better today and will be only better tomorrow. 

Here it is, the day, Hongyy going to the museum to gather what he needs for his article on the Museum for his website and the blog. Friday, here, it's Khmer New Year, no school, kool! Mom being chauffeur of the day, thank you mom!

Starting off, 500 Riel for the ticket, that’s for a national but you folks might need to pay a bit more; The majestic red, it had me, I was satisfied with the looks, but wait... never judge by its look, we'll see what's inside in a moment.

Something unwanted, I saw, the "NO CAMERA" sign. It made me “what the what!” the mission was to take as many photos as possible and give them to you folks with solid descriptions to read, but the plot has been twisted, I guess. There were patrols put up in every sector, mostly elderly people though! I was lucky, I approached one with utmost care and respect and she understood the reason why I needed the photos, "4-5 photos, okayy?" she called out, "okey dokey, thank you very very very muchhhhh!", I replied.

Who knew, the Resting area was sharing the Entrance, with counters selling maps and souvenirs on both sides of it! To make it easier for you folks to understand, I sort of made a map out of the museum, besides that, allow me to be your tour guide, and let's start up the time machine.

One more step and I had a dilemma burst open right in front of me; left or right? I had no choice but to do the "eeny meeny miny moe" thingy I always do whenever I am sandwiched, and I got left.

First of all, It's a museum, no disrespect to all the museum pieces I won't be mentioning in a minute here, they are all stupendous, I really mean it, but some were way more outstanding than the others and I'll be talking only about the latter.

It was my first time taking notes and doodling a blueprint of a site I was visiting; I guess hongyy is getting more professional. I came up with my own tags for each section and blueprinted my own map of the museum, here is the final copy.

Take Left.

The Upper Left Sector 1 (ULS1), sounds cool, right? well... more sectors lined up, but first let's dig in a bit into this sector.

Teeny-tiny sculptures of the Buddha, the Ganesha, the Hevajra, all dated around the 7th-10th century B.C., well that's a long and a long time ago. Up right in front of my eyes was the Indochinese Peninsula in the Pre-Angkorian Era Map, our Khmer empire frontier was up until China, and I see no Thailand or Vietnam around, Champa, the ancient Indochinese kingdom was there, but just a bit on the edge.

Note: Strict Guard let no fotos.

Moving on to ULS-2, it got the YOLO outta me, the Vishnu couch, Vishnu in a sleeping position, half the body been cut off, aging back to the 11th century, a giant-sized bronze statue. I got to see ancient Khmer words, it freaked my brain out, I have no idea how it developed into today's words, it was just too divergent, but how kool it was was because of the fact that it was written on wooden and stone slabs, nicely patterned Shiva's baby footprints.

Note: Strict Guard let no fotos.

Sandstone-made statues of ancient people showed up right away as I head on towards, to the Mid Left Sector 1 (MLS1); some faces were wiped off, from the 6th century, that's like those from King Suryavarman II Era, those people, probably, were all a part of building the AMAZEBALL Angkor Wat; adding Bodhisattva, looks very KOOL to me, they call it Thousand-armed Avalokiteśvara, but I saw about ten arms only, let's call it ten-armed Avalokiteśvara. Wikipedia sure helped me quite a lot in this part. The MLS1 suddenly stamped a warning on my forehead reading, "KOOL STUFFS ALERT", Vishnu taking the center with Rama and Balarama guarding the sides, powerful!

Note: Strict Guard let no fotos. Cameras allowed at the garden at the center of the campus though.

As if MLS1 was not enough, MLS2 was excitementing (my version of something more than exciting), the moment I looked up, photos that were probably taken in the 30s popped out of the sector and played ping pong with my eyeballs meaning amazeballed meaning super nice, Bayon, Angkor, Banteay Srey, they are classified B&Ws, by black and white (s), I mean classics; these photos were.

Courtesy: Nice Guards

Genesha, the elephant-like god, I recognized it right away, thanks to my Indian friend that gave me one tiny sculpture of him, he told me to tell him what I need, with a sincere prayer, if it's right for him to help, he will and I have given him a lodge in my wooden locker in my room.

Courtesy: Nice Guards

We are now at the Back Drop Sector 1 (BDS1), right away, we'll see stone plates (which probably were used as mounts on the external walls) with Vishnu on it, there's also this rectangular sandstone thingy with lots of tiny-sized Vishnu's face on it, no doubt he was or is one of the supreme leaders.

Courtesy: Nice Guards

Next to it came my all-time favorite history piece, Naga sheltering Buddha, the seven-headed snake, the big CEO. 

Another amazing piece coming up, it's the Brahmanic Traid, having the presence of Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma, and I call them the executives. 

Courtesy: Nice Guards

Going through BDS1 to BDS2, there's this statue consisting Garuda, the bird-like god, and Naga again, the cobra king, giving the statue itself a very tough look. I got to see what a giant looked like as well, they're like us humans, but of course, sturdy and tremendous. Later on, the Fragment of pediments with ascetics and dancers, which is a very obvious piece of history we have here, revealing that our supreme gods liked them so much. The tales we learnt in our elementary school, Hanuman and Suvannamaccha, the love story of a monkey king and a mermaid.

Courtesy: Nice Guards

You gotta breathe deep in this sector, I had to; it’s the best sector to me.

Courtesy: Nice Guards

I found something really funny here, the name of this museum piece, Mythical Animal Bearing Reclining Vishnu, why I found this funny is that, at one point, I see no Vishnu being carried away, and this animal must have had a proper name, but it's just that they might not have had any idea what it was. Of course, everything here is very very old, no wonder some of them do not have heads, body parts, some with just the chest, I saw one, Varuna, the water god, on the Naga, he had no head, and it really amazed me by the fact that the historians could verify the most, which god is which. Many statues of Buddha and some other gods were at the center, but I didn't want to write about it because most of the statues were the same as the previous ones, it's only the time they were built that has changed.

Courtesy: Nice Guards

In BDS-3, Garuda appeared again, but this time, Naga wasn't there, I got to see the true self of Garuda; a beautiful bird. As I walk through the valley of the greatest recorded events, I felt the generation-changes, Eras kept ticking as I  walked from one sector to another; from the Suryavarman II Era to the Khmer Rouge, from the 6th century to the 80s, this bit of walking path and this bit of museum pieces held those years.

Courtesy: Nice Guards

Hongyy's mind had just been blown away. Blunderbuss 1688 appeared right in front of my eyes, folks, when you see it, you'll know you can't and won’t mess with him, he's the boss; here is the weapons section, weapons from many generations, used in wars, who knows if some had blood stains on it; spears, daggers, swords, arrows, even canons.

Up next came the Boat Cabin made of Rattan from the 19th century, it was probably used as a mode of royal transportation, and just in front of it was placed the Loom, it is a huge machinery, which you make clothes out of, push it front and pull it back, and again, and again and repeat until you get one. 

Moving on, the next piece, connected to the Loom were Ornaments, theatrical costumes, silk-works with gold linings making them as if made out of golden silkworms, patiently polished jewelries: rings, necklaces, bracelets, belts, crowns, and many more super shiny gold stuffs, the royals kind of stuffs, niiice!

Courtesy: Nice Guards

Coming up, MRS2 exposes King Norodom's time capsule, it's probably buried by his Majesty himself, for us the ones who were born afterwards, to see, to get a peek of what was in the past, the era he went through; many accessories from the nearby years, 19-20th century, nut cutters, containers, cooking pots, teapots, bowls, smoking sets and trays, of course! King smokes as well. The center of the Middle Section is sure big, I meant this in a very positive way, random stuffs mixed up, but I don't know I just love everything here; no disrespect, but there were rainbow color patterned Buddhas in their meditation positions, and I liked it very much, some came with reddish, yellowish, a full set of awesomeness; supporting it were the Preah Vihear models, these are temple designs, the standards, the classics. But wait, folks, as I mentioned, each and every section has its own speciality that barbequed the chicken out of me.

 Courtesy: Nice Guards

This section introduced Garuda, again, folks, this Garuda thingy just nailed it, it literally killed me, I meant by it's SHUPA SHUPA KOOL, wooden it is, the sharpness of Garuda, solid piece. 

MRS-1 holds records of the royal ballet, the Now-and-Then Gallery, trying to prove that our tradition and culture haven't changed a bit for the best, not even a nibble, and that, my friends, is a good sign, a success, we've succeeded in keeping it, safe.

Buddhas, with all his forms lined up, URS-2 is taken. I'm going to give a silly excuse for not writing about this part as much as the others is the fact that Buddha hadn't changed a bit of his personality, all his forms stayed the same, everything is neat and clean, Buddha stays Buddha untouched by the history.

Note: Strict Guard let no fotos.

Same as URS-1, small sculptures surrounding the path, making the ending a simple farewell to the visitors.

Museum was created by time, history literally means time itself, "EVERYTHING" as always, has TIME on its side, as an alliance, because without time, there will be nothing, without time, human won't be able to think, we need time to think, as there's no time for us to think, everything wouldn't have been accomplished, Thomas Alva Edison wouldn't have discovered electricity, and if there were no electricity, how would Joseph Swan have bothered to think about creating a light bulb, and if light bulbs didn't exist, would we have been able to see what we've seen, what we're seeing, what we'll see? 

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