Latest news with #KhmerHindu
New York Post
6 days ago
- Politics
- New York Post
Israel issues Thailand, Cambodia travel warning amid violent clashes
The Israeli Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Thursday recommending that Israeli nationals 'avoid entering or staying in the border area' between Thailand and Cambodia in light of the cross-border fighting that erupted between the two countries the previous night. The ministry emphasized 'the northeastern provinces of Thailand and the northwestern provinces of Cambodia' in particular as places to avoid. Thailand is a popular destination for Israelis, with hundreds of thousands of citizens estimated to travel there annually. 7 The Israeli Foreign Ministry issued a statement, recommending that Israeli nationals 'avoid entering or staying in the border area' between Thailand and Cambodia in light of the cross-border fighting. via REUTERS Clashes broke out on Thursday morning near the Khmer Hindu temple Ta Muen Thom, after five Thai soldiers were wounded by mines the previous day, the Guardian reported. Bangkok, in response, shuttered its northeastern borders with Cambodia and expelled the Cambodian ambassador from the country. Thailand's Health Minister Somsak Thepsuthin said that 11 civilians and one soldier had been killed by Cambodian artillery shelling since the start of the fighting, according to Reuters. The minister added that 24 civilians and seven military personnel had been wounded. 7 Thailand's Health Minister Somsak Thepsuthin said that 11 civilians and one soldier had been killed by Cambodian artillery shelling since the start of the fighting, according to Reuters. Courtesy of Facebook user Chatchak Ratsamikaeo/AFP via Getty Images 7 Cambodian soldiers reload the BM-21 multiple rocket launcher in Preah Vihear province on July 24, 2025, according to reports. AFP via Getty Images 'The Thai Army condemns Cambodia for using weapons to attack civilians in Thailand. Thailand is ready to protect sovereignty and our people from inhumane action,' the country's military said in a statement cited by Reuters. Cambodian troops had opened fire near the temple, and deployed a surveillance drone before sending in troops with heavy weapons, including rocket launchers, the Thai military said, per the Guardian. Cambodia denied those claims, with its Defense Ministry saying that 'Cambodian forces acted strictly within the bounds of self-defence, responding to an unprovoked incursion by Thai troops that violated our territorial integrity,' the report added. 7 Thai people who fled clashes between Thai and Cambodian soldiers take shelter in Surin province, northeastern Thailand, Thursday, July 24, 2025. AP 7 Thai people who fled clashes between Thai and Cambodian soldiers take shelter in Surin province, northeastern Thailand, Thursday, July 24, 2025. AP A two-country territorial dispute has put a damper on their relations for years, but diplomatic ties took a nosedive in May after a Cambodian soldier was killed during a confrontation in one of the areas under dispute, according to the Associated Press. The contesting claims derive largely from a 1907 map drawn under French colonial rule. 7 Clashes broke out on Thursday morning near the Khmer Hindu temple Ta Muen Thom, after five Thai soldiers were wounded by mines the previous day, according to reports. AFP via Getty Images 7 Firefighters work to extinguish fire at a convenience store at a gas station, amid the clashes between Thailand and Cambodia. via REUTERS Phnom Penh has been using the map as a reference to claim territory, while Bangkok has argued the map is inaccurate. Later on Thursday, Thailand said that F-16 fighter jets had attacked 'military targets' in Cambodia, AP reported. The Royal Thai Army stated that the fighting has expanded to six different points along the border.
India Today
6 days ago
- Politics
- India Today
Ancient Hindu temple with Shivling and the Thailand-Cambodia war
After Thai forces on Wednesday alleged that they spotted a Cambodian drone along the dense, mountainous Dangrek border, tensions escalated between Thailand and Cambodia. The incident quickly escalated into exchanges of gunfire, rocket attacks, and airstrikes involving F-16 fighter jets. At the heart of the military clashes between the two Southeast Asian neighbours lies an age-old border dispute, a colonial legacy left by the French, where a complex of three ancient Hindu temples, dating back to the 11th century, now escalated significantly, with both nations expelling each other's ambassadors and downgrading diplomatic relations to their lowest epicentre of the current war is near the Prasat Ta Muen Thom temple, perched atop dense forests along the ridge which is along the Thailand-Cambodia border. The group of 11th-century Khmer Hindu temples, including Ta Muen Thom, Ta Muen, and Ta Muen Toch, hold cultural and historical temple, with a Shivling extracted from rocks, and with Sanskrit inscriptions, also gives a peak into the reach of ancient Indian culture and art TEMPLE AREA A FLASHPOINT IN THAILAND-CAMBODIA WARPrasat Ta Muen Thom, or "Great Temple of the Grandfather Chicken" in Khmer, is a Khmer Hindu temple built in the 11th century under King Udayadityavarman II. The temple is dedicated to Lord on a strategic pass in the Dangrek Mountains, it forms part of an ancient Khmer highway linking Angkor in Cambodia to Phimai in temple's location on the contested border between Cambodia's Oddar Meanchey province and Thailand's Surin province made it a focal point of tensions between the two Cambodia claims ownership based on historical Khmer Empire boundaries, Thailand asserts that the area lies within its primarily to Shiva, Ta Muen Thom houses a Shivling from a natural rock formation in its sanctum features a rectangular layout with a south-facing main entrance, which is unusual for Khmer temples. They typically faced large gopura (entrance tower) and broad laterite staircase descends towards carvings, including depictions of Hindu deities, show the influence of post-Gupta Indian art. These show cultural and artistic links between the Khmer Empire and the offshoots of the Indian Gupta TA MUEN TEMPLE COMPLEX BECAME BUDDHIST CENTREThe Ta Muen Thom complex also includes two smaller temples: Prasat Ta Muen Toch ("Minor Temple of the Grandfather Chicken"), a hospital chapel, and Prasat Ta Muen, a rest house chapel, located within a few hundred temples, built during the peak of the Khmer Empire (9th–15th centuries), served as critical stops on the ancient Khmer the temples, protected to some extent, lie mostly in ruins, the ongoing war has brought them into proximity of the temple complex to the border, coupled with incomplete boundary demarcation from French colonial maps, has fuelled recurring clashes between the two Shaivite Hindu, the temples later transitioned to Buddhist use as the Khmer Empire embraced Ta Muen later became a center of Mahayana Buddhism, with several structures, including a dharma sala, or rest house for travellers, commissioned by Buddhist King Jayavarman temples are specimens of Khmer architecture, where laterite construction with sandstone elements are key HINDU TEMPLES CAME UP AT CAMBODIA-THAILAND BORDER?The temples' design and iconography trace back to Indian Hindu traditions, which were introduced to Southeast Asia through trade and cultural exchanges, starting in the 1st Khmer Empire adopted Shaivism and Vaishnavism, influenced by South India's Pallava dynasty, which had maritime links to far-off Devaraja (God-King) concept, where rulers were seen as divine embodiments of Shiva or Vishnu, is also similar to the then-contemporary Indian political links are evident in the temples' iconography and Sanskrit inscriptions, which affirm their links to India and its cultural ancient temples were forgotten and lay in ruins. It took a war to bring the temples into public consciousness. - Ends
