Feedback for Angkor National Museum

A window into the Gallery of 1,000 Buddhas

I paid my first and only visit to the new Angkor National Museum at the end of January and I have re-posted my trip report below. Yesterday, I met with Sunarez, the managing director of ANM and she was very keen to hear my views and constructive criticisms, and at the same time gave me a progress update on how her museum is shaping up. The number of items on display has now topped 1,400, many of the new arrivals are from the Angkor Conservation collection, and she talked about her good working relationship with the National Museum here in Phnom Penh and the desire to share and exchange pieces between the two museums. She has been working with a group of experts from the Culture Ministry to improve the signage problems, the excellent Gallery of 1,000 Buddhas is being further improved to show the pieces in date order and if she can get a cheaper electricity supply, which the museum eats up as you can imagine, she is keen to reduce the admission prices. In addition, the shopping mall is taking shape with Monument Books and other well-known retail names soon to take residence. It's clear that the museum is improving month on month and I'm already keen to revisit the ANM on my next trip to Siem Reap.

My trip report from January 2008 (re-post):
Saturday afternoon was my first opportunity to visit the new Angkor National Museum, which opened its doors to visitors in November. I must concur with previous reports that the museum is well presented using state-of-the-art technology with collections themed by temples, kings, beliefs and religions. The Gallery of 1,000 Buddhas is particularly striking and all the main collections include interactive multimedia presentations. However, the stylish presentations can't hide the fact that that the overall collection is way short of the quality to be found in the National Museum in Phnom Penh. It's also pretty small by comparison though that's deftly disguised through the technology and presentation. Entry is $12 per foreigner, $3 for Khmers, which is very expensive when compared with the museum in the capital or the Temples of Angkor. My view - an interesting addition to the range of visitor attractions in Siem Reap and an informative introduction to the Angkor story, but its over-priced and crying out for a bigger collection. I didn't have time to visit the attached shopping gallery, so can't comment on that. The museum covers 20,000 sq metres and has attractive water features including a pond at its center. A $2 camera fee will allow you to take photos in the public areas, so you can snap away at a few lions, heads from Angkor Thom and Preah Khan and a few other pieces of sculpture but cameras are not allowed in the main collections. I was disappointed that 40% of the items on display do not have any signage or explanation of their provenance, whilst the lighting on some exhibits could be improved. The galleries of inscription stele and lintels were quite poor and I have seen much better examples myself in the storage areas of Angkor Conservation. I loved the 1,000 Buddhas gallery though, with the walls inlaid with small back-lit Buddhas and larger items including the highly-unusual Sumethabos, a 9th century prostrate Bodhisattva from Phnom Vak, presented in the middle of the room. I'm glad I went but there's work still to do to bring it up to an acceptable standard for the price they are charging.

A lion-headed kneeling Asura demon guardian from the 10th century Banteay Srei temple