Thirty-one ancient Buddha statues made of precious metals were unearthed by workers building a pagoda in Kompong Thom province, Sok Chheng, governor of Baray district, said on Tuesday.
The Por Pech Pagoda committee last Thursday discovered 27 gold statues, three silver statues and one made from copper, he said. The new pagoda is being constructed on the site of a centuries-old temple that was destroyed during Cambodia’s years of warfare, he said.
Construction workers had dug 1 meter into the site to lay the pagoda’s foundation when they found all the small statues inside two pots, Sok Chheng said. The statues vary in size but average about 10 centimeters tall.
The statues are all still in place because villagers have asked the authorities not to move them yet, saying they want to use them in a traditional ceremony. The villagers have all thumbprinted a promise to keep the statues safe, he said.
Leam Saran, deputy director of the provincial Department of Cults and Religion, said he has asked police to guard the statues because he believes they may be stolen.
“I’m very worried about these ancient statues because they are very valuable, and thieves could steal them and melt them and sell the gold,” he said. “They don’t understand the statues’ value as artifacts, only their value as gold.”
The 27 gold statues each contained 108 grams of gold, worth about $3,000, he said.
Leam Saran said he believes the statues date from between the 14th and 17th centuries, during and after the Angkor period.
Monks and villagers have also found ancient tools on the site, Leam Saran said. He said he has asked the pagoda committee to halt construction because he believes the site may contain many more artifacts.
But Leam Saran said the pagoda committee has not heeded his request. In fact, Leam Saran advised against building on the site in the first place, but the committee went ahead and started secretly, he said.
