Angkor Wat, the world’s largest temple, was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992. It is considered the driving force of Cambodia’s tourism industry, with more than 1 million foreign tourists visiting it last year. “Cambodian Apsar Office, which manages Angkor Wat, issued a warning on the 4th that attention is needed as the number of aggressive monkeys in Angkor Wat is increasing,” it reported on the 6th.
The warning included many monkeys biting tourists or stealing food and personal belongings. “Although we don’t know the exact figures, some people had injuries such as skin tearing, and some people had food stolen,” Apsarachong spokesman Long Kkosal said. There were also cases of damage, such as a group of monkeys climbing onto a stone-made Angkor Wat temple building and pushing down stonework.
Apsarachung claimed that the reason monkeys showed violent tendencies was the behavior of some YouTubers. They fed monkeys regularly to create their own content, and the grown-up monkeys attacked humans to get food they had.
A small number of YouTubers are said to have even filmed them abusing monkeys in Angkor Wat. “What you did to shoot the video can change the monkey’s natural behavior and make it an aggressive ‘cleaner animal,'” Apsarachong said. “We will ask tourists to leave the monkey as it is and find a solution to the problem.”
Earlier, it was controversial last year as more and more people filmed a video of the “running challenge” at Angkor Wat and posted it on social networking services (SNS). Because the background is similar to the popular game “Templeon,” they run at Angkor Wat and copy the original composition, excessive gestures, and editing background sound. According to local media, this had the effect of increasing the number of tourists, but some pointed out that it could damage cultural heritage and stimulate monkeys in the temple.
JULIE KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
