Seven reasons not to miss Angkor Wat - California Science Center’s world premiere 3D imax and exhibit

                                           2005 Sunrise at Angkor Wat (credit to blogger)

Just in case anyone is wondering whether or not to see California Science Center’s Angkor Wat IMAX /special exhibit closing on Monday, Sept 5, here are seven good reasons:

1. Even if you have visited the real place in Cambodia (and I have), the 3D IMAX documentary shows what you cannot see on the ground! It will give you a better sense of its size and grandeur in the 9th to 15th centuries compared to the few other civilizations in the same time period!

2. The IMAX shows how the new scientific technology reveals that Angkor Wat was much bigger than earlier known … as big as present day Los Angeles!!

3. Find out how specially trained rats helped with the speed at which archeological work can proceed.

4. I did not know the cause of the downfall of Angkor Wat specifically when I visited the Angkor Wat complex in 2004, but the IMAX documentary will demonstrate which technologies confirmed that it was extreme climate change that made productive agriculture unable to sustain Angkor Wat.

Any essay about consequences of climate change can certainly use the data from this imax/exhibit.

5. The exhibit itself has 120 physical artifacts of which half is brought out of Cambodia for the first time … and two aspects of the exhibit impressed me: (1) the videos incorporated the voices of local experts as well as French and other experts, and (2), it addresses the precolonial looting as well as illicit post colonial trade In antiquities and asks for help to return Cambodian antiquities to Cambodia!

6. Most importantly, Angkor Wat is one of the ancient seven wonders and an UNESCO heritage site … if you can travel to Cambodia one day, it is definitely a bucket list destination .. and while in SE Asia, go see another Buddhist UNESCO site at Borobudur in Indonesia too. Both Hinduism and two types of Buddhism (Theravada and Mahayana) are covered in this exhibit.

7. Most critically, the study of Southeast Asian history and civilizations are not often covered in the US history curriculum, and you will have learned more about Angkor Wat than the normally-trained history teachers in middle or high school (unless they studied SEAsian history) after a couple of hours in the imax/exhibit. I am encouraging teachers to see this exhibit and wished more students could have seen both the IMAX and exhibit. There are hands-on sections too that you can touch!

This is a real gem of an exhibit and IMAX premiering in Los Angeles and not to be missed if you have any iota of curiosity about the world in times past and places a few continents away! No less impressive than Machu Picchu:) 

For information on how to see this Angkor Wat exhibit before it closes on Sept 5, 2022, after the Labor Day weekend, please see:  https://californiasciencecenter.org/exhibits/angkor-the-lost-empire-of-cambodia

For details on visiting CSC, please see:  https://californiasciencecenter.org/visitolute last hour to confirm with payment to join our group will be Saturday noon on Sept 3, 2022.

Should you miss this special exhibit, here are resources to learn more about Angkor Wat.

Angkor Wat: The Lost City of the God Kings

https://youtu.be/KsDGDzwuQ-I

National Geographic Angkor Wat Access Heritage 360

https://youtu.be/C5jpbwizxBs

The Khmer kingdom - Fall of the God Kings (Fall of Civilizations series)

https://youtu.be/ghmjIBD2Fd4

Pol Pot and the killing fields

https://youtu.be/KMLz0eIihcY

(Reference to the genocide in Cambodia is in one panel of the exhibit.

    The relief art on the sides of the temple is exquisite.