According to a report, India would renovate an 11th century temple located in Cambodia near the border with Thailand. Earlier, it came in news when Cambodia appealed to get a UNESCO world heritage status for the 11th century Preah Vihear temple. The temple then became the subject of enduring tension between Cambodia and Thailand. Later, Thailand had objected to the appeal made by Cambodia on the temple located in border area.

A senior foreign ministry official said that Cambodia had asked India some six months before to take up the maintenance and management of the Preah Vihear temple. Cambodia had approached India through the Indian ambassador.

Now, the government of India has told the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to prepare a plan for conservation of the 11th century temple. This is being said that India would make formal announcement at the time of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s visit to India scheduled in next month.

The government of India has been conducting temple diplomacy in the Southeast Asian countries by hooking up the ASI to renovate important medieval temples located in the region those were built by different dynasties linked with India of medieval times.

An ASI team has already been taken management for conserving the Ta Phrom temple in Cambodia’s world-famous Angkor Wat complex. The ASI had started conducted structural study of the temple with the Indian Institute of Technology in Chennai in 2004.

The center has also asked the ASI to prepare a conservation plan for the ruins of Wat Phou temple located in Southern Laos. Another ASI team is also working to renovate the Hindu temples at Prambanan, Yogyakarta in Indonesia. These temples were damaged by the 2006 Java earthquake.