A popular tourist stop-by in Siem Reap, the Chantiers Ecoles (school building) of Artisans d’Angkor is the place where young Khmer learn the art of stone carving, wood ornamental sculpture, lacquer. Les Artisans d’Angkor is sponsored by the European program REPLIC and the government of Cambodia for the Cambodian to learn as a living skill.

The guy in brown in the picture above in our guide in Chantiers Ecoles. He explained slowly in English, and would pause here and there to gain our attention. We were led from one building to another. Each building has different workmanship produced by the hands. Some of the workers are deaf and muse. The way of conversing is via hand gesture. There’s even a big hand-signal poster hanging on the wall; in case tourists want to communicate with the workers.

I’m astonished to see the details on the statues above. According to our guide, a small statue will take about 2-3 days to craft out. Finishing the statue might take up to 5-7 days in total due to drying, lacquering, shellacking, gold-leaves-pasting, etc2.

Fact of the day :

Do you know that Artisans d’Angkor has been awarded the “Seal of Excellence for Handicrafts” by UNESCO?

Seal of Excellence for Handicrafts competition organized by UNESCO

Artisans d’Angkor has been awarded by the highest authority for supporting craft producers: UNESCO. Congratulations for all Artisans d’Angkor’s team who worked so hard to reach UNESCO’s expectations!

The expert panel from UNESCO awarded two Artisans d’Angkor items (Candle Holder and Krama Picnic Tray) with the “Seal of Excellence for Handicrafts”. this award is granted to product which meets high standards of quality, innovating, cultural authenticity, as well as social and environmentally responsible production.

With this award, I’m pretty sure buyers will feel at ease buying something. I would get one too – if the price is not a problem to me. Hehe.

I love the statues made out of the stone. It’s amazed to see how a slab of stone (like the stones below) being turned into beautiful home decorators like above.

Back to the guides at the Artisans d’Angkor, most of them are trained to speak in numerous languages. We met with a Mandarin-speaking guide (who guided a group from China) who teased us in Mandarin. When we ignored him and conversed in Malay among each other, he spoked us in Malay plak. Which left us in state of shock!

“Don’t think I don’t know what you guys are talking about ya. I know few languages,” he laughed before walking away to serve other tourists.

And we totally dumbstruck by his statement but buat bodoh to avoid any problems. Haha.

The tour ended with the guide leading us to the gift shop. He bided us goodbye before telling us that he is not allowed to enter the shop. To express our gratitude, we took pictures together with our Artisan’s guide and Siya.

Inside, many things captured my eyes. The statues, the scafts, the Khmer shawls, the baskets, the clothes, the paintings – all of them are beautifully made, but being jobless at that time doesn’t allow me to touch nor dream of having anything there. Moreover, the stuffs there are priced in US Dollar. So, T.T

By the time we left the place, our tummies were already growling like mad. We were brought to a very nice place for lunch which I’ll cover in the next post. Till then, byebye!

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