Home preserved as museum

Kratie provincial authorities dismantle a 200-year-old house that formerly had 100 pillars. The house will be rebuilt at its new site to serve as a symbolic piece of history for younger generations to visit. Information Ministry

Kratie provincial authorities have started dismantling a 200-year-old house that formerly had 100 pillars as they prepared to move the historic structure to its new location at the Kar Kandal Pagoda compound in Kratie town.

The house is located in Chhlong commune’s Koh Kandol village in Chhlong district and will be rebuilt at its new site to serve as a symbolic piece of history for younger generations to visit.

A provincial Department of Culture and Fine Arts notice issued on Wednesday said the owners requested that it be dismantled because they didn’t have the ability to repair it and they planned on giving the land to their children.

Authorities requested that they donate the house to be preserved and moved, but the owners declined.

According to the notice, the owners agreed to sell the house to the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts for $8,000.

On June 20, builders began the 10-day project of taking down the roof.

The provincial Department of Culture and Fine Arts addressed reports that the house was being destroyed by saying that was not the case.

It said the dismantling was being carried out professionally and the ministry had consulted archaeologists, architects, and engineers for advice.

The department said: “The 100-pillar house will not lose anything after it is rebuilt and repaired. This house will become a museum and a precious ancient Khmer construction for the good of younger generations, who can visit and study it.”

Kratie provincial museum official Tol Marady said on Thursday that the dismantling of the house was 50% complete.

He said it will take at least six months for the house to be rebuilt in its original design. The public will visit it and be able to see an ancient Khmer house in a pure Khmer style.

“Before dismantling this house, we got a group of archaeologists to draw a full blueprint to ascertain that the house had 100 pillars.

“We don’t want it said that the 100-pillar house originally had only 40 pillars because this is the number it has now, as their children took some of the pillars down and it was also destroyed during the civil war,” Marady said.

The house, he said, was built using rosewood and during the Pol Pot regime, pillars in the front and back were removed. Phnom Penh Post