 URL tuesday NUMBER august NUMBER NUMBER NUMBER gmt NUMBER NUMBER uk cambodia temple ruins yield treasure workers clearing dense jungle near the ruins of an ancient pagoda in northern cambodia have unearthed NUMBER buddha statues NUMBER of them solid gold the statues which are NUMBER centimetres NUMBER inches tall are in good condition and believed to be hundreds of years old they were found on saturday as workers were rebuilding the po pich temple about NUMBER km NUMBERmiles north of the capital phnom penh the pagoda in the batay district of kampong thom province was torn down during the reign of the khmer rouge in the NUMBERs and the area became overgrown community care deputy police chief of kampong thom province hang sithim said the statues three of which were silver and one bronze were buried in about one metre NUMBER NUMBERft of earth and each weigh around NUMBER grams NUMBERlb i think that these buddha statues had been buried hundreds of years ago when the last temple was fully operating mr hang sithim said provincial authorities initially planned to take the statues to a nearby town for safekeeping but opted to allow the buddhist community at the temple to take care of them we believe they are safe there said som somphat deputy governor of kampong thom province the people of po pich pledged to treat them with respect and honour reign of terror a police guard has been placed around the site to protect it from looters the khmer rouge waged civil war in cambodia between NUMBER and NUMBER and controlled the country between NUMBER and NUMBER the regime outlawed religion and destroyed many objects regarded as decadent or culturally impure about two million people died in the khmer rouge s drive to turn cambodia into a farmers utopia yahoo groups sponsor NUMBER dvds free s p join now URL to unsubscribe from this group send an email to forteana unsubscribe URL your use of yahoo groups is subject to URL 