During my brief visit to central Cambodia, warnings of local Khmer Rouge activity were updated on a daily basis. As recently as last July, political tensions in Phnom Penh erupted into violence, claiming more than 40 lives. Most telling of all, an entire generation of inhabitants seems to be missing, erased during the black reign of Pol Pot. True chaos has a kind of innate perfection, and nowhere on Earth is it better expressed. A true ruin, I realize, displays the same mysterious, unerring aesthetic.
Every element seems in place.
And this is true on several levels. To step into Ta Prohm and explore its narrow passageways is to experience the awed, breathless rush that the first explorers must have felt when they located the famed Angkor ruins in the jungle. The temple is also a case study, an illustrated textbook of the fate awaiting unrestored monuments. Most compelling of all, though, is the view of impermanence the ruin provides. At loose in Ta Prohm, it's easy to imagine one is walking through the remains of Shea Stadium, or San Francisco's Financial District.