Mastodawn

When your home *is* a temple

Temples in Cambodia are marvels of intrinsic details, but sometimes the cohabitants are, too. Like this one at Phnom Sampeau.

The monkeys at most of these temple sites around Asia are peaceful, knowing they are safe and have access to food and water. But they are also nosy and cheeky, and any seasoned traveller know to keep their belongings, food and water well contained or hidden.

#batcave #deathcaves #visitcambodia #macaquemonkey #PhnomSampeau #visitbattambang

Dag-Rune Z Feb 5

When your home is a temple

Some of the temples you see in Cambodia are marvels of intrinsic details, but sometimes the cohabitants are, too. Like this one at Phnom Sampov/Phnom Sampeau near Battambang.

The monkeys at most of these temple sites around Asia are peaceful, knowing they are safe and have access to food and water. But they are also nosy and cheeky, and any seasoned traveller know to keep their belongings, food and water well contained or hidden around these rascals.

No feeding or fighting
Even if they are small, they are strong and have sharp teeth. So there is no use try picking a fight.

And never, ever feed the monkeys. It reduces their ability to hunt and gather their own food, leading to malnutrition and they become more aggressive in close contact with humans.

Small gene pools
Another challenge for these monkeys are the limited numbers of members in each family group in each temple. That is causing some problems with inbreeding due to small gene pools.

We are talking severe Habsburger jaw and bulbous lips, to use a European reference to tragedy and disaster when science is absent. I have observed this inbreeding problem to become lesser over the last few years in Cambodia, as the caretaking of these cultural heritage sites improves. Including for the animals.

But the monkeys also ad personality and scale to these photos. So I would miss having them around, if they where to disappear.

#battambang #batcave #PhnomSampeou #watsampeou #stupas #temple #gold #bluesky #roadtrip #countryside #2019CE #Angkor #architecture #art #Battambang #bluesky #Buddhism #Cambodia #gallery #gold #Hinduism #Kampuchea #khmer #Nikkor #Nikon #Phnom #Sampeou #siemreap #sightseeing #southeast #asia #southeastasia #stupas #KR #deathcaves #tragedy #temple #visitcambodia #visitsiemreap #watsampeou #PhnomSampov #ឡូរីជើងភ្នំបាណន់ #green #guardian #hill #macaque #macaquemonkey #nature #Pagoda #PhnomSampeau #PhnomSompov #visitbattambang

Dag-Rune Z Aug 28, 2025

When your home is a temple

Some of the temples and pagodas in Cambodia are marvels of intrinsic details. Sometimes the cohabitants are, too. Like this one at Wat Sampov at Phnom Sampov/Phnom Sampeau near Battambang.

The monkeys at most of these temple sites are peaceful. They are adjusted to be relatively safe and have access to food and water. But they are also nosy and cheeky, and any seasoned traveller know to keep their belongings, food and water well contained or hidden around these rascals. They will try to steal anything they fancy from the humans.

And never, ever feed the monkeys. It reduces their ability to hunt and gather their own food, leads to malnutrition, and they become more aggressive and can be dangerous towards humans.

Challenging small gene pools
Another challenge for these monkeys is the small number of members in some of the temple groups. That is causing some problems with inbreeding due to limited gene pools.

We are talking severe Habsburgian jaw and bulbous lips, to use a European reference to tragedy and disaster when science is absent. I have personally observed this inbreeding problem to have become lesser over the last few years. Hopefully it means the caretaking of these cultural heritage sites improves. Including for the animals.

The monkeys also ad personality to the visits to the temple, and scale to photos taken there. I would miss having them around, if they were to disappear from the temple grounds.

https://drzinasia.wordpress.com/2021/05/04/when-your-home-iff-a-temple-some-of-the/

#2016CE #Angkor #architecture #art #batcave #Battambang #bluesky #Buddhism #Cambodia #countryside #gallery #gold #Hinduism #Kampuchea #khmer #Nikkor #Nikon #PhnomSampeou #roadtrip #Siem #Reap #siemreap #sightseeing #asia #southeastasia #templevisit #Cambodia #visitsiemreap #watsampeou #guardianhill #landscape #macaquemonkey #Mountains #nature #Pagoda #Phnom #Sampeau #PhnomSompov #teeth #temple #visitcambodia