Through my eyes

living my life without regrets

Sunday, March 29, 2020

Cambodia 2020 - 23. Rats (HeroRATs)


23.  Rats (HeroRATs)
Year of the Rat

Mine detection by rats?      Apopo?     

I never heard of this until we came to Cambodia. Here in Cambodia, everybody knows what Apopo is. I know 2020 is the Chinese year of the rat, but that has nothing to do with Apopo. 

On the way back from Bayon Temple, Mr. Touch stopped and asked if we wanted to see this. He mentioned in his broken English that this would be a good time to start a tour. I did not understand what he meant but found out more after we entered their offices.

Welcome Sign

Rats are nocturnal creatures, they sleep during the day. It is not that one can just walk into Apopo and they demonstrate how a rat sniffs for a buried mine. But in the morning hours the rats here are trained to still be up but are getting sleepy. A rat’s attention span is about 3 hours max for any tasks asked from them.
HeroRATS Can Systematically Check a Tennis Court Sized Area In <30 Min. A Metal Detector Would Take 4 Days.

The introduction to the tour is a bit long-winded and it takes time to set it all up, inform everybody who is on the tour how it works, give background info about Apopo, etc. They made us read some info on posters first, so we could understand what Apopo was all about. Language issues may have made them seem ‘rude’ but I am sure they had their reasons to make sure we understood more of the details. 
 
Awww - So Cute

This, again, was like taking a class in school.

This link, and there are many more links on the web, show what those little heroes are all about. Who would have thought those rats would be so good and helpful.

ONLY after we understood the introduction did they all show us what these trained rats can do.

Demo of Finding a Buried Explosive

We had a short demonstration on the premises, the rat finding a randomly buried, but no longer fused grenade. We saw that the method to find ordinances was very careful and practical and the rat was very efficient. Our rat found the planted grenade in no time, running to the handler for the banana reward it knows it gets once it finds something.

A HeroRAT Working in the Field - Hard to See So Look Above the Blue Arrow

Who thought of this?

The first to start using rats to find these explosives was a Belgian Zen Priest named Bart Weetjens around 1995 who explained himself in this TED talk video.
When An Explosive Device Is Found, It Is Detonated

A rat’s weight is too light to trigger an ordinance. While only working in the early daylight hours, parts of the rats are covered in sunscreen lotion, to prevent sunburn on their delicate ears and tails. Normally, being nocturnal they would not need that, but in the sun, even in the early morning hours, their handlers look out for them. The handlers want to have happy rats. 

A rat’s life is constantly sniffing for food; they sniff, sniff, and sniff all the time. Their noses are extremely sensitive. Once properly trained they never miss a mine or grenade or any other explosive. 
Rats Are Very Curious

Training is reinforced by a clicker in the handler’s hands. Sniff, sniff… hear a click…food. Repeat. That is how it goes minute after minute in the trained rat’s brain.

The rat is conditioned to respond to the clicker almost from birth. It is a long training the rats have to go through, it takes 9 months to make it work, and they have daily lessons. Their handlers are dedicated people who have developed this skill of training rats and they call their rats their friends. 

The process seems odd and unreliable but like I said, the rats never make a mistake, they find mines, or explosives better than the best electronic equipment otherwise used. 
And Very Cute

It’s just amazing to see.

These rats find around 3000 mines per year, on a global scale. They have freed so far 18 million square meters of mines worldwide, saving hundreds of lives and even more people from being invalids. 80% of people stepping on mines are innocent people. Of those 46% are children. 

The work the rats do enables the land to be usable again. It is cleared for agriculture, development or access for other basic needs.

So many other countries in the world still have mines in the ground. Afghanistan is the worst, followed by Cambodia. But there are many other countries still full of landmines. Those rats are being used in many other countries besides Cambodia. 
He's Wearing His Working Harness


Their delicate noses, their sense of smell are very useful. It does take training, dedicated, long time training to do that. The Apopo Center we visited is a museum to demonstrate how these rats operate, not just any rat but the African Giant Pouched Rats

Those rats are being trained carefully; all training is done in Africa.
The only training center in the world for these rats is in Morogoro, Tanzania. Even the engine noises made by the cars or trucks or mopeds used during shipments are carefully introduced during the training. 

All of Cambodia at this time has only 50 trained rats to sniff, sniff, and sniff.
Mine Contamination as of November 2016

The rats do not perform well under stress. Even the handlers keep quiet while the rats work. Chatting among the handlers is highly discouraged. But once the rat is ‘happy’, it can concentrate on sniff, sniff… click…food. Rats are being shipped all over the globe to work on a daily basis.

Ah, yes, the rats are also used to detect TB and are better than any other means of finding Tuberculosis. That training would be done in Morogoro, too. Those rats are truly little heroes.   

HeroRATs.






Saturday, March 28, 2020

Cambodia 2020 - 22a. Bayon Temple -Pictures Only

22a. Bayon Temple - Pictures Only

North Side of Bayon Temple

Narrow Passageways
 
So Many Stairs













Several Small Shrines in the Temple

Monks In Prayer



















Centre Bottom - Cow With a Nursing Calf (Blue Arrow);
Middle Right - Man Handling a Snake;
Middle Left - Man With Broom and Man with Sack of Rice? Water?

The God King With Apsara Dancers on His Right, Noblemen on His Left
The King's Court; Figures Above the Arrows Are Being Carried in Some Sort of a Chair
Box to Left of Central Figure Seems to Contain Tools

Khmer Army Going Into Battle With the Leader Atop the Elephant
Chinese Buddhists














An Outdoor Shrine for Blessings




















Above Shrine Has a Black Buddha










Huge Buddha














Cock Fighting Was Popular in Cambodia

























Friday, March 27, 2020

Cambodia 2020 - 22. Bayon Temple


22. Bayon Temple
Bayon Is In the Centre of the Angkor Thom City, One of the Largest Khmer Cities Ever Built at 9 Square Kilometers

I am having difficulties writing about this Temple. It is one of the most enigmatic and powerful religious temples in the world. The temple is extremely complex both in structure and religious meaning. I needed help, so I looked up books, articles and videos on line, anything I could find only made it more and more complex. Going from Hindu worship to Buddhism and having more and more additions put on by various kings over decades and centuries just compounded the complications of this Bayon Temple.
A Pair of Lions Guard the Entrance to the Many Towers of Bayon

Originally Bayon had 49 towers, but some experts think it should have been 54 towers. Today ‘only’ 37 towers are still standing. 
Can You Find 8 Faces In This Picture? (Some Are in Profile)

Another of the Many Faces
Most of these towers had 4 faces carved in each tower, each face looking out in one of the cardinal directions.

The central tower had many more faces carved in it.

It’s just overwhelming; I am open-jawed staring at it all.
Devata - Female Deity

Ah, yes, all those face carvings… It is said those faces are Jayarman VII, the man and the King who built this temple. He was, after all, God on Earth as he made his underlings believe. Here he is looking down at everyone, from above or are these faces representations of ‘other’ gods?

Nose to Nose With a God








I faced off against one of those gods, nose to nose with a god; now that is a picture you don’t see every day.  Never mind that my nose looks weird.
Apsara = Divine Dancers, Over the Door to the Main Tower


Ah the stories those walls hide, the people in the past were like us, but some, of course see deeper mysteries in things, too.



Dancing on Lotus Flowers
One man I found on line who proclaims Bayon and other temples were way more advanced than what people actually were at the time. You can be the judge, it’s a good little link, and it explains a bit more about some of the stories of the bas-reliefs that abound here at Bayon, too. 

Narrow Corridors
The complex of Bayon is a maze, narrow corridors, dim lighting and low ceilings. Bas-reliefs run along walls, crammed full of details. What I found most interesting were the depictions of daily life, of markets, fishing, battles but also processions. The inner walk along the bas-reliefs is full of mystical scenes.

Linga = Stylized Phallus Representing
the Essence of Shiva
This Bayon Temple is in the center of the larger, huge complex of Angkor Thom which was the center of the Empire of the Khmer. 
Elephant (South) Gate. 3 Trunks Remain Each Side of
Entrance But Heads Have Been Obliterated

Everything you see is mystical and has carvings related to the Hindu, and/or Theravada Buddhist belief. The complex of Angkor Thom is walled in by 8 meter high walls, laid out into a square. The grid is 3 km on each side. The area is huge, incomprehensible, and impossible to walk in just one day. To study the details would take a devoted lifetime.

The entrance gates (gopuras) to Angkor Thom are 23 meters high. Those are superstructures that have faces on each of its 4 sides. Indra, a god, is situated above each of those faces, with her consorts on each side.

A 100 meter wide moat surrounds the outer walls. A causeway across this moat is flanked by 54 large stone figures on each side of this bridge. When you enter Angkor Thom, gods are on the left and demons on the right. Both guard this approach into the city of Angkor Thom. All the demons have down turned facial expressions, look grim and wear military head dresses. The gods wear conical headdresses, have almond shaped eyes and appear very serene.
The Gods Holding the Body of a 7-Headed Naga

Demons (Most With New Heads) Also Holding the Body of Naga
Both gods and demons hold the scaly body of a Naga, a snake with 5, 7 or 9 fan-shaped heads, on their knees. The Naga, the snake, guards each side of the causeway leading to a 3 headed Elephant who guards the main gate. Symbolism, everything has a deeper meaning, nothing is plain and unadorned. Everything is carved; everything is in some way related to a religious part of the Hindu or Buddhist faith.

One of the Gods on the Bridge Over the Moat - Just Before the Gopura

How can I possibly represent this here in a few words?

Bayon is a must see part of the attractions of the Angkor area. Bayon was the State Temple. The center or capital of the Khmer Empire’s Universe was Angkor Thom in the center of which was the Bayon Temple.

Everything started from here and ended here; this city, complex was the nerve center of it all.
Demons on the Bridge

The organization of the Khmer power started and ended right here.

It is difficult to comprehend, difficult to grasp.

What I learned and is intriguing to me is that not only here, but already a few hundred years before they built Bayon, some mysteries have not been answered yet. If you are intrigued you are not alone.

Bayon in Angkor Thom, is a definite must see temple, a must see part of your trip to the Angkor Wat area.