Angkor Panorama Museum
Cylindrical hall wrapped in a three hundred sixty degree painted mural of twelfth century Angkor, built by North Korean state artists.
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About this audio guide
This guide to the Angkor Panorama Museum in Siem Reap starts with a twist: the vast painted mural wrapping around you was made not by Cambodian artists but by North Korea's state-run Mansudae Art Studio, financed by Pyongyang and completed in 2015. It traces how dozens of North Korean painters spent nearly two years covering this cylindrical hall with a scene of Jayavarman the Seventh's war against the Cham and his construction of the Bayon, rendered in the same heroic style as North Korea's own state art. You'll hear how real rocks and trees at the base blur into the painted crowd, dissolving the line between the room and the wall. Walk the base slowly to find a face in the crowd that isn't repeated anywhere else on the mural.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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