Kiwi detained after statue smashed

Angkor Wat is a huge tourist attraction. Photo / Getty Images

A New Zealand woman was reportedly taken into custody in Cambodia at the weekend for destroying a statue of Buddha at the ancient Angkor Wat temple complex.

Cambodian media reported the New Zealand woman was detained by the Apsara Authority, which protects the Unesco World Heritage Site complex and neighbouring cities.

The woman reportedly destroyed a Buddha statue at the Bayon temple - an intricately decorated Khmer shrine, believed to have been built in the late 12th century.

Tour guide Semnang Hem shared his account of the incident on Facebook.

"1lady from Newzealand, she already destroyed a buddha statue, located at central tower of Bayon temple last night. Heritage polices already arrested her. This is crazy."

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He said the woman had arrived at the historic site with a tuk tuk driver about 5pm on Friday but they became separated.

The driver called the Apsara Authority, which found the woman in the Bayon temple about 12.30am Saturday local time.

She had reportedly knocked a Buddha statue to the ground and it had broken into four pieces.

Local news reports said the woman was detained but had since been released. Some reports suggested she had left Cambodia for Thailand.

Chakara Lim of the New Zealand Khmer Trust said he couldn't understand why a New Zealand woman would deliberately knock a statue to the ground.

He said the Buddha statue was unlikely to have been historic; it was probably a new statue that was placed in the temple for worship.

"There are mainly new statues there that have had a ritual process to become Buddha, as well as old stone ones that are big. But most of the old ones have been damaged or removed."

Mr Lim said Buddhist people would likely not be angry.

"The Buddhist people are very tolerant ... They wouldn't want to kill people over a statue because of karma; they believe in karma," Mr Lim said.

He said Angkor Wat was very important in relation to the Cambodian identity.

"You see it on our national flag, it's in our national anthem, it's very significant to our identity."

He said it was still used for regular worship.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said neither it nor the New Zealand Embassy in Bangkok had been advised or approached for assistance in relation to the reported incident.

Angkor Wat

• An ancient temple complex located in dense jungle and close to the city of Siem Reap.

• Built in the early 12th century by the Khmer Kingdom and originally dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu.

• In the 13th century the temples became Buddhist shrines and continue to be used for Buddhist worship today.

• The temple complex lay undiscovered by the Western world until the 19th century.

• Today the temples attract up to a million tourists a year.

• The Ta Prohm temple was used as a location for the Angelina Jolie film Tomb Raider.