|first=Brigitta |last=Kuster |website=transversal.at|access-date=23 April 2020}}</ref>
Kamboja mendapatkan kemerdekaan dari Prancis pada tanggal 9 November 1953, dan sejak saat itu meguasai Angkor Wat.<!--ItBoleh isdikata safesejak tozaman saykolonial thatsampai fromdinominasikan the colonial period onwards until the site's nomination assebagai [[UNESCOWarisan WorldDunia HeritageUNESCO]] inpada tahun 1992, this specific temple of Angkor Wat wassudah instrumentalmenjadi inunsur thepenting formationdalam ofpembentukan thekonsep modern andwarisan-budaya-terbangun graduallyyang globalised concept of built culturallama-kelamaan heritagemengglobal.<ref>Falser, Michael: Clearing the Path towards Civilization – 150 Years of "Saving Angkor". InDalam: Michael Falser (ed.penyunting) Cultural Heritage as Civilizing Mission. From Decay to Recovery. Springer: Heidelberg, New York, pphlmn. 279–346.</ref>
[[File:Bullet holes at angkor wat.jpg|thumb|right|BulletLubang-lubang holesbekas leftpeluru by a shoot-outyang betweenditembakkan thepasukan Khmer RougeMerah anddan Vietnamesepasukan forcesVietnam atdi Angkor Wat]]
RestorationKegiatan workpemugaran wassempat interruptedmacet byakibat themeletusnya [[CambodianPerang CivilSaudara WarKamboja]] anddan berkuasanya rezim [[Khmer RougeMerah]] controlpada ofera the1970-an countrydan during1980-an, thetetapi 1970skerusakan andyang 1980s,timbul butpada relativelykurun littlewaktu damagetersebut wasrelatif donesedikit. duringPasukan-pasukan thisKhmer period.Merah Campingyang Khmerberkemah Rougedi forcessitus usedAngkor whateverWat woodmengambil remainedsegala inmacam thekayu buildingyang structurestertinggal fordi firewood,bangunan andtersebut auntuk shoot-outdijadikan betweenkayu Khmerbakar, Rougedan andtembak-menembak Vietnamesedi forcesantara putpasukan aKhmer fewMerah bulletdan holespasukan inVietnam amengakibatkan bascacatnya sebuah relief akibat terhujam peluru nyasar.<!-- Far more damage was done after the wars, by [[art thieves]] working out of Thailand, which, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, claimed almost every head that could be lopped off the structures, including reconstructions.<ref name="Angkor Battle">{{cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9hAteN7ddW0C&q=Angkor+Wat+Khmer+Rouge+war&pg=PA52|title=The Battle of Angkor Wat |magazine=New Scientist|pages=52–57|date=14 October 1989 |author=Russell Ciochon |author2=Jamie James |name-list-style=amp|access-date=22 November 2015}}</ref>
The temple is a powerful symbol of Cambodia, and is a source of great national pride that has factored into Cambodia's diplomatic relations with France, the United States, and its neighbour Thailand. A depiction of Angkor Wat has been a part of [[Flag of Cambodia|Cambodian national flags]] since the introduction of the first version circa 1863.<ref>Flags of the World, [http://flagspot.net/flags/kh_hstry.html Cambodian Flag History]</ref> From a larger historical and even transcultural perspective, however, the temple of Angkor Wat did not become a symbol of national pride ''sui generis'' but had been inscribed into a larger politico-cultural process of French-colonial heritage production in which the original temple site was presented in French colonial and universal exhibitions in Paris and Marseille between 1889 and 1937.<ref>Falser, Michael (2011). [http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/ojs/index.php/transcultural/article/view/9083 ''Krishna and the Plaster Cast. Translating the Cambodian Temple of Angkor Wat in the French Colonial Period''].</ref>
