"The Outrage" of Amazon toward Cambodia

Cambodia’s ambassador to the United States, Chum Sounry, personally sent a letter to Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon—the famous online retail platform and incidentally the richest man in the world with an estimated fortune of $112 billion—to express his outrage. He was “shocked and appalled” to discover that images of Angkor Wat temple and the Cambodian flag had been printed on bathroom accessories being sold on the website, such as bath mats, toilet seat covers, and shower curtains. German radio station Deutsche Welle reported the ambassador’s statement. He has since been joined by Cambodia’s Minister of Culture and Fine Arts, Phoeurng Sackona, who announced that her office would soon be filing a formal complaint. She encouraged Cambodians to report such sales to the government if they come across them, as they “insult Cambodian culture.” Chum Sounry denounced “the outrageous use of the flag of the Kingdom of Cambodia as a design on a bath mat set. The distribution of these disgraceful products must stop immediately.”

But that’s not all

Bath mats and toilet covers featuring Angkor Wat and the Cambodian flag are not the only examples of Khmer culture being represented on Amazon. Similar products printed with images of the Bayon and Angkor Thom temples are also currently available on the website.

Countless images related to religion—also printed on bathroom accessories—are in fact being sold on Amazon. Here are a few examples featuring the Christian cross and the Blue Mosque in Istanbul.

Thibault Bourru