While the news of the discovery of the city-complex in the vicinity of Angkor Wat in Cambodia should give us reason to celebrate together, it should also give reason to pause a little in our march to the future, wrote Assoc Prof Farish A Noor of the RSIS at NTU. The importance of historical sites like Angkor Wat lies well beyond the tourist dollar. Assoc Prof Farish argued that in recovering our past, we must not fall into the trap of simple appropriation, but also learn some things about ourselves from the complex monuments and structures left behind which can teach us something.