FRESNO, Calif. – The carved head of Brahma – a Hindu god with four faces, one for each cardinal direction – tops the entrance of a new Fresno Chaffee Zoo exhibit. Below, two mythical lion statues called “singha” guard the entrance. They symbolize protection.
This is the dramatic entrance into the new “Kingdoms of Asia” exhibit that opened this month to more than 8,000 visitors. The $38 million project funded by Measure Z took just over two years to complete. And it’s not finished, yet. A second phase of the exhibit will be completed at the end of the year, raising the total cost to $46 million.
Such a high price tag came with precise detail of a world thousands of miles away in Southeast Asia. The exhibit’s design is inspired by Cambodia’s landmark Angkor Wat temple. The 12th century structure is considered one of the most important archaeological sites in Southeast Asia and the largest religious complex in the world.
“It looks like you’re traveling back to Cambodia,” said Danny Kim, a Fresno police sergeant and member of the zoo’s cultural advisory committee, which oversaw the cultural and religious details of the exhibit.
The advisors worked with artists to guide the construction of the entrance, for example, with a scaled model, which outlined every detail of the carvings.
The group included members from Fresno’s Cambodian, Thai and Hmong community. Kim represented the Cambodian or “Khmer” community. Kim said he’s proud of the final outcome and the reaction of visitors so far. Like many other Cambodians, Kim’s family survived the Khmer Rouge genocide from 1975 -1979. His family escaped to a refugee camp in Thailand before they were sponsored to come to the U.S.
Fresno Chaffee Zoo CEO and director Jon Forrest Dohlin joined the zoo staff after the design of the exhibit was complete, but he was fully immersed in the construction phase. Dohlin said modeling the exhibit in the middle of California after a world-renowned site was something he would have originally shied away from.
“This is religious and cultural iconography of great significance. You can't play around with that,” Dohlin said.
But Dohlin said the five-member cultural advisory committee gave him confidence the work was going in the right direction. The group was consulted on every carving and statue inside the exhibit.
“Our advisors are with us every step of the way saying, ‘not like that, must be like this,’” he said.
Touring the temple ruins
Inside the exhibit, visitors walk among the temple ruins. Strangler fig roots encase the facades of carved rock. It’s a direct nod to the strangler figs that are known to grow over the real temple structures in Cambodia.
One of the first sightings is that of Malayan tigers who roam among the temple ruins. A stream runs through the enclosure. A large glass viewing area provides a clear line of sight to see the tigers cooling off in the water.
“Tigers, unlike what you think about cats, love the water,” Dohlin said on a guided tour.
A second tiger exhibit features a connecting tunnel that allows guests to see the big cats move between enclosures.
Another water exhibit features crocodiles. They use their long, narrow snouts to catch fish.
“We call them Sunda Gharial. They’re actually the second largest species of crocodile in the world after the Nile crocs,” Dohlin pointed out.
Sloth bears and small-clawed otters share another nearby enclosure, an enriched habitat filled with plants.
The exhibit also features siamangs and a renovated orangutan exhibit at the Bonner Station Treetop. Visitors who visit this enclosure can learn about the production of palm oil, which endangers tropical forests. The oil is prevalent in Southeast Asia and found in a large number of food and packaged products.
“So once you know about the problem with palm oil, once you know about the choices, you can make around palm oil and once you're empowered to make those choices, suddenly your visit to the zoo is like actually got some pretty cool outcome,” Dohlin said.
Dohlin says there’s magic in not just bringing people close to the incredible foreign wildlife, but also in the surprise element of learning that happens as visitors cross the exhibit.
Southeast Asian immigrant story highlighted
The exhibit also pays tribute to the story of Southeast Asian immigrants in the Central Valley with an education and interpretation center. Dohlin says telling visitors about these diverse cultures is one of the most impactful parts of this new exhibit.
“Everybody has come from somewhere. So there's this very specific and rich story about the journey of our Southeast Asian neighbors to get to the Central Valley,” he said.
Inside the education and interpretation center, a Hmong story cloth hangs on the wall. Fresno has the second-largest Hmong population in the country. On another wall hangs traditional Laotian garments.
A video plays on a loop on video screens featuring members of the cultural advisory group talking about their own stories of coming to the Central Valley.
Dohlin said he hopes visiting the center gets visitors thinking about how diverse the Central Valley is, and why so many call it home.
“This is an incredible, unique story but it's a quintessentially American story,“ Dohlin said. “Yes, circumstances, history, war forced us to leave our home but in doing so we came here and we found our home.”
