Angkor's headless Buddhas- my feelings

Just came back from a trip to Siem Reap & Angkor Wat. Shall not dwell on the wonders of the Ancient City and the charming and quaint hotels/restaurants which Lonely Planet can so well describe.

I just want to make an observation about my own feelings. They are everywhere in the huge ancient city of Angkor, headless Buddhas and headless statues. They were severed, stolen and smuggled out of the country.

But in the inner courts of Angkor Wat, one whole row of headless Buddhas hit me as I stepped in from an outer court. The statues are dusty, coated with sand and grime (Siem Reap is very sandy) and some of these headless Buddhas have a golden sash across the severed neck. Suddenly my mind flashed back to the spotless, modern, cultured & refined ambience of the Metropolitan Museum of Arts in New York which I visited a few months ago. There you can find many many Buddha heads of various sizes, beautifully positioned in well designed wall recesses and glass enclosures and on pedestals. The sophisticated lighting is designed to cast a mysterious aura around them.

And I feel the sadness of my guide when he said ruefully "the heads are everywhere outside this country". Used to be when I was younger I had no feelings when such a sight hit me.
You know as I think about it the reaction towards the same situation is so different at various age in your life. In the seventh cycle of the 7-year period, i.e. when you cross 49 years of age, you reach a phase which is termed as " A Second Wind" by William Byrant. This is a phase of consolidation and integration, when one feels the urge to complete any "unfinished business". This is a reflective phase when changes and transformation take place to be at peace with oneself. "All the vultures of our past come home to roost....Body and soul now reflect all the errors and excesses of our past....(we) have to replace the vanished enthusiasm of youth with new qualities of soul and spirit."
Perhaps that is why I feel sad knowing how impossible it is for the whole to be restored and consolidation to take place in the ruins of Angkor.