‘European’ and ‘Asian’ approaches to cultural landscapes management at Borobudur, Indonesia in the 1970s

Abstract

The early 1990s saw a move against European-dominated discourses of heritage and the concept of authenticity in the World Heritage system, with the development of the Nara Document. The Document, now in its twentieth year from inception, articulated a developing Asian approach to authenticity, recognising the ways and means to preserve cultural heritage with community participation and different understandings of heritage that existed outside Europe. Meanwhile, there was another significant development and split in ideas around cultural landscapes in the 1990s that has broadened wider interdisciplinary debates in heritage studies. Through the case study of the Borobudur Temple, which was the focus of large-scale interventions by UNESCO and the Japanese during the 1970s, this paper explores the dichotomy between European monument-centred heritage approaches against the cultural landscapes concept developed in Japan. Overall, this paper finds that at the time of the site’s nomination for inscription on the World Heritage List, the obligatory use of World Heritage criteria meant that the Indonesian authorities followed European ideas of heritage value. This resulted in continued post-colonial monument-centred heritage conservation and held back the shift of heritage management to community involvement and the practice of wider landscape protection.

Keywords:

• Borobudur
• cultural landscapes
• JICA Master Plan
• authenticity
• community participation

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Yasufumi Uekita, Professor at the University of Tsukuba, and Andrew Henderson, Consultant for Culture unit at the UNESCO Office in Jakarta, who helped elaborate this paper through their critical comments. Yasutaka Nagai, Makine Kusano and Kazunori Seki, former JICA Study team members, Robert Knox, former Keeper of the Department of Asia at the British Museum, Laurajane Smith, editor in chief of the journal and two anonymous reviewers also provided very helpful guidance on the paper. I am most grateful to all of these people.

Notes

1. The 2003 UNESCO Fourth Experts meeting at Borobudur; The 2003 UNESCO-ICOMOS Reactive Monitoring Mission; The 2006 UNESCO-ICOMOS Reactive Monitoring Mission; The 2008 National Training workshop on the Management of World Heritage sites in Indonesia at Borobudur; The 2009 Coordination Meeting for Enhancing Effective Management for Borobudur Temple Compounds in Jakarta; The 2010 UNESCO sub-regional Workshop on the Second Cycle of the Periodic Reporting for Asia and the Pacific in Taiyuan, China; The 2012 World Heritage and Sustainable Development seminar in Jakarta; and The 2013 Sixth International Experts Meeting on Borobudur in Magelang, Indonesia.