Authenticity and tourism development: the simple problem of incense at Cham living heritage sites in Vietnam

ABSTRACT

This article details the perception of indigenous Cham communities in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) with regard to the concept of authenticity. Based upon a combination of historical and anthropological methods, including interviews conducted in the Cham and Vietnamese language, and participant observation, between 2012 and 2017, we found government officials have imposed their own concept of authenticity on indigenous heritage sites, favouring tourist development. This includes the apparently mundane use of joss-stick incense. Consequentially, members of the Cham community are distraught. Incensed over incense, in a sense, they contend this is a violation of their customary practices and therefore inauthentic. Hence, we argue that if indigenous culture is over commodified, without respect for what may appear to be simple regulations, tensions will emerge, creating the perception from within the community that outside forces are collaborating to lead to the destruction of the indigenous heritage site. An alternative approach is to view the concepts of living heritage as foundational in cases where indigenous heritage is promoted for the sake of tourists. This alternative approach would lead to a decrease in potential tensions, while balancing needs of the community and tourist industry.

KEYWORDS:

• Authenticity
• living heritage
• tourism development‌
• Vietnam

Acknowledgement

This research was carried out with the support of the Center of Khmer Studies, the University of Queensland (Australia), and the University of Wisconsin–Madison (USA). During the final stages of the research and writing process, we were supported by HUTECH University (Vietnam) and Cornell University (USA). Dr. Isvan Quang Tuyen would like to extend his supervisors, Professors Ian Lilley and Annie Ross, for their insightful comments and support throughout the initial writing of this piece. We would also like to extend our thanks to our friends and colleagues in Cham Studies, who have always supported our work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 There are multiple Cham language romanization systems. In this article, we use the Library of Congress standard.

2 Cham, Vietnamese, and English language grammar do not map one to one upon one another. Consequentially, when we translate, we try to stick as close to the grammar of the original language context as possible, while making the quotes readable for an English language audience, although we do not maintain that they need to be one hundred percent grammatically correct in written contemporary English.

Additional information

Funding

Research was carried out with thanks to the support of the University of Queensland (Australia), the University of Wisconsin–Madison (USA), and the Center for Khmer Studies (Cambodia).

Notes on contributors

Quang Dai Tuyen

Dr. Quang Dai Tuyen (aka. Isvan) is a member of the Cham community in Vietnam. Isvan has previously worked at the Cham Cultural Research Center in Ninh Thuan for 10 years and has 10 years of work experience as a university lecturer. He is currently working for HUTECH University, Vietnam. Isvan’s broad research interests include indigenous knowledge, Champa culture (eg. Raglai, Cham H’roi, Churu …), living heritage, heritage conservation, and tourism development. He is a co-founder of the Vietnam tourism research network to improve Vietnamese people's publication capacity in the field of cultural heritage and tourism. He has recently published his research in Current Issues in Tourism, Cogent Social Sciences, Heritage & Society, and Tourism and Hospitality Research.

William B. Noseworthy

Dr. William B. Noseworthy is a Southeast Asian Materials Specialist at Cornell University. He designed the American Library of Congress standard romanization of the Cham script. He was also co-author with Sakaya et al. (2014, Trí Thức) on the first Cham-English-Vietnamese dictionary to be published with the Cham script. He has authored and co-authored numerous articles on Cham culture, history, language, and religion and his work has received the broad support of organizations in Vietnam, Cambodia, Canada, Germany, and the United States.