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Abstract
Historic(al) landscapes with their heritage values—cultural landscapes—have reached key status in the field of cultural heritage conservation and planning. International recognition of cultural landscapes was extended in 1992 to World Heritage prominence with the establishment of three categories of cultural landscapes of outstanding universal value. The term ‘cultural landscape’ is now widely circulated internationally, although its use in South-eastern and Eastern Asia (hereafter SE and E Asia) presents problems. Notwithstanding this, cultural landscapes that have evolved in SE and E Asia reflect beautifully the interaction between people and their environment not simply as a tangible cultural product but as a result of cultural process with associated intangible values. In this way, and like their Western counterparts, they are part of a dynamic “process by which identities are formed’’,Footnote1 and also reflect organising philosophies and perspectives of different cultures imbued with value systems, traditional knowledge systems and abstract frameworks.Footnote2 The viewpoint of this paper is that of the need to draw attention to the cultural landscapes of SE and E Asia, to look closely at regional values and their inextricable connection to the continuing process of landscape creation, and finally to place SE and E Asian cultural landscapes in an international context.
Acknowledgement
This paper is a development from an earlier much shorter draft ‘Cultural Landscapes and Asian Values: Negotiating a Transition from an International to an Asian Regional Framework’ which appeared in a Chinese translation in Chinese Landscape Architecture, 23:143, 11, pp. 4–9 (2007).
I am grateful to the reviewers and the editor whose positive and incisive comments were of inestimable help in my developing the paper from its early draft form and the responses from various colleagues—acknowledged in the text—to my email requests for help.
Notes
1 Mitchell W. J. T. (1994) Landscape and Power (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), cited in Robertson, I. & Edwards, P. (Eds) (2003) Introduction, in: Studying Cultural Landscapes, p. 7 (London: Arnold).
2 See UNESCO Bangkok (2005) Hoi An Protocols for Best Conservation Practice in Asia. Professional Guidelines for Assuring and Preserving the Authenticity of Heritage Sites in the Context of the Cultures of Asia within the Framework of the Nara Document on Authenticity, Third Draft (Bangkok: UNESCO).
3 See for example, Jackson, J. B. (1984) Discovering the Vernacular Landscape (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press); Olwig, K. R. (1993) Sexual cosmology: nation and landscape at the conceptual interstices of nature and culture; or what does landscape really mean’, in: B. Bender (Ed.), Landscape Politics and Perspectives, pp. 307–343 (Oxford: Berg); Olwig, K. R. (2002) Landscape, Nature and the Body Politic: From Britain's Renaissance to America's New World (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press); Stilgoe, J. (1982) Common Landscapes of America (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press)
4 Cosgrove, D. (1984) Social Formation and Symbolic Landscape (London: Croom Helm); p. 1.
5 Jacques, D. (1995) The rise of cultural landscapes, International Journal of Heritage Studies, 1–2, pp. 91–101.
6 Hoskins, W. G. (1955) The Making of the English Landscape (London: Hodder & Stoughton), p. 14.
7 See for example, Lowenthal, D. (1975) Past time, present place. Landscape and memory, Geographical Review, 65(1), pp. 1–36; Lowenthal, D. (1979) Age and artifact. Dilemmas of interpretation, in: D. W. Meinig (Ed.) The Interpretation of Ordinary Landscapes. Geographical Essays (New York: Oxford University Press); Lewis, P. (1979) Axioms for reading the landscape, in: D. W. Meinig (Ed.), The Interpretation of Ordinary Landscapes. Geographical Essays, pp. 11–32 (New York: Oxford University Press).
8 For example, Jackson (1984). J. B. Jackson was a prolific and elegant writer on the American vernacular scene.
9 Cosgrove (1984).
10 See Jeans, D. (Ed.) (1984) Australian Historical Landscapes (Sydney: Allen & Unwin); Jeans, D. and Spearritt, P. (1980) The Open Air Museum: The Cultural Landscape of New South Wales (Sydney: Allen & Unwin).
11 English translation from online dictionary: http://www.ego4u.com/en/dictionary
12 Taylor, K. (1998) From physical determinant to cultural construct: shifting discourses in reading landscape as history and ideology, in: FIRM(ness) Commodity DE-light?: Questioning the Canons. Papers from the Fifteenth Annual Conference of The Society of Architectural Historians Australia and New Zealand, Melbourne, Australia, pp. 317–377.
13 Jackson (1984, p. 5).
14 Wylie, J. (2007) Landscape (Abingdon: Routledge), p. 21.
15 Livingstone, D. (1992) The Geographical Tradition (Oxford: Blackwell), p. 264.
16 Franz Boas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Boas
17 Lewis, P.F. (1979) Axioms for reading the landscape, in: D. W. Meinig (Ed.) The Interpretation of Ordinary Landscapes (New York: Oxford University Press), pp. 11–32.
18 Sauer, C. (1925) The morphology of landscape, p. 25 in: C. Sauer (Ed.) University of California Publications in Geography (1919–1928), 2(2) (1929), pp. 19–53.
19 Déjeant-Pons, M. (2006) The European Landscape Convention, Landscape Research, 31(4), pp. 363–384.
20 Déjeant-Pons (2006).
21 Roe, M. H. (2007a) The European Landscape Convention: a revolution in thinking about ‘cultural landscapes’, Chinese Landscape Architecture, 23/143, pp. 10–13. See also Roe, M. (2007b) Landscape and sustainability: an overview, in: J. F. Benson & M. H. Roe (Eds) Landscape and Sustainability, 2nd edn, pp. 1–15 (London: Routledge).
22 Fowler, P. (2001) Cultural landscapes: great concept, pity about the phrase, in: ICOMOS-UK, The Cultural Landscape: Planning for Sustainable Partnerships between People and Place, pp. 64–82 (London: ICOMOS-UK).
23 Jackson (1984, p. 5).
24 Wylie (2007).
25 Olwig, K. R. (2007) The practice of landscape ‘conventions’ and the just landscape: the case of the European Landscape Convention, Landscape Research, 32(6), pp. 579–594. See also Olwig (2002).
26 Jackson (1984).
27 Olwig (1993, p. 313).
28 UNESCO World Heritage List, accessed at http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/933
29 John Milton (c. 1631) L'Allegro.
30 Feng Han (2006) The Chinese view of nature: tourism in China's scenic and historic interest areas, PhD submitted in part-fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, School of Design, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane. See also Gong, P. (2001) Cultural History of the Spirit of Travel (Shiziazhang: Hebei Educational Press) for discussion on the displacement of real nature for illusive nature (p. 228) quoted in Feng Han.
31 Department of Asian Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art ‘Landscape Painting in Chinese Art’ in Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 2000 (http://www.metmuseum.org/toah[October 2004])
32 Nash, R. (1967) Wilderness and the American Mind (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press), 288 pp.
33 See discussion on ideas of wilderness in Griffiths, T. (1991) History and natural history: conservation movements in conflict?, in: D. J. Mulvaney (Ed.) The Humanities and the Australian Environment, pp. 87–109 (Canberra: Australian Academy of Humanities).
34 Taylor, K. (2000) Nature or culture? Dilemmas of interpretation, Tourism, Culture and Communication, 2, pp. 69–84.
35 Callicott, J. B. & Nelson, M. P. (1998) The great new wilderness debate, in J. B. Callicott & M. P. Nelson (Eds) The Great New Wilderness Debate (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press).
36 Examples include i) removal of traditional farming communities and villages in the Wulingyuan Scenic and Historic Interest Area, China, listed in 1992 as a World Natural Heritage Site; ii) The Surin Islands off the west coast of Thailand which were settled by a group of Moken maritime hunter gatherers in the recent past after a history of several decades of frequenting the area were declared a national park in 1981 because of their intact marine and forest resources: the islands and village settlements were restricted and Moken denied the right to continue unrestricted traditional resource harvesting. In 1997 the Surin Islands Project was initiated in an effort to assist the Moken to develop approaches and options for integrating traditional knowledge with heritage management and tourism development: see UNESCO Bangkok (2001) Indigenous People and Parks. The Surin Islands Project (Bangkok: UNESCO Office of the Regional Advisor for Culture in Asia and the Pacific in collaboration with Chulalongkorn University Social Research Institute).
37 For an illuminating discussion on the issue of cultural and biological diversity, see Lhakpa N. Sherpa (2006) Sacred hidden valleys and ecosystem conservation in the Himalayas, in Conserving Cultural and Biological Diversity: The Role of Sacred Natural Sites and Cultural Landscapes, UNESCO/IUCN International Symposium, United National University, Tokyo, 30 May–2 June 2005, pp. 68–72 (Paris: UNESCO).
38 Michael Ignatieff (1995) Walk on the wild side, The Independent on Sunday, 9 April, pp. 36–37, review of Simon Schama's book (see note 39).
39 Schama, S. (1995) Landscape and Memory (London: Harper Collins), pp. 6–7.
40 Rössler, M. (2006) World Heritage cultural landscapes, Landscape Research, 31(4), pp. 333–353.
41 Relph, E. (1976) Place and Placelessness (London: Pion), p. 61.
42 Accessed at http://flinders.edu.au; Leader: Elliot, M. R. & Burke, H. (2004) Understanding cultural landscapes - Definition.
43 UNESCO World Heritage Centre January 2008 Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention (UNESCO Paris) aim to facilitate the implementation of the 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (referred to as the World Heritage Convention). The Guidelines are periodically revised with the latest version being document WHC 08/01 January 2008. Para 77 lists the ten criteria with the note that “These criteria were formerly presented as two separate sets of criteria—(i) – (vi) for cultural heritage and (i)–(iv) for natural criteria. The 6th extraordinary session of the World Heritage Committee decided to merge the ten criteria (Decision 6 EXT.COM 5.1)”, http://www.unesco.org/archiove/opguide08-en.pdf (see also 2005 version of the operational guidelines).
44 World Heritage Centre – Brief History, accessed at http://whc.unesco.org/en/169/ See also note 43 above.
45 Accessed at http://whc.unesco.org/archive/convention-en.pdf
46 Feng Han (2006).
47 Berleant, A. (1993) The aesthetic of art and nature, in: S. Kemal & I. Gaskell (Eds) Landscape, Natural Beauty and the Arts (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 228–243.
48 Quoted in Crawford, D. W. (1997) Comparing natural and artistic beauty, in: S. Kemal and I. Gaskell (Eds) Landscape, Natural Beauty and the Arts (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 199–227.
49 Roe (2007a).
50 Jackson (1984, p. 156).
51 Natchitoches Declaration on Heritage Landscapes, 27 March 2004, Natchitoches, LA, USA: 7th International US ICOMOS Symposium, Learning from World Heritage: Lessons from International Preservation and Stewardship of Cultural & Ecological Landscape of Global Significance, accessed at http://www.heritagelandscapes.com/cl/NatchitochesDeclaration.pdf
52 Feng Han (2004) Cross-cultural misconceptions: application of World Heritage concepts in scenic and historic interest areas in China’, Conference Presentation paper to 7th US/ICOMOS International Symposium, 25–27 March, New Orleans, LA. See also Feng Han (2006).
53 Horace Walpole on William Kent in the essay ‘The History of the Modern Taste in Gardening’, first written pre-1770, revised 1782.
54 Nantawan Munga and Vital Lieorungruang (2006) Doi Suthep-Pui National Park, Chiang Mai: a case study in cultural landscape conservation, unpublished report submitted in partial fulfilment of course ‘Cultural Landscapes’, International Program in Architectural Heritage Management and Tourism, Silpakorn University, Bangkok.
55 Jackson (1984, p. 8).
56 For further discussion, see Olwig (1993) and Shepard, P. (1969) Man in the Landscape: A Historic View of the Esthetics of Nature (New York: Knopf).
57 China ICOMOS (2000) Principles for the Conservation of Heritage Sites in China, English translation by N. Agnew & M. Denis (2002) (Los Angeles, CA: Getty Institute), accessed at: www.getty.edu.conservation
58 Such a cursory overview cannot begin to do justice to the rich depth of meaning in Chinese history of people's relationships, spiritual and physical, with nature. For a comprehensive overview, see Feng Han (2006, note 28).
59 Gehring, K. & Kohsaka, R. (2007) ‘Landscape’ in the Japanese language: conceptual differences and implications for landscape research, Landscape Research, 32(2), pp. 273–282.
60 Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan, Our Treasure Cultural Landscapes to future generations. Cultural Landscape Protection in Japan, Tokyo, Japan. See also (2006) Administration of Cultural Affairs in Japan. Fiscal 2006, Tokyo, Japan.
61 Amin, J. M. (2006) Landscape heritage conservation in Indonesia, UNESCO/ICCROM Asian Academy for Heritage Management Research Conference Proceedings Asian Approaches to Conservation 2006, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 3–5 October 2006; Faculty of Architecture, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok.
62 See (UNESCO) World Heritage Centre Cultural Landscapes, accessed at http://www.whc.unesco.org/en/culturallandscape/
63 This theme of the inextricable links between nature and culture for indigenous people worldwide is the focus of a collection of papers from the UNESCO international symposium Conserving Cultural and Biological Diversity: The Role of Sacred Natural Sites and Cultural Landscapes, Tokyo, 30 May–2 June 2005.
64 Fowler, P. (2003) World Heritage Papers 6. World Heritage Cultural Landscapes 1992–2002 (Paris: UNESCO World Heritage Centre).
65 ICOMOS (2005) The World Heritage List: Filling the Gaps – an Action Plan for the Future. An Analysis by ICOMOS, February, ICOMOS International eNews, accessed at http://www.international.icomos.org/world_heritage/whlgaps.htm
66 Akagawa, N. & Sirisirak, T. (2008) Cultural landscapes in Asia and the Pacific: implications of the World Heritage Convention, International Journal of Heritage Studies, 14(2), pp. 176–191.
67 UNESCO World Heritage Centre (2008) Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention (Paris: UNESCO WHC). See also note 43.
68 Taylor, K. (2008) ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage: The Mirror of Cultural Diversity. Some reflections through charters and protocols from Venice to Hoi An’, pp. 509–518 in Proceedings of Heritage and Development, 12th International Conference of National Trusts, INTACH, New Delhi, 3–5 December 2007 (New Delhi, INTACH, 2008).
69 See for example, Wei, C. & Aas, A. (1989) Heritage conservation east and west, ICOMOS Information, vol. 3; Logan, W. (2002) The Disappearing ‘Asian’ City: Protecting Asia's Urban Heritage in a Globalizing World (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press); Taylor, K. (2004) Cultural heritage management: a possible role for charters and principles in Asia, International Journal of Heritage Studies, 10(5), pp. 417–433; Sofield, T. H. B. & Li, F. M. S. (1998) Tourism development and cultural policies in China’, Annals of Tourism Research, 25(2), 362–392.
70 UNESCO (2008).
71 International ICOMOS (1994) Nara Document on Authenticity, accessed at http://www.international.icomos.org/nara_eng.htm; UNESCO Bangkok (2005) Hoi An Protocols; China ICOMOS (2000).
72 Australia ICOMOS (1999) The Burra Charter. The Australia ICOMOS Charter for Places of Cultural Significance, Australia ICOMOS, Deakin University, Burwood.
73 UNESCO (2003) Cultural Landscapes – The Challenges of Conservation. Proceedings of the International Workshop (Ferrara, Italy 2002), World Heritage Papers 7 (Paris: UNESCO World Heritage Centre).
74 See Taylor, K. (2003) Cultural landscape as open air museum: Borobudur World Heritage Site and its setting, Humanities Research (‘Monuments and Commemorations issue’), X(2), pp. 51–62; Taylor, K. and Altenburg, K. (2006) Cultural landscapes in Asia-Pacific: potential for filling world heritage gaps, International Journal of Heritage Studies, 12(3), pp. 267–282.
75 UNESCO World Heritage Centre (2008) Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention (Paris: UNESCO). See also note 43.
76 Accessed at http://www.aseansec.org/641.htm