Cultural Landscapes in Asia‐Pacific: Potential for Filling World Heritage Gaps¹

[1] Based on a paper entitled ‘Genius of the Place. [Re]Presenting Cultural Landscapes, World Heritage Listing, and Intangible Values. Making Spaces out of Places in Asia’, first presented at the Contemporary Research on Pre‐Angkor Cambodia conference, Centre for Khmer Studies, Siem Reap, 10–12 January 2005 and at the Conserving Cultural and Biological Diversity: The Role of Sacred Natural Sites and Cultural Landscapes UNESCO International Symposium, 30 May–2 June 2005, Tokyo, United Nations University.

Abstract

World Heritage listing and public presentation for tourism at Asian sites like Angkor has tended to focus on architectural ensembles, notwithstanding archaeological research involving wider aspects of landscape setting. Taking Angkor, Borobudur and Bagan as examples, this paper proposes a critical review of the concept of such heritage places and their interpretation under the wider concept of cultural landscapes replete with extensive intangible values and as outstanding examples of a continuous living/nourishing tradition and history. In this sense the architectural monuments themselves are a component of a wider cultural landscape pattern to which they are inextricably tied. Seeing the monuments without seeing their cultural context is akin to seeing leaves but not the tree. The paper is set within the framework of concepts of authenticity and the increasing interest in the cultural landscape concept in Asia. Underpinning the theme of the paper is the activity of reading the landscape with its sense of continuity and interrelationships between people, events and place through time, and transmitting this to visitors.

Keywords:

• Authenticity
• Cultural Landscape
• Cultural Context
• Intangible Values

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the referees and the editor of the International Journal of Heritage Studies for their constructive comments on this paper, UNESCO for the opportunity to present a version of it in Tokyo in June 2005 and also the Centre for Khmer Studies, Siem Reap, Cambodia, for including an earlier version in its January 2005 conference.

Notes

[1] Based on a paper entitled ‘Genius of the Place. [Re]Presenting Cultural Landscapes, World Heritage Listing, and Intangible Values. Making Spaces out of Places in Asia’, first presented at the Contemporary Research on Pre‐Angkor Cambodia conference, Centre for Khmer Studies, Siem Reap, 10–12 January 2005 and at the Conserving Cultural and Biological Diversity: The Role of Sacred Natural Sites and Cultural Landscapes UNESCO International Symposium, 30 May–2 June 2005, Tokyo, United Nations University.

[2] Jacques, ‘The Rise of Cultural Landscapes’, 91–101.

[3] Hoskins, The Making of the English Landscape, 14.

[4] See, for example, Lowenthal, ‘Past Time, Present Place’, 1–36; Lowenthal, ‘Age and Artifact’; Lewis, ‘Axioms for Reading the Landscape’; Meinig, The Interpretation of Ordinary Landscapes.

[5] For example Jackson, Discovering the Vernacular Landscape. J. B. Jackson was a prolific and elegant writer on the American vernacular scene.

[6] Cosgrove, Social Formation and Symbolic Landscape.

[7] See Jeans, Australian Historical Landscapes; Jeans and Spearritt, The Open Air Museum.

[8] Taylor, ‘From Physical Determinant to Cultural Construct’, 371–78.

[9] Sauer, ‘The Morphology of Landscape’, 19–53.

[10] Fowler, World Heritage Papers 6; UNESCO, World Heritage Papers 7: Cultural Landscapes.

[11] Lowenthal, The Heritage Crusade and the Spoils of History, 3.

[12] This figure increased in 2004 with the welcome inscription of Bam and its Cultural Landscape (Iran); Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape (Mongolia); and the Bamiyan Valley Cultural Landscape and Archaeological Remains (Afghanistan).

[13] ICOMOS, The World Heritage List: Filling the Gaps—An Action Plan for the Future. An Analysis by ICOMOS, February 2004. ICOMOS International eNews. Available from http://www.international.icomos.org/world_heritage/whlgaps.htm

[14] See, for example, Wei and Aas, ‘Heritage Conservation East and West’; Logan, The Disappearing ‘Asian’ City; Taylor, ‘Cultural Heritage Management’, 417–33; Sofield and Li, ‘Tourism Development and Cultural Policies in China’.

[15] The Nara Document on Authenticity, International ICOMOS, 1994. Available from http://www.international.icomos.org/nara_eng.htm

[16] Towards the Preparation of the Hoi An Protocols for Best Conservation Practice in Asia, UNESCO Bangkok 2003. Available from http://www.icomos.org/australia/downloads.htm

[17] See Taylor, ‘Cultural Heritage Management’, 417–33, for a brief review of these documents.

[18] China ICOMOS, Principles for the Conservation of Heritage Sites in China. Available from http://www.getty.edu/conservation. See also Taylor, ‘Cultural Heritage Management’.

[19] ICOMOS 15th General Assembly and Scientific Symposium, Xi’an, China, 17–21 October 2005. Available from http://www.icomos.org/

[20] Agnew et al., ‘A Good Master a Bad Servant’, November 2004.

[21] Sofield and Li, ‘Tourism Development and Cultural Policies in China’, 366.

[22] Winter, ‘Cultural Heritage and Tourism at Angkor, Cambodia’, 3–8.

[23] Anon., comment made by a performer in a Dublin Fringe Festival presentation, September 2003.

[24] Engelhardt, ‘Two Thousand Years of Engineering Genius on the Angkor Plain’, 18–26.

[25] Engelhardt, ‘Early Habitation on the Angkor Plain’, 27–29.

[26] Pottier, ‘Pre Angkor in Angkor’.

[27] Bender, Stonehenge, 26, quoted in Winter, ‘Cultural Heritage and Tourism at Angkor, Cambodia’.

[28] Miksic, Borobudur; Miksic, The Mysteries of Borobudur.

[29] One of the authors, K. Taylor, attended this meeting to speak on historical landscape planning.

[30] Mundardjito, ‘The Zoning System in the Borobudur Region’.

[31] From The Ratu Boko Inscription of ad 792, central Java, quoted in Soekmono et al., Borobudur.

[32] Johnstone, Borobudur.

[33] In 2003 two foreign tourists died in falls from a pagoda.