Conserving Cultural Built Heritage in South and Southeast Asia

The societies of South and Southeast Asia and their§cultural built heritage have their roots in the§cultural traditions of the sub-continent having§developed relatively independently, arguably since§the enlightenment, to those in Europe. The cultural§"paradigm" of conservation of the cultural built§heritage, which has become the universal approach, is§based on Euro-centric philosophical and cultural§traditions and is evident by its rationalist,§materialistic empiricist approach. However, the§historic approach in the Asian region has relied more§on a concern for the spiritual aspects of a monument,§intangible values, and its relationship to landscape§and site. In this situation rebuilding is often more§readily acceptable. There have been some concessions§toward these differences in such documents as the§Nara Document on Authenticity (ICOMOS 1994) and the§Hoi An (UNESCO 2005), but still within the§Western/Euro-centric milieu. An alternative paradigm§for interpreting the non-secular built heritage in§South and Southeast Asia supported by Buddhist§philosophy and systems theory is developed in this work.