1 Cultural Resilience in Asia
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Cultural Resilience in Asia: A Comparative Study of Heritage Conservation in Lijiang and Bagan Chiao-Yen Yang A dissertation submitted in a partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2014 Reading Committee: Robert Mugerauer, Chair Stevan Harrell Jeffrey Hou Manish Chalana Program Authorized to Offer Degree: College of Built Environments 1 © Copyright 2014 Chiao-Yen Yang 2 Cultural Resilience in Asia: A Comparative Study of Heritage Conservation in Lijiang and Bagan Abstract The practices of historic preservation have long been highly influenced by the UNESCO’s international guidelines that classify the significance of local living heritage into tangible and intangible categories. This approach has separated local physical and cultural systems and triggered a fast transformation (regime shift) in the local cultural material systems from a healthy state to a degraded or decoupled state. This research tries to compare the recent institutionalized historical preservation practices and existing local mechanisms in heritage conservation in Lijiang, China and Bagan, Burma. Through a framework of cultural resilience, it examines the cultural states of local physical and cultural systems. Specifically, the analysis focuses on: (1) the impact of institutional preservation policies on local cultural practices, (2) vulnerability in the relationships between heritage and communities due to physical transformation and how communities adapt to such changes, (3) governmental interventions that trigger a tipping point of major changes between heritage and society, (4) how key concepts of preservation such as authenticity and integrity can be redefined through perspectives at the local level, and (5) how understanding in the adaptation of local cultural practices and resilience can contribute to new practices in historic preservation in Asia and reflections on the practices of UNESCO and other international organizations. From the perspective of cultural resilience, Lijiang as a UNESCO World Heritage Site that follows international guideline on historic preservation is in a degraded to decoupled cultural state. In comparison, the heritage sites in Bagan as a non-World Heritage Site despite government 3 interventions are in a healthy to degraded cultural state with some continuity of local cultural practices. This research suggests that a paradigm shift from institutional preservation discourses to a cultural resilience approach is needed in heritage conservation in Asia. Specifically, the new approach needs to re-establish and protect the connections between built environment and local cultural practices, respect traditional local practices, account for local adaptation to changes, and enable democratic participation of local communities in preservation policies and practices. 4 Table of Contents Chapter 1. Introduction: Issues of Asian Heritage Conservation ....................................... 8 1.1 Introduction: Research Context and Questions................................................................ 8 1.2 Challenge of Asian Communities in Heritage Conservation ......................................... 10 1.3 History of Western Preservation Discourses ................................................................. 12 1.4 Challenges facing UNESCO Discourses and Practices ................................................. 23 1.5 Resilience in the Built Environment .............................................................................. 28 Chapter 2. Methodology, Literature Review and Theoretical Framework .................... 31 2.1 Introduction: Research Framework................................................................................ 31 2.2 Resilience: Engineering resilience, Social-ecological Resilience, Panarchy and Adaptive Management ......................................................................................................... 35 2.3 Application of Resilience in Built Environment and Other Fields ................................ 43 2.4 Cultural States: the Definition and Implications of Living Heritage in the Case of Lijiang and Bagan ................................................................................................................ 44 2.5 Fieldwork and Selection of Case-Study Sites ................................................................ 48 Chapter 3. Cultural Resilience in the World Heritage Site of Lijiang, China ................. 59 3.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 59 3.2. History of Lijiang Old Towns ....................................................................................... 59 3.3 Background of Preserving the Dayan Old Town ........................................................... 70 3.4. Cultural State and Spatial Transformation in Dayan Old Town: 1986 to 2013............ 71 3.5 Cultural Resilience in a Small Tourist Town: the Shuhe Old Town ........................... 107 3.6 Economic Development and Cultural Resilience in the Baisha Old Town ................. 126 3.7 Lessons from the Lijiang Old Towns........................................................................... 146 Chapter 4. Cultural Resilience in Bagan, Burma ............................................................. 146 4.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 146 4.2 Background .................................................................................................................. 147 4.3 Cultural Resilience of Temples Located in Big City: the Shwezigon Temple ............ 182 4.4 Cultural Resilience in a Small village: the Manuha Temple ....................................... 197 4.5 Cultural Resilience of A Monument in the Preservation Zone: the Bupaya Temple .. 215 4.6 Lessons of the Bagan Archaeological Site ................................................................... 231 Chapter 5. Resilience of Local Cultural-Material Systems .............................................. 232 5.1 Introduction to the Framework of Cultural and Built Environmental Resilience ........ 232 5.2 Factors of Resilience in Lijiang and Bagan ................................................................. 232 5.3 Analysis of Cultural States: Lessons from the Field .................................................... 236 5.4 Analysis of Resilience in Lijiang and Bagan ............................................................... 237 5.4 Feedback Loop between Built Environments and Cultural Practices .......................... 249 5.5 Discussion .................................................................................................................... 261 Chapter 6. Cultural Resilience: Towards a Theoretical Framework for the Conservation of Living Heritage in Asia ........................................................................... 264 6.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................. 264 6.2 Relationship between Changes in Built Environments and Cultural Practice ............. 267 6.3 Mechanisms for Cultural Resilience of Living Heritage in Asia ................................. 270 6.4 Preferred model of resilience building: managing panarchy in different heritage sites ............................................................................................................................................ 274 6.5 Cultural Resilience in Historical Preservation: Managing Adaptations ...................... 276 6.6 Conclusion: Managing Pattern of Adaptation in a Traditional Way ........................... 279 5 Acknowledgment I want to thank Buddha for blessing me while I was in confusing and struggling moments, for always guiding me to meet great people in my life, and for being like as a parent to me. Da- Du~ I also want to express my deep appreciation to my advisor Dr. Bob who always put me in the first priority, and Bob’s encouragements always worked! My great appreciation also goes to my committee members Steve, Jeff and Manish. Many thanks to your inspiring guidance, and for working so hard and sharing your rich knowledge to make my work become more integrated. This dissertation would not have been finished without my family’s support. I want to give a special thanks to my mother who worked so hard on checking all Burmese materials and those nights of discussion at the messy table in my home. Mom, now we can try to clean up the table. I want to thank Mr. Kyaw Htin’s help for me to understand Theravada Buddhist traditions and explaining Sutras regarding religious landscapes in Burma. I also want to give my special thanks to SRI Foundation and Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Exchange of funding supports. I am grateful to Li, Mu, and He family members in Lijiang for taking care of me like a daughter (and grand daughter), by providing delicious foods every day, taking good care of me while I was sick in the hospital, and teaching me the local language which was very helpful for me in doing my research. I also want to thank the scholars who were generous with their time to discuss with me and provide me with unlimited information for my fieldwork. Special thanks to grandpa Li who led me to visit Dongba, explained local traditional ceremonies to me, and accompany me to do many interesting interviews in the far mountain settlements.