ngkor, the temple and palace complex of the ancient Khmer capital in Cambo- 2 Adia is one of the world’s most famous monuments. Hundreds of thousands of tourists from all over the globe visit Angkor Park, one of the finest UNESCO World Heritage Sites, every year. Since its UNESCO listing in 1992, the Angkor region has experienced an overwhelming mushrooming of hotels and restaurants; the infrastructure has been hardly able to cope with the rapid growth of mass tou- rism and its needs. This applies to the access and use of monument sites as well. The authors of this book critically describe and analyse the heritage nominati- on processes in Cambodia, especially in the case of Angkor and the temple of Preah Vihear on the Cambodian/Thai border. They examine the implications the World Heritage UNESCO listings have had with regard to the management of Angkor Park and Angkor and Beyond its inhabitants on the one hand, and to the Cambodian/Thai relationships on the other. Furthermore, they address issues of development through tourism that UNESCO has recognised as a welcome side-effect of heritage listings. They raise the question whether development through tourism deepens already existing Circumstances and inequalities rather than contributing to the promotion of the poor. Implications of UNESCO Listings in Cambodia Brigitta Hauser-Schäublin (ed.) Göttingen Studies in Cultural Property, Volume 2 World Heritage Angkor and Beyond Brigitta Hauser-Schäublin (ed.) BrigittaHauser-Schäublin ISBN: 978-3-86395-032-3 ISSN: 2190-8672 Universitätsverlag Göttingen Universitätsverlag Göttingen Brigitta Hauser-Schäublin (ed.) WORLD HERITAGE ANGKOR AND BEYOND. Circumstances and Implications of UNESCO Listings in Cambodia. The temple of Angkor Wat, the icon of Angkor Park, is photographed by thousands of tourists every day (2011). Brigitta Hauser-Schäublin (ed.) World Heritage Angkor and Beyond This work is licensed under the Creative Commons License 3.0 “by-nd”, allowing you to download, distribute and print the document in a few copies for private or educational use, given that the document stays unchanged and the creator is mentioned. You are not allowed to sell copies of the free version. Published in 2011 by Universitätsverlag Göttingen as volume 2 in the series “Göttingen Studies in Cultural Property” World Heritage Angkor and Beyond Circumstances and Implications of UNESCO Listings in Cambodia Edited by Brigitta Hauser-Schäublin of alications of UNESCO Listingircustances and Implications of UNESCO istings in Cambodia Göttingen Studies in Cultural Property, Volume 2 Universitätsverlag Göttingen 2011 Bibliographische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliographie; detaillierte bibliographische Daten sind im Internet über <http://dnb.ddb.de> abrufbar. Printed with funding from the DFG Address of the Editor Brigitta Hauser-Schäublin Georg-August-Universität Göttingen Institut für Ethnologie Theaterplatz 15 37073 Göttingen email: [email protected] This work is protected by German Intellectual Property Right Law. It is also available as an Open Access version through the publisher’s homepage and the Online Catalogue of the State and University Library of Goettingen (http://www.sub.uni-goettingen.de). Users of the free online version are invited to read, download and distribute it. Users may also print a small number for educational or private use. However they may not sell print versions of the online book. Set and layout: Friedolin Krentel, Meike Rieger Cover: Margo Bargheer, Stefan Groth Frontispiece: Brigitta Hauser-Schäublin English proofreading: Philip Saunders © 2011 Universitätsverlag Göttingen http://univerlag.uni-goettingen.de ISBN: 978-3-86395-032-3 ISSN: 2190-8672 „Göttinger Studien zu Cultural Property“ / “Göttingen Studies in Cultural Property” Reihenherausgeber Regina Bendix Kilian Bizer Brigitta Hauser-Schäublin Gerald Spindler Peter-Tobias Stoll Editorial Board Andreas Busch, Göttingen Rosemary Coombe, Toronto Ejan Mackaay, Montreal Dorothy Noyes, Columbus Achim Spiller, Göttingen Bernhard Tschofen, Tübingen Homepage http://gscp.cultural-property.org Content Foreword .......................................................................................................................... 1 I. Nominations and their Histories World Heritage Making in Angkor. Global, Regional, National and Local Actors, Interplays and Implications .......................................................................... 9 Keiko Miura Preah Vihear. From Object of Colonial Desire to a Contested World Heritage Site .............................................................................................................. 33 Brigitta Hauser-Schäublin A Legal View of the Case of the Temple Preah Vihear ...................................... 57 Sven Mißling A Cambodian “Leitkultur”? Cambodian Concepts of Art and Culture ........... 69 Aditya Eggert II. Implementation and Management From Property to Heritage. Different Notions, Rules of Ownership and Practices of New and Old Actors in the Angkor World Heritage Site ............. 97 Keiko Miura Sustainable Development in Angkor. Conservation Regime of the Old Villagescape and Development .............................................................................121 Keiko Miura III. Heritage and Development Angkor as World Heritage Site and the Development of Tourism. A Study of Tourist Revenue in the Accommodation Sector in Siem Reap-Angkor ...........................................................................................................147 Baromey Neth New Chances for Local Farmers and Artisans? Efforts and Strategies to Change the Existing Structures of Tourism Supply in Siem Reap ..................177 Brigitta Hauser-Schäublin List of Speakers and Interview Partners ..............................................................203 Photo Credits ..........................................................................................................203 References ................................................................................................................205 Foreword Brigitta Hauser-Schäublin This publication is the result of three years of research carried out as part of the Göttingen interdisciplinary DFG-research group on “The constitution of ‘cultural property’; actors, discourses, contexts, and rules” (FOR 772) in Cambodia between 2008 and 2011. The title of the project was “Processes of constituting a ‘World Heritage’ and its meanings by the example of Angkor, Cambodia”. The research took the transformation of culture that takes place when it is turned into property, and especially into “heritage”, as a starting point (see, for example, Brown 2003, 2004). Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, as one of the pioneers of heritage studies, convincingly showed already in 1998 that heritage is a new mode of cultural production in the present that takes recourse to the past. Heritage is a value-added industry. Heritage produces the local for export […] Heritage tests the alienability of inalienable possessions. (Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 1998:149) 2 Brigitta Hauser-Schäublin Thus, the “heritage industry” produces something new that still may be, in the material sense, the same as before, but it receives a number of new aspects and meanings – and new owners, namely – in the case of World Heritage Sites – the state and, in a metaphorical way, “humanity”. Such processes touch a delicate field when they are applied to sacred sites, such as temples with their statues, and places of worship of which local people (particularly ritual specialists) had been previously in charge. Such a site becomes transformed into a public space visited by (paying) tourists from all over the world in a similar way to a museum. Thus, the sacredness of the space which determined its former use becomes superseded by a profanity that underlines the economical dimension of such newly created “cultural products”. The same counts for living cultural practices if they are reproduced by state parties in the process of making them intangible heritage – a concept that is afflicted with Western standards and principles – to make them ready for tourist consumption on the basis of the state’s norms and ideals. The relationship between local people, the new owners (the state) and the international tourism business and their corresponding practices and goals becomes a hierarchical relationship which puts the local population at the bottom of this power relationship (see, for example, Miura 2004; Hitchcock, King and Parnwell 2010; Winter 2010; Starr 2010). As is well known, Angkor, which has been listed as a World Heritage Site since 1992, was the capital of the legendary Khmer empire (9th – 15th centuries), and many sites throughout Cambodia and Thailand are related (though probably to different degrees and during different periods) to this one. One of these faraway temples related to Angkor in style and also socially and politically during a particular period is Preah Vihear, situated on the Cambodian/Thai border. Preah Vihear was listed as a World Heritage Site in 2008. Angkor has been a symbol of national identity for a long time and the temple of Angkor Wat is the emblem of the Kingdom of Cambodia. The inscription of Angkor – today called Angkor Park – on UNESCO’s prestigious list of World Heritage has highlighted and consolidated the association of today’s nation state with the glorious past of the Khmer 1000 years ago. Thus,