Research & Article

In the year 2000, UNESCO inaugurated the annual Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation to promote the conservation of the region’s built heritage. At the time of this article’s   publication, ten entries from Thailand had received awards. Among all winning entries emerged a growing consensus around a set of “first principles” that define international standard of conservation while reflecting the specificities of Asian practices. These “first principles are:

1. Collective mapping of cultural space, its hierarchies, symbolic language and associations is a prerequisite for appropriate and successful;
2. Tangible cultural expressions derive their origin, value and continuing significance from intangible cultural practices;
3. Authenticity is a culturally relative characteristic to be found in continuity, but no necessarily continuity, but not necessarily continuity material;
4. The conversation process succeeds when histories are revealed, traditions revived and meanings recovered in a palimpsest of knowledge;
5. Appropriate use of heritage is negotiated, resulting in a life-enhancing space.

In this article, the recipients of the Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation from Thailand are examined within the context of the principles each one exemplifies and the conservation lessons learned from the country’s work are discussed.