Book Review: Kapila D. Silva and Neel Kamal Chapagain (Eds), Asian Heritage Management: Contexts, Concerns, and Prospects

Abstract

makes a proper argument to rethink our way of dealing with heritage conservation in Asia. Using the basic elements of culture as a context for their central theme, Silva and Chapagain amass perspectives on heritage and contemporary management practices. Examples from Asia articulate growing concerns with the inappropriateness of using accepted universal management practices, rather than considering the traditional and local contexts of heritage, followed by a set of alternatives to replace the usual way of doing business. This volume provides a well-balanced argument to rethink heritage conservation based on local thinking, an argument that may serve an audience beyond those working in the conservation of Asian heritage. Heritage conservation under the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization/ the International Council on Monuments and Sites (UNESCO/ICOMOS) guidance has been entrenched in quantifiable scientific approaches. This was a proven objective manner to preserve monumental sites. However, it focuses on the notion that all sites have at the centre of their universality a specific artefact or monument. This adapts well for many of the earliest nominations to the list of World's Heritage sites, but due to the criteria established for nominations, heritage sites steeped in traditional conservation practices oriented to eastern philosophies and cultures, which often stand significantly on intangible (spiritual) attributes of culture, would fail to be listed for lack of authenticity and integrity. Asian Heritage Management offers a justification for a new viewpoint on how to define heritage and implement strategies for conservation. The book contains three parts: Contexts, Concerns and Prospects. The first part, Contexts, explains the philosophical differences between the European perspective and various Asian traditions of heritage. One critical aspect of 'Contexts' is that it does not oversimplify the traditions of 'Asia' as a single cultural ideal, but instead, it offers multiple perspectives of traditional thought and practices. If there is one similarity between each of the chapters, it is the underlying theme that heritage is a living entity, no matter the background or tradition it springs from, and thus, conservation is not a choice, but an attribute of community. Drawing from this perspective, the first part explores the concept of authentic heritage through the lens of tradition. Co-editor Chapagain, as author in Chapter 2-'Heritage conservation in the Buddhist context', uses the conceptualization of the cyclical birth-death-rebirth pathway to illustrate the idea that heritage can not only be considered in a linear fashion, but also be imagined as an evolving truth to behold. Therefore, as a tangible quality of heritage, we must too consider the building-deconstructionreconstruction of monuments as an evolving truth. Building on the viewpoints of Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam (including the variety of thought within each of these), 'Contexts' continues with specific examples of ...