Conférence de Pijika Pumketkao‐Lecourt : “Local Heritage Making in Thailand: Circulation, Adoption and Translation” – IIAS (Leiden, Pays-Bas) – 14 mars 2019
Accédez à l’annonce : Conférence de Pijika Pumketkao
Lieu : IIAS Conference Room, Rapenburg 59, Leiden, Netherlands
Date : 14 mars 2019, 12h30-14h
Extrait du site : UKNA Lunch Lecture by Dr Pijika Pumketkao‐Lecourt, IPRAUS – Institut Parisien de Recherche Architecture Urbanistique Société , Paris France.
National heritage
In Thailand, heritage terminology emerged in the mid-19th
century through the discourses and practices of Siamese elites in
relation to the construction of cultural identity in support of
nation-building projects. The monuments and sites registered as “ancient
monuments” (boransathan) had been used to illustrate the
hegemonic national narrative that articulated the dominance of Siam over
other principalities located in the various regions that were
incorporated into Siam’s national territory at the turn of the 20th century. Moreover, the majority of national heritage relates to Theravada Buddhism, such as stupa (chedi),
places where political leaders and local populations worship Buddha. In
this context, religious buildings were reassessed and became the
identity and boundary markers of the Thai nation. During the 1960s and
1980s, the central gouvernment founded the authorised restoration
approach, which concerns in particular the secularization of heritage
discourse and practices. In so doing, the intangible dimension, such as
the phalang saksit (sacred power) of edifice, is excluded and replaced by scientific approach and knowledge.
‘Community heritage
Since the 1990s, the sense of
cultural heritage has been renewed in favour of the increasing power of
citizen actions and participation. Civil associations for the defence
of cultural heritage identify and promote ‘community heritage’ (moradok chumchon),
aimed at defending points of view that differ from the stance taken by
national institutions. In this perspective, the valued object is used as
a cultural resource for forging local “community” identities (chumchon),
for incorporating them into heritage and urban management so that they
can survive rapid social and urban transformations. These associations
bring customary practices and local value systems to the fore and
reconstruct local urban history, which have until now been neglected at
the expense of a focus on a national vision of heritage. In this way,
the intangible dimension refers back to the meaning of heritage, with a
new status that concerns not only the symbolic dimension, but also local
construction techniques and the social relationship between local
people and the sacred edifice. This marks a turning point in the way of
considering cultural heritage and of shaping the conservation project in
Thailand.
PhD thesis
My thesis explored the evolution of
the notion of heritage at the crossroads of local and international
concepts and approaches, from national monument to local community
heritage. It examined the role of ‘community heritage’ and citizen
participation in the construction of the field of heritage in Thailand
from 1990 to 2014, a period of transition of power from centralist State
policies to the principle of decentralization of heritage management.
It focused on citizen involvement in Chiang Mai, capital of the northern
region, which provides an informative study site due to there being
strong local dynamics and involvement in the conservation process.
This research is related to the academic field of critical heritage studies, aimed to deconstruct hegemonic discourses of state institutions and international organizations such as UNESCO and to demonstrate the plurality of practices and significance associated with heritage. It exposed the gap and contradiction between the perception of inhabitants and the approach of experts, through the controversies surrounding flagship conservation projects in the northern region, run by State agents and the Little People in Conservation civil association (LPC).
My study hypothesised that these controversies were the perfect moment for dialogue and negotiation, enabling the hybridization of diverse visions and referents and allowing heritage notions and practices to evolve. To defend this hypothesis, I set up a two-fold analysis of conservation projects and vocabulary relating to these projects by combining architectural, historical and socio-anthropological approaches. The projects were investigated through the conflict situation, considered as ‘Third space’ (Bhabha, 2006) for their potential for innovating and renewing heritage practices. In parallel, I focused on the vocabulary and discourse that emerged from the LPC association’s translation and reinterpretation of international concepts such as “tangible and intangible cultural heritage”, through their project to restore the Pongsanuk monastery. I considered this hybrid discourse to be simultaneously an indicator of a new notion of heritage and as an indicator of difference between local worldview and Western concepts or the “untranslatables of heritage” (Cassin and Wosny, 2016). This in-depth analysis allowed me to reveal that the complexity of the field of heritage cannot be reduced to a simple distinction between endogenous logics and external influences; it involves the local adoption, assemblage and adjustment of international concepts and apparatus that generate the hybrid discourses and practices adapted to a specific cultural context.
Dr Pijika Pumketkao‐Lecourt is an architect specialized in heritage conservation. She received her Ph.D in architecture from the University of Paris-Est (France) in January 2019. Her research interest is the circulation of international heritage concepts and apparatus and their adoption, translation, reinterpretation, assemblage by local civil societies in Asia. Her Ph.D proposed a twofold analysis of conservation projects and vocabulary relating to these projects by combining architectural, historical and socio-anthropological approaches and focused on citizen engagement in the conservation process in Chiang Mai (Thailand).
She has been conducting fieldwork in Chiang Mai for more than seven years, during which time she coordinated the collective research programme entitled “Words of Heritage in Urban and Architectural Projects in Indonesia and Thailand: Circulation, reception, creation (Patrimot)“.
She teaches the Master’s degree architectural studio at Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris-Belleville (France) and organises each year the intensive architectural workshop exchange in partnership with Chiang Mai University and Chulalongkorn University (Thailand).
She is currently also working with the (IIAS) Southeast Asia Neighborhoods Network programme (SEANNET) as an International Principal Investigator for case study 2: Wua Lai neighbourhood (Chiang Mai, Thailand).
OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
Pascal Fort (6 mars 2019). Conférence de Pijika Pumketkao‐Lecourt : “Local Heritage Making in Thailand: Circulation, Adoption and Translation” – IIAS (Leiden, Pays-Bas) – 14 mars 2019. Carnet de veille UMR AUSser. Consulté le 11 février 2025 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/v05l