Cultural Landscapes in Asia‐Pacific: Potential for Filling World Heritage Gaps1

World Heritage listing and public presentation for tourism at Asian sites like Angkor has tended to focus on architectural ensembles, notwithstanding archaeological research involving wider aspects of landscape setting. Taking Angkor, Borobudur and Bagan as examples, this paper proposes a critical review of the concept of such heritage places and their interpretation under the wider concept of cultural landscapes replete with extensive intangible values and as outstanding examples of a continuous living/nourishing tradition and history. In this sense the architectural monuments themselves are a component of a wider cultural landscape pattern to which they are inextricably tied. Seeing the monuments without seeing their cultural context is akin to seeing leaves but not the tree. The paper is set within the framework of concepts of authenticity and the increasing interest in the cultural landscape concept in Asia. Underpinning the theme of the paper is the activity of reading the landscape with its sense of continuity and interrelationships between people, events and place through time, and transmitting this to visitors.