Bhadravarna Bongsasilp
Office of Archaeology, Fine Arts Department, Ministry of Culture, Thailand
Bangkok is a diverse and living city with a complex cultural heritage structured around its religious past that attracts domestic and international tourists as a place of leisure. As with other rapidly developing and dynamic urban centres around the world, the heritage fabric of the city is being impacted by the wider pressures active in the city. Religious heritage is undergoing a series of changes in value, form and function. These changes are reflected in shifting relationships between places of religious heritage and the surrounding communities and their ways of life in modern society.
This research examines the changing dynamics and uses of religious heritage in Bangkok for leisure purposes from a variety of religious and non-religious practices by using multiple methods. This research highlights the social hierarchies of religious heritage places, including royal monasteries, civic monasteries and shrines and the roles of various stakeholders – site managers, policy makers and local communities – play in the religious heritage debate in Bangkok.
This paper is based on my PhD research on the Religious Heritage of Bangkok: Uses and Survivals in Urban Context, which focuses on trying to understand the ways religious heritage is being changed through the activities and different groups of people operating under the urban changes.
(Presented in the conference : 2017 Chulalongkorn Asian Heritage Forum : Culture of Leisure – Balance of Life, 7-8 August 2017, Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand)