ABSTRACT
Critique of the current conservation practice which is based on a typically western conservation ethic enshrined in the ICAHM Charter (International Committee on Archaeological Heritage Management) of 1990 and the Venice Charter of 1966. Finds that it cuts across Thai local religious practice. Explains this by exploring the place of the stūpa in Thai Buddhism: the way in which stūpas tend to be elaborated and enlarged over time by encasing the older fabric in a new shell; the practice of ‘looting’ the amulets and valuables in old stūpas, which are still thought to be animated by sacred power; and the ‘over-restoration’ of Sukhothai, which did not result from the state’s ignorance of international conservation conventions, but from a systematic pursuance of its own agenda to establish a link between its own rule and the benevolent kingship of Ramkhamhaeng. [mk]
1107 Itthithepsan Kritdakom Rèūxng kèīyw kab slhdpatykrrm / M.C. Xiththithephsrrkh* Kvdākr. Bangkok : The Siam Architecture Association Under the Royal Patronage, 1996. 159 p. ISBN 974-89410-8-6.
