Cultural Heritage Management: Conserving the cultural heritage values of the Borobudur Temple

Abstract

The Borobudur Temple, Java, Indonesia, is a culturally significant place and is identified as a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is a sacred Buddhist temple, being used by the Buddhists for daily religious activities, and is a pilgrimage destination. The Temple has been opened to the public and has become one of the most famous tourist attractions in Indonesia. Opening up a heritage site for tourism can create tensions between different users (tourists, local vendors, Buddhists) and how the temple is being used. High visitor numbers can have negative effects around the Temple due to intense social interactions, which led to reducing the visitors' experience due to overcrowding. In addition, high visitor numbers led to potential vandalism by irresponsible visitors, which all lead to reducing the heritage value of the Temple. Despite the threats from visitors to the physical structure of the Temple, visitors also play an important part in increasing the local’s and national economy through tourism in the Borobudur Temple and directly affecting the livelihood of the local vendors by buying their products. Through substantial archival research, interviews with several local residents (government and vendors), heritage managers (TWC and the Borobudur Conservation), visitors who visited the temple, and field observation, this thesis identifies and discusses the potential threats to the cultural heritage values of the temple from tourism. This thesis shows that the main threat to the Temple is the high number of visitors. This thesis argues that visiting the temple should be as tours only to minimise the physical damage to the Temple structure as well as maintaining the profit from tourism. The tours should also include visiting the villages in the Borobudur area. This thesis finds that the three different groups of participants have different perspectives towards the Temple. The Borobudur Conservation sees it as a culturally significant site that needs to be preserved, the TWC sees it as an important asset for tourism in Indonesia, the locals see it as a communal pride and regional icons, as well as a support for their welfare. The Temple is managed with three different zonal system Zone 1 – managed by Borobudur Conservation; Zone 2 – managed by TWC; Zone 3 – managed by the local government, and each of them has their responsibilities. However, the three agencies lack in communication and resulting in tensions between them. This thesis concludes that there are four aspects of creating ideal heritage tourism in the Borobudur Temple. First, the management of tourism in the Borobudur area should be sustainably managed by optimising the use of environmental (human and natural) resources to help conserve the area as well as to ensure long-term benefits for locals and managing authorities. Second, the locals should actively engage and participate in the management of the Temple to increase the cultural values of the Borobudur Temple Complex. Third, the management structure should allow a multi-disciplinary approach to address tensions between the three agencies. Fourth, the tourism activities should focus on increasing the visitors’ experience and making the Borobudur area as cultural tourism. Furthermore, the government is targeting 2 million visitors to the Borobudur Temple complex every year, and this thesis argues that it is not ideal for such a target if tourism is still focused on the Temple itself.