Ancient Monumental Sites in Southeast Asia Targeted for Restoration and Development

Archaeological and cultural heritage sites of Myanmar emerge as a new focus for restoration and economic development
Most people are familiar with the magnificent ancient temples and palaces of Cambodia's Angkor Wat. They are among the world's most popular tourist destinations when it comes to archaeological sites. But comparatively fewer people are aware of the equally rich archaeological and cultural treasures that grace the landscape of a nearby country -- Myanmar -- a country which, though rich in cultural resources, is among the poorest of the poor in Southeast Asia. About 90 percent of Burma’s population live at or below the poverty line, with GDP per capita the lowest in the region.
Conservationists and other stakeholders hope to change this by adopting new strategies to address the conservation and development of one of the country's chief resources -- its cultural heritage. Recently, for example, the Government of Italy made a donation of 400,000 euros (part of a 800,000 euro two-year commitment) toward a 12-month project aimed at raising awareness and technical capacity for restoring and managing its heritage sites, reflecting the country’s improved political climate, an encouraging sign for the future of its cultural heritage sector. Initiatives like these are critical for a country, like many other developing countries, that must depend heavily on tourism to bolster its economy.
Particular focus has been directed at Bagan, an ancient Buddhist city that reached its zenith in about the 11th- and 12th centuries, featuring more than 2,200 temples and pagodas over a 26-square-mile area along the eastern bank of the Irrawaddy River. But natural disasters, looting, and improper restoration have threatened Bagan. Conservationists are on the move to address these concerns. Elizabeth Howard Moore, an archaeologist and art historian at the University of London, is hopeful that Bagan will some day be inscribed to the UNESCO World Heritage List, making it Myanmar’s first site with such status. Changing times have also marked a turning point in the willingness of the country's political leadership to facilitate such efforts.
“This was not happening 10 years ago,” Dr. Moore told The New York Times. “The lifting of sanctions has not only brought renewed cultural awareness at a national level, but increased funding for business has started to encourage more and varied support for cultural and educational programs.”
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The temples of Bagan. Bagan's ancient prosperity built over 10,000 temples between the 11th and 13th centuries. Corto Maltese 1999, Wikimedia Commons

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Also new to the efforts is an emphasis on more sustainable tourism and direct poverty alleviation. In part for that purpose, a satellite network is watching over Myanmar's most important archaeological sites. Developed by the Global Heritage Fund (GHF), it is part of the world’s first early warning and threat monitoring system for important cultural heritage and archaeological sites throughout the developing world. The network applies Google Earth and satellite imagery from DigitalGlobe to assist experts and local communities in monitoring heritage sites that are vulnerable to threats such as over-development, poor management and looting.
“GHN today is monitoring six sites in Burma, including Bagan and three Pyu Kingdom sites," says Jeff Morgan, the executive director of GHF. 
“We expect the opening of Burma [Myanmar] to enable better international expertise to be implemented in heritage conservation and responsible development."
Linking heritage to poverty alleviation is a relatively new development. Organizations like the GHF have taken the lead in implementing programs designed to realize sustainable cultural heritage development that directly benefits local communities over the long term. The GHF has applied an integrated conservation and development methodology, called Preservation by Design, a framework that combines long-range planning, conservation science, community engagement and monitoring and evaluation with a partner-driven conservation strategy to increase the prospects for long-term successful and sustainable conservation efforts, effectively training and engaging people within the local communities to manage and work the sites.
John Sanday, GHF’s regional director for Asia and the Pacific, has seen significant positive results from this strategy and advances it as a vision for application throughout the region.
“All over Asia I do see alleviation of poverty because we are providing training and developing skills, and hopefully that provides a long-term income for these people,” says Sanday. “Because of modernization, crafts have been forgotten and there’s a great risk of this younger generation missing out altogether on the handover of particular skills their fathers had, so I would say cultural programmes or conservation projects are incredibly beneficial—and I’m talking at the level of the local people themselves." He adds: “When I started working in Cambodia, many locals came to work by foot. A couple of years later they turned up on bicycles and by the end of my stint after 10 years working on this one particular project they were all turning up on motor scooters. If that’s not an indication of poverty alleviation I can’t say what is."
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Bagan at sunset. Gordon Johnstone, Wikimedia Commons

http://popular-archaeology.com/issue/june-2012/article/ancient-monumental-sites-in-southeast-asia-targeted-for-restoration-and-development