Publicomos

Réf.

41379

Type

conference item

Titre

The impact of tourism on the monks of Luang Prabang

Langues

English

Auteurs

Suntikul, Wantanee

Date

2008

Pages

14 p.

Titre de conférence

16th ICOMOS General Assembly and International Symposium: ‘Finding the spirit of place – between the tangible and the intangible’

Lieu de conférence

Quebec, Canada

Date de conférence

29 sept – 4 oct 2008

Mots-clés

tourism / tourists / World Heritage List / spirit of place / intangible heritage / Buddhism / cultural tourism / tourism impact / religions

Pays mentionnés

Lao People's Democratic Republic

Monuments et sites

Town of Luang Prabang, Lao PDR

N° Patrimoine mondial

479

Résumé en anglais

The attractiveness of Luang Prabang’s temples for both heritage and religious tourists reflects their profound embodiment of the spirit of the place, yet tourism can also be seen as a threat to this very spirit. Exposure to tourism and social contact with tourists is influencing thevalues and aspirations of the city’s many monks, as evinced by trends such as monks schewing the study of traditional skills in favour of foreign languages to help them enter the tourism industry. This paper explores the effects that contact with tourists has on the values and practices of the monks of Luang Prabang and, in turn, how these changes have affected the spirit of the place. It is based on on-site observation, surveys of monks and tourists, as well as elite interviews with religious leaders.

Document joint

77-9ytg-102.pdf

Licence

Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (BY-NC-ND)