PARTIE 2 - Icomos

Theme 2
Session 1
The Impacts of the Enhancing Value of Traditional
Architecture on Regional Development
communities nation-wide especially those in the Central
Region.
Conservation Process of Traditional Architecture
To carry out the Thailand Cultural Environment Project
(TCEP) 2003 – 2004, the project operators organized
various activities including monthly meetings
with representatives from the Amphawa Municipality,
the related government agencies and the locals to
identify problems, possibilities and needs of solving
the problems. In addition, we have jointly mapped
out the development vision of Amphawa Municipality
as follows:
Amphawa is a municipality of history, culture, arts
and eco-tourism which retains its unique water-based
community and its cultural heritage based on King
Bhumibol Adulyadej’s Sufficiency Economy Development
concept.’
The TCEP comprises such subprojects as awareness
raising project, survey of cultural heritage project and
demonstration project for architectural conservation
whose principle of 50% matching funds between the
DANIDA and the building owners is applied.
Most of the 350 buildings lining the Amphawa Canal
are wooden row-houses, vernacular houses, traditional
Thai houses and concrete row-houses, 17 of
which were received 50% financially support for restoration
by the TCEP during 2003-2004. In 2008, the
project was granted the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage
Awards. The committee praised that:
“The restoration of the traditional Amphawa Canal
Community has successfully achieved public-private
cooperation in the safeguarding of heritage structures
in Thailand. With co-funding from the local
government and Denmark, the project has benefited
from the active support of the local residents and
homeowners and the guidance of Chulalongkorn University.
The project has conserved numerous historic
buildings of local significance and retained the traditional
canal-side urban morphology, which is under
threat around the country. The project demonstrates
a recognition of the cultural significance of Amphawa
and an appreciation of both the architectural and
living heritage of the historic canal community”
From 2008 to 2010, more than 80 buildings were
renovated by their owners and have been used as
shops selling souvenirs and food and beverages as
well as home-stays. According to the 2010 survey,
out of 39 buildings in the Amphawa Municipality area
which are used as accommodation for tourists, 27
are home-stays and 12 are resorts and most of them
are in fruit orchards (Wilawan Phamornsuwan, 2010).
Before 2003, there was only one place for tourists to
stay in this province. The religious institutes such as
Amphawanjetiyaram Temple, Phrayayat Temple and
Phumarin Kudithong Temple are renovated and King
Rama II Memorial Park is also restored to serve tourism
purposes.
Since visitors would like to stay overnight here after
watching fireflies at night, the house owners have
adapted their houses to home-stays, accounting
for 70% of the accommodation for visitors available
in Amphawa. Furthermore, the local administrations
and the residents help promote this kind of
accommodation.
Heritage and Tourism Development
The management of the tourism in Amphawa stems
from the TCEP meetings. The residents agreed that
the Amphawa Floating Market should be revived
since it used to be the biggest market of the Mae
Klong River and the Amphawa community abounds
with fruit trees such as pomelo, lychee and coconut
and also aquatic and marine animals such as Mae
Klong mackerel. It can be concluded that this community
is equipped with raw and fresh materials to
be sold at lower prices. Moreover, the residents are
good at cooking. Thus, it is ideal to hold a floating
market selling food and fruit during weekends and
holidays. The residents paddle their boats laden
with food, fruits or flowers from their garden and
sell them to visitors. They carry only small amount
of what they are going to sell. This is a small business
and the residents are happy to do so. This is in line
with the Sufficiency Economy concept. This concept is
fundamental to empower and building resilience for
communities introduced by King Bhumibol Adulyadej
(Chaipattana Foundation, 2011).
The Amphawa Municipality together with the residents
organizes the Amphawa Floating Market, an afternoon
market while the Damneon Saduak Floating
Market in Ratchaburi Province is a morning market
which is internationally known. The afternoon market
provides some benefits that the vendors can have
time in the morning to prepare what they are going
to sell in the afternoon. Since there are many rivers
and canals meet in the Amphawa areas, visitors can
take a boat trip to go sightseeing, pay respect to the
Lord Buddha image at many temples along the water
network, visit orchards and watch fireflies which can
be seen from the rainy season to winter.
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LE PATRIMOINE, MOTEUR DE DÉVELOPPEMENT
HERITAGE, DRIVER OF DEVELOPMENT