Who owns the past? A perspective from Chiang Saen, Thailand, Sawang Letrit

• Chiang Saen is an early Buddhist community in northern Thailand, dating from the fourteenth century
• It is regarded as an important historic site and therefore, as deserving of preservation and protection
• A preservation plan for this ancient town, proposed by the Thai Fine Arts Department, has been in operation since 1957
• Forty years of attempts to develop this site have seen profound differences in attitude between local people and government archaeologists and technicians
• Problems such as looting, damage to and deterioration of the ruins, and site encroachment have hampered heritage management in the area
• Research on the management of the site was conducted in summer 1996 and winter 1997, revealing a number of reasons why this well-intentioned preservation project has met difficulties
• The problems encountered revolve around the question: Who owns the past?
• Government officials conducting CRM work at the site often blame local people for not cooperating with an 'official government project', and for failing to understand the informational value of the site
• Local people take a different view: they understand that the site and/or archaeological remains found there belong to the government, so they believe it is the government's responsibility to take care of them
• They do not feel a sense of ownership for the cultural property
• Interviews with local people suggest that public education and interpretation must be taken seriously
• Local people are ready and willing to help if they feel they have a stake in the CRM programme. Any possible cooperation and assistance from the residents lies in the government's ability to answer the question of ownership of the past in a way that includes local people
• Chiang Saen is an early Buddhist community in northern Thailand
• It is situated on a flood plain on the Mekhong River
• Archaeological evidence suggests that Chiang Saen was probably first settled in the fourteenth century, and has been continuously occupied until the present day
• The archaeological remains of the fourteenth century are characterized by tiered palace-shaped pagodas built on a square foundation, as found at Wat Pa Sak
• During this period the earthen city walls were built, the moats were dug and locally made glazed and unglazed ware of various shapes were found in association with Chinese Yuan dynasty ceramics
• The richness of the archaeological record has motivated the preservation of the site, as it is considered to have informational and economic value
• However, cooperation between the local residents who are currently living in the site and the government officials who are conducting the cultural resource management (CRM) work at the site has at times proven difficult
• Although parts of the Chiang Saen have been registered as national monuments since 1935, the first attempt to preserve the ancient town was a plan implemented in 1957
• At that time, Chiang Saen was changing its status from a subdistrict to a district of Chiang Rai province
• The Thai government of Field-Marshal Pibulsonggram ordered the Ministry of the Interior to call meetings and asked a number of representatives from various organizations to attend
• The Fine Arts Department (FAD), one of the organizations attending the meetings, was assigned to carry out a preservation and restoration project as part of the development work
• Another reason that the government wanted to carry out the preservation and restoration of this site was that the work would mark the 2500th anniversary of the birth of Buddhism
• Chaiseno noted that three test excavations conducted in 1970 near three temples (Wat Chedi Luang, Wat Phra Chao Lan Thiong and Wat Pong Sa Nuk) suggested that the ancient town of Chiang Saen postdates the fourteenth century
• It was not until the 1980s that Chiang Saen received attention again
• From the perspective of government administrators and other non-residents, Chiang Saen is a small district under the central administration of the province of Chiang Rai; it comprises six subdistricts covering 56 villages within an area of 442km2
• The whole district has an estimated population of 53,740, most of whom are Buddhists, although there are also a number of different hilltribes and minority groups, including Hmong, Yao, E-Kor, Ho (former national Chinese soldiers) and Burmese migrants
• The ancient and modern towns of Chiang Saen are Buddhist
• In the Chiang Saen district generally, about 85% of the inhabitants are farmers
• The main occupations are rice growing and cash crop farming: the important cash crops include corn, tobacco, cabbages, cassavas, mangoes, peanuts, and lynchees
• Examined more closely, the town of Chiang Saen combines two different images: both a modern city absorbing new waves of population of various origins and an old village inhabited by people with a simple way of life and long-established traditions passed down from their ancestors
• From another perspective, Chiang Saen is perceived by local residents and by northern Thais, as representing the first kingdom of Lanna-a cultural area in northern Thailand
• Since the reign of King Rama IV (1868-1910), if not earlier, the practice of archaeology in Thailand has been involved in the protection and preservation of what has been called 'cultural heritage.'
• In 1987 the FAD developed the Preservation and Conservation of the Historic Town of Chiang Saen Project and included in it a list of 10 projects, Preservation and Conservation of National Historic Towns
• Government officials are currently carrying out surveys, inventories, and relocation of people who have been living in the registered portion of the site, as well as excavation and restoration of ancient monuments and structures, which had been the focus of previous work
• Considering the theoretical framework used by the FAD to develop this historical site, it appears that the preservation project has its roots in the idea postulated by UNESCO that ancient monuments are the common heritage of mankind and an essential element in a country's cultural property and in the development of tourist industry 
• The Chiang Saen Project, judging from its framework, does not differ substantially from the Historic Park Projects
• This was the first study of the attitudes of indigenous people towards the Chiang Saen preservation project to be conducted by CRM practitioners and was intended to be exploratory 
• The broad goal of this survey was to discover ways to encourage and facilitate cooperation between communities and government agencies, so that local people can have input into the management of an archaeological resource
• The data-gathering method involved interviewing a sample of subjects with different occupations, including farmers, teachers, street vendors, shop owners, students and government officials
• Local residents had varying levels of knowledge about the site, and perceived the site in different ways
• A much higher proportion of the people interviewed regarded the site as government (i.e. FAD) property than as a communal asset
• The people interviewed ascribed to Chiang Saen widely differing levels of antiquity, with ages ranging from 50 to 1000 years
• Many people could conceive of only recent history; for example, they could tell me that Chiang Saen was admnistratively upgraded from a village to a district only in 1957
• Some, when asked what they know about the history of the town, even remembered the date when Chiang Saen was flooded (1956)
• On the other hand, several of the inhabitants were very eloquent about the remote history of Chiang Saen, referring to oral histories and traditions indicating that the town was hundreds of years old
• There is a belief that Chiang Saen was built by a king, King Saen Poo, who was the son of a god, as is also attested in the Chronicle of Yonok
• There are also several legends, or oral histories, about the origin and development of Chiang Saen 
• One of the most popular tales is about the town's abandonment: it is said that in 1003 BE (560 AD) many villagers of Yonok (believed to be a present-day Wiang Nong Lom, about 25km southwest of Chiang Saen) played and swam in the Ku Kok Na Tee (the Khong River), where they found a 14m-long white eel, and killed it. The villagers brought the eel to their king, who ordered his people to cut the eel into pieces, and returned some to them to eat for dinner. After the meal, there were three catastrophic earthquakes, which sank and flooded the city
• Highlighting this coincidence between oral tradition or myth and archaeological evidence may irritate some scientists but I believe this could aid CRM practitioners in convincing local people that archaeological practice might help them understand their past
• Cultural resources have a variety of potential values and meanings
• Looking at the different values and meanings of cultural resources, my interviews with local people suggest that most of them consider the spiritual or symbolic value of the site as the highest priority
• It seems contradictory, therefore, that all of the local inhabitants interviewed also wanted to have the site developed so that it would lead to economic growth and job opportunities, a view strongly supported by those in business or trade
• Specific groups expected to gain are those involved with the FAD, traders and businessman, and those associated with temples, while the local people of Chiang Saen and 'everybody' are general groups of imagined beneficiaries
• Difference in attitude about who 'owns' the site can have profound effects on the success of a preservation project
• From the government official's perspective, cultural heritage constitutes national identity; that is, the Thai people as a whole can claim the right of ownership, with the FAD as their agent 
• Why do local residents think that the ancient monuments are government property? They point out that the FAD alone, representing a government department, has been working on the preservation and development of this site. Thus, they feel that they do not have access to or use of the monuments
• It should also be stressed, in addition to the above discussion, that a sense of ownership is in some cases closely related to the relationship between people and their religion 
• The FAD has extensive resources: a very large budget, legal authority, appropriate facilities and highly qualified specialists
• Unfortunately, the FAD is losing a key ally: the local people. For me, the best protectors of a cultural resource are those who live near or in the site
• An accommodation must be made between government officials and the local community
• First, I suggest that the FAD develop a simple public education programme
• In the city of Chiang Saen there are two schools, an elementary and a high school
• The FAD, along with the local teachers, could develop a curriculum that would incorporate knowledge about Chiang Saen from the archaeological record as well as from historic and traditional sources
• A high school teacher told me that the school had neither a general archaeology programme nor a course of the history of Chiang Saen, but the current curriculum is flexible enough to permit the teachers to add such elements to one of their regular subjects
• In addition, the head of the Chiang Saen Educational Office said he would be happy to develop a public programme if the FAD wished to do so
• The FAD runs the Chiang Saen National Museum (which was officially opened by Princess Sirindhorn on 7 March 1997, 40 years after it was established).
• This museum can play a crucial role in educating local people about the ancient town of Chiang Saen
• Surprisingly, the current head of the museum (personal communication) admitted that few of the town's inhabitants have visited it, which is supported by my research, as most of the local residents interviewed knew of the museum but had never set foot in it
• Museum figures show consistently that the most frequent visitors are people from other regions of Thailand and from abroad
• Visiting and participation by members of the local community should be fostered by the museum
• Second, it would benefit both local people and the CRM practitioners who work in the area if some parts of the site were developed and used to serve community needs
• The moats, for example, can protect local properties as well as archaeological ruins from both seasonal and unexpected flooding
• The FAD, in cooperation with the community, should dredge the currently shallow moats for this purpose, thus benefitting the local economy and the preservation work
• If this is done, the people of Chiang Saen might change their existing view that the nationally registered parts of the site are useless to them
• Finally, we must consider how local traditions can contribute harmoniously to the preservation of the site
• For example, the northern Thai people have a ceremony called Sueb Jata, a life-prolonging ritual to expel evils that endanger their communal properties and resources, and to maintain the good fortune of both natural and cultural elements like rivers, villages, religious monuments etc.
• Perhaps this could even be incorporated as an alternative, spiritual approach to the problems of looting?
• This research work at Chiang Saen has provided some answers to the question 'Who owns the past'
• While the past may be regarded as the common property of a nation, the most responsible and relevant stewardship should involve careful consideration of the local community in order to gain its cooperation in the preservation of sites-- a new and still rare achievement in Thailand