Discourses with the past: Tourism and heritage in South-East Asia

This special issue is intended to explore in some empirical detail the relationships between culture (including ethnicity) nature, tourism, development, and political action, and in this connection to focus specifically on what is widely called ‘heritage ’ and its conceptualization and representation in South-East Asia. Heritage is both a narrow concept, literally ‘what is or may be inherited ’ (Little Oxford English Dictionary, 1996: 294), and a broader one pertaining to notions of ethnicity and nationalism, and even global identity. Heritage has become something which the state and its agents, as well as tourists and local communities appropriate and create as an object worthy of touristic attention, though only certain items are selected for this purpose and others are discarded. It has been remarked upon frequently that the concept of heritage is difficult to define and that, in popular discourse, its meaning is very wide and flexible. A useful starting point is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which designates World Heritage Sites as of either ‘cultural ’ or ‘natural ’ or ‘mixed ’ (both cultural and natural) importance. According to the World Heritage Convention,1 which was adopted by UNESCO in 1972, ‘cultural heritage ’ embraces a