Spirit houses in the archaeological landscape of Vat Phou-Champasak: Reimagining cultural landscapes in mainland Southeast Asia

Maitreemit, Lassamon

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129386 Copy

Description

Title

Spirit houses in the archaeological landscape of Vat Phou-Champasak: Reimagining cultural landscapes in mainland Southeast Asia

Author(s)

Maitreemit, Lassamon

Issue Date

2025-04-15

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Dearborn, Lynne M.

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Dearborn, Lynne M.

Committee Member(s)

• Hays, David L.
• Stallmeyer, John C.
• Rhee, Pollyanna

Department of Study

Landscape Architecture

Discipline

Landscape Architecture

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• Cultural Landscape
• Lao PDR
• Champasak
• Cultural Heritage
• Southeast Asia
• Spirit House
• Phi
• Ontological Turn
• Environment Behavior Study
• UNESCO World Heritage

Abstract

“Spirit Houses in the Archaeological Landscape of Vat Phou-Champasak: Reimagining Cultural Landscapes in Mainland Southeast Asia” examines the contested cultural landscape in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Vat Phou-Champasak, Laos. The study contrasts the perspectives of heritage authorities, including UNESCO and the National Heritage Authority of Lao PDR, with those of the local Champasak community, focusing on their interactions with the cultural landscape. Utilizing a framework based on Amos Rapoport's theory from Environment Behavior Studies (EBS) that applies a methodology for dismantling culture, to investigate the cultural breadth, ranging from activity systems to worldviews, the research analyzes three landscape actions: construction, perception, and representation. This study, framed within recent critique within sociocultural fields, also seeks to extend the exploration of cultural breadth into the investigation of ontological diversity to examine myriad worldviews of cultural groups and their impact on person-environment relations. This study identifies two distinct cultural landscapes within the Champasak Cultural Landscape, reflecting the contestation between cultural groups. One landscape, utilized by heritage authorities like UNESCO, frames the site as an archaeological representation of Khmer culture, emphasizing modern concepts of heritage focusing on cultural materials and visual aspects. The influence of modern geography is evident in the three steps of UNESCO’s cultural landscape process, as the focus is on cultural materials and visual aspects of the “heritage-scape,” the term that heritage scholars used to refer to “a worldwide, imagined community that aims to produce “peace in the minds of men” through the ritual appropriation and juxtaposition of disparate heritage sites around the world that are designated to be of “universal value” for the ways in which they reveal UNESCO’s meta-narrative of “unity in diversity” (Di Giovine, 2009, as cited in Di Giovine, 2018). The other cultural landscape emerges from the Champasak community in the Mueang Champasak settlement. This Mueang, or Muang, is “a politico-territorial sense signifies kingdom/ principality in terms of center-oriented space, and of central and satellite domains” as originally studied by Southeast Asian scholars (Tambiah, 2013, p. 509). Mueang is shaped by a branch of the founders’ cult in Southeast Asia and framed through Animistic beliefs unique to Laos and the Southeast Asian region. The local practices, such as the activities of Boun, employing the social principles of Heet 12 Kong 14, recognize the highly entangled visible/tangible and invisible/intangible dimensions of the environment in Lao-Champasak culture. While these Boun events serve as significant cultural representations for the local community, they may seem enigmatic to outsiders, as their values and meanings can only be understood through direct engagement with the local culture over time. The two cultural landscapes within the Champasak Cultural Landscape site are inseparable, despite contestation. UNESCO’s interest has shifted from the “Authorized Heritage Discourse (AHD)” to embracing community heritage landscapes. Simultaneously, the Champasak community appropriates the heritage meanings introduced by modern global organizations. This study reveals that the two cultural landscapes are evolving toward an amalgamation, influencing each other to create the contemporary Champasak Cultural Landscape. However, the appropriation of each landscape by different cultural groups is limited by their respective cultures, as seen in their actions and worldviews. This dissertation highlights that the diversity in cultures and ontologies at the Champasak Cultural Landscape leads to contested ideas about cultural landscapes, resulting in disagreements between heritage authorities and the local community. The analysis points to the necessity of the cultural landscape process as an approach, or frame, to understand diverse cultural landscapes by setting aside modern assumptions. This result suggests that future practices in cultural landscape management must be more generous and inclusive, especially at a site where an imbalance of control exists alongside two distinctly different but overlapping cultural landscapes.

Graduation Semester

2025-05

Type of Resource

Thesis

Handle URL

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129386

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2025 Lassamon Maitreemit

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