Vernacular Sacred Architectural Heritage Assessment: The Case of Wat Chedi, Southern Thailand

Abstract

Thailand’s vernacular and religious architecture is rich and unique. Wat Chedi, a temple in the southern part of the country, is visited by thousands of Buddhists and tourists every month. Despite of its national importance, Wat Chedi is not considered as a historical site and therefore, the site is undervalued. This study aims to assess the value of Wat Chedi’s architectural design and features by proposing a novel point-based criteria based on aesthetic, scientific, educational, and social values. The novel criteria also consider factors such as changes and the respect for changes, which are aligned with the concept of conservation in Southeast Asia. The proposed criteria are then applied to Wat Chedi and to the historic Wat Phra Mahathat Woramahawihan temple, and the results are compared and discussed. The results indicated that whilst Wat Chedi has changed both physically and culturally along with the community and era, it is still a site with significant vernacular architecture and ‘high’ aesthetic, scientific, educational, and social values, whilst the historical value of Wat Chedi is classified as ‘moderate’. Moreover, Wat Chadi’s architecture is proven to be a symbol of people’s spiritual beliefs. It is proposed that the Fine Arts Department of Thailand (and/or relevant agencies) should adopt the criteria proposed in this study to assess other vernacular and religious sites across the country. It also proposed to register Wat Chedi as a valuable intangible cultural heritage site of faith to be preserved for future generations. This article contributes towards developing more efficient tools to assess the vernacular architecture of faith in Southeast Asia, which in turn can help protect important sites for future generations.

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