Masjid Jamek Malaysia Heritage

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Heritage refers to events or processes that have a special meaning in group memory. The Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘heritage’ as ‘property that is or may be inherited; an inheritance’, ‘valued things such as historic buildings that have been passed down from previous generations’, and ‘relating to things of historic or cultural value that are worthy of preservation’. The emphasis on inheritance and conservation is important here, as is the focus on ‘property’, ‘things’ or ‘buildings’. So (according to the Oxford English Dictionary, anyway), heritage is something that can be passed from one generation to the next, something that can be conserved or inherited, and something that has historic or cultural value. Heritage might be understood to be a physical ‘object’: a piece of property, a building or a place that is able to be ‘owned’ and ‘passed on’ to someone else.

Heritage divided into two category which is tangible and intangible. ‘Tangible Cultural Heritage’ refers to physical artefacts produced, maintained and transmitted intergenerationally in a society. It includes artistic creations, built heritage such as buildings and monuments, and other physical or tangible products of human creativity that are invested with cultural significance in a society. ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage’ indicates ‘the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated therewith – that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as part of their Cultural Heritage’ (UNESCO, 2003). Examples of intangible heritage are oral traditions, performing arts, local knowledge, and traditional skills.

Tangible and intangible heritage require different approaches for preservation and safeguarding, which has been one of the main motivations driving the conception and ratification of the 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. The Convention stipulates the interdependence between intangible Cultural Heritage, and tangible cultural and natural heritage, and acknowledges the role of intangible Cultural Heritage as a source of cultural diversity and a driver of sustainable development. Recognizing the value of people for the expression and transmission of intangible Cultural Heritage, UNESCO spearheaded the recognition and promotion of living human treasures, ‘persons who possess to a very high degree the knowledge and skills required for performing or recreating specific elements of the intangible Cultural Heritage’.

Having at one time referred exclusively to the monumental remains of cultures, cultural heritage as a concept has gradually come to include new categories. Today, we find that heritage is not only manifested through tangible forms such as artefacts, buildings or landscapes but also through intangible forms. Intangible heritage includes voices, values, traditions, oral history. Popularly this is perceived through cuisine, clothing, forms of shelter, traditional skills and technologies, religious ceremonies, performing arts, storytelling. Today, we consider the tangible heritage inextricably bound up with the intangible heritage. In conservation projects we aim to preserve both the tangible as well as the intangible heritage.

Cultural Heritage Landscapes – An Introduction

Cultural heritage landscapes, or cultural landscapes, have been used as a term for several decades. The approach of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to cultural landscapes recognizes three main categories:

1. Designed cultural landscape This type of cultural landscape is clearly defined and was created intentionally by man. These landscapes include garden and parkland landscapes, which are constructed for esthetic reasons, which are often but not always associated with religious or other monumental buildings and ensembles.

2. Evolved cultural landscape This type of cultural landscape results from an initial social, economic, administrative and/ or religious imperative, and has developed its present form by association with, and in response to, its natural environment. Such landscapes reflect that process of evolution in their form and component features. They fall into two sub-categories:

A relict (or fossil) landscape is one in which an evolutionary process came to an end at some time in the past, either abruptly or over a period of time. Its significant distinguishing features, however, are still visible in material form. • Continuing landscape is one that retains an active social role in contemporary society, which is closely associated with the traditional way of life, and in which the evolutionary process is still in progress. At the same time, it exhibits significant material evidence of its evolution over time. 3. Associative cultural landscape The inclusion of such landscapes on UNESCO’s World Heritage List is justifiable by virtue of the powerful religious, artistic or cultural associations of the natural element, rather than material cultural evidence, which may be insignificant or even absent. According to the UNESCO approach to cultural landscapes and to the International Technical Committee on Cultural Landscapes and Gardens (part of the International Council on Monuments and Sites, or ICOMOS), it is important to address traditional landscapes of the aboriginal experience as well as the special land-use patterns associated with particular agricultural cultures in any understanding of cultural landscapes. Moreover, cultural landscapes operate at many scales, from the modest size of a designed garden (less than an acre) to a vast northern Ontario panoramic vista stretching over several hundreds of square miles, as depicted in the artwork of the Group of Seven. Definition of a cultural heritage landscape A cultural heritage landscape is a property or defined geographical area of cultural heritage significance that has been modified by human activities and is valued by a community. These activities or uses may be key to the cultural value, significance and meaning of this landscape. A cultural landscape may be designed at a specific time by a specific person or it may have evolved organically over a long period time (and may still be slowly evolving). It may also include a landscape that possesses powerful religious, artistic or cultural associations of the natural element rather than material cultural evidence, which may be insignificant or even absent. It involves a grouping(s) of individual heritage features, such as structures, spaces, archaeological sites and natural elements that together form a significant type of heritage form, distinctive from that of its constituent