Author Topic: What are we to do with heritage white elephants? (Read 884 times)

Barbaro · « **on:** August 25, 2007, 04:18:23 AM »

What are we to do with heritage white elephants?
By Augusto Villalon
Inquirer
Last updated 02:19am (Mla time) 08/20/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- Despite the growing campaign to save Philippine
heritage, the honest truth is that a lot (or most) of the heritage
structures we campaign to save are really white elephants.

What are we to do with those white elephants?

On the verge of becoming white elephants are our World Heritage-inscribed
Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordillera.

A site of incontestable beauty, the rice terraces are one of the few places
on our planet where natural and cultural heritage combine to produce a
landscape of such impact. Seeing the struggle for the place to keep up with
the 21st century leads to the question, Is heritage enough?

Heritage might be enough for inanimate objects, stuff for display like empty
architectural monuments or valuable objects locked up under glass in museums
that are lifeless markers of the past.

A place like the rice terraces, unquestionably a marker of Philippine
heritage, is far from being an inert monument to the past, enshrined in
museum-like stillness.

For centuries the terraces' traditional practicesâ€”cultural, religious,
environmental, agricultural, hydrological and artisticâ€”revolved around the
rice- growing cycle, supporting the life of their inhabitants. Massive
migration out of the terraces is proof that the traditional lifestyle has
become extremely difficult to maintain today, leading to an endless search
for solutions that will update the tough Cordillera lifestyle while
maintaining cultural roots.

Unlike similar rice-growing mountain terraces in China that have long been
abandoned, the terraces of the Philippine Cordillera aren't relics. The
terraces, however, search for ways to maintain their connection to human
life.

Relics of the past deserve to continue living. Once it was thought that the
best thing to do with an old Spanish colonial-era house was to turn it into
a museum, so many houses stopped being homes and turned into excellent
museums, each displaying exquisite collections of furniture and furnishings.

The museums as total nostalgia re-live past eras through collections of
objects from a bygone era that make no connection to daily life today.

Bed-and-breakfast

There are heritage homes that now have recently learned to make use of their
past as a resource to connect to their present. Owners develop their
heritage homes as a resource not only to generate additional income to
improve their way of living but also to provide financial means to continue
conserving their heritage properties.

Through the bed-and-breakfast program, heritage houses continue to be used
and be useful rather than stagnate into lifeless museum displays or fall
into disrepair and decay.

Owners of a group of heritage homes in the historic town of Baclayon in
Bohol have formed a bed-and-breakfast association, initially offering a
total of over 20 rooms in neighboring houses. Converting unused bedrooms as
guest lodgings uses heritage positively as an income-generating resource, as
a source of pride and local identity, and, most important, keeps the
heritage alive and up-to-date.

And as a tourism experience, the hospitality offered by the homeowners
participating in the Baclayon bed-and-breakfast program brings travelers
into personal contact with the gentle Boholano culture.

Heritage houses glow differently when occupied. Their glow becomes warmer
when they continue usefulness, as lodging houses, schools, offices, or for
whatever purpose. They also glow better because they are earning their keep.

Definitely with a glow that warms the heart is the Dauis convento in Bohol
where, under a magnificently painted wooden cupola in the convento, a dinner
of down-home Boholano cuisine is served by local youth trained as cooks and
waiters.
They serve the regional BisayÃ¡ food of my youth on impeccable china and
linen in unsurpassable convento surroundings, a great experience that
combines tangible heritage (the splendid architecture of the convento) and
intangible heritage (regional food, performances of traditional music).

Intangibles

The intangibles give life to heritage, connects heritage to people. Instead
of the sites being lifeless and empty, think of the texture daily life adds
to the rice terraces, the heritage houses of Baclayon, and the white
elephant that would have been the Dauis convento.

In the three sites, heritage generates income through tourism, one of the
more obvious uses for heritage-based resources.

The intangible, or the software, makes the heritage memorable. It is the
stuff that makes for great tourism experiences.

It is the intangible that radiates life to a place, connects tourists to
locals and their traditions.

The intangible is the "spirit of place" that makes the visitor part of the
local life, even if just for a few hours or days.

Think of the rice terraces without inhabitants, the houses in Baclayon
empty, the convento in Dauis continuing to decay.

Then see the benefits from judicious use of their heritage as resources for
income-generation.

Heritage really should not produce more white elephants than we can handle.
It should benefit people.

Baclayon bed-and-breakfast will be ready to receive visitors in the near
future. Bookings are required at Dauis convento, call 0921-6643277 or (038)
502-2008.

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=3598.0

MikeLigalig.com

Author Topic: What are we to do with heritage white elephants? (Read 884 times)

Barbaro

What are we to do with heritage white elephants?