Crossing the Cultural Divide: Western Visitors and Interpretation at Ayutthaya World Heritage Site, Thailand

In 1991, Ayutthaya, the former capital city of Thailand and now an archaeological park, was inscribed on the World Heritage List. Currently, it receives some one million international visitors a year, mainly day-trippers from Bangkok. Despite this, the on-site interpretation put in place in 1992 (largely signage in Thai and English) has never been assessed in terms of the content of the signs and the reactions of visitors. This paper pertains to one part of the first extensive study of the interpretation employed at Ayutthaya, a study that included a visitor survey that was both a demographic study and an initial investigation into the cross-cultural dimension of interpretation at Ayutthaya. The international visitation to this World Heritage Site is overwhelmingly Western and, therefore, a critical issue arises: what do non-Asian, non-Thai and non-Buddhist visitors gain from the experience? If the visitor is not of the same culture being experienced, and if cross-cultural translation itself is a highly complex and sometimes contentious and problematic process, then it is likely that the deeper cultural significance of the site cannot be well understood in a one-day visit. If the deeper meanings of Ayutthaha remain elusive, does it follow that appreciating the cultural and heritage values of the site is, in direct proportion, an unattainable goal? The study points towards what may be possible when heritage interpretation, in an age of unprecedented global travel, is regarded as a negotiation of a cultural divide.