Importance of conservation in preserving cultural heritage
The Role of Conservation in Preserving Cultural Heritage is a very important and unavoidable topic. Conservation and preservation have a strong relationship with each other. They go hand in hand. Conservation is an essential part of any process and it is the active process of preserving, protecting, and managing cultural heritage. Because of this conservation process, cultural identity and community were always maintained throughout the period. Cultural heritage is a vital component of the community and it transfers knowledge, skills, craftsmanship, generation identity, history, value, legacy, and traditions. And because of the conservation process, all aspects of cultural heritage are automatically fulfilled.
Cultural heritage involves the collection of traditional values like art and architecture in various artistic aspects, museums, history, studios, science, monuments, houses, old and historical, etc. types of aspects. Thus, the conservation process is important and helpful in preserving this type of cultural heritage value. Cultural heritage represents these cultural aspects through preservation.
Cultural Heritage involves Two Types of heritage:
1) Movable cultural heritage – This type of heritage tradition values movable arts or artwork, books, documentation, cultural music, dance forms, and other artefacts that can be preserved through conservation for the upcoming generations.
2) Immovable cultural heritage – This type of heritage involves historical buildings, structures, monuments, historical sites, and places these types of immovable heritage.
According to all these types, conservation takes place to preserve this entire cultural heritage.
Why Do We Need to Conserve Cultural Heritage?
Cultural heritage is the identity or representative of a specific community, lifestyle, and people’s thinking process, also it’s a directly or indirectly important part of a country’s property.
- It helps in promoting cultural tourism –
Many historical and ancient monuments and structures are significant attractions for tourists. Thus, it’s preserved by the conservation process by the government. By UNESCO and other conservation organisations.
- It helps in preserving identity –
All historical, ancient monuments and cities have some story associated with them. These stories involve the history of the city’s evolution and predictions about where the city is going to head in the future. This story also plays an important role in establishing a specific identity of that monument, structure, or about the city which can be revealed through this story. Conservation helps conserve and preserve this historical identity.
- It helps in increasing property values –
It is observed that historical cultural monuments will help increase their values and increase the importance of their surrounding properties. Mostly the properties or places which are near historical and cultural monuments have higher rates and value than those that do not have any historical landmarks.
- It helps in the economy’s growth.
It is helpful to increase growth in economic conditions through historical-conservative tourist places. The construction industry gets considerable benefits from heritage conservation. Not only this, but it also helps in employing the local population. All these things lead to the country’s economic development, and the cultural minister of India is taking steps in the right direction to make it happen.
Challenges:-
There are many challenges in preserving cultural heritage.
- Poor Planning, and Management: –
Poor Planning and management play a challenging role in conserving the cultural heritage. It causes for establishment of poor systems, human resources, resources, and overall conservation impact of specific regions.
- Lack of Funding: – Lack of funding represents the poor economic condition. It is a significant challenge for cultural heritage preservation. Conservation of cultural heritage or much heritage requires a good amount of economic funding. The conservation process requires financial resources for research, equipment, staffing, for maintenance for arranging various types of work together, funding plays a major role in the conservation, and preservation process. So a major issue of lack of funding for the conservation of cultural heritage.
- Lack of Technology: – Technology is part of the conservation process. Lack of technology may cause poor research work, poor management, and poor arrangements for the conservation process. Technology is very helpful to advance and fast work. Thus, lack of technology is a cause for slow work. The lack of technology represents the lack of advancement in work.
- Natural Disaster and Climate Change: –
Natural disasters and climate change have a major impact on cultural heritage. Climate change can increase the frequency and severity of natural disasters, which can impact cultural heritage. Disaster disasters usually result in the loss of oral traditions, languages, traditions, and beliefs of the traditional food systems
Ways of Preserving, Protecting & Promoting Cultural Heritage
There are various ways to preserve cultural heritage; it can be preserved through education, tradition, heritage tourism, art and architecture, cultural-historical sites, and through generations. UNESCO plays a major role in this conservation and preservation process of cultural heritage. UNESCO always takes initiative in this conservation process. Community participation is also a very helpful aspect. This is also one of the important ways to preserve cultural heritage.
There are other ways to preserve and protect Cultural Heritage
For any village area, cultural heritage is preserved and protected in various ways –
- Conducting Field surveys
- Reviewing Historical Records
- 3.Studying Architecture
- Examine Local Art and Craft
- Studying folklore and oral tradition
There are other ways to protect Cultural Heritage
- Conduct the cultural heritage assessment.
- Develop the cultural heritage inventory.
- Establish a regulatory framework.
- Encourage local community involvement.
- Develop a conservation plan.
- Establish a regional cultural heritage centre.
- Indigenous knowledge and practice.
- Promote sustainable tourism.
- Create a tourism development plan.
- Develop a cultural tourism podcast.
- Train Local Guides
- Market and Promote Tourism Products.
- Implement Policies and Regulations
- The establishment of a cultural museum.
- Involvement of local government.
- Legal Protection
- Public awareness
- Sustainable tourism
- Heritage interpretation
- Share culture’s art technology with other
- Preserve cultural traditional values
These all are various ways which are helpful to protect cultural heritage with various aspects.
India is one of the most ancient civilizations in the world. People who belong to diverse communities have different beliefs and cultures and celebrate various festivals. It is the responsibility of every person to contribute to the conservation of heritage. Protecting the cultural heritage in India is of paramount importance to preserve the rich and diverse traditions that have shaped the nation’s identity. Conservation of cultural heritage through preservation requires traditional knowledge and modern conservation engineering practices in a country like India, with a strong spiritual heritage, conservation efforts must consider the ancient building system’s basis, the
importance of the spirit in building activity, and the philosophy of non-permanence of materials. Conservation plays a major irreplaceable role in cultural heritage because the role of conservation in preserving cultural heritage is to extend its life, preserve its values, and ensure its accessibility to future generations. Conservation of cultural heritage creates the country’s ancient traditional identity.
References:
Image 1: Indian Cultural Heritage. [Photograph], (n.d.). Retrieved from website: – www. rooftopapp.com: https://rooftopapp.com/preserving-indian-heritage-ccrts-efforts-in-cultural-conservation
Image 2: Conceptual framework of the study [Photograph], (n. d), Retrieved website: – www. heritagesciencejournal.springeropen.com: https://heritagesciencejournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40494-022-00802-6/figures/1
