The Interpretation of Cultural Heritage: the Living “Authenticity” and the Sense of Place

The scope of this paper is to examine the interpretation of the notion of authenticity in conservation
of cultural heritage. Over the few last decades, the notion of authenticity has been an ongoing
debate. The early concept of authenticity as indicted in the Venice Charter was more emphasized on
physical quality of cultural heritage. In practice this early concept has been challenged for
inconsistency and complicated applying in the conservation of modern historic buildings, even for
some of the World Heritage List in Europe, and in other region of the world with perishable
structures, such as wood, and earth. As a result, the notion of authenticity has been revised since
the adoption of the 1994 Nara Document on Authenticity, in which the new notion of authenticity is a
mixture of tangible and intangible attributes such as traditions, techniques, language, as well as
spirit and feeling. In Asian regions, the Nara Documents has a great impact on emphasizing the
intangible cultural heritages in the concept of authenticity, as indicated in the Hoi An Protocols and
the INTACH Charter. It is argued that these intangible cultural heritages or living heritage is the living
authenticity and an important element in maintaining the sense of a place.