Pagodas and soldiers : culture, identity, and the built environment in contemporary Myanmar

This paper examines contemporary cultural processes shaping nation and community in Myanmar and the manner in which these impact on heritage sites and built forms. It evaluates the underlying ideologies that strengthen and reaffirm traditional cultural norms in the context of urbanising and globalising forces taking place extensively in Myanmar in recent years. It critically evaluates identity construction that perpetuates and reinforces dominant power structures existing today and the spatial significance and layers of meaning in the cultural landscape. The paper explores the production and reproduction of culture focusing on spatial forms of cultural expressions, individual buildings or associations of buildings of cultural and historical value.