Bangkok | talk on challenges of World Heritage Sites

Ayutthaya – Borobudor- Angkor: Three World Heritage Sites with different challenges for conservation - a talk by Prof. Dr. Hans Leisen on Thursday 8 November 2012 at 7:30 p.m at The Siam Society, Bangkok.

All three World Heritage Sites, dating from different times, bear their individual art and religious values but also their individual preservation problems. Ayutthaya’s temples are constructed in brick and laterite stone and decorated with stucco ornaments. Borobudur is built with igneous rocks deriving from the surrounding volcanoes. Angkor shows different building materials like sandstone, laterite and brick with stucco decoration. All the monuments at the three sites have their own degradation history. For each of them individual preservation plans have to be compiled, and well adapted conservation materials must be developed. Every intervention has to be prepared and accompanied by detailed scientific studies and documentation. Each step needs efficient quality control tests. The lecture will show the work of a “stone doctor” at outstanding World Heritage Monuments. Since 1990 Prof. Dr. Hans Leisen, has been Professor for Conservation Science: Conservation and Restoration of Objects of Stone and other mineral porous building materials at Cologne University of Applied Sciences, Cologne Institute of Conservation Sciences CICS and Director of the “German Apsara Conservation Project at Ankor Wat, Cambodia GACP”. Image: Borobodur, Java (picture by Judith Staines)