Photographs courtesy of UNESCO
A look at six of Asia-Pacific’s newly listed UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Australia
Built by the British in the late 18th and 19th centuries, Australia’s Convict Sites are grim reminders of the days when many of the country’s European settlers arrived in shackles, sentenced to “transportation” for crimes ranging from petty theft to murder. Of the 11 sites now inscribed on the World Heritage List, five are in Tasmania, including Port Arthur, which served as a penal station until 1877.
China
Situated in the central Chinese province of Henan, the Dengfeng Historical Monuments cluster around Mount Song, a center of Taoist devotion. The 13 ancient structures and sites include Shaolin Temple, the cradle of Zen Buddhism and kung fu; the Songyang Academy, one of ancient China’s greatest centers of higher learning; and the Songyue Temple, home to China’s oldest surviving brick pagoda.India
Constructed entirely of local stone and marble, the Jantar Mantar in Jaipur is the largest and best preserved of India’s historic observatories. Built in the early 1700s by the scholarly Maharaja Jai Singh II, the site’s monumental instruments measure and predict astronomical events with extraordinary precision. Noteworthy are the Samrat Yantra, a 27-meter-high sundial still accurate within two seconds, and a duo of sunken hemispheres that allow observers reclining within to track celestial movements.
South Korea
The folk villages of Hahoe and Yangdong, both in North Gyeongsang Province, have been singled out as prime representatives of Korea’s historic clan culture. Well-preserved and carefully arranged aristocratic residences, study halls, and academies reflect the Confucian culture of the Joseon Dynasty; the beauty of the surrounding mountains, fields and river inspired countless odes from 17th- and 18th-century poets. Adding to the sites’ appeal are living traditions like the mask dance, preserved by clans that have resided in the villages for more than 500 years.
Sri Lanka
Rising 2,500 meters above sea level, the Central Highlands have been selected as Sri Lanka’s eighth UNESCO Heritage Site for their ecological value. The mountainous area, which encompasses three wilderness sanctuaries, has a unique ecosystem, its gnarled, stunted trees distinct from the towering lowland forests that surround it. These montane forests harbor a myriad variety of flora and fauna, including endangered mammals like the western purple-faced langur, the Horton Plains slender loris, and the Sri Lankan leopard.Vietnam
Constructed in the 11th century by the Ly Dynasty, the Thang Long Imperial Citadel was the seat of the Vietnamese court for 800 years. Rebuilt by successive dynasties, the citadel was taken over by the French in 1888, who leveled many of the pre-colonial buildings. In 2002, during excavation for the construction of a new national assembly hall, the foundations of at least 11 palaces were unearthed four meters below the surface, relics of the Ly court. The ongoing archeological dig is predicted to be the largest of its kind in Southeast Asia’s history.
