The Protection, Designation and Management of Cultural Routes: A Case Study of the Tea & Horse Road in China

Cultural routes are a relatively new, and much discussed concept in heritage designation and management. The extent to which this concept provides an effective theoretical framework for management of diverse sites, monuments, and landscapes, encompassing multiple stakeholders and values, is under debate. The research explores the so-called Tea & Horse Road (THR), which stretched from southwestern China to the South Asian subcontinent. It is an intriguing example of a historic network of interactions, combining multidimensional issues of protection, designation, and management, within a challenging contemporary social and political context. Using literature reviews, case studies, semi-structured interviews, and field investigations, the thesis focuses on the THR within Yunnan Province in China. The selected case study was divided into three categories: productive regions, transfer regions and consuming regions, in order to both articulate the assorted THR heritage, and to explore relevant crucial issues: the nature of the physical remains; their integrity and authenticity; the potential and impacts of tourism; local, regional and state-based values; and the prospective management, protection and designation of these areas. The research concludes that introducing the concept of cultural routes enables these multifaceted sites and landscapes to be integrated within a wider systematic framework, which offers possible approaches to top-down preservation and management of the THR. However, the research also reveals the tensions between cultural route and cultural landscape approaches, with the latter far easier to implement at a local/regional level. More broadly, it also raises questions about the implementation of cultural routes as a nomination strategy when dealing with diverse heritage resources, landscapes and communities