The president of Baoan Temple in Taipei’s Dalongdong District (大龍峒) has refused a National Cultural Heritage Conservation Award handed out by the Ministry of Culture’s National Cultural Heritage Bureau, saying that the award was too late in coming and only shows that the government is not sincere about protecting the nation’s cultural heritage.
Baoan Temple president Liao Wu-chih (廖武治) said the temple has a history of more than 270 years and has been recognized as a second-class cultural heritage site by the central government, but the temple was nevertheless forced in 1995 to come up with NT$260 million (US$8.5 million) by itself to pay for urgent repairs.
The work was finished in 2002 and the temple received an Asia-Pacific Award for Cultural Heritage Conservation from UNESCO the very next year, Liao said, adding that for the National Cultural Heritage Conservation Award, which was established in 2009, to finally “remember” the temple’s efforts this year “was too late.”
Photo: Yeh Kuan-yu, Taipei Times
“It is like finally remembering to give a Golden Horse Award to a film that won an Oscar 11 years ago,” Liao said, adding that the government’s award did not seem sincere.
The government lacks comprehensive knowledge of the damage cultural heritage sites suffer and fails to acknowledge that such places need repairs, Liao said, adding that what repairs are done are subcontracted to manufacturers with no knowledge of the delicate workmanship required to restore cultural heritage sites.
Professors and their students often carry out these repairs, Liao said, and as most students lack practical experience, they often miss parts that need repairs, which calls for a change to the overall plan.
Photo: Yeh Kuan-yu, Taipei Times
He added that some teams choose to overlook these parts due to funding issues and suggested that the government establish a professional team for cultural heritage repairs.
Despite a visit on Tuesday from the ministry’s Cultural Heritage Bureau director-general Shih Kuo-lung (施國隆), Liao said that temple representatives would not attend the award ceremony yesterday.
Shih said the award was to affirm the temple’s efforts in preserving intangible cultural assets and was not related to the UNESCO award, adding that the ministry would still send Liao the award.
The repairs and conservation of cultural heritage sites have fallen under the Ministry of the Interior prior to amendments to the Cultural Resources Preservation Act (文化資產保存法) in 2005, Shih said.
As for Liao’s comments that the temple had to come up with its own funding, Shih said that there were restrictions in accordance with the Government Procurement Act (政府採購法) if the temple accepted government assistance, adding that the government would “never say no” to aid repairs to cultural heritage sites.
Along with Baoan Temple, New Taipei City’s Luzhou Lee Residence Heritage Maintenance Foundation, Taipei’s Chen Te Hsing Tang, Academia Sinica researcher Tsang Chen-hua (臧振華) and Chiayi County’s Singang Fengtian Temple president He Ta-huang (何達煌) were also nominated for the award.
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