Ayutthaya and Sukhothai: what UNESCO actually inscribed

The short answer

A World Heritage listing is a designation, not a place you enter. At Ayutthaya and Sukhothai, UNESCO drew its designations over the remains of historic capitals; the Fine Arts Department runs historical parks over the same ground. The two overlap, but they are not the same thing, and UNESCO's own record shows that at Ayutthaya they do not share a boundary.

UNESCO's 2002 list of inscribed properties records both as inscribed in 1991.[1] The Historic City of Ayutthaya is property No. 576.[1] The Historic Town of Sukhothai and Associated Historic Towns, No. 574, joins three historic towns in one property: Sukhothai, Si Satchanalai and Kamphaeng Phet.[4][3]

The Historic City of Ayutthaya

Ayutthaya was inscribed on one criterion, criterion (iii).[1] ICOMOS, the advisory body that evaluated the nomination in November 1991, recommended it as excellent witness to the development of a true national Thai art. Its evaluation describes Ayutthaya as the second Siamese capital, from 1350, later destroyed by the Burmese, and names the prang, a reliquary tower, as the city's main architectural feature.[2]

The boundary was the sticking point. ICOMOS records that the World Heritage Bureau deferred the nomination in June 1991 until Thailand supplied details of the area's boundaries, which arrived in October. It also notes that the site had been classed a historic park in 1967, but that only part of it was proposed for inscription.[2]

The question is still open. In 2019 the World Heritage Committee asked Thailand to pursue an extension of the boundary to reflect the complete footprint of the City of Ayutthaya.[6] Four years earlier it had asked Thailand to refrain from new construction within the property and its setting, in particular within the footprint of the historic city, that may have an impact on the property's Outstanding Universal Value.[5]

UNESCO's own documents do not use one title. UNESCO's 2002 list gives No. 576 as the "Historic City of Ayutthaya and Associated Historic Towns", while the World Heritage Committee's 2015 and 2019 decisions, ICOMOS's evaluation and the Fine Arts Department use the shorter "Historic City of Ayutthaya".[8][2][6][5][1] XTOUR uses the shorter name.

The Historic Town of Sukhothai and Associated Historic Towns

The Sukhothai property was inscribed on criteria (i) and (iii).[1] ICOMOS described the three towns as the principal centres of King Ramkhamhaeng's kingdom: Sukhothai the capital, Si Satchanalai the second royal residence, and Kamphaeng Phet. It tied criterion (i) to the historic park of Sukhothai as a masterpiece of the first Siamese architectural style, and criterion (iii) to all three sites as representative of the first period of Siamese art and the creation of the first Thai state.[3]

Here too the perimeter mattered. ICOMOS records that the Bureau recommended inscription in June 1991 subject to details of the perimeter of the sites, in particular that of Kamphaeng Phet, which Thailand supplied in October.[3]

The three-town shape is easy to miss. A 2008 UNESCO news item put it plainly: few people realise that the property's boundary encompasses Si Satchanalai and Kamphaeng Phet as well as Sukhothai.[4]

Parks and properties are drawn differently

The Fine Arts Department's park figures and the ones ICOMOS gave in 1991 sit side by side without being the same measurement. At Sukhothai they agree: the department registered an area of 70 square kilometres in 1975 and opened the historic park officially in 1988, and ICOMOS gives the same 70 square kilometres, declared a historic park in 1988.[9] At Si Satchanalai and Kamphaeng Phet the two sources give different areas and dates, although at Kamphaeng Phet the department's own two zones, about 503 and 1,611 rai, add up in XTOUR's reading to about 3.38 square kilometres, ICOMOS's figure, rather than the 3.34 the department states; the guide to Si Satchanalai and Kamphaeng Phet sets out every figure.[10][3] At Ayutthaya, the Fine Arts Department dates its Ayutthaya Historical Park Project to 1982, while ICOMOS's 1991 evaluation says the site was classed a historic park in 1967; the Ayutthaya Historical Park guide sets out the park's own figures.[2][8]

These are park figures, not World Heritage boundaries. XTOUR has not been able to read UNESCO's current figures for the area of either property, and it does not reconcile the park figures with each other. XTOUR's reading is that a park boundary says where a management body works, and a World Heritage boundary says what was found to be of outstanding universal value.

The department's own pages blur the two. Its Sukhothai and Kamphaeng Phet pages say the World Heritage Committee announced the historical parks themselves as World Heritage, while its Ayutthaya page says UNESCO listed the city's important historical areas.[8][10][9] At Ayutthaya, UNESCO's own record shows the property is smaller than the historic city. XTOUR has not read a boundary for the Sukhothai property, so it does not say whether the property and the three parks coincide.

What is not inscribed here

Si Thep is not part of either property. The World Heritage Committee inscribed the Ancient Town of Si Thep as a property of its own, by Decision 45 COM 8B.41, on criteria (ii) and (iii), and renamed it "The Ancient Town of Si Thep and its Associated Dvaravati Monuments". The decision describes a serial property of three component parts representing Dvaravati culture from the sixth to the tenth centuries.[7] XTOUR does not describe it further here.

How XTOUR treats them

XTOUR keeps three kinds of thing apart. A destination is the modern town where a visitor stays: Ayutthaya or Sukhothai. A place is something a visitor goes to: a ruined temple, a museum. A designation is a status that UNESCO or a national law has given to an area.

A designation is never treated as the same thing as a park or a temple, because it is not one: merging them would imply that the park and the property share a boundary, which UNESCO's own record contradicts at Ayutthaya. XTOUR treats the parks' ruined temples individually as places, and does not reduce a park to a single point on the map. The Ayutthaya Historical Park guide separates the park, the town and the property at Ayutthaya, and the Sukhothai or Ayutthaya guide compares the two as visits.

What XTOUR does not know

XTOUR has not read UNESCO's boundary maps for either property, so it does not say which ruins fall inside or outside them. It has not read the current statements of outstanding universal value, so it quotes only ICOMOS's 1991 reasoning for the criteria. XTOUR could not open UNESCO's property and tentative-list pages, so this page says nothing about any Thai site's tentative-list status, Wat Arun's included.