UC Berkeley

An anthropological study on cultural values of heritage trees in urban landscapes focuses on symbolic functions of old and big trees in temple gardens in Bangkok. In this study, I discuss significance of urban forests on temple grounds in both cultural aspects and how they contribute to ecological aspects in the urban context. For the cultural aspects of the trees in the selected temple gardens, I discuss scholastic doctrines of Buddhist materials and their impact on local culture, then examine the roles of trees as material objects in the Buddhist aspects from the point of view of an insider, as a practitioner, an outsider, and as a scholar. The study consists of two parts, qualitative and quantitative components. In the qualitative part, using an ethnographic approach, I examine the relationship between Buddhism doctrine with ecological approaches that have been influenced by preexisting local culture. The study reveals how cultural values of trees are perceived in the religious realm and the change of religious structure in today society. I conduct ethnographic field work on the cultural perceptions of cultural and ecological services of temple trees and address the historical and cultural significance of trees in Sangha, the Buddhist monk community. I explore the Buddhist monks’ attitudes toward trees in the temples, comparing the Buddhist doctrines, rituals, and their actual experiences in order to answer the question how the Sangha perceives cultural values and religious symbolic of trees on temple grounds. I examine influential factors that make trees sacred. Does location matter? If the same tree species with similar size and age grow outside temples, do they still convey the same symbolic significances? From preexisting local culture to religious doctrines, I question how Buddhist monks and their influences on society, culture, and environment assign cultural values and powerful status of sacred symbols to the trees. I question whether temple trees are preserved with these cultural constructions of assigned values.

For the quantitative part, I address the roles of temple gardens as green infrastructure in the city. I examine the green coverage in temple gardens at two scales, the site scale and citywide. Combining the conventional method of Line Transect at the site scale with data from Landsat 8 and the recent Object-based Image Analysis method at the citywide scale with the high-resolution satellite imagery, the percentage of green canopy coverage of religious land uses is compared with other land uses to address the questions on how cultural values of the trees contribute to the green infrastructures of the city. Qualitative analysis of cultural and ecological perceptions toward the trees are put in parallel to this quantitative analysis of the green coverage ratio to examine how monks, the managers of this monastic landscape, understand and appreciate their habitat and the values of these urban heritage trees. I analyze the patterns and locations of heritages trees in temple gardens and develop an inventory of species of heritage large trees from selected study sites. There are 184 trees of 61 species mentioned as significant trees in temple gardens. Then I conclude from in-depth interviews and my observations the ways temples can maintain species diversity and the ways in which heritage trees in temple gardens can have suitable cares, maintain species diversity, and be a healthy ecological component in urban spheres.