Public Domain and Cultural Legacy. The Governance of a Sacred and Vernacular Cultural Landscape in Bali

This article focuses on bridging the gap between theory and lived experience, concentrating on historical facts and derived social meaning. It discusses critically how sacred structures represent, condense, and integrate culture, Nature and identity in landscape formation. In the process, the paper demonstrates various forms of communication emanating both from inherent and state-imposed roles and four dimensions of cultural significance associated with the landscape. The study reveals a process of depersonalization and commodification of a historical legacy whose symbolic significance goes beyond the state’s political and economic agendas. Phenomenology is employed to research at Goa Gajah Temple in Bali. Due to the arcane nature of philosophizing on contemporary discourse in phenomenology, the paper combines basic facts and landscape properties and the existential experiences of ‘others’ with the authors ‘lived experience’ of the site. Based on the experiential nature of our observations and associations, the paper concludes with practical strategies for future governance of an iconic temple sanctuary. Keywords: public domain; cultural landscape; cultural legacy & significance