WHV2025: River × Heritage – Ayutthaya

Program Highlights

The World Heritage Volunteers 2025: River × Heritage – Ayutthaya program took place from 20 to 30 August 2025 in Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya Province, Thailand, one of the nation’s most emblematic World Heritage sites. This initiative was organized by Kasetsart University in close partnership with Ayutthaya Municipality, local riverside communities, grassroots organizations, and international volunteer networks. The program built directly upon the achievements of WHV Ayutthaya 2024, which received international recognition in the 2025 Global Awards for World Heritage Education as a “Star of Outstanding” case for its innovation in people-centered heritage practice. The 2025 edition expanded under the theme “River × Heritage”, a conceptual framework that emphasized how rivers, beyond serving as physical lifelines, also represent cultural corridors, ecological systems, and foundations for community identity. The program aimed to reconnect participants with the intertwined relationships between natural watercourses, tangible and intangible heritage, and the resilience of communities adapting to environmental and social change. By combining academic lectures, immersive community stays, site-based conservation practice, river-cleaning activities, and a public exhibition, the initiative provided an unusually comprehensive platform for learning, participation, and sustainable impact.

Academic Foundation: Intensive Lectures
The program opened with two intensive days of lectures at Kasetsart University, where participants gained a rigorous theoretical grounding in heritage sciences, conservation challenges, and community-engaged practices. These sessions were designed to blend global perspectives with local expertise, ensuring that young volunteers could approach field activities with both critical awareness and cultural sensitivity. The lectures included:

• World Heritage Volunteers Initiative – Patiphol Yodsurang provided an overview of WHV’s global mission, its role within UNESCO’s broader heritage education strategy, and Ayutthaya’s position within that network.
• Creativity & Participatory Process – Aracha Krasae-in demonstrated tools for collective design thinking, using participatory mapping and storytelling to empower communities in interpreting heritage.
• Evolving River Landscapes: Adaptation, Transformation, and Resilience – Patiphol Yodsurang analyzed historical changes in river-based settlements, highlighting strategies for resilience in the face of climate variability and flooding.
• The River as a Living Heritage – Patiphol Yodsurang emphasized the necessity of community participation, exploring how oral traditions, rituals, and shared memory maintain rivers as cultural spaces.
• Integrated Riverine Heritage Conservation and Sustainable Tourism – Dolruthai Jiarakul presented a balanced framework where conservation, visitor experience, and local benefit converge.
• World Heritage Trend: Year-Round Dynamics of World Heritage in Thailand and Southeast Asia – Supitcha Sutthanonkul (SEAMEO SPAFA) contextualized Ayutthaya within broader regional shifts in World Heritage management and policy.
• Intangible Heritage Along the River – Patiphol Yodsurang introduced culinary heritage, boat-making traditions, and seasonal festivals as intangible anchors of riverside identity.
• Ayutthaya’s Hydrology and Heritage – Hatthaya Siriphattanakun (SEAMEO SPAFA) described ancient flood control, irrigation, and water management systems, linking them to today’s environmental challenges.
• World Heritage: Rivers as Cultural Corridors – Poomipat Norapoompipat from The Excellence Centre for Integrated Research of World Heritage demonstrated how rivers historically connected civilizations and continue to influence urban development.

Immersive Community Engagement
After the academic sessions, participants moved directly into field immersion with a homestay in the Khlong Rang Chorakhe community. This village, located in Ayutthaya’s riverine hinterland, exemplifies how traditional ways of life remain deeply tied to water systems. Volunteers joined families in their daily routines: harvesting lotus and vegetables from canals, preparing shared meals using indigenous ingredients, and learning the cultural etiquette of riverside living. Beyond household experiences, the homestay also included cultural exchange activities, where students wore traditional attire, took part in local games, and listened to elders recount oral histories of floods, livelihoods, and rituals. This direct engagement fostered empathy, respect, and an embodied understanding of how intangible heritage continues to thrive in lived practice.

Following the homestay, participants visited Ayutthaya’s historic city island, where they encountered the interconnection of temples, waterways, and defensive structures. The learning then shifted toward water-based exploration. Canoe and paddle sessions along the Lopburi River revealed everyday riverside life, while boat tours allowed participants to observe elephants bathing and fishermen at work. The planned full paddle circuit around the city island had to be adapted due to early monsoon flooding, but this adaptation itself became a learning point about the challenges of climate change. In the end, four participants were able to undertake a supervised paddle along the Chao Phraya River, experiencing firsthand the force and majesty of the river that has sustained Ayutthaya for centuries.

Community-based Conservation: Wat Chaiwatthanaram Collaboration
A highlight of the program was the two-day collaboration with the World Monuments Fund (WMF) at Wat Chaiwatthanaram, a UNESCO World Heritage temple under long-term conservation. Participants joined WMF experts and local custodians in hands-on activities such as site cleaning, condition documentation, and guided interpretation of the temple’s flood-related vulnerabilities. The conservation workshops underscored the importance of integrating local communities in heritage management. By working side by side with residents, volunteers experienced how global institutions and local actors can form effective alliances in safeguarding monuments. Discussions emphasized resilience planning, the role of volunteerism in long-term monitoring, and strategies for keeping heritage alive in community identity rather than confined to static monuments.

Environmental Action: River Cleaning Paddle Trip
On 29 August, the group undertook an environmental action day that combined recreation with conservation. Participants paddled kayaks and stand-up paddleboards through canals such as Khlong Khao Mao, Khlong Sakae, and Khlong Dusit, before joining the Pa Sak River. Along the way, they removed invasive water hyacinths, floating plastic, and other waste in cooperation with Ayutthaya Municipality and community volunteers. This activity highlighted not only the urgent problem of aquatic pollution but also the potential of volunteer-driven actions to create tangible environmental benefits. For many, it was a transformative experience—combining physical exertion, teamwork, and ecological awareness into a single event that reinforced the theme of “River × Heritage.”

Public Engagement: AUG/ART Exhibition
On 30 August, the program culminated in a public exhibition at AUG/ART: Art & Coffee, hosted at Lanvela by Morning Drip. Here, participants presented their reflections, creative works, and documentation of activities to a wide public audience. The event was not simply an exhibition but an open-air community marketplace infused with local crafts, heritage coffee brewing, and intergenerational dialogue. The AUG/ART exhibition allowed scholars, community members, artists, and volunteers to meet on equal ground. It showcased rivers not only as ecological systems but as spaces of creativity, livelihood, and memory. The festive yet reflective atmosphere provided closure to the program, while leaving behind a sense of continuity and shared responsibility.

Outcomes and Impact
The program’s impacts were manifold. For participants, it expanded both academic knowledge and practical skills, sharpening awareness of heritage conservation and sustainability. They gained hands-on experience in field documentation, participatory design, and river-based conservation. Soft skills such as teamwork, adaptability in crisis (flooding), and intercultural communication were equally strengthened. For local communities, the project generated immediate benefits: improved canal conditions after cleaning, renewed pride in local traditions through cultural exchange, and enhanced visibility of community-led initiatives. The exhibition further contributed to supporting local creative economies and small-scale entrepreneurs, blending heritage with contemporary cultural production.
World Heritage Volunteers 2025: River × Heritage – Ayutthaya successfully combined academic training, hands-on fieldwork, environmental action, and community engagement. It offered a model of how heritage education can transcend classrooms to become a living, participatory process that benefits both learners and host communities. Its legacy lies not only in the knowledge transferred but in the relationships forged across cultures, disciplines, and generations—all centered around the lifeblood of Ayutthaya, its rivers.