Bagan’s Authorized Narrative

This short chapter offers a contrast to the nuanced counternarrative presented in chapters ‘Bagan’s Conservation History and the Adopt-a-Pagoda Program’ and ‘Spatial and Ideological Transformations: Constructing a Counternarrative’ as it presents the authorized narrative that was fabricated for Bagan’s World Heritage inscription. The chapter revisits the first attempt at a UNESCO World Heritage listing for the site in the mid-1990s and its political context, as well as, the development of the nomination strategy for the eventually successful World Heritage listing (2019) under the transitional government (2011–2015) and NLD government (2016–2020). Tracing this process reveals not only political realities of contemporary reconciliation politics, but also of the shortcomings of the World Heritage System that highly romanticizes allegedly religious and traditional practices while ignoring their political implications.