A study on visitor perception and their cognition of cultural landsacpes: with special reference to the temple of the tooth, Kandy

Abstract

Mankind has been remembered through history for their various victories, defeats and even for the cities and land that had been developed in the past. Hence, today we would witness such intricacies through Cultural Landscapes which tell the stories of people, events and places through time. This develops a continuation for the landscape and will be remembered generation after generation. This research aims on assessing the relationship between the cognition and the visual perception in the visitors at the Temple of the Tooth, Kandy. The study would involve in identifying the factors that attribute for the Temple of the Tooth to become a cultural landscape, to identify the cultural activities around the Temple of the Tooth premises and its vicinity and the cultural landscape elements which its visitors could recall. Moreover, the Temple of the Tooth, Kandy can be identified as a Continuing Cultural Landscape and is a World Heritage site identified by the UNESCO in 1988. Therefore, data related to the memory the visitors carry within them would be unveiled using cognitive maps of the Temple of the Tooth, Kandy where volunteers identified and marked the places they remember on a map prepared which was followed with a questionnaire to further identify the factors related to the cognition of the cultural landscape elements that causes the visual memory. The target group is selected using simple random sampling method. Priority has been given on the landscape elements and how cognition relates to them. The visual perception of visitors on cultural landscapes is analysed based on the Information Processing theory. This study has identified that the landscape of the Temple of the Tooth and its vicinity complies with visual perception theories and the cognition of such landscape would enhance once complied. It has been identified that evolution within a cultural landscape would assist it to become a continuing cultural landscape rather than being a dead spot of mere history.