Narratives Rooted in Ta Prohm’s Trees: An Analysis of Tourist Narratives in Travel Guides and Travel Blogs about the Angkor Temple Ta Prohm, Cambodia
Keywords
Loading...
Authors
Issue Date
2025-07-15
Language
en
Document type
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Title
ISSN
Volume
Issue
Startpage
Endpage
DOI
Abstract
Ta Prohm, one of the Angkor temple ruins in Cambodia, is known for its silk-cotton
and strangler fig trees. This thesis investigates the narratives and meanings constructed around
these trees. Despite the prominent role that these trees play in the site’s visual identity, their
cultural significance in tourism media has remained underexplored. By conducting a
qualitative content and narrative analysis of two Lonely Planet travel guides and nine English
travel blogs, this research identifies dominant narratives that determine the identity of Ta
Prohm. These analyses were conducted through the theoretical lenses of nostalgia, Ning
Wang’s typology of authenticity, John Urry’s theory of the romantic, mediatised,
anthropological, and family gazes, and Laurajane Smith’s theory about the authorised heritage
discourses (AHD) of the wilderness and the pastoral. Narratives of romance, enchantment,
authenticity, and adventure were found, reinforcing the existing identities of Ta Prohm: the
Jungle Temple and the Tomb Raider Temple. Though the travel blogs mostly mirrored the
dominant narratives found in the travel guides, they also provided additional perspectives,
portraying nature as monstrous, highlighting the possibility of reflecting on modernity and
looking at Ta Prohm through an anthropological gaze. This research revealed how tourists cocreate
and interpret narratives individually, both challenging and reflecting the dominant
heritage discourses found in tourism media.
Description
Citation
Supervisor
Faculty
Faculteit der Letteren