The spirit of place of Bhaktapur, Nepal

This is the author's accepted manuscript, made available with the permission of the publisher. The Version of Record of this manuscript has been published and is available in the International Journal of Heritage Studies, April 2015, http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/13527258.2015.1028962.There is no clear approach to defining the authenticity of the ‘spirit and feeling’ of a place or how it could inform heritage conservation. I argue that the notion of spirit of place may be defined in a manner that directly links it with the concept of cultural significance of historic places, how it is understood by a community and with heritage conservation goals and development needs of that place. Residents in the World Heritage Town of Bhaktapur, Nepal, were interviewed to explore their shared understanding of its spirit of place. The residents identify the spirit of place of Bhaktapur in terms of four interrelated place dimensions; that is, the ‘sense of sacrality’, the ‘sense of community’, the ‘sense of historicity’ and the ‘sense of serenity’