ASIAN RURAL CULTURAL LANDSCAPES: CULTURE-NATURE INTERFACES AND SUSTAINABILITY

Asia recorded a share of around 47.4% of its total population as rural in 2023 (UN estimates), but at the regional level, there appears to be a contrasting scenario. By 2030, around 40% will be in rural areas. The rural environment of Asia presents a distinct-cum-diversified rural cultural landscape where village life and nearness to nature are common. In a habitat sense, the concept of the cultural landscape also includes the nature-ness of the surrounding environment. India comprises 66.83% of its population as rural, living in over 640,930 villages (consisting of 3,287,263 sq. km). Contrarily, China consists of 36.44% of its population is rural, living in around 690,000 villages. Chinese rural landscape is represented by agri(cultural) landscape and typically nucleated settlement types; its philosophical and cultural foundation of the landscape is very similar to the Indian rural landscape. Japanese rural landscape presents a natural setting in which rice fields surrounded by trees and mountains and small clustering of wood houses are the common scenes. The Korean rural landscape also presents a similar scene to that of the Japanese; however, under the ‘New Village Development Plan’ strategy, rural tourism is now developing rapidly. The philosophy of harmonious co-existence (kyosei) and the concept of culture-nature reciprocity settlement (satoyama) that historically developed in East Asia and are now debated as pathways of a sustainable future for rural cultural landscape, together represent the Asian vision of Cultural Landscapes and expected that they would present a model for similar conditions in the rest of the world.