This is the epilogue, but Melaka goes on. As I have suggested in the title of this book, Melaka is a cityscape below the winds, but not just geographically as the old toponym for the region reminds us. Global and local forces blow, like winds, over the cityscape. Flows of ideas circulate and intermingle in this specific locale. My driving purpose throughout this book has been to show how global scientific conservation principles meet local heritage perspectives, and the complex ways they unfold on the ground, but without falling too easily into either ‘top-down’ or ‘bottom-up’ narratives and conclusions. While you are reading, conservation policies are implemented – perhaps some of them circumvented – and new urban development projects are approved.

I am hesitant to make cy-oriented recommendations in relation to heritage conservation, although some of my own interlocutors would expect me to embark on such a mission. When I presented myself as an anthropologist working on heritage, people often expected me to write a book on how to preserve buildings or about their cultures, but this was not the trajectory of my research. I leave the task of heritage management exercise – with regard to technical matters – to the numerous gifted conservationists, architects, planners, archaeologists, and heritage aficionados I had the opportunity to meet. But perhaps I have a wish, rather than recommendations, which is linked to another purpose at the heart of this book. My goal has been to create space for different perspectives, including the most silent ones. I hope there will be more space for those unheard voices in the future everyday life of heritage management and urban planning.