<![CDATA[Chiang Mai Old City, a 700-year-old Lanna heritage zone hosting over 10 million tourists annually, faces severe sustainability challenges from tourism-driven development, including visual intrusion, social displacement, and cultural commodification. Conventional Western sustainability models prove inadequate by fragmenting interdependent dimensions and failing to address underlying cognitive failures in governance. This conceptual research proposes a holistic framework integrating Ittappaccayata (Dependent Origination), a Buddhist philosophical principle, with the Sappurisadhamma 7 ethical guidelines to analyze conditional relationships in heritage management. Through document synthesis and philosophical analysis, the study diagnoses current degradation as resulting from Avijjā (Ignorance) and Taṇhā (Craving), where decision-makers prioritize short-term economic gains over systemic resilience. The framework reveals three critical failures: inadequate two-dimensional zoning unable to protect visual integrity, participation-based tourism models lacking community control, and fragmented policies reflecting institutional wisdom deficits. The research proposes three mandates: implementing three-dimensional zoning with viewshed analysis, transitioning to Community-Controlled Tourism (CCT), and institutionalizing the Gross Heritage Happiness (GHH) Index—inspired by Bhutan's GNH framework—to measure cultural resilience, community vitality, and environmental balance rather than GDP-focused metrics. This conditional management approach offers both theoretical contributions elevating Buddhist philosophy as an applied analytical tool and practical guidance for Southeast Asian heritage cities navigating development-conservation tensions.]]>
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