UNESCO’s INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE

About:

• Intangible culture is that part of culture which cannot be touched but can only be recorded. It includes performing arts like song, music, drama, skills, crafts etc.
  
  
• Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage was adopted in 2003. India ratified it in 2007.
  
  

UNESCO’s list of intangible culture

• It is an annual list which focuses on those forms of performing art which are of outstanding value but are vulnerable due to lack of support.
  
  
• The program currently compiles two lists –
  • Representative List: It comprises cultural practices and expressions that help to demonstrate the diversity of this heritage and raise awareness about its importance. It is longer.
    
    
  • Urgent Safeguarding list: It is composed of those cultural elements “whose continuous recreation and transmission” are threatened and are in need of immediate support. It is shorter.
    
    
  
  
  
• Domains: There are five broad ‘domains’ in which intangible cultural heritage is manifested:
  1. Oral traditions and expressions, including language as a vehicle of the intangible cultural heritage;
     
     
  2. Performing arts;
     
     
  3. Social practices, rituals and festive events;
     
     
  4. Knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe;
     
     
  5. Traditional craftsmanship.
     
     
  
  
  
• A total of 13 Intangible cultural heritage (ICH) elements from India have been inscribed till date on the UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.