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UNESCO and Asahi organize event in Nara to promote intangible cultural heritage

Paris, 4 August

UNESCO and Asahi organize event in Nara to promote intangible cultural heritage
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“The Future of Intangible Cultural Heritage” will be celebrated on 8 August in the former Japanese capital Nara.

UNESCO and the Asahi Shimbun Company, publisher of one of the leading Japanese daily newspapers, are organizing jointly a symposium and an evening event to raise awareness among the general public of intangible cultural heritage and the challenges of its safeguarding.

Some 500 people are expected to attend the afternoon symposium where the Director-General of UNESCO, Koďchiro Matuura, and the internationally renowned Vietnamese-born ethnomusicologist, Tran Quang Hai, will discuss the crucial importance of safeguarding intangible cultural heritage for the present and for the future of society. The event is being organized within the framework of a partnership agreement between UNESCO and Asahi to promote intangible cultural heritage.


Panelists from the Republic of Korea, the Philippines and Japan, will demonstrate the nature of this living and constantly evolving heritage, which sometimes disappears through interaction with its surroundings. They will also recommend actions to favour the uninterrupted transmission of this fragile heritage to future generations in the context of globalization and growing cultural homogenization, particularly among youth.

A public of some 2,000 spectators is expected to attend an evening performance of Mugham music from Azerbaijan, Kun Qu Opera from China as well as Nôgaku Theatre from Japan. The performance will take place at the Todaiji-Temple, one of the Historic Monuments of Nara inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. All three of these musical genres have been recognized by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage of humanity. The concert will provide an opportunity for the general public to appreciate the significance of diverse forms of intangible cultural heritage.

UNESCO’s initiative to safeguard intangible cultural heritage has taken on new momentum since 2006, when the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage entered into force. The Convention has been ratified by 114 States to date. New elements of intangible cultural heritage will be inscribed on the Urgent Safeguarding List and Representative List when the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, the executive body in charge of the implementation of the Convention, meets in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) from 28 September to 2 October 2009.

  • Author(s):UNESCOPRESS
  • Source:Media Advisory No. 2009-43
  • 05-08-2009
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