Benefitting country(ies): Lao People's Democratic Republic

Overview:

The proposed twenty-four-month project – to be implemented by the Intangible Cultural Heritage Team of the Department of Information, Culture and Tourism in Luang Prabang – is geared at building capacities for safeguarding living heritage through the creation of a community-based inventory for Luang Prabang. In the long term, the project plans to merge intangible cultural heritage mapping with the existing Luang Prabang World Heritage Town Management Plan, to ensure that the safeguarding of living heritage and the management of Luang Prabang World Heritage Town are developed in a coordinated manner. To this end, a pilot project is proposed, with the following medium-term objectives: strengthen the capacities of communities, academic personnel and government officers in conducting community-based inventorying; develop tested training materials for trainers and materials for community members in the Lao language; enhance the participation and leadership of communities in creating inventories; evaluate the viability of elements of living heritage and identify those at risk; and raise awareness of the significance of intangible cultural heritage generally. The training of trainers will be organized at the provincial level and will include resource persons who have undergone training in previous UNESCO capacity-building programmes, and extended to community members, government officials, academics and cultural focal points. This is expected to build a network of national trainers to lay the foundation for subsequent safeguarding projects related to intangible cultural heritage. The project also foresees to conduct a provincial survey to understand the overall situation of living heritage and identify the elements at risk. Overall, the pilot project model of safeguarding intangible cultural heritage is aimed to be replicated all over Luang Prabang Province and to serve as a model at the national level.

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