UNESCO continues its initiative to help safeguard Nepal’s intangible heritage with a workshop on preparing nominations to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage List in Kathmandu from 16 to 20 September 2013. The workshop is the last of three Japan funded events to build capacity to protect the manifestations of Nepal’s intangible – or living – heritage.

These living traditions in the form of traditions, performing arts, festive events and skills of people to produce traditional crafts are a central part of the country’s collective heritage.
The Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage adopted by UNESCO in 2003, and ratified by Nepal in 2010, is an excellent framework to give continuity to these living traditions. However, the national capacity to safeguard this heritage needs to be enhanced.

The forthcoming seminar, which UNESCO Kathmandu organizes jointly with the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, will provide knowledge about inscribing elements in the intangible cultural heritage list and enhance skills to prepare a nomination file. It will also train experts, representatives from community and concerned institutions on how to prepare files for the Urgent Safeguarding List and Representative List and proposals for the Register of Best Practices, and how to formulate requests for international assistance.

Conducted by the UNESCO-trained facilitators, Suzanne Ogge from Australia and Shubha Chaudhuri from India, the event is the final of a series of three capacity building events over the last 18 months. The first workshop, held in April 2012 in Kathmandu, addressed the key principles and definitions of intangible cultural heritage; the second workshop, which took place in January 2013 in the Jiri-Sikri valley, focused on the process and guidelines for community-based inventorying of these living traditions.
The national capacity building events are part of the regional capacity building project “Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage through the Strengthening of National Capacities in Asia and the Pacific”, funded by the Government of Japan.

UNESCO expects around 30 participants from communities and groups creating, maintaining and transmitting intangible heritage as well as institution.

For more information: website of UNESCO Office in Kathmandu