Celebration events in Laos
Laos has actively participated in the UNESCO ICH program under the 2003 Convention, with several elements from its cultural heritage being inscribed on the Representative List. Evidently, Laos has organized a series of workshops, seminars, and trainings to raise awareness for officiais and professionals in the cultural sector. Notably, since 2011, Laos has been involved in a regional capacity-building program on intangible cultural heritage (ICH). ln 2016, with support from the Government of Japan and UNESCO, the Department of Heritage organized a workshop on safeguarding plans for ICH and conducted a field pilot inventory of six ICH elements in Luang Prabang province.
Particularly, several activities have been implemented to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage such as a meeting on the Protection and Promotion of Intangible Culture and Arts “Laiy Ngao Dance”, a Photography contest on the 20th anniversary of the 2003 Convention, training on primary original Lao and Dhamma, Pali, and Sanskrit Languages for officiais of MICT, and other traditional festivals which have been held in Vientiane Capital, Borkeo and Luang Prabang Province:
- Meeting on Protection and Promotion of Intangible Culture and Arts “Laiy Ngao Dance” on 16 October 2023
- ‘Cetebration of 20m Anniversary of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage’ publication
- Training on primary original Lao and Dhamma, Pali, and Sanskrit Languages for officiais of MICT on 26 June 2023
- Festival for the celebration of 20th Anniversary of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in Vientiane Capital from 13 to 17 december 2023
- The traditional festival of the tribe in 2023 and launch Lao Tourism Year 2024 (Festival) from 25 to 31 December 2023