Recognition for intangible legacy

The Culture Ministry is now changing regulations that in the past recognised only national heritage items for registration.
“We will [now] consider community-level intangible cultural heritage too,” Cultural Promotion Depart-ment (CPD) director-general Prisna Pongtadsirikul said yesterday. She said communities could nominate such intangible cultural heritage items for consideration.
“A committee will then review the nominations and register the qualified ones,” Prisna explained.
CPD officials would train locals in how to compile information about their cultural heritages and how to verify whether the items are really from their cultures.
“The process will be in line with procedures prescribed by the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage,” Prisna said. She said the registration of the national/community intangible cultural heritage would take place in August and involve at least 20 such heritage proposals.
Prisna said Thailand was gathering opinion to determine whether it should ratify the Convention for the Safe-guarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage.