11 elements were previously inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List, including four elements directly related to the Kazakh cultural heritage
The UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage included two new elements of the Kazakh cultural heritage in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity during its 17th session in the capital of Morocco:
- Orteke - traditional performing art in Kazakhstan: dance, puppet and music;
- The telling tradition of Kozhanasyr jokes;
The Kazakhstan delegation to the current session was represented by officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan and experts from the ICH National Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan under the National Commission of the Republic of Kazakhstan for UNESCO and ICESCO, the press service of the Kazakh MFA reported.
At this session, the Committee considered 46 nominations, including Orteke and Kozhanasyr jokes.
Orteke is a musical-puppet art with the use of a wooden figurine of a tauteke mountain goat, tied by a single thread to a musician-puppeteer. Nowadays this ancient Turkic art has a generally recognized status of a puppet-musical art as it is a synthesis of several types of art creation: arts and crafts, music, dance and puppet-driving art. It is not just a dance, but a whole story unfolding before the eyes of the audience.
Kozhanasyr or Khoja Nasreddin is an oriental folklore character, the hero of short humorous and satirical miniatures and anecdotes, and sometimes of household tales. He combines an internally contradictory image of an anti-hero, a vagabond, freethinker, rebel, foolish man, cunning man, trickster and even a philosopher, mocking human vices, misers, prudes and hypocrites. This element is submitted jointly by Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkiye, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
The Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity aims to raise international awareness of cultural traditions and knowledge without recognizing standards of superiority or exclusivity.
It should be noted that 11 elements were previously inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List, including four elements directly related to the Kazakh cultural heritage: "Art of Dombra kuy" (2014), "Kures in Kazakhstan" (2016), "Kazakh traditional asyk games" (2017), "Traditional spring festive rites of the Kazakh horse breeders" (2018). Seven elements belong to the common cultural heritage of a number of countries: "Yurt making" (2014), "Aitys, the art of improvisation" (2015), "Nauryz" and "Flatbread making and sharing culture" (2016), "Korkyt ata heritage" (2018), "Togyzqumalak" (2020) and "Falconry" (2021).
Photo: gov.kz.
