Thursday, October 7, 2010

UNESCO to Declare Angklung World Heritage Soon

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - Indonesia’s traditional music instrument, the ’Angklung’, is soon to be officially delared a world heritage item by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) like batik, wayang, and the keris before.

"On November 18, angklung will be declared a world heritage article ," Wardiyanto, secretary general of the Tourism and Culture Ministry, said here Thursday.

He said the ministry had made intensive efforts to convince UNESCO of the need to recognize angklung as one of the world’s heritage items like batik, the keris (ceremonal dagger) and wayang (Javanese traditional puppets) which had obtained the world heritage status earlier, he said. The efforts to get the angklung included in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, were made for the first time years ago, he said.

"We plan to have more things of Indonesian culture recognized as part of the world’s heritage," he said.

At present a total of 890 objects world wide are on UNESCO’s world heritage list and 689 of them are in the culture category, 176 in the nature category and 25 in both the culture and nature categories.

Of the 890 objects with world heritage status 11 were Indonesian with four of them in the nature, three in the culture and four in the intangible culture categories. The Indonesian natural heritages consist of Ujung Kulon National Park in Banten Province, Komodo National Park in East Nusa Tenggara, Lorentz National Park in West Papua province, and Sumatran tropical forests comprising the Gunung Leuser, Kerinci Sablat and Bukit Barisan national parks.

The three cultural heritages are the Borobudur Temple, Prambanan Temple, and Sangiran Pre-historical site. The intangible world heritages from Indonesia were the wayang and keris which were recognized as masterpieces of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity in 2003 and 2005, and also batik as a tangible cultural heritage of humanity in 2010.

Sumber: kompas.com

Tak lama lagi adalah demo di Jakarta membantah permainan angklung di Malaysia. Si Mustar Bona Ventura ketua aktivis Bendera pula akan menuduh "Malingsia" merampok budaya "Indon".