TANGO TAKES ITS TURN ON UN CULTURAL BODY’S LIST OF INTANGIBLE HERITAGE

TANGO TAKES ITS TURN ON UN CULTURAL BODY'S LIST OF INTANGIBLE HERITAGE
New York, Sep 30 2009 6:10PM
The tango, spawned over a century ago in the lower class barrios of Buenos Aires and Montevideo before bursting on to dance floors worldwide, today danced itself on to the United Nations-endorsed list of the planet's intangible cultural heritage.

Together with dances of the Ainu in Japan, the Ashiqs in Azerbaijan and Korean and Tibetan ethnic groups in China, and others from Réunion island, India, Mexico and the Republic of Korea (ROK) it joined a host of cultural elements ranging from France's Aubusson tapestries to Holy Week processions in Popayán, Colombia, to be added to the list.

In all, 76 cultural elements were inscribed on the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (<"http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=46523&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html">UNESCO) Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, chosen by the 24 Member States of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Heritage at its fourth session in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

The list was inaugurated last November in accordance with UNESCO's Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, which seeks to protect the world's oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, craftsmanship and knowledge of nature.

Today's inscriptions ranged from religious ceremonies, like the Procession of the Holy Blood in Bruges, Belgium, the Panagyr ritual on the feast days of Saints Constantine and Helena in Bulgari, Bulgaria, and religious ritual theatre in the Garhwal Himalayas, India, to lace making in Croatia, a masked end-of-winter carnival in Mohács, Hungary, and the Voladores ('flying men') fertility dance of ethnic groups in Mexico and Central America.

The inscriptions comprise cultural elements from Argentina, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bulgaria, China, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, France, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Mali, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the ROK, Romania, Spain, Turkey, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, and Viet Nam.
Sep 30 2009 6:10PM
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