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Intellectual Cultural Heritage
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The Intellectual Cultural Heritage Designation
Announcement 2009
Intellectual cultural heritage
means the body
of knowledge or work by individuals or groups, which
was created, developed, accumulated, transmitted and
applied in the daily life of those individuals or groups
continuously, in response to the social and natural
environments of their communities, and representing
their identity and cultural diversity.
Intellectual cultural heritage encompasses the
creative works of architecture, painting, sculpture,
handicraft, and folk arts; the knowledge, ski l l and
practices expressed through language, performing arts,
crafts, beliefs, traditions, rites, and food, for example,
which are transmitted from generation to generation
as practices or approaches. In some cases, they are
considered as a common spiritual bond of the people in
the communities. Some intellectual cultural heritage
items are beautiful and have high artistic values.
Some intellectual cultural heritage items, for
example, the ancient monuments, objects and artefacts,
have been protected under the
Act on Ancient
Monuments, Antiques, Objects of Art and National
Museums, B.E. 2504 (1961 AD).
However, some
intellectual cultural heritage items, such as knowledge,
skills, or creative processes of the cultural works or
artefacts, have not been seriously and systematically
safeguarded.
The safeguarding, promotion, perpetuation and
transmission of the intellectual cultural heritage are
crucial to the existence of the national cultural heritage.
The Ministry of Culture has therefore announced a list
of the intellectual cultural heritage designated to be
safeguarded in 2009, which includes two domains: 12
items in three categories of the performing arts domain
and 13 items in eight categories of the traditional
craftsmanship domain. The Ministry of Culture plans to
promote and support exchanges of knowledge and
transmission of the designated intel lectual cultural
her i tage in the l i st through var ious methods as
appropriate in the future.