Sir,
This refers to the editorial’Intangible Cultural Heritage'(DE,August 9, 2017).It is sad that no efforts have been made to preserve and document the priceless intangible cultural heritage of our state including oral traditions and expressions including languages, performing arts, social practices, rituals, totems, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe and traditional craftsmanship, etc is fast disappearing despite the fact that a committee of experts from different fields of art and culture has been constituted to frame a policy as to how this heritage can be documented. This intangible cultural heritage,also called living cultural heritage which also includes, songs, music, dance, drama skills, cuisine etc.can only be recorded and not stored in museums etc.This priceless heritage is constantly recreated by communities by their interaction with nature and history and provides them with a sense of identity and helps in promoting cultural diversity.It is then,transmitted from generation to generation.It is sad that despite constitution of a committee of experts about four months back to start the process of documentation of this precious intangible cultural heritage, no headway has been made in this direction.We have inherited a rich and diverse tangible and intangible cultural heritage of our three regions, Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh and steps need to be taken to preserve it.Probably, many items of our intangible cultural heritage have disappeared or are on the verge of extinction due to our indifference in this regard.A massive exercise needs to be initiated to identify the persons and organisations having expert knowledge of art forms, who/which can document the intangible cultural heritage so that it can be documented and passed on to the posterity.
Yours etc…..
Ashok Sharma,
Housing Colony,
Udhampur.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel