ABOUT 900 representatives from 120 member states of UNESCO Convention 2003 — the only global instrument to fight for the cause of the invaluable and yet continually declining elements of intangible cultural heritage from around the world — gathered at the grand hall of the Confederacion Sudamericano Futbol complex, popularly known as the CONMEBOL, Luque in the Paraguayan capital city of Asuncion in December 2–7 to witness the decision of the 18th session of the intangible cultural heritage intergovernmental committee’s annual meet to which Bangladesh is a member until 2026.
Other than the 24 committee members, the states having nomination files on their cultural heritage elements on the table either to be considered for inscription in different categories like intangible cultural heritage in need of urgent safeguarding, the representative list of humanity, knowledge and skills sharing or transferring elements from one list to the other, attended the event with relevant government’s fullest support.
Since becoming a signatory to the convention in 2003 and subsequent ratification in 2009, Bangladesh enjoys a number of inscriptions of this UN agency, including the latest rickshaw and rickshaw art in Dhaka. It is now working with the process as a committee member. It is a regular exercise for especially officials of the departments concerned. It is more so with members the Bangladesh permanent delegation to the UNESCO in Paris. But things are not as easy as that with the states who have not yet got any of their elements inscribed or only one with long struggling years to overcome. Albania, Ghana, Myanmar and Ukraine are a few such countries to name.
Convention 2003 has the provision for its signatories to propose files for nomination on safeguarding intangible cultural heritage elements for sustainably promoting them both nationally and globally. Now, the answer to the question why it is important to safeguard the intangible cultural heritage elements of the states parties by UNESCO lies in the fact that the heritage elements of the world have been recently declared as the public good by UNESCO and their knowledge has been identified as beneficial for the well-being of the generations to come. For this reason, UNESCO, the apex agency on culture, does not only advocate for promotion of cultural products and practices all over the world but also intends to see that intergenerational knowledge transfer mechanism hinges on the responsible authorities efforts of sharing the tacit and explicit knowledge of relevant heritage bearers in educational institutes sustainably.
A record 63 files were approved by the session, totalling the UNESCO inscribed elements and practices to reach 788 dispersed among 150 nations. What was more trend-setting with the committee this year is that it has agreed to a number of files on traditional food culture from across the countries of Europe, Asia the Pacific region and South America. Culinary traditions of Malaysia, South Korea and Thailand have most notably been taken to the international audiences by presenting and serving diets on the side events of the venue where people thronged to taste the delicacies offered and everybody relished the South Asian cuisines handed down from one generation to the other. The ways they were prepared and served are also marked with imprints of intergenerational skills and knowledge transfer equally matched with live narratives on the spot from the experienced, well trained voices from the tourism departments of the respective countries.
And here, I picked up the twist of the things of Asian gastronomy. I wondered if a simple dish of a handful of steamed rice along with a pinch of fried, ground nuts and dried fish laced with some soya sauce served in a small boat-shaped wooden plate could go flagged in a UNESCO meet so frenziedly, then what about our Dhakai kacchi or mejbani from Chattogram or rasmalai of Cumilla? And what about hundreds of others scattered throughout the whole deltaic plain of ours? What do we lack in to making them global?
It required nothing but some initiatives and we have every arrangement in terms of looking into those culinary dishes in our country. With the collaboration of the cultural affairs ministry, the Bangladesh Tourism Board and the Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation could easily prepare files to be submitted to the committee for its consideration long before. Before that to happen, the authority concerned — the political leadership, policymakers and policy advisers — have to visualise the possibility by themselves of the wider exploitation of this sector if they really mean to boost our tourism nationally and beyond.
But if the civil aviation and tourism ministry and its two entities are of the view that observing International Tourism Day in a certain hotel premises and holding a food fair locally for a day or two are enough to usher in the global tour makers into the country, things will roll differently in days ahead. It is also understandable that some quarters of the authorities concerned are of the view that as an Islamic country, Bangladesh could not make our tourism vibe like those of Thailand, the Maldives or Singapore. Then, what about Indonesia and Malaysia? What about Saudi Arabia? Saudi Arabia has fixed its strategic goal to draw as many as 30 million Bangladeshi religion tourists by 2030. Are we more righteous than Muslims of those lands? Perhaps, we are yet to discover the link between a country’s tourism and economy that are layered, intertwined within the promotional efforts of our history, tradition and heritage. And culinary treasure of Bangladesh just offers another dimension to the whole affairs.
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Md Mukhlesur Rahman Akand is a joint secretary to the cultural affairs of ministry.
