The government will register pencak silat (a traditional martial art) with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to have it recognized as part of Indonesiaâs cultural heritage, an official has said
he government will register pencak silat (a traditional martial art) with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to have it recognized as part of Indonesia's cultural heritage, an official has said.
Youth and Sports Minister Roy Suryo said the government would register pencak silat with UNESCO as soon as possible because a neighboring country was found to have made a serious effort to claim pencak silat as belonging to it. However, he refused to disclose the name of the country.
'It [the claiming of pencak silat by another country] may not come true. Our heritage will be lost," he recently said in Padang, West Sumatra, as quoted by tempo.co.
He said that pencak silat was owned by Indonesia because such an art had existed in Minangkabau, West Sumatra, since 1926.
He said that he had communicated with Mohammad Nuh, the education and culture minister, because his ministry would register pencak silat to UNESCO.
He said that his ministry would also select pencak silat as one of the new games that would be put in various international sports competitions held in Indonesia, as an effort to show other countries that pencak silat was owned by Indonesia. (alz)
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