Frequently asked questions

Transmitted from generation to generation and from person to person

Intangible cultural heritage is the bridge between present, past and future. It is culture of today, creates a sense of connectedness with earlier generations and is at the same time future-orientated, because people wish to pass it on to next generations.

Dynamic heritage

Contrary to material heritage (buildings, objects, documents and monuments), intangible cultural heritage is a living and dynamic form of heritage, which adapts to and changes with time. It connects the community that practices it and identifies with it. Intangible cultural heritage constitutes the heart of that group of people, who often practice it with passion and on a voluntary basis.

The UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage aims to:

• Protect intangible cultural heritage;
• Promote the respect for intangible cultural heritage and its bearers;
• Raise the awareness of the significance of intangible cultural heritage at an international, national and local level;
• Ensure the recognition and appreciation of the cultural diversity;
• Promote international cooperation.

Worldwide 175 countries signed the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

See the page of this UNESCO Convention here.

UNESCO wishes to protect intangible cultural heritage, or ‘safeguard’ it. To protect, or secure, means: to give a future to intangible cultural heritage, to find a form that also appeals to future generations and to take away the bottlenecks that block the way to the future of this ICH.

Intangible cultural heritage is always dynamic and under development. Protection therefore does not mean: keeping it as it used to be in the past. UNESCO does not want to turn ICH into museum pieces.

Protection and safeguarding of intangible heritage is done by the practitioners themselves. In the Netherlands the Dutch Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage can offer support in this respect.

UNESCO puts the responsibility for keeping the ICH alive and dynamic in the very hands of the communities, or individuals or groups who practice it. Thus, there is no direction from above, or so that the government determines what the intangible cultural heritage should look like. That is the responsibility of the people themselves. The government, however, did undertake the obligation to contribute to a favourable climate in which intangible cultural heritage can flourish.

The Centre can provide support to the communities for safeguarding ICH, for instance by assistance in making the Safeguarding Plan and by offering courses, trainings and meetings in the context of maintaining viability and the transmission of intangible cultural heritage.

This UNESCO Convention has assigned a central role to the people who practice a form of ICH or are closely involved in it. Only they can keep this intangible cultural heritage alive and up-to-date and pass their love, knowledge and skills on to next generations. In an ICH community it will be a group, or groups of people, and sometimes even an individual, who organise themselves for a shorter or longer period around a certain form of ICH and wish to actively contribute to it.

The Dutch Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage attaches a dynamic meaning to the notion ‘heritage community’. A heritage community must not be an enclosed, almost unchangeable unit but, on the contrary, will be vivid and open, just like the ICH itself. In the Netherlands we go for an inclusive approach of ‘communities, groups or individuals.’

UNESCO has three international lists for intangible heritage:

The Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity

List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding

For this list countries can nominate intangible heritage that is almost extinct and needs urgent measures to keep it alive and pass it on to future generations.

Register of Good Safeguarding Practices

This Register contains programs and projects that best reflect the objectives of the Convention in terms of safeguarding and that can inspire others. 

You can browse these three UNESCO Lists here.

The Inventory of Intangible Heritage in the Netherlands contains only intangible heritage of people from the Netherlands.

UNESCO's intangible heritage lists contain intangible heritage from around the world. The Netherlands can only nominate intangible heritage for the international UNESCO lists that are already inscribed in the Inventory. The international lists offer in a way a selection from the several national inventories.

Only countries ('State parties') can nominate for the international lists of UNESCO. That means that the communities can not do it themselves. An important condition is that the nomination can only be submitted with prior and informed consent of the community, groups and individuals  concerned. 

The UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage is a different treaty than the World Heritage Convention. The World Heritage Convention has existed since 1972 and is intended to better preserve cultural and natural heritage that is of unique and universal value to mankind for future generations.

Intangible heritage can therefore never be 'World Heritage'.

With the ratification of the UNESCO Convention, a whole new branch of heritage has been added, involving many people. There is also a task for heritage organizations here. 

Read more on this subject on the knowledge file on intangible heritage and museums.

The Dutch Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage implements the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Netherlands.

One of the obligations arising from the ratification of this treaty is the compilation of an inventory of intangible heritage. The Dutch Centre supports and guides communities, groups and individuals in safeguarding their intangible heritage for the future. This is achieved, among other things, by offering assistance with the registration of the intangible heritage in the Network, the Inventory of Intangible Heritage in the Netherlands and the Register of Inspiring Examples of Safeguarding; offering courses and training in the field of safeguarding, drawing up a safeguarding plan and increasing the awareness of the importance of intangible heritage.

The Dutch Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage is very active in the field of research and development on of intangible heritage. Its purpose is to contribute to the practice of safeguarding intangible heritage. The Centre maintains close contacts with fellow institutions abroad.