Cultural treasure
Yoga added to Unesco list of intangible world heritage
M
ore international recognition for yoga: Unesco has
just added the ancient Indian discipline to its list
of intangible world heritage.
The list of intangible cultural treasures was
created 10 years ago by the Paris-based body,
mainly to increase awareness of them. It also sometimes offers
financial or technical support to countries struggling to protect them.
Yoga joins other ‘intangibles’ such as Cuba’s Rumba dance and
even Belgium’s beer culture, reflecting the diversity of the list and, of
course, the incredible cultural diversity of the planet.
It’s also another feather in the cap for yoga as it continues to
grow worldwide. It follows the endorsement of a UN International
Yoga Day (now celebrated every year on June 21) in 2015.
Unesco began compiling its list back in 1972, which alsoom beginnings om beginnings
includes well-known physical sites such as Cambodia’s Angkor Wat,
Australia’s Uluru national park (formerly Ayer’s Rock) and the Grand
Canyon in the USA.Here’s what Unesco had to say about yoga:
“The philosophy behind the ancient Indian practice of yoga has
influenced various aspects of how India’s society functions, from
health and medicine to education and the arts. Based on unifying
the mind with the body and soul for greater mental, spiritual and
physical wellbeing, it consists of a series of poses, meditation,
controlled breathing, word chanting and other techniques.
Traditionally passed on from master to pupil, nowadays yoga
ashrams, hermitages, educational institutions and community
centres also help to transmit the practice.”