GOLD AND SILK: A LONG-TERM COMMITMENT TO THE PROTECTION OF AFGHAN INTANGIBLE HERITAGE AND ITS COMMUNITIES
-
Manage No DI00000345 Country Republic of Korea Author Bastien Varoutsikos, PhD International Cultural Heritage Advisor, Turquoise Mountain Shoshana Stewart CEO, Turquoise Mountain Published Year 2018 Language English Copyright Attach File View (ENG)

Description | Torn apart by decades of conflict, post-2003 Afghanistan was on the brink of an economic, social, and cultural collapse. Besides the much-mediatized shelling of the country’s material heritage, such as the Buddhas of Bamiyan, Afghanistan’s intangible heritage equally took an untold toll. In addition to various practices that had been directly targeted and proscribed (such as making the rubab, a short-necked lute), a general weakening of the national economy, disruption of raw material procurement networks, and an overall destruction of the social fabric put a majority of Afghanistan’s heritage at risk. Particularly threatened were its craftsmen, the stewards of woodcarving, goldsmithing, or miniature techniques, skills firmly rooted in more than 3,000 years of artistic traditions and defining features of many of the country’s communities. |
---|