Intangible heritage takes the center stage

Surakarta - The sky over Surakarta was dark Sunday afternoon as hundreds of national and international delegates from the Organization of World Heritage Cities (OWHC) conference paraded along Jl. Slamet Riyadi, the Central Java city`s main street.

Rain, however, did not fall that night.

"That was the work of what we call here a pawang hujan, or rainmaker -- some kind of shaman," the conference`s chairman, Setyanto P. Santosa, told the conference.

"And that is just one example of our many kinds of intangible heritage, an issue that we will discuss in this conference the next two days," Setyanto said, who is also chairman of the Indonesian Heritage Trust.

Some 450 delegates from 37 member cities of the Euro-Asia OWHC took part in the conference, which focused on "Safeguarding of Intangible Heritage and Sustainable Urban Development" as the central theme.

It was the organization`s first conference which specifically targeted intangible heritage, according to Ressikh Sagitov, regional coordinator of Euro-Asia OWHC.

OWHC Secretary-General Denis Richard, who was also present at the conference, said that intangible heritage had become a new concern worldwide -- even at the level of the UN`s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The issue was considered important because both tangible and intangible heritages compliment each other, he said.

"If you think only of the tangible you are missing the intangible. If you talk only about the intangible you`re missing the other one," Richard said.

So in order to be complete, he added, both the tangible and intangible had to be considered.

The conference discussed among other things the challenges, prospects and legal aspects of safeguarding intangible cultural heritage, the protection of traditional cultural expressions of folklore and the methods and tools for sustainable urban development.

Heritage activist Laretna T. Adishakti of Gadjah Mada University, who had also been a speaker at the conference, said the theme had been a clever choice.

Intangible heritage was interesting not only because it has been a hot issue among heritage activists but also because there has not been a regulation regarding the matter and how it should be developed, she said.

Particularly for Solo -- another name for the host city -- intangible heritage was also the right theme.

"The mayor seems to be aware that Solo has nothing in terms of tangible heritage compared to, say, European cities that have grandeur tangible heritage," Laretna said, who is better known as Sita.

Such awareness is important for a leader of a heritage city such as Surakarta, she said.

"He has what I call sensitivity, sense and creativity in managing the heritage city. These are the three things that a heritage city leader must have."

A heritage city leader, she added, did not need to be an expert on heritage. What she or he needs is just appropriate ideas. Once the ideas are there, there is only a need to bring in experts to realize them.

"In order to come to the right ideas, sensitivity, sense and creativity are needed. I see that Pak Jokowi has all of them," Sita said, referring to the popular name of Surakarta Mayor Joko Widodo.

It was pleasing for heritage activists to learn that while they have been working hard to raise awareness among regional leaders on the need to take into account heritage issues in their sustainable urban development policies, in Surakarta the initiative came straight from the mayor, she said.

"This is really rare," Sita said, pointing to Jokowi`s move in making Surakarta a member of the OWHC, the first and only city in Indonesia that has done so.

Jokowi, she said, had also been successful in convincing the organization that Surakarta was really worth selecting as the host for its international conference this year.

"It was really surprising for me when I learned that Solo was a member of the OWHC, and much more so when I found out it would host this event," Sita said, referring to the OWHC Conference and Expo (OWHCCE) that was held from Oct. 25 to Oct. 30.

Surakarta Mayor Joko Widodo said separately he had decided to focus on intangible heritage in developing his city after making an inventory of the city`s potential.

The inventory showed that Surakarta has rich intangible heritage, he said.

For this reason he decided to propose Surakarta as host for the 2008 OWHCCE back in 2006 following Surakarta`s inclusion as a member.

"OWHC finally picked Solo over the South Korean city of Andong as the host," Jokowi said.

With intangible heritage as the central theme, OWHCCE also presented in its supporting programs an expo and workshop on wayang (shadow puppets), gamelan (Javanese music instruments), kris (traditional double-blade digger) and batik. The four were presented not as products but as skills.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Hasan Wirajuda officially opened the workshop and expo at Pura Mangkunegaran compound Monday.

Various other cultural elements and expressions from across Indonesia were also presented during the main and supporting events. Among them was included traditional trance dances. Sri Wahyuni

Source: http://old.thejakartapost.com (November 01, 2008)
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