Preserving culture

Unesco project will hopefully plant seeds in young minds to grow into a desire to protect, preserve cultural diversity

The director general of Unesco, Irina Bokova, has been visiting Pakistan and during her two-day visit, she had much to say, all of it worth listening to. Pakistan is a vast storehouse of cultural artefacts and buildings stretching back millennia. We are custodians of a historical legacy that belongs to the rest of the world and not only to Pakistan. Preserving the many threads that make up our diverse culture is a challenge, in part because it can be expensive and money is short, but there is also a need to instill a sense of awareness and ownership in the minds of the young — which is where Unesco comes in. It is working to integrate the ‘intangibles’ of cultural heritage into the curriculum and is supporting the education ministry in the establishment of a database of cultural assets.

The Lok Virsa complex in Islamabad is the national hub of cultural preservation and the continuity of customs, but there are other places in cities around the country that serve as regional centres for preservation and conservation. Almost every medium or large-sized city has a museum, many of them in a state of dilapidation. All of them have potential as tourist destinations, both foreign and international, and as countries such as Egypt, Greece and Turkey have all found, there is revenue to be earned by the marketing of culture and heritage. Sites such as Moenjo Daro and Derawar Fort could see real benefit from marketing their attractions. Hunza in Gilgit-Baltistan has for many years traded on its attraction as a cultural tourism hotspot.

The preservation of culture as an intangible value may seem a little abstract, far removed from the bricks-and-mortar, but through creating such awareness comes an appreciation of diversity and the value of knowledge and tolerance — all of which have a place in the minds of the young. Dance, music, calligraphy, pottery and even truck art, all have a niche, and oral traditions are a vital part of the cultural landscape. The Unesco project will hopefully plant seeds in young minds that will grow into a desire to protect and preserve our cultural diversity.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 9^th, 2014.

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