TEHRAN -- UNESCO has inscribed five Iranian elements on its List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

The music of the Bakhshis of Khorasan region, the Pahlevani and Zurkhaneh sport, the Iranian passion play tazieh, the traditional skills of carpet weaving in the Fars region, and the traditional skills of carpet weaving in Kashan were all registered on the list during the Fifth Session of the Intergovernmental Committee in Nairobi from November 15 to 19.
Living in the Khorasan region in northeastern Iran, the Bakhshi people have a reputation for their musical skill in playing dotar, a two-stringed, long-necked lute.
They narrate epics poems containing mythological, historical or legendary themes.
Pahlevani or Zurkhaneh sport is an Iranian martial art that combines elements of Islam, Gnosticism and ancient Persian beliefs.
The Iranian passion play tazieh recounts religious events, historical and mythical stories and folk tales. Each performance has the four components of poetry, music, song and motion.
Performers are always male, and female roles are played by men, most of whom are amateurs who gain their living through other means but perform for spiritual rewards.
The traditional skills of carpet weaving in Fars region is mostly related to the Qashaqai nomads. All tasks involved in weaving a carpet are shared by nomad men and women and all materials used in weaving are also made and processed by them.
Wool for the carpets is shorn by men in spring or autumn. The men then construct the carpet loom -- a horizontal frame placed on the ground -- while the women convert the wool into yarn on spinning wheels.
The colors used are mainly natural -- reds, blues, browns and whites produced from dyestuffs including madder, indigo, lettuce leaf, walnut skin, cherry stem and pomegranate skin.
The women are responsible for the design, color selection and weaving, and bring scenes of their nomadic lives to the carpet. They weave without any drawn design, thus no weaver can weave two carpets of the same design.
All these skills are transferred orally and by example. Mothers train their daughters to use the materials, tools and skills, while fathers train their sons in shearing wool and making looms.
These processes are also carried out by men and women in Kashan, in Isfahan Province.
The traditional skills of Kashan carpet weaving are passed down to daughters through apprenticeship under instruction from their mothers and grandmothers. Apprenticeship is also the means by which men learn their skills of designing, dyeing, shearing, loom-building and tool-making.
Last year, Noruz and the titles and items of the radifs in Iranian music were registered on UNESCO’s List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Photo: Qashqai girls weaving a carpet in an undated photo