TEHRAN -- A ceremony celebrating the registration of the music of the Bakhshis of the Khorasan region on the UNESCO List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity was held here on Tuesday at the Iranian Artists Forum after a delay of about 8 months.

The music of the Bakhshis of the Khorasan region and several other national heritages were registered on UNESCO’s list during the Fifth Session of the Intergovernmental Committee in Nairobi in November 2010.
However, the celebration ceremony, organized by the Iranian National Commission for UNESCO in collaboration with Iran’s House of Music, was arranged several months later the Persian service of IRNA reported on Wednesday.
“Registration of the national heritage on the UNESCO list not only grants international credits, but also attracts more support from the national officials,” Managing director of Iran’s House of Music Mohammad Sarir said.
Secretary General of the Iranian commission Mohammadreza Saeidabadi also talked about the UNESCO programs in registering the world heritage saying, “Cultural diversity is of high significance for UNESCO.
“Unfortunately, there is great number of unidentified art and cultural heritage which needs to be discovered and protected. The rapid decline in intangible heritage is hardly noticed compared to cultural heritage.
“Therefore I believe there needs to be more efforts to help preserve the intangible heritage,” he suggested.
Deputy Director of UNESCO Office in Bangkok Etienne Clément, also present at the ceremony said that this is the first celebration held for music with the support of UNESCO, indicating the high respect for creativity.
He also said that fortunately, Iran enjoys an abundance of experts on music.
The ceremony was brought to an end honoring experts on regional music including Hushang Javid, Mojtaba Qeitani and Behruz Vejdani by UNESCO Tehran Cluster Office Qunli Han.
The music of the Bakhshis of the 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 UNESCO list last year.