Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. ‘Nomadic Mongolia – 2022’ grand festival of intangible cultural heritage will be held on August 12-14, 2022 at the Gorkhi-Terelj National Park with aims to promote 362 elements of intangible cultural heritage.

To ensure the implementation of the measures and law set out in the cultural industry development policy, preparations are underway to organize the festival. The festival will be co-organized by the Ministry of Culture and the Department of Culture and Arts, government implementing agency.

At the festival, folk art performances and exhibitions of crafts will be organized by the inheritors from 21 aimags and capital city. In addition, several activities to be held such as competitions, creative cultural industry, trade fairs, dairy products and traditional cuisine fair, art performances by the inheritors of national intangible cultural heritage and children.

Intangible cultural heritage is the origin of the existence, creativity, and development of every nation, ethnic group, or community. It is an expression of the unique aspect of human life, behavior and development, aside from being an important factor that directly influences the civilizational and national security.

In this sense, preserving the intangible cultural heritage is considered as one of pressing issues faced by humanity, and it is still at the center of the world's attention.

The ‘Law on the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage’ states that intangible cultural heritage is acknowledged by communities, ethnic groups, and individuals as a part of their cultural heritage such as customs, form of expressing and depicting, traditional knowledge, methods, and its associated items including artifacts, instruments, works of art, and cultural spaces.

Mongolia joined the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2005, and has an obligation before international community to protect the intangible cultural heritage on its territory.

A total of eight heritages of Mongolia have been registered in the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity so far.  

1.      Morin Khuur (horse head fiddle 2008)

2.      Mongolian long song (2008)

3.      Naadam festival (2010)

4.      Art of singing – khoomei (2010)

5.      Eagle hunting or falconry (2010)

6.      Traditional craftsmanship of ger and its associated customs (2013)

7.      The knuckle-bone shooting (2014),

8.      Traditional technique of making airag in khokhuur (2019).

Seven elements have been inscribed on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding:

1.      ‘Mongolian epic’, Mongolian oral epic (2009)

2.      ‘Biyelgee’, Mongolian folk dance (2009)

3.      Tsuur (end blown flute) performance (2009)

4.      Folk long song performance technique of Limbe performances-circular breathing (2011)

5.      Mongolian calligraphy (2013)

6.      ‘Coaxing Ritual for Baby Camels’ (2015)

7.      Ritual of worshipping mountain (2017)

       As part of the implementation of the 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, the President of Mongolia issued a decree on 'Promotion of Mongolian Heroic Epics', and the Government of Mongolia approved the ‘National program to safeguard intangible cultural heritage’ and a set of measures of the protection. 

Furthermore, numerous events were organized such as the International Symposium and Festival "Epos of Central Asia-II" (2013), the project ‘Preservation and revival of Mongolian epic traditions’ (2013-2016), a series of combined theoretical and practical trainings in within the framework of the project ‘Strengthening the capacity of Mongolia for the convention implementation’ (2012-2016), the project ‘On inheriting folk long song performance technique of Limber Performers-Circular Breathings’  (2019-2022) and others.

Taking into account the uniqueness of our nomadic culture, the intangible cultural heritage in Mongolia is divided into seven categories: Mother language and oral traditions; Folk art; Traditional festivals, rituals, ceremonies and games; traditional knowledge on nature and the universe; Mongolian wisdom; Mongolians' traditional practice in animal husbandry; and Mongolian crafts.

With a purpose of preserving the intangible cultural heritage, promoting its inheritors, developing talents, promoting and disseminating it to the public, the Law on the Protection of Cultural Heritage states that the National Festival of Intangible Cultural Heritage ‘Nomadic Mongolia’ shall be organized every three years.