Participants pose for a group photo



Phoeung Sackona, minister of the Cambodian Cultural and Art Ministry, met with Yang Zhi, director of the CRIHAP

On March 24-29, 2014, the Capacity Building Workshop on Community-based Documentation and Inventorying of Intangible Cultural Heritage opened in Siem Reap, Cambodia. It was hosted by the International Training Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region under the auspices of UNESCO (CRIHAP), organized by the Cambodian Cultural and Art Ministry and supported by the Phnom Penh Office of UNESCO. More than 40 trainees, including cultural officials in charge of safeguarding cultural intangible heritage from the Cambodian Ministry of Culture and Art and 24 provinces and representatives of Cambodian non-governmental organizations, attended the training. The state secretary of Cambodia’s Ministry of Cultural and Fine Art, vice-governor of Cambodia’s Siem Reap province, and Yang Zhi, director of the CRIHAP, attended the workshop’s opening ceremony. Phoeung Sackona, minister of the Cambodian Cultural and Art Ministry; the vice-governor of Cambodia’s Siem Reap province; Anne Lemaistre, representative of the Cambodia office of the UNESCO and Yang attended the closing ceremony and issued certificates to the trainees.

Two facilitators for Intangible Cultural Heritage certified by UNESCO were invited as trainers. The workshop was based on the theme of inventorying, with attention paid to teaching, field study and interaction activities on 20 topics. In light of problems in the inventorying process, the trainer explained to the trainees the concept and method. The sponsor also invited Lan Jing, an expert in safeguarding Chinese intangible cultural heritage and deputy director of the Chinese Institute of Art and Science, to introduce the general state of safeguarding work in China and China’s method and experience in inventorying.

Phoeung Sackona, minister of the Cambodian Cultural and Art Ministry, spoke highly of this activity.