It’s hard not to fall for the beauty of intangible cultural heritage
Joyfully, the Arab region boasts a splendorous repository of traditions and customs under the spell of intangible cultural heritage. Their brushstrokes are transcendent and vivacious – connecting our past, present, and future. Yet there is a gentleness that unfolds within the layers of these individual traditions– a reflection of the care and passion of those who tend to them, echoed in the numerous generations who fervently safeguarded them with utmost pride.
The beauty of intangible cultural heritage lies in the fact that it is fundamentally interweaved with core areas of our lives, such as gastronomy, fashion, games, sports, dance, artisanal craftsmanship, religious practices, social customs, and botany. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) defines intangible cultural heritage as a collective of “oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe or the knowledge and skills to produce traditional crafts”.
The UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage details the wonderland of these unique traditions across the globe. At the 2022 meeting of the UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in Rabat, forty-seven new global nominations were inscribed within this luminous list. Among these nominations, eleven from the Arab world made a distinguished debut and fittingly depict beautiful aspects of Arab life, art, heritage, and culture. For instance, the “Al Talli” traditional embroidery celebrates the intricately woven female fashions embellished with vibrant symbols depicting desert and sea life in the UAE. On the other hand, the Khawlani tribes in Saudi Arabia are sure to delight guests with their unique 300-year knowledge and practices pertaining to cultivating and serving Khawlani coffee beans. Meanwhile, the celebratory “Al-Mansaf” dish from Jordan, designed for sharing and is as artful in flavor as it is in presentation, is served during major socio-cultural events.
The subtle conjuring and immersion in these communal traditions can oftentimes infuse our souls with noble values, such as social connection, kindness, generosity, aesthetic sensibility, playfulness, and citizenship. We can recall pockets of happiness from childhood memories, influenced strongly by the delightful social practices that have paralleled our milestones, such as preparing traditional feasts for religious celebrations, participating in national festivals, reveling in beautiful traditional attires, experimenting with perfumes inspired by local materials, or remembering tender music.
There’s something so utterly captivating about intangible cultural heritage that’s a forever favorite of cultural enthusiasts, artists, and travelers. Beyond that treasure, intangible cultural heritage is composed of masterful savoir-faire resulting in producing goods and services that are fundamental to the communities’ economic resilience and social fabric. Many cultural professions create sizable economic value in the form of attracting local and global tourists, producing unique marketable products, creating job opportunities, and generating income streams for local communities.
The many and varied customs, social practices, and festive events also play a role in solidifying community cohesion and social links, bringing together people from different backgrounds in intimate gatherings or mass celebrations. A shared sense of identity, values, and character thus is strengthened via such activities. One of the ubiquitous customs in the UAE and many Arab countries is the serving of Arabic coffee, considered an epitome of ceremonial generosity. Called “Gahwa” in the Emirati Arabic dialect, Arabic coffee has featured for centuries in the Arab region, where the preparation and serving of this delectable drink is often accompanied by a set of sumptuous traditions.
Hosts meticulously prepare the aromatic coffee and it goes without saying that there is a coveted knowledge to buying the best coffee beans and brewing it flawlessly to extract that luscious flavor. Guests are offered the coffee in small dainty, decorative cups. Interestingly, the cup is filled but not overflowed – which hints at how the hosts want their guests’ cups to be refilled and for conversations to linger longer. A Bedouin saying sums up this experience rather succinctly, “When a guest comes, he’s a prince. When he sits, he’s a prisoner. When he leaves, he’s a poet”.
It’s not difficult to stumble across a “Majlis” in the UAE, aptly known for its unique cultural and social significance in the region. Its influence is so great that the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Oman had applied to inscribe it on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2015. A “Majlis” is essentially a ‘council’ or ‘assembly’ set against the backdrop of a spacious room that hosts family members, neighbors, and community members to converse about politics, social issues, community concerns, literature, folk stories, poetry, and current events.
Add another layer to that and some hosts even go out of their way to resolve pressing problems, pay condolences, or organize wedding receptions. It is an opportune space for youths to informally learn an enormous treasure trove of wisdom, such as etiquette, communication skills, leadership, empathy, respect, and listening skills – not to mention keeping up-to-date about current community priorities.
It is also interesting to note the connectedness of some customs to the local environments and a timeless respect to nature. For instance, the traditional weaving skills of “Al Sadu” in the UAE relies on camel fur, goat hair, or sheep wool as key materials for weaving. The multidisciplinary uses of “Al-Sadu” can be seen in the form of desert tents, blankets, carpets, pillows, and accessories for horses and camels. Weavers usually sit in communes, conversing about affairs of the day, reciting poetry, or transmitting skills to young learners.
A piece could feel as though it was plucked straight from the heart of the local natural environment and crafted creatively in a masterful way with the dramatic elements of the desert. With its bright colors consisting mainly of black, white, brown, red, and beige – this unique heritage art reflects Emirati creativity and Bedouin life at its loveliest. With the masterful use of narrow bands of geometrics designs, common motifs depict grasslands, sand dunes, waves of the Arabian Gulf, palm trees, camels, falcons, and “dallah” coffee pots.
In the same vein, knowledge and skills pertaining to cultivating date palms – a coveted tradition associated with the region’s countries for centuries, such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Kuwait – emphasizes the importance of this resilient, evergreen plant in sustaining communities amidst the region’s dry climate, in addition to being central to the region’s economic, cultural, and agricultural roots. The date palm has always acted as a key source of nutrition for the region’s populations, essentially, appearing in oases in desert areas with water levels sufficient for irrigation. For centuries, the relationship between the Arab region and date palms has enabled communities to master knowledge and skills pertaining to cultivating the date palm. These include caring for and cultivating the date palm tree and using its leaves and fronds for traditional crafts and social rituals.
Awareness about the date palm industry is all-encompassing with the Liwa Date Festival acting as a prominent living museum for the date palm. Visitors are captivated by a number of exciting activities to learn about the date palm, such as the many modern agricultural practices in producing high quality dates, poetry recitals, and exhibition spaces for farming equipment and date products. One can also sample the favorite date varieties grown in the UAE. The star of the show, however, is the ‘Best Date Fruit’ competition, where Emirati farms compete for the title of ‘Best Date Grower’.
An artisan’s finest hour arises when participating in the creation of goods and services related to intangible cultural heritage. Thoughtfully developed cultural products and services make their debut, rapturing audiences, and demonstrating the social, creative, and intellectual fortes of local communities with a fusion of history, presence, and futurism. Their ingenuity, skills, and practices – learned from ancestors and deliberately passed on through generations – act as a strong factor in the livelihoods of entire value chains, including craftspeople, their families, their distributors, and retailers. These practices allow communities to feel connected to their past, instilling them with a sense of identity, character development, pride, social inclusiveness, and community connectedness.
Roses are amongst the world’s cherished flowers. The Syrian village of Al-Mrah in rural Damascus is renowned for its unique craftsmanship associated with cultivating the Damascene rose. Considered a treasured rose variety worldwide, local farmers and families come together in a perfect symphony to yield many gorgeous products extracted by the Damascene rose. Sweet-scented and soft-petalled, its many derivatives include dried rose petals, rose jams, rose syrups, rose oils, rose water, and perfumes. Every May, when the Damascene rose enjoys a glorious blooming season, local communities organize the Damascene Rose Festival, inspired by the picking of the roses earlier in the month with families and children heading to the fields early in the morning to handpick roses and then sort the rose buds that will be dried for the purpose of making tea. The rest of the rose petals are stored and prepared for distillation. The festival also brings the women together to prepare rose syrup, jam, pastries, and other rose-infused dishes as they sing together to folk songs and poetry that celebrate the Damascene rose.
The busy calendar of festive events, performing arts, and religious celebrations can certainly spark interest amongst the cultural jet set eager to immerse in local heritage. Creativity is the buzz word on everyone’s lips at the moment, with each season offering us a vibrant break with a cultural flavor. The three-day cherry festival in Sefrou in Morocco, celebrated in June, is a prime example of an annual cultural festivity that celebrates the bountiful natural world, epitomized by the cherry fruit. The festival’s unique sense of whimsy and provenance reflects the local region’s widely creative atmosphere, with a parade that showcases performing troupes, rural and urban music, majorettes and bands, in additions to floats featuring local producers. The cherry on top is the selection of the year’s Cherry Queen, a sort of pageant crowning a beauty who then offers cherries to audiences whilst draped in luxurious Moroccan attire. At the heart of this event’s success is the orchestrating of many artisans, including the craftswomen charged with producing silk buttons for traditional Moroccan dresses, the cherry growers and suppliers, the local sports clubs participating in various contests, and the musical and dance troupes who enliven the entire festival. Youths actively participate in these many activities, ensuring their durability and imbuing communities with a strong sense of local identity and pride.
The advantages of promoting and safeguarding intangible cultural heritage abound. Given the momentum we see behind creative industries, it has not been surprising to witness the commitment towards preserving and promoting intangible cultural heritage. It seems fitting to focus on a thoughtful and enthralling arts education program aimed at introducing students to the expansive variety of cultural traditions within various Arab countries. This is surely aimed at solidifying students with a strong sense of cultural character and artistic inspiration, in addition to imbuing them with civic pride, cultural character, and creative vivacity. Classes should take on a more experiential pedagogy, with children able to immerse themselves in heritage practices. Interacting with artisans and masters of specific intangible cultural practices can give children a glimpse about their subliminal beauty and the craftsmanship behind them, in addition to incorporating workshop-style classes and extra-curricular activities that facilitate immersion in traditional food, activities, games, and crafts.
The prevailing sense of curiosity should then be sated within vocational schools, apprenticeships, and universities, where the undone creativity of aspiring artisans can then be nourished and propelled. This will ensure artisans are refined with a high-degree of savoir-faire, skills, and knowledge to replenish future workers in heritage-related professions. Innovation should be at the heart of this process as there is always a chance to explore a whimsical take on more traditional works, opting for new materials to create vibrant tapestries that envelop cultural enthusiasts in a creative landscape that is just as colorful and rich as its origins.
In the same vein, enthusiastic academics and researchers should be encouraged to survey and discover the unique and local cultural practices in Arab countries – a sort of inventorying exercise – where they can interact with custodians of heritage to understand fully the intricacies involved in a specific heritage-related activity. Findings should be disseminated via a number of channels, in the form of historical and cultural documentaries, cultural guidebooks, coffee table books, digital masterclasses, video tutorials, and cookery books.
For those with a piqued interest for experiencing cultural heritage, a series of recreational workshops and instructive classes could well serve their curiosity, exposing them to various arts, such as embroidery, gastronomy, coffee-making, Arabic calligraphy, or jewelry design.
This education within the community track can be delivered in many venues, such as children’s clubs, cultural centers, cultural associations, libraries, museums, and other heritage-related organizations. For instance, the UAE-based Sxill Lab – a training school focusing on vocational and experimental workshops – organized an Emirati-themed afternoon tea class at Etihad Museum celebrating hospitality with a gorgeous tablescape and teaching learners locally-inspired recipes, such as cardamom scones, “Khabeesa” trifle, spiced dates mini loaf, and “Oumah” tacos.
These unique traditions belong to a rather rarefied set, designed for those connoisseurs who appreciate beauty, art, history and why not heritage? Each day in any Arab country brings with it a new cultural adventure. With that in mind, communities should have regular access to intangible cultural heritage through a thoughtfully developed selection of venues, such as museum exhibitions, art galleries, opera shows, live performances, cultural festivals, cooking shows, and year-long cultural markets that showcase traditional heritage practices and sell artisanal crafts.
There’s adventure to be had and a curious cultural experience at Abu Dhabi’s Al Hosn Festival, an enthralling expression of intangible cultural heritage held at the city’s most cherished historic site, Qasr Al Hosn. Visitors are immediately caught up in the enchantment and can fully experience the sheer beauty of Emirati heritage, ranging from feasting, traditional performing arts, craftsmanship, presentations of Arabic coffee, fashion, and customs. And it doesn’t end there as aficionados are pampered with many cultural experiences across the UAE, such as “Gahwa” formal training and certification programmes, traditional Arabic calligraphy, and multi-disciplinary arts classes.
Celebrating the nuances of intangible cultural heritage practices on mass media is another fantastic way of educating the public about them, especially if they are tied to daily social practices. Cultural centers should solidify ties with local communities and attract visitors who can act as trendsetters, influencers, and propagators of these cultural practices. For instance, inviting parents to participate in seminars and workshops that celebrate social practices is a fantastic way to ensure their transmission to the younger generations within their own social circles. Moreover, documentaries, TV shows, and films can play a role in portraying the beauty of heritage to audiences far and near.
Yes, indeed, because of the beguiling nature of our intangible cultural heritage, one may rediscover the gorgeous locality of traditions, reminiscing over childhood memories spurred by aromatic coffees and luscious dates, where the majlis becomes a perfect setting for tête-à-tête whisperings and musings. A telltale sign of a life well-lived.
Published in Shawati magazine.