The Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts will organise a three-day Chapei Dang Veng competition festival from Oct. 15-17, 2021 here in Phnom Penh capital.
H.E. Dr. Phoeurng Sackona, the minister, explained in an announcement released recently that the festival aims to promote the Chapey Dong Veng (a Cambodian two-stringed, long-necked guitar) certified by UNESCO as part of Cambodia’s intangible cultural heritage.
In a more general terms, it means to further enhance and preserve Cambodia’s arts, culture, traditions and national identity to contribute to social development, she added.
The minister encouraged concerned stakeholders to disseminate the competition informaiton widely to encourage the participation of as many as talented Cambodians as possible.
The winners of the competition of three main stages of capacity testing will be awarded with high-level recognition and prizes.
Chapei Dang Veng was listed as an Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding on Nov. 30, 2016, at the eleventh session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage which took place in the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa Conference Centre in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Other Cambodian heritages registered so far on the World Heritage List include the Historic Site of Angkor inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1992, Preah Reach Troap Dance (Royal Ballet) and Lakhon Sbek Thom (big shadow puppet) proclaimed masterpieces of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, respectively in 2003 and 2005, the 11th-century Preah Vihear Temple listed as a World Heritage Site in 2008, Teanh Prot (tug-of-war), a popular recreational game, named an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2015, Sambor Prei Kuk temple complex registered as a World Heritage Site in 2017, and Cambodia Lkhon Khol inscribed on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding in 2018.
