The Ministry of Hotels, Tourism and Culture has targeted the nomination of Myanmar’s traditional culture of Htamanè as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity for 2027.

“The subject will be chosen for the next year after Htamanè. Every disappearing traditional Myanmar culture will be submitted year after year, whether it is related to food culture or handicrafts, but it has not yet been decided which one will be given priority. For next year, it is proposed to submit Htamanè,” said an official from the Ministry of Hotels, Tourism and Culture.

The Ata Thingyan Festival, which is Myanmar’s traditional festival of New Year, was listed in the UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2024 for the first time. Myanmar Thanaka was then nominated for a second time and it is hoped that the status of acceptance to UNESCO will be known by December 2026.

Myanmar’s Laphet culture is also nominated as Representative Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity this year to be included in the UNESCO list. So far, 2289 cultural heritage items have been placed on the national heritage list.

The guideline for the UNESCO nominations of Intangible Cultural Heritage indicates that one cultural element can be nominated annually or biennially.

The Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) Convention was set up by UNESCO in 2003, and Myanmar signed the convention in 2013.