ER
THE Director General of Culture of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology, Hilmar Farid, explained that Indonesian herbs, namely herbal medicine or Jamu, will soon be designated as Intangible Cultural Heritage (WBTB) by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
“This is a little leak, yes, herbal medicine will be designated this year as an Intangible Cultural Heritage or Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO,” he told antaranews when met in Jakarta, Thursday (11/16) evening.
This is good news, that herbal medicine has finally won the WBTB title since April 7, 2022, and was registered for this category, along with six other nominations. Although he did not specify the official date for the announcement of the new title, Hilmar confirmed that it would take place this year, with one and a half months remaining.
Hilmar said that what is considered an Intangible Cultural Heritage is not herbal medicine (jamu) from a particular region, but herbal medicine as a whole, especially regarding the community’s ability to create the herbal medicine itself.
Like other Indonesian cultures, Hilmar said herbal medicine or Jamu is a cultural heritage that must be preserved. Herbal medicine (jamu) is historically proven to be the original knowledge of the Indonesian people which has been used for thousands of years from generation to generation.
Healthy Culture herbal medicine is a practice of maintaining health that is both preventive and promotive. Herbal medicine is the fruit of the historical journey of social civilization that cannot be separated from the cultural ties of the archipelago.
“What is designated as heritage is the people’s ability to create it, so it is not the product or the object, but the skill of the person in concocting, concocting, and of course there are various techniques used, that is what is registered, it is the knowledge that is registered, not the product,” Hilmar explained.
Furthermore, Hilmar said that Indonesian weaving would also soon be registered as WBTB, holding the same title as Batik, which had previously achieved this title since 2009.
“There have been efforts to register weaving, is it possible just weaving, or Indonesian weaving, or weaving only from NTT (East Nusa Tenggara), we are looking at that, to find a common basis, what we want to register, and those reports that Now we are still in the research and preparation process. Hopefully the hope is for Indonesian weaving as a whole,” Hilmar added. [antaranews]
