UNESCO status sought for Thai Tom Yam Gung

yong · Post by **yong** » Thu Aug 13, 2020 12:07 pm

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/ge ... -thai-soup

New status sought for Thai soup
PUBLISHED : 13 AUG 2020 AT 10:02

The Ministry of Culture is applying to have Thailand's world-famous hot and sour prawn soup, Tom Yum Gung, registered with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) as an Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Minister Itthiphol Kunplome said officials at the ministry were preparing documents and gathering information from around the country before submitting the proposal.

Mr Itthiphol pointed out the cultural similarities of each country in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), with friendships endured since the founding of the regional bloc 53 years ago. He said that the government and ministry intended to create a role for Thailand in Asean by promoting its cultural uniqueness in the furtherance of international relations.

Recent Asean Day celebrations presented iconic food from each member country to highlight the variety of its regional food.

These included Nom Banh Chok from Cambodia, a rice noodle dish with curry similar to Thailand's Kanom Chin, and Indonesia's Lumpia Semarang, which are spring rolls akin to the kingdom's Po Piah.

cautious colin · Post by **cautious colin** » Thu Aug 13, 2020 2:16 pm

I don't understand these lists... What is the point?

I get having a PDO status is worthwhile, but an 'intangible cultural heritage', its just a soup.

Can join the list with, apparently 'the Mediterranean diet', and 'traditional Mexican food'

Bitte_Kein_Lexus · Post by **Bitte_Kein_Lexus** » Thu Aug 13, 2020 6:46 pm

It's a bit of a circle jerk... Helps employ people at the UN and Ministries of Culture around the world?

nerdlinger · Post by **nerdlinger** » Thu Aug 13, 2020 8:10 pm

cautious colin wrote: ↑Thu Aug 13, 2020 2:16 pm I don't understand these lists... What is the point?

If you want to safeguard the continuity of cultural heritage (eg through funding, promotion etc) you have to define it first.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conventio ... l_Heritage

Whether Tom Yam needs such protection I'm not sure about, but that's mainly because I don't know what sort of challenges traditional methods face from industrialisation, mass production, globalisation etc.

The purpose is a lot clearer when you look at the sub-list of items in need of urgent safeguarding at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNESCO_In ... feguarding which details things like forms of hand puppetry, storytelling, dance, and language that are likely to die out and be permanently lost to humanity without UNESCO support.