UNESCO Urged To Recognize Martial Arts

BANDUNG, W Java, Jan 30 (Antara) - The West Java deputy governor Deddy Mizwar has stated that the provincial government urged Unesco to recognize the Pencak Silat (martial arts) as the Intangible Cultural World Heritage. "Beside bringing the Pencak Silat to the Olympic stage, we also have another big mission, namely to make it (the martial arts) go to Unesco," Deddy said through his press statement on Monday. The deputy governor recently opened the second national meeting of the Indonesian Pencak Silat Community in the West Java Provincial capital city, Bandung. Pencak Silat contains noble universal values such as friendship, brotherhood, peace, work ethic, courage, competitiveness, togetherness, harmony, beauty, and devotion to the Creator, so it deserves to be a World Heritage Object from Indonesia. Hence, he said, the West Java Provincial Government strongly supports the efforts of Indonesian Pencak Silat Community (Maspi), to make the Pencak Silat as the Intangible Cultural World Heritage in 2019. In addition to being contested in various world championships and international multi-events, such as Sea Games, the Pencak Silat will be the first official sporting event of the Asian Games 2018, where Indonesia will act as the host.