On 24 May 2023 UNESCO announced 64 new inscriptions on its Memory of the World International Register, 20 of which originate in Asia and the Pacific. This year’s new inscriptions bring UNESCO’s global list to 494 collections, 119 of which are from Asia and the Pacific.
The successful nominations from Asia-Pacific celebrate traditional science and technology, women, peace and international relations, indigeneity and multilingualism, poetry and oral literature, and spiritual and religious diversity.
New Inscriptions from Asia and the Pacific:
- China: The four treatises of Tibetan Medicine
- China (Macao Special Administrative Region): Archives and Manuscripts of Macau Kong Tac Lam Temple (16451980)
- Democratic People’s Republic of Korea: Hon Chon Jon Do (Complete illustration of the Astronomical Chart)
- India and Indonesia (joint nomination with Algeria, Egypt, and Serbia): First Summit Meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement Archives
- India: Abhinavagupta (940–1015 CE).
- Indonesia: Sukarno’s Speech: ‘To Build the World Anew’ Indonesia 30 September 30 1960
- Indonesia (joint nomination with the Netherlands): The Hikayat Aceh): The Hikayat Aceh
- International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA): The Gramophone Discs and Papers of the EMI Archive Trust, 1897–1914
- Iran (Islamic Republic of): Documents on Iran’s International Relations Under the Qajar Rule (18071925)
- Iran (Islamic Republic of): Documents of the Shaykh Safīal-Dīn Ardabīlī Shrine (952–1926 CE)
- Iran (Islamic Republic of) and Uzbekistan (joint nomination with Bulgaria, Germany, Tajikistan and Türkiye): Mawlana’s Kulliyat (The Complete Works of Mawlana)
- Japan: The Monk Enchin Archives: A History of JapanChina Cultural Exchange
- Kyrgyzstan: Manuscript of the Kyrgyz epic ‘Manas’ by the narrator Sagymbay Orozbakov
- Malaysia: Misa Melayu MSS 6
- Mongolia: Stone Inscriptions of Tsogtu Khung-Taiji, Prince of Khalkha
- Republic of Korea: Archives of the April 19 Revolution
- Republic of Korea: Archives of the Donghak Peasant Revolution
- Sri Lanka: Mahavamsa, the Great Chronicle of Sri Lanka
- Thailand: National Collection of Palm-Leaf Manuscripts of Phra That Phanom Chronicle
- Uzbekistan: The Qushbegi Chancellery of the Bukhara Emirate
( This article was first published on 26 May 2023 on the UNESCO Bangkok website. More information on the new inscriptions can be found on the UNESCO website.)