DUSHANBE, December 5, 2013, Asia-Plus — The Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Heritage, holding its 8th session until 7 December, on December 3 inscribed two new elements on the List of Intangible Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding – Chaugan and the Paach ceremony (Guatemala).
The inscription of elements on the Urgent List helps States Parties to UNESCO’s Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Heritage to mobilize international cooperation and assistance to ensure the transmission of this heritage with the participation of the concerned communities.
According to UNESCO’s website, Chaugan is a traditional horse-riding game played on a grassy field by two competing teams of five riders mounted on Karabakh horses (Azerbaijan). Players use wooden mallets to drive a small leather or wooden ball into their opponents’ goal. The game is accompanied by instrumental folk music called ””janghi””. Chaugan reportedly strengthens feelings of identity rooted in nomadic culture. The practice and transmission of Chaugan have weakened, however, due to socio-economic factors leading to a shortage of players, trainers and Karabakh horses, according to UNESCO’s website.
Meanwhile, some authors give dates as early as the 5th century BC (or earlier) to the 1st century AD for chaugan’s origin by the Medes. Certainly the earliest records of chaugan (polo) are Median (an ancient Iranian people).
Polo was at first a training game for cavalry units, usually the king”s guard or other elite troops. In time polo became an Iranian national sport played normally by the nobility. Women as well as men played the game, as indicated by references to the queen and her ladies engaging King Khosrow II Parviz and his courtiers in the 6th century AD. Certainly Persian literature and art give us the richest accounts of polo in antiquity. Ferdowsi, the famed Iranian poet-historian, gives a number of accounts of royal chaugan tournaments in his 9th century epic, Shahnameh (the Epic of Kings). In the earliest account, Ferdowsi romanticizes an international match between Turanian force and the followers of Siyavash, a legendary Iranian prince from the earliest centuries of the Empire; the poet is eloquent in his praise of Siyavash”s skills on the polo field. Ferdowsi also tells of Emperor Shapur II of the Sassanid dynasty of the 4th century who learned to play polo when he was only seven years old. Naqsh-i Jahan Square in Isfahan is in fact a polo field which was built by king Abbas I in 17th century.
According to UNSECO’s website, the Paach ceremony is a corn-veneration ritual celebrated in San Pedro Sacatepéquez. The ritual describes the growing and harvesting of corn and includes dancing, prayers in the Mam language and a meal. Older men and women dress ceremonial corncobs, offer prayers during the ceremony, coordinate the preparation and serving of food and perform a ceremonial dance to marimba music. In recent years, the Paach ceremony has suffered from a decrease in transmission, with young people and some bearers declining to participate.
