Three multinational values of Türkiye – tea as a cultural symbol, the telling tradition of Nasreddin Hodja and silk weaving – were added to UNESCO's List of Intangible Cultural Heritage on Thursday.
Nasreddin Hodja is a unique and entertaining character from Turkish folklore. Born in 1208 in Sivrihisar, Nasreddin Hodja was a Seljuk satirist known for appearing in thousands of witty stories, most of which had a pedagogical nature. Considered a sage and philosopher with a strong sense of wit and humor, Nasreddin Hodja served as a kadi, which was a Muslim judge, up until his death in Konya’s Akşehir in 1284. Referred to as the Turkish jester, there are 350 anecdotes attributed to his name and every summer a festival is held in his honor in his town of birth.
Tea, on the other hand, occupies the top spot in Türkiye per capita in terms of consumption while the history of silk weaving is one of the oldest traditions that dates back over 4,600 years in East Asia
"Our multinational nomination files of ‘Telling tradition of Nasreddin Hodja/Molla Nasreddin/ Molla Ependi/Apendi/Afendi Kozhanasyr Anecdotes’ submitted with Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan and ‘Culture of Çay (Tea), a Symbol of Identity, Hospitality and Social Interaction and Sericulture and Traditional Production of Silk for Weaving’ submitted with Azerbaijan have been inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity during the 17th session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The 17th session of the meeting was held in the Moroccan capital Rabat between Nov. 28 and Dec. 3.
The ministry added that the number of Turkiye's cultural elements inscribed on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage has reached 25.
"We will continue to cherish and carry our rich oral traditions and expressions into the future and promote our socially-embedded cultural elements which have a strong and deep-rooted tradition,” it added.
Earlier in the day, the ministry announced the inclusion of its multinational "Sericulture and Traditional Production of Silk for Weaving" on UNESCO's List of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
