She is dead against reducing art to something that promotes tourism.

Minja Yang the UNESCO representative to India, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka and the director of UNESCO office in New Delhi said that the big dilemma is how to keep these performing art forms meaningful and how to better the living conditions of artistes.

‘‘I am not blaming tourism or the tourists. For UNESCO, tourism is a major vehicle to acquire knowledge. But we have wonderful people who have been working for decades and decades, trying to preserve the art forms accepting the minimum wages, yet poorly paid,’’ said Minja Yang, who was in the capital city to release Kutiyattam Register prepared under the financial assistance from UNESCO/Japan Funds-in-Trust.

Sixty countries come under UNESCO’s intangible assignment. ‘‘The State has to make a representative list of intangible arts, rituals etc. The survival of any art depends of guru, disciples, and the community to sustain the existence of it,’’ she said.

Minja Yang is very hopeful about UNESCO’S international convention, which she says stimulates the conservation intangible endangered heritage and the projects to revive them.

There are five states - Karnataka, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu - that are part of the UNESCO programme.

‘‘The present idea is to identify two itineraries for each state. Now we have ‘craft-route’ and itinerary of ancient Kingdoms like Hoyasala and Hampi. We intend to include the tribal areas as well. But our immediate priority is to design the itinerary of dance route. Kerala has a number of performing arts.

“The quality and dedication of the people is remarkable. Our intention is not to make the performing artistes to bend to the tourists. Instead the tourists must bow to them,’’ said Minja Yang.

The members of the inter-governmental committee, of the 2003 convention are still working on the operational guidelines. Expert committee was convened last month to determine differences between the endangered list and the representative list.

Minja Yang said that UNESCO’s forthcoming project focuses on mass media.

‘‘Big news paper companies can support the intangible heritage; they can bring out DVD, CD and articles. Though the intangible heritage has evolved from a community, it belongs to the whole world. So the role of the media is intermediary between the creator and the public,’’ she said.

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