Bihu & Borgeet to find place in UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage list?

Experts opine that this would give an exclusive international reputation to Bihu and cement it in the world stage.

Bihu is a set of three important Assamese festivals in the Indian state of Assam—Rongali or Bohag Bihu observed in April, Kongali or Kati Bihu observed in October, and Bhogali or Magh Bihu observed in January. The Rongali Bihu is the most important of the three, celebrating spring festival. Borgeet, on the other hand, are a collection of lyrical songs that are set to specific ragas but not necessarily to any tala.

The ICOMOS has already uploaded the intangible facets of Bihu into the ‘International Committee on Intangible Cultural Heritage’ (ICICH) website of UNESCO.

The initiative was taken by Sanjib Kumar Borkakoti, an expert of ICOMOS, in the wake of a webinar on ‘Bihu – An Agrarian Festival of Assam’ held on September 20. ICOMOS is a sister organization of ICICH.

Presentations on the various cultural heritages of Bihu were made by three panelists–Pradip Neog, Dinesh Gogoi and Mridu Moucham Bora.

An intangible cultural heritage is a practice, representation, expression, knowledge, or skill considered by UNESCO to be part of a place's cultural heritage. Buildings, historic places, monuments, and artifacts are cultural property.