The Kazakh ritual Betashar has been included in UNESCO's representative list, reports a correspondent from the business information center Kapital.kz, citing data from State Advisor Erlan Karin.
"In the capital of Paraguay, Asunción, during a meeting of the UNESCO Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, one of the ancient Kazakh rituals, Betashar, has been added to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity," he wrote on his page on Facebook.
Betashar ("unveiling the face") is a ritual introducing the bride to her husband's relatives, and is one of the wedding customs among Kazakhs and Uzbeks.
Recall that in March 2024, at the third session of the National Kurultai, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev instructed to initiate the process of including the underground mosques in the western part of Kazakhstan in the UNESCO list.
"There are more than two dozen of them in western Kazakhstan. They were built in different periods and vary from one another. This indicates that our people had unique spiritual traditions with deep roots. We must carefully preserve and promote our unique natural landscapes and our historical and cultural heritage at the global level. I instruct the authorized bodies to work together with the National Commission to start the process of including these sites in the UNESCO World Heritage List," Kassym-Jomart Tokayev ordered.