UNESCO lists polo as Iran’s intangible cultural heritage

[Blackmoon]

TEHRAN, Dec. 07 (MNA) – UNESCO has recognized the team sport of polo, played on horseback, as Iran’s intangible cultural heritage during a session held in South Korea on December 7.


After three years of extensive efforts, international negotiations, and close cooperation between Iran’s sports ministry and Cultural Heritage Organization, the team sport of polo (known as ‘chogan’ in Persian) has been added as Iran’s intangible cultural heritage to UNESCO list during the 12th session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, taking place from December 4 to December 8 in the South Korean capital of Seoul.

Iran submitted a proposal for the inclusion of polo in the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage to UNESCO on 30 March 2016. The dossier was reviewed and shortlisted for inclusion under the 2003 Convention on Nov. 7, 2017.

The polo dossier is the second of thirteen documented Iranian intangible cultural heritages that is related to the country's traditional sports and ritual games.

The dossier was recognized as a masterpiece of heritage of humanity and inscribed in UNESCO’s list without any objections or provisions.

The first recorded game of polo, in which players on horseback score by driving a small ball into the opposing team's goal using a long-handled wooden mallet, reportedly took place in 600 BC in ancient Persia.

https://en.mehrnews.com/news/130022/UNESCO-lists-polo-as-Iran-s-intangible-cultural-heritage

 

[jetray]

Interesting ,never knew that.

 

[Joe Shearer]

An utterly unsuitable and stupid move.

 

[jetray]

An utterly unsuitable and stupid move.

y? on what basis.

 

[somebozo]

A game of Central Asian origin, polo was first played in Persia (Iran) at dates given from the 6th century bc to the 1st century ad. Polo was at first a training game for cavalry units, usually the king's guard or other elite troops.Jul 24, 2017

 

[Kyusuibu Honbu]

An utterly unsuitable and stupid move.

Any specific reason?

 

[BordoEnes]

Seems boring without using the carcass of a calf or lamb hehehe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buzkashi

 

[AmirPatriot]

Seems boring without using the carcass of a calf or lamb hehehe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buzkashi

I'd rather make a good Koobideh with those.

Well, not make it myself obviously...

 

[Joe Shearer]

An utterly unsuitable and stupid move.

Any specific reason?

Because modern polo has NOTHING to do with chaugan.

The British found Manipuris playing a game with mallets and a bamboo root ball, seven a side, not much by way of time division, just go at it until some appointed person said, 'That's enough!' Major (later Major General) Joseph Shearer (yes, yes, just concentrate, please), or Sherer, took the game, adapted it for regimental use, forming it into periods of 7 1/2 minutes, called chukkers, reducing the teams to four players, creating goal posts (of wicker work, so that ponies would not get injured running into them at full gallop) and making some unwilling persons the umpires (supervising the game on horseback) reporting to a match referee. Silchar Polo Club was formed in 1833, and Calcutta Polo Club in 1861 (some idiot somewhere has recorded 1862, and that shows up in the oddest places). CPC is the oldest in the world today.

I watched the Centenary Gold Cup in 1961, when a team with Maharaj (not Maharaja) Prem Singh, Col. Alec Harper, the legendary Hesky Baig (then a Brigadier in the PA) and a fourth whom I can't remember beat the 'unbeatable' team of Rao Raja Hanut Singh, still near his prime as a world class player, when he had been 9 goals handicapped as a player, and his sons, Bijay and Hari, and a fourth whom I can't, once again, remember. Prince Philip had played an exhibition match earlier, when he and Queen Elizabeth had come visiting India.