Inscription of "Kelileh-o Demneh Stories" on Iran's National ICH Inventory
Having approved by the National Council for the Inscription of Intangible Cultural Heritage in its session on Wednesday, December 27, 2023, "Kelileh-o Demneh Stories" was inscribed on Iran's national ICH inventory. The "Kelileh-o Demneh Stories" file was prepared and proposed by Mana Naqsh Institute, and Shahab Nikman, the managing director of the institute, on behalf of the authors, attended the session to present and defend the file.
![]( "Inscription of")
On Wednesday, December 27, 2023, following Article 12 of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of UNESCO and Article 3 of the Statute of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts of Iran, in the session of the National Council for the Inscription of Intangible Cultural Heritage, the file "Kelileh-o Demneh Stories" which was prepared and proposed by Mana Naqsh Art & Culture Institute, was inscribed on Iran's national ICH inventory. Shahab Nikman, the managing director of Mana Naqsh, on behalf of the authors, attended the session to present and defend the file, which was prepared in collaboration with Morteza Razvanfar, Shahab Nikman, and Parisa Bakhshandeh.
Kelileh-o Demneh is a collection of various didactic fables in which most of the characters are animals. "Kelileh" and "Demneh" are the names of two jackals and the fables are narrated by them. This collection was written several centuries BC in India and then translated into Middle Persian in Iran during the Sassanid Empire and at that time five chapters were added to it.
This ICH element, which was inscribed of national scope, is manifested in three out of the five intangible cultural heritage domains, including "oral traditions and expressions, including language as a vehicle of the intangible cultural heritage", "performing arts", and "traditional craftsmanship".
