UNESCO recognises Bangladesh's Shital Pati

Shital Pati is a beautiful craft item originating from Bangladesh. About four thousand families from the 100 villages of the greater Sylhet region are traditionally involved with making various crafts items. Shital Pati is the traditional art of making a handcrafted mat by weaving together strips of a green cane known as “Murta”. The mat is used by people all over Bangladesh as a sitting mat, bedspread or prayer mat.

The traditional art of Shital Pati weaving of Sylhet has been included in the UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) of Humanity.

The recognition came on Wednesday at the twelfth session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the ICH from December 4-9 at Jeju in South Korea.

This year, 35 nominations were submitted for getting inscribed on the Representative List of the ICH, and the Shital Pati is one of them.

To celebrate the international recognition, Bangladesh National Museum (BNM) in association with the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, is holding a nine-day Shital Pati exhibition at Nalinikanta Bhattashali Gallery of BNM. 

Four craftspersons from Sylhet region came to BNM to demonstrate how to weave Shital Pati on the opening day (December 5) of the exhibition. 

Cultural Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Noor attended the event as chief guest while Md. Ibrahim Hossain Khan, Secretary of the Ministry, and noted folk art researcher Chandrashekhar Saha were present as special guests. Faizul Latif Chowdhury, Director General of BNM, delivered welcome address while renowned artist Hashem Khan, President of the Board of Trustees, presided over the programme.