The Ministry of Tourism and Culture has reportedly submitted three more places in Malaysia to obtain the UNESCO World Heritage Site status.
The new sites include the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM), Perak’s Royal Belum State Park and Quartz Ridge of Gombak in Selangor.
This announcement was made on Sunday during the Lenggong Carnival 2017 at Dataran Lenggong held in conjunction with the fifth anniversary of the Lenggong Valley being recognised as a World Heritage Site.
The Lenggong Valley was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012 because it holds solid proof of the existence of the world’s oldest prehistory activity in the world.
The most notable evidence found at the site was the prehistoric human skeleton known as the Perak Man.
Besides the Lenggong Valley, other Malaysian places listed in the World Heritage Site include the Gunung Mulu National Park in Sarawak, Kinabalu Park in Sabah and the historic cities of Melaka and George Town, Penang.
Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz was quoted in a
Bernama news report as saying that the ministry constantly strives to seek recognition for various categories of heritage, including documentaries and manuscripts.
The ‘
Kitab Tib Ilmu Bedil’ (Book of Traditional Malay Weaponry) was recognised in 2016 by the Memory of the World Committee for Asia and the Pacific based in South Korea.
The Department of National Heritage had previously submitted three other nominations in March on cultural heritage, which are the Wangkang Festival, Dondang Sayang and Pantun to be recognised the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage.