Asia e il Pacifico

When news of the massive earthquake in Nepal broke out, ICCROM led an initiative to produce the Kathmandu Cultural Emergency Crowdmap, which received extensive on-the-ground reports about damaged heritage. As a result, an overview of the devastation was pulled together immediately and now an international team is in Kathmandu preparing the groundwork for a sustainable salvage operation.

As the news of a massive earthquake in Nepal broke out, ICCROM, ICOMOS-ICORP and their combined network of heritage professionals joined forces to produce the Kathmandu Cultural Emergency Crowdmap to gather on-the-ground reports on damaged heritage in order to provide a consistent situation overview. The preliminary results have now been summarized into a report available for download.

A series of devastating earthquakes have struck Nepal over the weekend, causing loss of more than 7000 lives. The initial 7.8 magnitude quake, along with aftershocks as high as 6.7 magnitude, caused destruction and severe damage to the historic centre of Kathmandu and other heritage sites throughout the Kathmandu Valley. Quake-related damage has been reported throughout the region.

ICCROM, in cooperation with UNESCO, the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan (ACA) and the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage (NICH), organized an International Expert Meeting on Cultural Heritage and Disaster Resilient Communities. The meeting was held before and during the 3rd United Nations World Conference on Disaster Reduction (the 3rd WCDRR).

The CollAsia international course on Handling, Packing and Moving Collections came to a close in Kuching, Malaysia. Organized by ICCROM and the Sarawak Museum Department, with the support of the Korean Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA), the CollAsia activity aimed to improve scientific literacy and critical thinking skills among the diverse professionals caring for Southeast Asian heritage...

CollAsia has brought together a diverse set of professionals with a combined work experience that makes for valuable exchanges and discussions. Caring for cultural heritage is at the heart of the work of participants and the course team, but different working roles, resources and cultural contexts give rise to unique challenges and solutions, which everyone can learn from.

2nd ICCROM CHA-Korea Forum Colombo and Habarana, Sri Lanka 8-12 December 2014 As part of a thematic seminar series funded by Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) of Korea, a second Forum was held on “Authenticity in the Asian Context” in Sri Lanka. This event was organized last December by the Sri Lankan Ministry of National Heritage, the Department of Archaeology, the Postgraduate Institute of...

12 – 30 January 2015, Sarawak Museum Department, Kuching, Malaysia With over 40 specialists from Asia-Pacific and beyond, the CollAsia international course on Handling, Packing and Moving Collections is taking place 12 – 30 January 2015 in the Natural History Museum, Sarawak Museum Department, Kuching, Malaysia.

Last month several former ICCROM course participants from Sri Lanka met at the Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology to hold a networking event and form an alumni group. The Institute’s Director, Jagath Weerasinghe, who himself participated in ICCROM’s Mural Paintings course (MPC) in 1985 and returned in 2008 as a research fellow, was elected President of the alumni and has committed to ensuring...

ICCROM is participating in a UNESCO joint expert mission from 2 to 12 December 2013 to Manila and the central Visayas to assist the Philippines in assessing the situation and damage caused by the recent natural disasters.