The award was given to the local administration through the Coordinating Ministry for People`s Welfare in Jakarta recently.
Anto Susilo, head of the culture and tourism section at the Cianjur culture and tourism office, said on Monday he was surprised to hear the news that Cianjur, along with West Bandung district and Bogor city had been declared recipients of the UNESCO award.
He said he did not know exactly the reasons why the Cianjur district administration won the award.
"It is likely Cianjur won the award because the district has very often asked for technical assistance from instructors of Saung Udjo to provide training courses," he said.
Angklung was officially declared a world heritage item by UNESCO last year like batik, wayang (Javanese traditional puppets), and the keris(ceremonial dagger) which had obtained the world heritage status earlier.
A total of 890 objects worldwide are currently on UNESCO`s world heritage list consisting of 689 in the culture category, 176 in the nature category and 25 in both the culture and nature categories.
Of the total, 11 are Indonesian with four of them in the nature, three in the culture and four in the intangible culture categories.
The Indonesian natural heritages are Ujung Kulon National Park, Komodo National Park, Lorentz National Park, and Sumatran tropical forests comprising the Gunung Leuser, Kerinci Sablat and Bukit Barisan national parks.
The three cultural heritages are the Borobudur Temple, Prambanan Temple, and Sangiran Pre-historical site, while the intangible world heritages from Indonesia are wayang keris, and batik.(*)
Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
