Intangible Cultural Heritage Initiative

The Intangible Cultural Heritage Initiative is a national initiative that aims to educate male and female students from all over the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia about the Saudi intangible cultural heritage to preserve its continuity, by working with teachers to motivate students to conduct desk and field research in this field, and offering prizes worth SAR145,000 for participants and winners.

The Intangible Cultural Heritage Initiative aims to develop students' capabilities and equip them with basic research skills for documenting intangible cultural heritage. It also seeks to obtain student outputs and contributions to documenting all types of intangible cultural heritage. Additionally, the initiative aims to foster the culture of intangible cultural heritage and preserve its essence across generations.

The Intangible Cultural Heritage Initiative encompasses five tracks:

Performing arts track: Embracing popular movements steeped in heritage, flowing with harmonious rhythms.

Folk stories track: Including proverbs, poems, and chants, along with the various forms of traditional oral expressions, including stories, legends, proverbs, and folk poems transmitted across generations.

Folk games track: Consisting of rituals and various social activities practiced by a particular community.

Traditional crafts track: Encompassing the skill, experience, tools, and mechanism of working on a traditional craft that characterizes the region.

Popular food track: Covering foods, presentation methods, popular tools used to make them, and their connection to heritage.

The Intangible Cultural Heritage Initiative offers financial prizes worth up to SAR145,000, including SAR47,000 to teachers supervising the teams that win the best research. Teachers supervising the winning teams are honored at the closing ceremony and prizes are distributed to them, including prizes worth SAR95,000 to middle and high school students and prizes worth SAR3,000 for school leaders.