TIRANA, Dec 9 /ATA/ Prime Minister Edi Rama announced the official recognition of the Lute as an Intangible Cultural Heritage on UNESCO’s Urgent Protection List.

“One of the most cherished treasures of our cultural identity—the art of playing, singing, and crafting the lute—has now been recognized as a world heritage.

Blendi Gonxhja, the Minister of Tourism, Culture, and Sports, credited this achievement to a long and research-intensive process led by a team of scholars: Vaso Tole, Shaban Sinani, Rigers Halili, Armanda Hysa, and Susane Ogge.

Their efforts, together with community sessions and field research, resulted in the completion of a file that met UNESCO’s highest standards, which was submitted in March 2024.

This process was supported by the Ministry of Culture in collaboration with the Albanian-American Development Foundation (AADF), as part of an agreement to prepare documentation for Albania’s intangible cultural heritage file,” Minister Gonxhja wrote on social media.

Gonxhja emphasized the commitment to continue preserving, promoting, and strengthening this rare cultural heritage, while also keeping the door open for future collaboration with Kosovo.

The art of singing, playing, and crafting the lute represents a fundamental element of identity in the Albanian rural regions, cultivated over centuries in the northern provinces and beyond, from Malësia e Madhe, Dukagjin, the Highlands of Gjakova, Rugova, Drenica, to Plava and Gucia. The epic tales of the Kreshnik warriors and the ballads of the northern Albanian tradition, in the hands of the lutenist, have over the centuries expressed virtues of bravery, resilience, honor, loyalty, and hospitality.

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