TEHRAN -- Shifting from agriculture to handicraft and tourism industry is a solution to rescue Iran’s villages from desolation, Bahman Namvar Motlaq proposed during the welcoming ceremony of the Natural-Cultural Heritage for Sustainable Development in Rural Areas conference on Wednesday.

The Gilan Rural Heritage Museum is hosting the conference, from May 27 to 30. However a welcoming ceremony was held at the National Museum of Iran in Tehran on Wednesday.

Namvar Motlaq, deputy director of the Handicrafts Department at the Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts, and Tourism Organization, in a short speech called villages as the most important source of cultural heritage for human beings.

He named the water crisis in Iran, lack of facilities, and the migration of the elites to the cities as problems which led to the emptying of villages in Iran.

“We have more than 350 types of artifacts in Iran, which can be exported as well,” he said.

Sustainable development always had cultural roots and it is now even more dependent on culture, he said.

---------- Ancestors exploited nature’s wealth and respect their surrounding environment -------

“The conference aims to rediscover the valuable cultural legacy left to us by our ancestors,” the secretary of the conference Mahmud Taleqani said during the opening ceremony on Wednesday.

“The people of rural areas in Southern countries who have always lived in harmony with nature, have learned for millennia to exploit nature´s wealth in such way that respects their surrounding environment,” he added.

“Unfortunately, in the name of progress and modernity, the social and cultural heritage considered as inappropriate, is probably doomed to disappear,” lamented Taleqani who is director of the Institute of Iranian Cultural Applied Researches and founder of the Gilan Rural Heritage Museum.

He announced that over 100 articles have been submitted to the secretariat of the conference, out of which, 41 papers were selected.

Academics will give 31 papers during the event, he added.

After that, the professor of Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes Marie-Françoise Courel, read out the message of the Ecole’s president Hubert Bost in French for participants.

----------- Iranian villages were manifestation production and independence---

University of Tehran’s Deputy Director for International Affairs Mohammadbaqer Qahramani also made a short speech during the event.

He expressed his gratitude over Mahmud Taleqani holding the conference.

“Iranian villages had been a manifestation of power, production, and independence in the past, which should be revived,” he said.

The visitors can trace the lifestyle of Gilaks in past centuries at the Gilan Rural Heritage Museum, he added.

------- Iran is a favorite tourist destination----

The Deputy Director of Management and Planning Organization, Hamid Purmohammadi, also said, “The vanishing of rural lifestyle is the vanishing of cultural heritage.”

“In the age of globalization, a nation should pay attention to its roots. Otherwise it will be demolished,” he argued.

Iran is a rich country with several natural and historical attractions for tourists. It is a safe and low-priced destination with, which makes it unique in the region, he added.

---------- Secrets of this land lie in cultural heritage

The director of Iran’s Research Institute for Cultural Heritage and Tourism (RICHT) Seyyed Mohammad Beheshti was next speaker.

Before the modernism enters villages, they don’t have any other way except to meet sustainable development, he said.

The pattern for sustainable development is a kind of topography, which includes historical, natural and cultural benefits, he added.
“We should act with the light of wisdom but technology only deteriorates problems we face in villages.”

Beheshti called cultural heritage a great guide to solve the problem of sustainable development in villages.

“Many secrets of this land lie in the cultural heritage,” he said.

The RICHT chief said that in ancient time people foster the earth but nowadays we just care about it for the business.

The University of Tehran, the CHTHO Research Institute, the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etude (EPHE-Sorbonne) and the “Institut National des Langues et Civilizations Orientales (INALCO) cosponsor the event.

The museum is located in the Saravan forest about 15 kilometers from Rasht, the capital of Gilan Province, on the Tehran-Rasht road in north Iran.

It reveals the lifestyle of the Gilaks residing in harmony with their natural surroundings, and documents the culture and way of life of the inhabitants who live along the coastline of the Caspian Sea.

SB/DG
EN