Three Thai festivals selected for global recognition campaign

 The Culture Ministry has selected three cultural festivals for its campaign to boost global recognition in Thai culture in a bid to attract domestic and foreign visitors in fiscal year 2025.

The three are the Muang Kram Festival in Sakon Nakhon province, Nang Yai Wat Khanon and the International Shadow Puppet Festival in Ratchaburi province, and Kebaya Festival in Phuket province.

These festivals have been chosen for their distinctive qualities, potential, and unique identity in various aspects, Culture Minister Sudawan Wangsuphakijkosol said on Friday.

“We aim to boost their national and international recognition this year under the government’s soft-power-promotion policy, which focuses on creating a positive image at global level and attracting domestic and foreign visitors,” she said. “This initiative also aims to support the creative and cultural industries to help revive the grassroots economy.”

Sakon Nakhon’s Muang Kram Festival is based on kram, indigo-dyed fabric. The initiative is built upon cultural capital and promotes the creative economy through fashion and cultural products made by local communities. 

Notably, Sakon Nakhon was officially recognised as a "World Craft City for Natural Indigo" in 2018, making it the first province in Thailand and one of the countries in the Asia-Pacific region to receive such an honour.

Nang Yai Wat Khanon and the International Shadow Puppet Festival in Ratchaburi province were officially announced as a national cultural heritage in 2009 by the Culture Ministry. Two years earlier, Wat Khanon was recognised by UNESCO as one of the six outstanding communities in the world for their work in the conservation of intangible cultural heritage, specifically the Nang Yai tradition.

Nang Yai, which means “large patch of animal skin”, refers to exquisitely hand-crafted shadow puppets made from painted buffalo hide. Nang Yai is used to tell stories, often from the Ramakien (Thai version of the Ramayana).

Phuket’s Kebaya Festival celebrates the joint cultural costume of five countries, namely Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, with an origin dating back 300 years. The costume represents the shared history and cultures of countries in the Malay Peninsula. UNESCO recognised kebaya as an intangible cultural heritage item in December last year.