01682nas a2200145   4500000000100000000000100001008004100002100001800043245011200061856011800173300001000291490000700301520120800308022002001516                                       d1 aP.A. Hardwick00aMak yong, a unesco “masterpiece” negotiating the intangibles of cultural heritage and politicized islam  uhttps://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85087167180&partnerID=40&md5=d84d125a8f4d332af263b44ad03508fe  a67-900 v793 aMak yong is a Malay dance drama once performed for entertainment and healing ceremonies by itinerant theater troupes that traveled throughout northern Malaysia, southern Thailand, and the Riau archipelago of Indonesia. Incorpo-rated into national displays of Malaysian cultural heritage since the mid-1970s, mak yong was declared a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2005. The UNESCO intangible cultural heritage (ICH) designation for mak yong was filed and accepted while mak yong was officially banned in its home state of Kelantan. The validity of mak yong as a symbol of Malay culture, and its ban in Kelantan for religious reasons, are frequently debated in Malaysia. Malaysian mak yong provides a case study of the divergent ways in which administrative and local communities of practice implement the ICH concept of “safeguarding” in a highly charged polit-ical-religious field. International UNESCO designation, ICH safeguarding, and international human rights discourses have to contend with Malay ethnic nationalism and political Islamic movements that have alternatively sought to eradicate the art through bans or remake mak yong in their own image.  a18826865 (ISSN)