ABSTRACT
This chapter is based on several assumptions established in the heritage literature. It aims to unpack the safeguarding mentality inherent in the measures of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage as well as its implications for the intangible cultural heritage. The chapter offers the example of a popular traditional cultural performance, improvised oral poetry performances or tokmo akynchylyk, among the Kyrgyz of Central Asia, to indicate the potential social, cultural and political ramifications of "protecting the local by interference of the global". The rituals are not intended for "others," and their performance is not a display of cultural heritage, but a distinctively "Kyrgyz conversation," as the poets engage in an intimate dialogue with their audience. The chapter argues that in many cases safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage as part of living cultures is simply not feasible without introducing irreversible changes to local cultural expressions, as the example of improvisational poetry performances suggests.
