Ahead of International Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) Day on October 17, 2025, UN India, UNESCO, and Royal Enfield joined hands to honour the vibrant living heritage of the Indian Himalayan region. The celebration featured a screening of The Great Himalayan Exploration—a collaborative initiative focused on documenting and preserving the region’s diverse cultural traditions. As outlined by UNESCO, Intangible Cultural Heritage includes the practices, expressions, knowledge, and skills that communities, groups, and individuals identify as part of their cultural legacy.
Launched in 2022, The Great Himalayan Exploration has traversed 11 Geographies – including Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Tripura, Nagaland, Assam, North Bengal – documenting over 100 ICH practices and engaging with over 250 communities. The initiative aims to create awareness around living heritage practices through immersive, community-led-explorations and showcase it through exhibitions, photo stories, programming and immersive experiences. Recently, the documentation has been captured in a four-part docuseries by National Geographic, streaming on JioHotstar, spotlighting the immersive engagements between riders and local communities.
The evening featured screening from The Great Himalayan Exploration, including a short film on the revival of Mon-Shugu paper-making in Arunachal Pradesh – a centuries-old craft being brought back to life by local artisans; followed by an episode highlighting traditional wool spinning and weaving, and other living heritage practices from Ladakh.
“India’s Himalayan communities remind us that sustainable development begins with respect for people, culture and nature. The Great Himalayan Exploration is an important initiative that brings these connections to life, linking cultural heritage, environmental stewardship and local livelihoods. As we mark International Intangible Cultural Heritage Day on 17 October, we are reminded that safeguarding living heritage is essential to advancing the SDGs and building a more inclusive future for all.” said Shombi Sharp, UN Resident Coordinator in India.
Highlighting the importance of preserving living heritage, Tim Curtis, Director and Representative, UNESCO Regional Office for South Asia said “The Great Himalayan Exploration is an example of how communities, explorers and storytellers come together to safeguard Intangible Cultural Heritage in its living form. In order to keep these practices alive across generations, rather than trying to freeze them in time, living heritage needed to be understood as dynamic, rather than static. The 2003 Convention’s definition of ICH therefore recognized that ICH is “constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their environment, their interaction with nature and their history. UNESCO is proud to partner with Royal Enfield in an initiative that honours the voices of Himalayan communities and helps ensure their living heritage continues to inspire generations to come. As vehicles of identity and social cohesion, these traditions need to be valued and safeguarded in all their diversity.”
Speaking at the opening, Bidisha Dey, Executive Director, Eicher Group Foundation, the CSR arm of Royal Enfield said “The Great Himalayan Exploration brings together rider-researchers, creative practitioners, storytellers, and experts under the UNESCO–Royal Enfield partnership to celebrate the living heritage of the Himalayas. The project documents the lived experiences and cultural practices of Himalayan communities, creating meaningful connections through the journey of exploration. Beyond documentation, we are committed to sharing these stories in ways that resonate with younger audiences—fostering deeper appreciation and pride in our shared cultural heritage.”
A fireside conversation between Shombi Sharp, UN Resident Coordinator in India; Tim Curtis, Director and Representative, UNESCO Regional Office for South Asia; Bidisha Dey, Executive Director, Eicher Group Foundation, the CSR arm of Royal Enfield; along with community representatives Dorji Chhoijom, Royal Enfield Conservation Grantee reviving Mon-Shugu Paper Making (ICH) in Arunachal Pradesh and Tashi Dolker, an artisan preserving traditional wool weaving practices in Ladakh. The discussion explored the significance of documenting living heritage in the face of climate change, how such initiatives foster identity and resilience within communities, and the role of public-private collaborations in advancing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The evening also marked the launch of the secondedition of Royal Enfield’s Annual Sustainability Journal (2024-25), featuring rider journals, photo essays, and documentation of ICH practices from Ladkah and Sikkim, along with other community and sustainable stories from the Himalayas and beyond.
The second edition of Royal Enfield’s annual multidisciplinary festival – Journeying Across the Himalayas, was also announced, celebrating Himalayan culture, craft and creativity, offering a platform to bring together the community and showcase some of the ICH practices. This year’s theme, ‘Ours to Tell’, will anchor a week-long celebration of exhibitions, performances, dialogues, workshops, culinary journeys, and community-led experiences from December 4 to 10, 2025, at Travancore Palace, New Delhi.
 Day on October 17, 2025, UN India, UNESCO, and Royal Enfield hosted a screening of The Great Himalayan Exploration, a joint initiative to document and preserve the cultural traditions of the Indian Himalayan region. ICH, as defined by UNESCO, includes the practices, expressions, knowledge, and skills recognized by communities as part of their cultural heritage){kind=link}