Thailand to protect knowledge and save patents of Thai Yoga
Thailand will propose that 200 year-old inscriptions and statues that teach traditional Thai yoga at Wat Pra Chetupon Wimolmangalaram be included in the Unesco Memory of the World (MOW) Programme in 2009.
This inclusion would also save the "Rusie Dutton" (Hermit Body Twists) from patent conflicts, after a Japanese company last year registered it as trademark and company name with the Japan Patent Office (JPO). At a meeting on Monday at the Bangkok temple, chairperson of the National Committee on the MOW Programme, Prof Khunying Maenmas Chavalit, said Wat Pra Chetupon Wimolmangalaram was regarded as the country's first university, built on the orders of King Rama I (1782-1809). To establish a learning centre for his subjects, King Rama I, around the year 1808, had knowledge inscripted onto the walls - including geography, culture, stories of Lord Buddha's prominent disciples and traditional medicine - as well as the 80 "Rusie Dutton" postures in statue form. Only 24 statues remain. Education Minister Wijit Srisaan and Culture Minister Khunying Khaisri Sriaroon said they fully supported the plan. The "Rusie Dutton" statues - which currently attract three million visitors a year plus thousands of students - would also be saved if they were included in the MOW, said Preeda Tangjittrong, the director of the temple's traditional medicine school. Thais would then "have peace of mind" knowing that no one would try to patent Thai traditional knowledge, he said. Early last year, news of the JPO approval to Japanese businessman Masaki Furuya's application for two trademark registrations for his Thai yoga school and a self-taught Thai exercise book/magazine under the "Rusie Dutton" trademark stirred up a public outcry in Thailand. Many saw it as yet another intellectual property rights violation of Thai traditional knowledge, leading to the Intellectual Property Department to urge Tokyo to revoke the trademark. The National Committee on the MOW Programme is currently in the process of applying for the 102-year-old abolition of slavery docuŽment passed by King Rama V for inclusion in the MOW Programme. The committee's first success was the inclusion of King Ramkhamhaeng's first inscription in the MOW Programme in October 2003. Unesco launched the MOW Programme in 1992 to guard against collective amnesia by calling upon the preservation of invaluable archive holdings and library collections all over the world and ensuring their wide dissemination. by Pakamard Jaichalard The Nation
|
