INTACH Readies Dossier To Include Chhath Puja On UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List
The documents have been submitted to the Union Ministry of Culture, which will send them to UNESCO for evaluation and a final call by 2027.
By Dev Raj
Published : July 5, 2026 at 2:20 PM IST
Patna: Chhath Puja, the four-day festival dedicated to the worship of the Sun God, could soon be added to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) list. Primarily celebrated in Bihar, it is also observed in eastern Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, parts of West Bengal, Nepal, and by people from these regions residing in different parts of the world.
The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) has prepared a dossier following meticulous research of two years on the centuries-old worship tradition and is gearing up to send it to UNESCO for further deliberation.
"We have prepared a dossier on the Chhath Puja and handed it over to our headquarters in Delhi. It will be provided to the Union Ministry of Culture to be sent to UNESCO for evaluation. Even INTACH can also directly send it to the UN body for further deliberation," INTACH Bihar co-convenor and museology expert Shiv Kumar Mishra told ETV Bharat.
Ingredients in the Dossier
The INTACH started working on the dossier by organising a seminar in collaboration with the Buddha Smriti Park and Museum in Patna on the history of Chhath Puja, Sun worship in Bihar, astronomical and astrological nuances, medical (especially Ayurvedic) aspects, and environmental importance. Several research papers related to the festival were presented by scholars, of which 13 were published in the form of a book.
Subsequently, several facets of the festival were photographed by INTACH across Bihar in 2024 and 2025 to capture the essence, rituals, people's participation, and expanse. The good ones were catalogued, and certificates of appreciation were given to the photographers.
Author and lyricist Hriday Narayan Jha compiled all the folk songs related to Chhath Puja and Sun worship in various languages across Bihar and its neighbouring areas and published them in book form. INTACH also published a book titled 'Chhath Puja: Multidisciplinary Perspectives On Faith, Culture And Community' edited by Saumya Anchal. It catalogues various aspects of the festival that make it a unique celebration of faith, culture, tradition, environment, interdependence of communities, people's participation, and the focus on health, longevity and fertility.
The fifth step was an effort to establish the historicity of Sun worship in Bihar, the centre of the Chhath Puja. Mishra accomplished this by writing a book on select Sun idols, statues and other artefacts found in different corners of the state.
"This book contains information about the historicity of Sun worship in Bihar, written through the prism of archaeological discoveries. It has details of the 145 most important statues, sculptures, and figurines of the Sun God from the 3rd Century BC to the colonial era. Apart from this, it also mentions the Sun worship references and traditions right from the Rig Veda to the medieval scriptures and texts," Mishra added.
His book also provides details about a stone pillar at the temple in Bodh Gaya that has a sculpture of the Sun God on a chariot. According to historians, it belongs to the Sunga dynasty period (187 to 75 BC).
Similarly, the book also refers to Sun God's statues found in Vaishali and Balirajgarh (Madhubani), depicting him with all his paraphernalia. These are kept at the Bihar Museum, and scholars believe them to be his oldest statues found so far. It also contains information about the terracotta plaque with the Sun God on it, found in Patna's Kadamkuan.
Punch-marked coins with the symbols of the Sun, terracotta figurines, seals, and amulets depicting him are also mentioned in the book. But what makes it special is that Mishra has scoured the length and breadth of Bihar to showcase Sun idols kept in various temples or beneath the trees and being worshipped by the people, revealing the span of the worship.
"We have moved scientifically to establish the historicity of Chhath Puja in Bihar. Our effort is to present everything before UNESCO and the people to judge how old the tradition is in Bihar and how it has been continuing since ancient times," INTACH Bihar coordinator Bhairab Lal Das said. All these things have been incorporated in the dossier, he added.
Benefit of UNESCO Recognition
To include an element on UNESCO's Representative List of ICH, a country can nominate one element every two years. India had nominated Deepavali for the 2024–25 cycle, which was included in the list in December 2025. It can again send a nomination along with a dossier for evaluation to UNESCO in 2027, and INTACH officials hope that Chhath Puja will be the one.
"Chhath Puja will get worldwide recognition if it makes it to the ICH list. The recognition will help spread more awareness about it among people across geographies. Global researchers would be attracted to study it. More books and articles would be published on the festival," Das said, adding that the recognition will help project it as a global heritage to boost tourism.
"We have been able to connect it to tourism on a very low scale. Very few foreign tourists visit to see the celebrations despite the fact that it has at least a 2,000-year-old legacy continuing almost unchanged, be it the fasting, its connection to agriculture, health, fertility, water bodies, or the environment. Making it to the UNESCO list will make it easier to promote Chhath," Das added.
UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage
For the safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, UNESCO adopted the 2003 Convention on October 17, 2003, during its 32nd General Conference held in Paris. It responded to global concerns that living cultural traditions were increasingly threatened by globalisation, social change, and limited resources, and need to be protected.
The Convention proposed five broad domains in which intangible cultural heritage could be manifested. These include oral traditions and expressions like language as a vehicle, performing arts such as traditional music, dance and theatre, social practices — rituals and festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe, and traditional craftsmanship.
This shifted the focus from only protecting monuments, statues, and iconic sites to safeguarding cultural traditions also, which are more than just concrete objects.
"Respecting heritage is not only about safeguarding it now. It is also about making it known to future generations. This means ensuring that young people can appropriate heritage, take pride in it, and renew it," UNESCO director-general Audrey Azoulay said.
The UN body has included 849 elements corresponding to six regions and 157 countries in the ICH list.
Chhath Puja
Held during the Kartika month of the lunar Hindu calendar, Chhath Puja is unique due to its elaborate rituals, including a 36-hour fast without food or water and bathing in water bodies performed at the individual and family levels. The entire occasion transforms into an event of community participation and communal harmony.
People belonging to other religions also lend their hands to ensure smooth Chhath celebrations. As the festival lays a great emphasis on cleanliness, the entire population joins in cleaning everything from their homes to streets, roads, ghats, and water bodies. They do not dare to litter or throw garbage outside their homes during the period of worship.
During the ritual offering of water or milk in the morning and evening, devotees wear freshly washed garments and remain barefoot. Usually, male members of the family carry the soops (traditional cane-strip woven flat basket used for winnowing) and baskets filled with offerings like fruits and traditional items like thekuas (cookies made of wheat flour, milk, ghee, sugar or jaggery) and sweets to river banks, lakes, or ponds. Some people also perform the rituals in makeshift water-filled tanks dug at their houses or made on rooftops.
Other rituals performed at the banks include women smearing red or orange sindoor (vermilion) from the nose to the forehead, symbolic of marital prosperity and the well-being of the husband and family. Devotees also float earthen lamps on water to carry their prayers and to honour the divine light that sustains life. After the Usha Arghya (morning offerings), the devotees break their fast.
Offerings are shared with family, friends, and neighbours, reinforcing both the spiritual merit of the fast and the communal spirit of the occasion.
According to some observers, the festival's ecological practices — including the use of biodegradable materials such as fruits, flowers, clay lamps, and food items — have helped it remain one of the most environmentally oriented festivals of the country.
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