title: [Status and prospect of protection of intangible cultural heritage-traditional medicine in the international social community].
abstract: In the 1970s, the World Health Organization (WHO) began to focus on traditional medicine and realized the cultural foundation of it. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) began the work of standardization of intangible cultural heritage in 1973 and in 2003 the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage was approved. The categories of intangible cultural heritage kept on increasing and the adoption of traditional medicine began in 2003. Till now, two traditional medical items have been included in The Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Now intangible cultural heritage has been emphasized and supported by many countries rich in cultural resources. The number of member states and items in the list increased rapidly. The aim of The Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, protecting the cultural foundation of traditional medicine and promoting the inheritance and revitalization of core cultural conception in traditional medicine, is a new way for sustainable development of traditional medicine in the future.
authors.affiliation: China Institute for History of Medicine and Medical Literature, China Academy of Chineese Medical Sciences, 100700, China.
authors.forename: Chang-Hua
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Fu-Rong
authors.initials: FR
authors.lastname: Tian