UNESCO World Heritage for Indonesia

UNESCO World Heritage Sites represent some of the best natural, cultural and historic attractions in world travel. Below are details of the 8 cultural, natural and mixed sites inscribed for Indonesia to date (a red World Heritage symbol denotes a site currently regarded as endangered). For more details of these properties, click on the links to the UNESCO website and the photographic galleries of these sites from OurPlace (where available) or see our highlights of Indonesia for descriptions. Also, check out UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage for Indonesia below.


1991 - Komodo National Park Natural site
1991 - Ujung Kulon National Park Natural site
1991 - Prambanan Temple Compounds Cultural site
1991 - Borobudur Temple Compounds Cultural site
1996 - Sangiran Early Man Site Cultural site
1999 - Lorentz National Park Natural site
2004 - Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra Natural site
2012 - Cultural Landscape of Bali Province: the Subak System as a Manifestation of the Tri Hita Karana Philosophy Cultural site


Intangible Cultural Heritage

Recently UNESCO has begun to document the world's Intangible Cultural Heritage which includes "traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants, such as oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe or the knowledge and skills to produce traditional crafts". The current listings for Indonesia are shown below - click on the links for more details.


Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity

2008 - Indonesian Kris
2008 - Wayang puppet theatre
2009 - Indonesian Batik
2010 - Indonesian Angklung

Programmes, projects and activities for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage considered to best reflect the principles and objectives of the Convention

2009 - Education and training in Indonesian Batik intangible cultural heritage for elementary, junior, senior, vocational school and polytechnic students, in collaboration with the Batik Museum in Pekalongan

List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding

2011 - Saman dance
2012 - Noken multifunctional knotted or woven bag, handcraft of the people of Papua