UNESCO officially recognized Aceh’s traditional Saman Dance as an intangible element of world cultural heritage during a session in Bali on Thursday.

The decision was announced during the sixth session of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, taking place in Bali from Nov. 22 to 29.

“The UNESCO secretariat, and then NGOs and experts, have checked the documents [on Saman Dance], and we proposed them to the session in Bali this morning,“ Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry spokesman I Gusti Ngurah Putra said in a press statement on Thursday.

“And thank God [Saman] was declared as having met the requirements. Saman has been officially included in the list of intangible cultural heritage, which needs UNESCO’s urgent protection,” he added, as quoted by Antara.

Indonesia proposed the UNESCO listing of the Saman Dance in March 2010.