In a classical performance known as khon in Thailand and lkhon khol in Cambodia, dancers in glittering papier-mache masks wage a battle of good and evil, enacting scenes derived from the Indian epic Ramayana.

But the shared tradition almost turned into a political hot potato recently when the United Nations inscribed the lkhon khol performed in a community east of Phnom Penh in its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.