On 10 January 2014, H.E. Mr. Tharit Charungvat, Ambassador of Thailand to the Republic of Turkey, welcomed 5 members of the International Manisa Mesir Paste Festival Organising Committee, led by Mr. Mehmet Yüce, Deputy Governor of Manisa, at the Royal Thai Embassy. The purpose of the Committee’s visit was to extend to H.E. the Ambassador the invitation to the 474^th International Manisa Mesir Paste Festival.  

The Festival, comprising various activities, including local and international folk dances and the congress on alternative and complementary medicine, will be held during 22-27 April 2014. The Committee sought the Royal Thai Embassy’s consideration in sending a Thai cultural troupe to perform in the Festival and sending representatives to participate at the congress. H.E. Mr. Charungvat expressed his support in dispatching a cultural troupe to perform at the festival and proposed to coordinate with a Thai spa operator in Turkey to discuss with the organizer to showcase Thai massage therapy at the congress venue.

Regarded as the oldest festival in the world and inscribed in the UNESCO’s list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in the year 2012, the Festival is organized yearly to commemorate the recovery of Hafsa Sultan, mother of Suleiman the Magnificent, who was cured of a disease by the invention of Mesir Macunu, a special paste made of 41 fresh spices and herbs.