Disruptions and political change in the 1970s caused a decline in traditional Lao Buddhist practice, and after 1975 fewer young boys entered the monasteries for education and religious training. As older monks left the wats, many skills were lost as well. Two wats dedicated to artistic training - Wat Mai and Wat Siphouttabath - were closed, resulting in the loss of the last vehicles for training younger monks older skills. The 1990s saw a revival of traditional religious-based education and an increase in the number of young monks residing in Luang Prabang, providing a way for poorer, rural boys to get an education. The inscription of Luang Prabang onto the World Heritage List in December 1995 also led to a renewed sense of vigour on the part of both monks and local people to restore and care for their community and temple complexes. Unfortunately, their attention was often misplaced - young monks, sometimes assisted by community members, could be seen pouring cement, whitewashing over temple walls with mural paintings and repairing roofs with tiles purchased from Bangkok. The Cultural Survival and Revival in the Buddhist Sangha Project was launched with the aim of restoring within communities the traditional skills needed to properly care for, preserve and conserve temples in Luang Prabang by establishing non-formal training for monks - a monk’s school - in traditional arts and crafts. Phase I of the project was implemented by UNESCO from 2000-2003 in Luang Prabang, in collaboration with the Lao National Commission for UNESCO, the Luang Prabang Provincial Service of Information and Culture, the Luang Prabang Provincial Secondary School of Fine Arts, the Luang Prabang Buddhist Sangha and traditional masters, with support from the Governments of New Zealand and Norway (NORAD) and the Nordic World Heritage Foundation. Through the establishment of the Training Centre for Lao Traditional Temple Arts and Building Crafts at Wat Xieng Muan, the project has succeeded in documenting and revitalising a number of traditional decorative arts and building crafts. At the same time, the project has also revived the traditional system of training in this field within the monkhood itself, thus ensuring the traditional system of knowledge transmission from master to apprentice. Employing local craftsmen and teachers trained in traditional arts, the two-year course offered at Wat Xieng Muan now provides instruction in decorative work such as painting, gilding and woodcarving for some 20 students - both apprentices and younger monks - drawn from the wats. Upon completion of their studies they are awarded an 'Apprentice Certificate of the UNESCO Training Centre for Laotian Traditional Arts and Building Crafts, Luang Prabang' and are expected to begin work. It takes at least two more years for them to obtain an Artisan Certificate and a minimum of another two years after that to obtain a Master Certificate, although in practice reaching Master status can take anything from five to 10 years.