Pax Cultura is the movement initiated in the early 20-c. by Nicholas Roerich, a Russian painter, explorer, and philosopher. The objective of the movement is to protect culture from neglect, destruction, and disappearance.  

THE SIGN, ITS HISTORY, AND MEANING

Just as the Red Cross is recognized by its protective sign, so is Pax Cultura embodied in a protective sign seen at the top of this page.  This sign is ancient in origin; countless artifacts from the Paleolithic era are known to contain this figure.  In his travels across Asia, Roerich had seen this sign time and again – carved into ancient stones of Neolithic monuments, inscribed on the amulets of the Bronze Age, and stitched onto the prayer flags of Tibetan monasteries. The Russian artist knew that it represented a deep understanding of culture's totality.  The three smaller circles stand for Art, Science, and Religion - the three major components of culture.  The protective ring symbolizes the human mind conceiving all three components, protecting them, fostering them, and giving them life.

PROTECTION OF CULTURE

The cultural heritage of any nation or historical era is ultimately a world treasure. It encompasses not just the existing remains of earlier cultures—the buildings and art, for example—but also the creative activities and scientific exploration, the schools, colleges and universities, scientific laboratories and research facilities, the libraries and other repositories of human knowledge, the museums, concert halls and theaters, houses of worship, religious artifacts, and spiritual/religious civilizations - all must be protected from loss, neglect and oblivion. 

COMMERCIALIZATION OF CULTURE
In our time, culture has become an object of massive erosion due to commercialization.  Translating cultural values into financial gains leads to the view that the monetary returns is a factor that determines the value of art, science, or religion. Cultural activities that do not generate profit thus become a subject to indifference and neglect. Copyright and marketing only deepen this crisis.  Culture, its artifacts, and the whole of cultural heritage belong to all of humanity, not only to those individuals or groups who own them.

There is no greater value to a nation or even the whole planet than its culture.