Over the past few decades, non-Western countries such as India, China, and Japan have worked toward including intangible heritage in international policies. The key to understanding these linkages lies in asking the following question: Are these international efforts different from how heritage is deployed and constructed nationally? By developing a new theoretical framework that underscores the heritagization of religion, a niche agenda is deployed that explains different functions of the heritagization process. On a national level, heritagization helps in the reconstruction of religious values and practices. On an international level, heritagization leads to nation-building by increasing the cultural distinctiveness of a country. Heritagization of religion within a country is likely to precipitate communal tension in countries that have a “rich heterogeneous past,” whereas heritagization could be viewed as soft power within the international sphere. It is argued that the inclusion of intangible heritage in international policies is more promising as it both enhances the meaning of a shared heterogeneous past and redefines a nation’s international position. In other words, heritagization on an international platform confers more advantages. In line with the proposed theoretical framework, it is plausible to argue that non-Western countries may raise the bar for heritagization giving way to a novel form of heritagization competition as a means of not only advancing diplomatic agendas but also unifying people within borders. Countries’ success could be determined by an elegant balance between “international” and “national” heritagization efforts