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[National Intangible Cultural Heritage, Republic of Korea] Byeolsingut refers to a ritual held to pray to the village guardian for the peace of the village and good crop every three or five or ten years. In Hahoe Village in Andong, the villagers have performed this ritual for about 500 years, once (December 15) every 10 years or on special occasions. The rite is composed of eight acts, i.e. Gaksiui Mudong Madang (Boy Dancer Act), Juji Madang (Head Monk Act), Baekjeong Madang (Butcher Act), Halmi Madang (Old Woman Act), Pagyeseung Madang (Depraved Monk Act), Yangban Seonbi Madang (Act of Nobleman and Scholar), Hollye Madang (Wedding) Act, and Sinbang Madang (The First Night Act). The play includes ridicule of depraved monks, satires about nobles, and other humorous content. It is believed that the mask for a newly-wed woman symbolizes the village guardian. Thus, the mask is shown to people only during Byeolsingut. A total of eleven masks in ten types made of alder wood are used for the play. The original masks were designated as National Treasure No. 121 in 1964. The play is performed to the accompaniment of pungmulkkun (a farmer’s music band composed of kkwaenggwari (small gong), taepyeongso (conical wooden oboe), sogo (small drums), buk (drums), janggo (hourglass-shaped drum), and jing (large gong). This play performed in Hahoe ends without the post-event rite of burning the masks used as in mask play events that are held elsewhere. It is regarded as a valuable source of material in relation to how mask plays were performed in the country.

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[National Intangible Cultural Heritage, Republic of Korea] Yangju Byeolsandae Nori is one of the Sandae Dogam performed by itinerary troupes based in Seoul and the capital region. Consisting of dance, pantomime, well-wishing remarks, and acrobatics, it originated about 200 years ago and came to be performed during holidays and seasonal festivals such as the Buddha’s Birthday, Dano Festival, and Chuseok (Harvest Moon Festival on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month) and during ritual prayers for rainfall. Yangju Byeolsandae Nori is known to have originated from the mask dances performed by the Sajikgol Ttakttagipae group in Seoul. Each performance consists of eight episodes, which were often preceded by a parade in which performers wearing masks would dance around a town playing music, and hold a rite consisting of prayers for the safety of its residents. The main event was essentially a satire of Korean society with 32 characters representing different social groups and stereotypes, including depraved monks, impoverished aristocrats, shamans, buffoons, servants, and commoners.

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[National Intangible Cultural Heritage, Republic of Korea] Ogwangdae refers to a form of traditional folk performance developed in the southern part of Korea including Tongyeong, hence the name Tongyeong Ogwangdae. Initially, Tongyeong Ogwangdae was performed on the eve of the Daeboreum (full moon of the 15th day of the first lunar month), but it gradually came to be performed on other festive days in spring and autumn. Some specialists claim that Tongyeong Ogwangdae originated from a form developed in Changwon Ogwangdae (Mask Dance Drama of Changwon) about a century ago - either by a group of local entertainers or Yi Hwa-seon, an Ogwandae player who moved from Changwon to Tongyeong. Each performance of Tongyeong Ogwangdae is composed of five episodes in which a total of 31 players play diverse characters by donning masks intended to represent them, including Leper, Malttugi, First Yangban, Second Yangban, Hongbaek Yangban, Faltering Yangban, Pockmarked Yangban, Black Yangban, Jorijung, Eight Heavenly Maids, Yeongno, Yeongnong Yangban, Halmi, Jeja Gaksi, Sangjwa, Blind Man, Sangju, Hunter, Mongdori, Lion, and Dambi. Each episode is focused on the complicated relationships between commoners and their views on Korean society and the ruling class. The words exchanged between the characters are typically barbed with sharp satire, effectively mocking the absurdity and hypocrisy of Confucian aristocrats and Buddhist monks. Tongyeong Ogwangdae is also famous for some of its dances, and most particularly the Leper’s Dance, which convincingly expresses the bitter life of a leper, and is also the only Ogwangdae troupe to present the Lion Dance during its performance. Tongyeong Ogwangdae is inscribed on Korea’s list of Important Intangible Cultural Heritages.

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[Inscribed in 2008 (3.COM) on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (originally proclaimed in 2005)] The annual Gangneung Danoje Festival takes place in the town of Gangneung and its surroundings, situated east of the Taebaek Mountain Range on the Korean peninsula.The festival includes a shamanistic ritual on the Daegwallyeong Ridge, which pays tribute to the mountain deity and male and female tutelary deities. It encompasses traditional music and Odokddegi folk songs, the Gwanno mask drama, oral narrative poetry, and various popular pastimes. The Nanjang market, Korea’s largest outdoor marketplace, is today a major element of the festival, where local products and handicrafts are sold and contests, games and circus performances take place. The four-week long festival begins with the brewing of a sacred liquor and the Dano shamanistic rituals, in which a central role is played by a sacred tree, the sinmok, and the hwagae, a ritual object made of feathers, bells and bamboo wood. One of the specific features of the festival is the coexistence of Confucian, shamanistic and Buddhist rituals. Through the rituals devoted to the deities, the region is believed to remain unaffected by natural disasters, allowing all its residents to live in peace and prosperity. Every year, a large number of visitors attend the various ritual performances and actively participate in events such as making Danoje festival fans, brewing the sacred liquor, drawing masks for the Gwanno Mask Drama, preparing and eating Surichiwi rice crackers and washing their hair in Iris water. The Gangneung Danoje Festival enjoys immense popularity. However, cultural standardization and increased media coverage over the years have resulted in the loss of some traditional elements of the festival. In the traditional context of the festival, one of the functions has been to transcend social differences by allowing people of all social classes to participate.

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[National Intangible Cultural Heritage, Republic of Korea] Mask dance is a stage play wherein one person or several people wearing a mask act as a person, an animal, or a supernatural being (god), delivering a message with dialogues or dances. Talchum (mask dance) was performed throughout the country until the early Joseon Period. When the Sandae (type of mask dance) was no longer performed in the Royal Palace, it was enjoyed as a pastime by ordinary people. Bongsan Talchum was started in Bongsan-gun, Hwanghae-do about 200 years ago. Performed on the night of Dano (fifth day of the fifth lunar month) and Haji (Summer Solstice), it is composed of dances associated with four monks, eight monks in black robe, a female member of a troupe, an old monk, a nobleman, and an old wife. Prior to the start of the play, the 36 members of the play (27 of them wearing masks) march to the site of the play while playing music. They also hold a sacrificial rite. The play contains satire about nobles harassing commoners, depraved monks, male chauvinism in a custom of allowing a man to take many wives, etc. Members dance to the tune of praying to Buddha, taryeong (Korean folk song), and gutgeori rhythm songs accompanied by the playing of samhyeon yukgak (three strings and six wind instruments) such as piri (flute), jeotdae (bamboo flute), haegeum (two-stringed fiddle), buk (drum), and janggo (hourglass-shaped drum). As the best known among the mask dances handed down in Hwanghae-do, Bongsan Talchum displays the lively movements of dancers including the shaking of the sleeves of the robes.

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[National Intangible Cultural Heritage, Republic of Korea] Goseong Ogwangdae, whose name is known to have originated from traditional belief in the Five Elements, is a form of traditional folk performance developed in the southern part of Korea including Goseong, hence the name. Initially, Goseong Ogwangdae was performed by the Ogwangdae troupe on the eve of the Daeboreum (full moon of the 15th day of the first lunar month), but it gradually came to be performed on other festive days in spring and autumn as well. Goseong Ogwangdae can be traced back to the 1910s when a group of masked dancers in the Namchon Sect happened to watch a performance of the Tongyeong Ogwangdae (Mask Dance Drama of Tongyeong) which inspired them to develop their own version. It was later influenced by the Changwon Ogwangdae (Mask Dance Drama of Changwon), too, when it developed five dances to form each episode, namely, the Leper’s Dance, Ogwangdae Dance, Monk’s Dance, Bibi Dance, and Jemilju Dance. These dances are presented by a total of nineteen characters including Leper, Malttugi, Won Yangban, Cheongje Yangban, Jeokje Yangban, Baekje Yangban, Heukje Yangban, Hongbaek Yangban, Jongga Doryeong, Bibi, Bibi Yangban, Monk, Bride, Old Man, Old Woman, Jemilju, and Servant. Each performance focuses on the life of commoners, the complex relations between people from different rungs of society, and the absurdity and hypocrisy of Confucian aristocrats and Buddhist priests. Unlike the performances by other Owangdae troupes, its dances lack elements of the shaman’s dance, which was performed to expel evil forces, and instead include more entertaining elements. Performers of Tongyeong Ogwangdae wore paper masks in its early days, but recently they have begun to use masks made of paulownia wood or gourds. Tongyeong Ogwangdae is now inscribed on the list of Important Intangible Cultural Heritages.

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[National Intangible Cultural Heritage, Republic of Korea] People in Bukcheong, Hamgyeongnam-do (in North Korea) engaged in a folk play, wearing lion masks on the night of the full moon of January 15 on the lunar calendar thinking that a lion, a powerful animal, could drive away evil spirits for them. Lion-masked people from neighboring villages gathered together and competed with one another. Since the team from Toseong-ri, Cheonghae-myeon, Bukcheong-gun did better than the others, the play gradually disappeared in the other villages. The mask play had come to secure its rightful place among Koreans since the Three Kingdoms Period. Those from the North continued to play it, mostly in Seoul. The mask play was started with young people carrying torches on the night of January 14 and was continued until the daybreak of the following morning. On January 16, they would pay visits to the houses of well-to-do people as prearranged. Upon entering the property, they would go around the courtyard in a line and start dancing. Then, a lion-masked person would join them. The “lion” would go into the inner room and the kitchen and make a gesture of eating someone alive. Then, the lion would return to the courtyard and engage in a lively dance. The lion would make a big bow to the deities kept in the house as requested by the owner of the house. When the lion would pretend to fall down exhausted, people would call an eminent monk to energize it by reciting a phrase of Buddhist scripture or have an herbal doctor apply acupuncture. Upon regaining strength, the lion would dance again with all the others. Participants included those acting as yangban (noblemen), a freakishly tall person, a humpback, a petty local government official, a dancing boy, a dancing woman, a monk, an herbal doctor, a scholar, etc. The dancing boy, the dancing woman, the monk, the herbal doctor, and the scholar appeared without wearing a mask. The musical instruments used were tungso (six-holed vertical bamboo flute), buk (drum), jing (large gongs), and janggo (hourglass-shaped drum). A mask dance performed in Bukcheong often uses tungso as a main instrument while samhyeon yukgak (three strings and six wind instruments) is used in Gyeonggi-do and kkwaenggwari (small gong) in Gyeongsang-do. The owners of the house would have their children ride on the back of the lion based on the belief that it would make them live longer. Money or grains donated by the houses visited by the troupe were used as scholarship fund for children from needy families and to subsidize expenses for senior citizen associations and cover the expenses for the lion play. Bukcheong Saja Noreum is focused on merrymaking, featuring movements more powerful than other lion dances.

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[National Intangible Cultural Heritage, Republic of Korea] Talchum (Mask Dance) is a stage play in which one person or people wearing a mask takes the role of a person, animal or a supernatural being (god), delivering a message through dialogues or dances. Talchum was performed throughout the country until the early Joseon Period. After the Sandae (a type of mask dance) came no longer to be performed in the Royal Palace in 1634 (the 12th year of King Injong’s reign), it was still enjoyed as a pastime by ordinary people. Eunyul Talchum was performed for 2-3 days on Dano (May 5 in the lunar calendar), Buddha’s birthday (April 8), and on Baekjung (July 15). It is said that people who fled to islands during war 200-300 years before wore masks on their return home as they felt ashamed, and that was the origin of Eunyul Talchum. Eunyul Talchum is composed of six acts, Lion Dance, Sangjwa Dance, Mokjung Dance, Old Monk Dance, and Dance of the Old Couple. Prior to the performance, the troupe held a sacrificial rite in a forest and marched to the site of the performance, entertaining people along the road. There are a total of 28 characters appearing on the performance. The play included satires about nobles harassing commoners, depraved monks, and male chauvinism in the custom of allowing a man to take plural wives. Eunyul Talchum displays a relationship with Bongsan Talchum (Mask Dance of Bongsan) and Haeju Talchum (Mask Dance of Haeju), both of which stem from Hwanghaedo Talchum (Mask Dance of Hwanghae-do).

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[National Intangible Cultural Heritage, Republic of Korea] Ogwangdae refers to a mask dance played in southern areas. “O” in the name Ogwangdae is said to have stemmed from Ohaengseol (Five Element Theories). This was one of the rites villagers performed at the beginning of the year in the lunar calendar. On the night of the New Year’s Day, people held the rite of Cheollyongje (Rite to the Heavenly Dragon). On the night of the year’s first full moon (January 15 on the lunar calendar), they performed jisin bapgi (“earth spirit treading”) followed by the Ogwangdae Dance. Gasan Ogwangdae is composed of six acts, Obangsin (Deities of the Five Directions)’s Dance, Yeongno Dance, Leper’s Dance, Nobleman’s Dance, Monk’s Dance, and Dance of the Old Couple. The play includes satire about nobles harassing commoners, depraved monks, and male chauvinism as it appears in the custom of allowing a man to take multiple wives. Gasan Ogwangdae Nori is distinguished from the versions performed in other areas, as it includes Obangsin’s Dance with the story that the husband dies at the end of the play unlike the other versions in which the wife dies. One or two lepers appear in the other versions, but this one, performed in Gasan-ri, Chukdong-myeon, Sacheon-si, Gyeongsangnam-do, has five lepers who dance, sing, and engage in tujeon nori (card game).

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[National Intangible Cultural Heritage, Republic of Korea] Sandae Nori refers to a mask dance performed in the central region of Korea. It is part of Sandae Dogamgeuk, which used to be performed in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do. It is composed of dances, pantomime, and gags, and is performed on the lunar calendar dates of Daeboreum (January 15), Dano (May 5), Baekjung (July 15), and Chuseok (August 15). Songpa was a commercial center of Gyeonggi-do. It is said that the play was frequently performed at the time Songpa Market reached its prime about 200 years ago and has continued to develop and to be one handed down to the present day. The play is composed of seven acts. Prior to the commencement of the play, members of the troupe march, playing music, to the site of performance to entertain spectators along the way. The overall composition, dances, and masks used are similar to those of Yangju Byeonsandae Nori (Mask Dance Drama of Yangju), but certain masks, dances, and characters distinguish it from the other. In Songpa Sandae Nori, 33 masks made of gourd, pine skin, and paper are used.

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[National Intangible Cultural Heritage, Republic of Korea] Talchum (mask dance) was performed across the country up to the early Joseon Period (1392 – 1910). Gangnyeong Talchum (Mask Dance Drama of Gangneung) is a type of Sandae Dogamgeuk, which was performed at the Royal Palace. After the mask dance drama came to be no longer performed there by 1634 (the 12th year of King Injo’s reign), it was still enjoyed as a pastime by ordinary people. The Mask Dance Drama of Gangnyeong is performed on Dano (May 5 on the lunar calendar) in Gangnyeong-eup, Hwanghaenam-do, and dates perhaps from the late Joseon Period. The event is composed of seven acts, Lion Dance, Malttugi Dance, Mokjung Dance, Sangjwa Dance, Dance of the Nobleman and Malttugi, Dance of Chwibari and the Old Monk, and Dance of the Old Couple. Prior to the performance, the 20 members of the troupe march, playing music to entertain spectators along the road. The play includes satire about such issues as nobles harassing commoners, depraved monks, and male chauvinism as shown in the custom of allowing a man to take plural wives. Dance movements are slow. The main dance is Jangsamchum (Long Sleeve Dance). The rhythms used are dodeuri, taryeong, and jajin gutgeori. Thirty-plus types of narration are used, each of them using its unique rhythm. The parts concerning three brothers of a noble family talking about the essentials of the noble class or calling Malttugi, or Malttugi’s gag are similar to those of Ogwangdae (Mask Dance Drama) of Gyeongnam-do. The scene of an old female clown turning a spinning wheel is similar to that of Ogwangdae of Gasan. These similarities have a very important significance in the handing-down of mask dance in the country. Performers wearing masks displaying realistic facial expressions and engaging in elegant and slow dancing movements are features of Gangnyeong Talchum, which distinguish it from Bongsan Talchum, another kind of mask dance performed in Hwanghae-do.

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Talchum is a performing art that encompasses dance, music, and theatre. An ensemble of six to ten musicians accompanies masked performers who sing and dance and exchange verbal interactions through theatrical movements. The primary themes satirized by traditional mask dance dramas include the hypocrisy of Buddhist monks, the arrogance of the yangban nobility, and people's suffering under the male-dominated patriarchal system. Diverse social issues are humorously explored through dramatic combinations of songs, dances, movements, and words. Masks with exaggerated archetypical representations of everyday personages are an indispensable element in the presentation of talchum. A Korean mask dance drama does not require a formal stage: Any empty space can become a venue for talchum. The audience for a masked-dance drama are not passive spectators, but important participants. They complete the production with their cheers and jeers as the drama unfolds. Talchum is a dynamic theatrical flow of action and sound created through the combined efforts of both the players and spectators. This flexibility provided to talchum by the audience's active participation and its thematic orientation toward social criticism gave birth to the unique phenomenon of large-scale transmission of talchum among young people, particularly university students, during the 1970-80s. This generation continues to play a critical role in the transmission of talchum. In talchum, physical and emotional conflict among the characters always ends in a dance of reconciliation. While criticizing that which needs to be criticized, talchum always aims toward a greater unity.