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ICH Elements 46
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Practices related to the Việt beliefs in the Mother Goddesses of Three Realms
Beliefs in the Mother Goddesses focus on the worship of mother spirits of three realms, which are heavenly realm, realm of water and realm of mountains and forests. Since the 16th century, Beliefs in the Goddesses have developed into a spiritual and cultural activity that has had a profound influence on social life and consciousness of the people. Followers worship Mother Goddess Liễu Hạnh as well as other spirits who are historical or legendary heroes. According to legends, Liễu Hạnh was a nymph who descended to earth, lived as a human being and became a Buddhist nun. She is worshiped as “The Mother of the World” and as one of the four immortals of the Việt. At temples, daily worship is organized by temple guardians. Main practices of the Beliefs include spirit possession rituals and traditional festivals among which the most notable is Phủ Dầy festival in Kim Thái commune, Nam Định province. The festival lasts from the third day to the tenth day of the third lunar month and includes rituals, folk performances, a procession of the Buddhist scripture and a “word arrangement”. Through folk cultural expressions including costumes, chầu văn songs, and dance in spirit possession rituals and folk performance in festivals, the Việt express their views on history, cultural heritage, gender roles and ethnic cultural identities. The power and meaning of the Beliefs resides in their ability to meet spiritual demands and everyday desires and to help them achieve good fortune in health, work and business.
Viet Nam 2016 -
Zhana Ngacham: Black Hat Drum Dance
The name Zhana Ngacham comes from the zhana (black hats) worn by the dancers and the use of the ngachung (small drum) during the Cham performance. It is another form of Zhana Cham (black hat dance). Usually, the dance is performed mainly by monks in dzongs (fortresses), monasteries and temples during Tshechu (annual mask dance festival) and also during Drubchen (large ritual ceremonies). However, sometimes the dancers are replaced by lay people if there are no monastic facilities in the community. The dance falls under the category of Tsun cham (monastic mask dance performances). The dancers wear a long brocade robe called phoegho with long and wide sleeve ends, a dorji gong (a crossed vajra collar) over the shoulder, and two phoe-cho or phoe-tog, a horn-like tool attached to either side of the hips that helps the robe turn smoothly and elegantly as the dancers twirl. The distinctive feature of the Black Hat dance is the black, spherical hat with decorations in the shape of a human skull and peacock quill, and Thro-pang, an angry face wrapped around the front of the abdomen. Zhana Ngacham is usually performed by 21 dancers under the direction of Cham-pon (dance leader) and Cham-jug (deputy leader). In the seventeenth century, Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal (1594-1651) is revered for giving more importance to the performance of such dances and including them in the curricula of the central monastery under the title Gar-thig-yang-sum (mask dances, proportions mandala drawing and ritual intonation) to establish them in the field of cultural heritage in Bhutan.
Bhutan -
Traditional turkmen carpet making art in Turkmenistan
The traditional turkmen carpets and carpet products are the hand-woven woollen textile goods of ornamental art with quadrangular shape in different sizes with dense texture ornamented with characteristic colored patterns pertaining each separately to one of five main turkmen tribes (tekke, yomut, ersary, saryk and salor). Their designs form patterns from clear linear geometric ornaments (dots, lines and figures). Compositional decision of the turkmen carpets has characteristic features: the central field with major patterns ("gels") in octagonal forms is limited with the borders, patterns which differ from that of the central field. The alternation of recurrence of designs represented with combination of the belt and centric ornamental compositions. Reality surrounding a carpet weaver (local flora, fauna and environment) has been reflected in a combination of the threads, pictures and colours creating carpet designs. The turkmen carpets are created on horizontal or vertical looms mainly using different coloured wool threads. Weavers use both types of knotting; double knots with double weft or one-and-a half knot with double weft. Carpets serve both as a floor covering and a wall decoration functions and substitute furniture to satisfy everyday aesthetic needs of turkmen people. There are also special carpets woven for the birth of a child, for wedding ceremonies, for prayers and for mourning rituals. Carpet products such as chuvals (sacks), khorjuns (saddle-bags), torbas (bags) are destined for clothing, transportation of various household paraphernalia and used for decorations of camels, horses, nomad tents, wedding processions etc.
Turkmenistan 2019 -
Ningyo Johruri Bunraku puppet theatre
Ranking with Nô and Kabuki as one of Japan’s foremost stage arts, the Ningyo Johruri Bunraku puppet theatre is a blend of sung narrative, instrumental accompaniment and puppet drama. This theatrical form emerged during the early Edo period (ca. 1600) when puppetry was coupled with Johruri, a popular fifteenth-century narrative genre. The plots related in this new form of puppet theatre derived from two principal sources: historical plays set in feudal times (Jidaimono) and contemporary dramas exploring the conflict between affairs of the heart and social obligation (Sewamono). Ningyo Johruri had adopted its characteristic staging style by the mid eighteenth century. Three puppeteers, visible to the audience, manipulate large articulated puppets on the stage behind a waist high screen. From a projecting elevated platform (yuka), the narrator (tayu) recounts the action while a musician provides musical accompaniment on the three-stringed spike lute (shamisen). The tayu plays all the characters, both male and female, and uses different voices and intonations to suit each role and situation. Although the tayu “reads” from a scripted text, there is ample room for improvisation. The three puppeteers must carefully co-ordinate their movements to ensure that the puppet’s gestures and attitudes appear realistic. The puppets, replete with elaborate costumes and individualized facial expressions, are handcrafted by master puppet makers. The genre acquired its present full name Ningyo Johruri Bunraku – in the late nineteenth century, a period in which the Bunrakuza was a leading theatre. Today, the pre-eminent venue is the National Bunraku Theatre in Osaka, but its highly reputed troupe also performs in Tokyo and regional theatres. Approximately 160 works out of the 700 plays written during the Edo period have remained in today’s repertory. Performances, once lasting the entire day, have been shortened from the original six to two or three acts. Ningyo Johruri Bunraku was designated Important Intangible Cultural Property in 1955. Nowadays, it attracts numerous young performers, and the aesthetic qualities and dramatic content of the plays continue to appeal to modern audiences.
Japan 2008 -
Dainichido Bugaku
There exist approximately thirty thousand traditional performing arts transmitted throughout Japan. This kind of performing arts is performed by ordinary amateur people in their daily life in order to pray for an abundant harvest, for example, and differs from theatre performing arts in the way of transmission, where professionals performer in front of the audience for the sake of art appreciation. Such performing arts are classified into intangible folk cultural property in Japan, and the transmission of them depends upon the further detailed classification. Dainichido Bugaku is a folk performing art transmitted by ordinary people of the four communities in Hachimantai Town of Kazuno City, Akita Prefecture, positioned in the northern part of the main land of Japan. Japan has the ritual dance and music, called bugaku, that is one of traditional performing arts. It was a performing art brought about to Japan via the ancient China or the Korean peninsula from the fifth to the ninth century, and later sophisticated, developed, and finally Japanized in its long history; it was performed at a rite or a banquet in the imperial palace. While bugaku has been transmitted at the political centre of each age by professional performers, it gradually permeated widely into local areas in the course of a long history of Japan, and ordinary residents in local areas learned it. As a result, bugaku was introduced into local festivals or events, rooted there, and respectively transformed into locally distinctive performing arts. According to a legend of Dainichido, it originates from bugaku performed by professionals from the then Capital City on an occasion of reconstruction of Dainichido, i.e. the shrine pavilion, in the early eighth century. From this legend it was later named Dainichido Bugaku. While it was transmitted in Hachimantai Town, however, it acquired new features in its repertoire, musical instrument and choreography, not found in bugaku. In this sense it is recognized as an important element of cultural heritage which indicates the transition process of performing arts. It was designated by the National Government as Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property. It is one element of intangible cultural heritage which represents the ‘extraneous category’ among the folk performing arts. It is dedicated to the deity on the stage set inside Dainichido on January 2nd with a prayer for the happiness of the year; performers successively dedicate with background music of flutes and drums. It has been transmitted by the people of the four communities, i.e. Osato, Azukisawa, Nagamine, Taniuchi, in Hachimantai Town. Those people are recognized as assuming the special role in the transmission of the performing arts. The transmitted repertoires are nine in total, and they are divided among the four communities for the transmission. Inside each community the elderly transmit its assigned repertoires to the younger and children. Thus, Dainichido Bugaku has been transmitted from generations to generations by the people of the four communities to-day. It is a kind of intangible cultural heritage collectively transmitted by a local community. Moreover, people are proud to perform the ritual dance. Performing the ritual dance deepens people’s sense of affiliation to a local community and reinforces their identity. Dainichido Bugaku is repeatedly performed for a long time from the dawn to noon of January 2nd every year, according to the fix performance order. After the people dedicate Dainichido Bugaku at the fixed site in each of the four communities, they proceed to Dainichido in a line. On the stage set inside Dainichido they together dedicate the nine Bugaku; in some of those Bugaku they put a head of shishi (an imaginary lion) on; in some they put a mask on; in others children perform. Thus, the style of Dainichido Bugaku has some variations, reflecting the local features. Many of the residents in Hachimantai Town gather around the stage on this occasion every year, since Dainichido Bugaku is also significant to people other than the performers in that it prays for the happiness of a new year and let them reconfirm the identity with a local community. Thus, Dainichido Bugaku reflects the history, culture and climate of Japan, and has a great meaning to today’s Japan from the social and cultural viewpoints. On the other hand, the performers are eager to transmit what they have inherited from the ancestors to successors.
Japan 2009 -
Yuki-tsumugi, silk fabric production technique
Yuki-tsumugi is the production technique for pongee fabric. The fabric of Yuki-tsumugi is warm, comfortable, light and durable and is completed through numerous, intricate processes. Only the finest fabric, made by members of the bearing body of the technique, the Association for the Preservation of Honba Yuki-tsumugi Weaving Technique, following the requirements for designation below can be termed as a work of Important Intangible Cultural Property. The requirement for its designation defines especially distinctive handiwork and the use of traditional tools among the processes. By setting these requirements, the transmission of this tradition is secured. The requirements for the designation: i) A yarn should be spun by hand out of silk floss. A hard twist yarn cannot be used; ii) To make an Ikat (kasuri) pattern, the skein should be tied only by hand before the dyeing process; iii) A back-strap loom should be used; The traditional techniques to produce Yuki-tsumugi have been transmitted by the members of the Association for the Preservation of Honba Yuki-tsumugi Weaving Technique. They have been directly engaged in maintaining the high standards of spinning, dyeing and weaving that have been passed down from generations to generations for a long time within the community. They recognize Yuki-tsumugi as a very important cultural property and strongly believe that it is their vocation to preserve and transmit it to the future. Moreover, they are very proud of ‘Yukitsumugi’. One of the reasons for the continuous refinement of this technique to produce qualified silk pongee fabrics is that the fertile lands in a warm climate of this area, where mulberry trees can grow well, are suited for the sericulture. Some researchers point out that the local mentality is the reason for the persistent observance of the tradition; the people tend to protect their own lands inherited from their ancestors and to succeed to the occupations of their parents. The National Government designated Yuki-tsumugi as Important Intangible Cultural Property in 1956 for its high artistic value, and the precious techniques needed for this art, its significant position in the history of industrial arts, and cultural characteristics of the community. The designation system of Important Intangible Cultural Property under the Japanese Law for the Protection of Cultural Property raises the interest of the Japanese in intangible property, and helps deepen their understandings. Today, most Japanese consider that all designated elements of Important Intangible Cultural Property are priceless heritage of Japan. In modern times, due to the rapid changes and the westernization of Japanese lifestyle, opportunities to wear kimono have decreased. However, there are still many Japanese, especially women, who are very fond of kimono. Kimono can be worn as formal attire at ceremonial occasions, as well as less formal, social events. It can be said that kimono is a traditional Japanese costume. The existence of Yuki-tsumugi can help to continue the customs of this tradition, and pass them down to future generations. Although Yuki-tsumugi had been known as a specialty by the Edo era (1603-1867), even today, the production of pongee fabrics continues to have an important social function of supporting the lives of the people of the community through the sericulture industry. The empty cocoons after the hatch of moths cannot be spun into qualified yarn. Together with the deformed cocoons, they are made into silk floss which is raw material of yarn for Yuki-tsumugi. This recycling process of materials has a socially significant meaning in today’s society. With the introduction of chemical fabrics, and the development of machinery for spinning, those who bear the technique of Yuki-tsumugi have declined in number; hand-made fabrics take a lot of time, but very unprofitable. There were 171 members in the Association for the Preservation of Honba Yuki-tsumugi Weaving Technique in 1976, but at present, the number has decreased to 128. Nevertheless, the members continue with their efforts to preserve this tradition. The Association for the Preservation of Honba Yuki-tsumugi Weaving Technique constantly aims for the preservation and transmission, and through this aim, its unity is strongly identified. The traditional skills are transmitted through their activities of exchanging their skills, training for young generation, demonstration and promotion of the skills, thus leading to their continuity to the future. Such activities have important meaning for the people who transmit Yuki-tsumugi of which they are proud of; they are strongly supported by the local community of Yuki City, Oyama City, and local governments of Ibaraki and Tochigi Prefecture.
Japan 2010 -
Traditional knowledge related to the wood carving and wood product manufacture
Wood carving and wood product manufacture among the Kyrgyz originated in ancient times. An example is the manufacture of wooden parts of the yurt, komuz, which have become the pinnacle of the handicraft creativity of the people. Modern travelers are very familiar with the Kyrgyz yurt, construction of which is made only of wood by the true masters. Wood items decorated with carvings and paintings have been harmoniously fit into the complex of interior of the yurt. These are chests ‘sandyk’, wooden bases on which felt mats, carpets and bedding items are placed; coffrets for food, cloth and horse gear hangers ‘ala bakan’; boxes for dishes, stirrer for kymyz ‘pishkek’, biler for drinks and other liquids, wooden blocks for lamps – ‘chirak paya’. Woodworks are done by the men named as ‘jygach usta’. Materials used for different woodworks depend on elasticity or firmness of the wooden species: birch, cottonwood, sump-weed, juniper or nut-tree. They are cut easily and flexible enough to get desired shape. Instruments used in woodworks are: saw, adze, single bitted axe, knife, hewing with blade in the form of groove, hatchet with plane, wood auger, strop used to make walls of the yurt.
Kyrgyzstan -
Melodies for coaxing the animals
There is a specific ritual that is done in a tuneful utterance when a new mother-animal rejects its newborn or when a newborn becomes orphaned. This ritual is believed to encourage the mother-animal to accept its newborn. The ritual is one of the examples that depict the bond between herders and their livestock animals. These coaxing melodies of the ritual have become absorbed into poems and songs and constitute an important element of Mongolian oral tradition as well as an allegory about the importance of patience and acceptance in relationships.
Mongolia -
Shawa Sha-khe/che Chham: The Dance of the Stag and Hounds
Shawa Sha-khe/chi Chham (the mask dance of the stag and the hounds) or also called as Acho Phen-to (the Hunter and the servant) by its character is one of the mask dances that falls under the Nam-thar zhi-chol gi gar-chham (biography-based mask dances) category of three broad classifications of mask dances in the Bhutan. This mask dance has a characteristic of theatrical play extracted from the life story of Milarepa (1052-1135) and has various characters and episodes basically conveying the Buddhist principals of compassion, arising faith and human values that lead to a harmonious life. The origin of the mask dance dates back to the 11th century when Jetsun (venerable) Milarepa the great yogi from Tibet, converted Gonpo Dorji, a fierce hunter as his disciple who later listed as became one of his principal followers named as Khe-rawa Gonpo Dorji. In brief, the story goes as follows: While Milarepa was meditating in a cave known as Katya in Nyishangkurta (on the present-day border between the Tibetan autonomous region of China and Nepal), he heard a couple of hounds barking somewhere near to his hermitage. In a short while, a stag glistening with sweat and exhausted bounds into his cave indirectly seeking refuge from the lean and thin meditator Milarepa. Out of great and compassion and pity, Milarepa sangs a song to calm the terrified stag, which eventually laid down peacefully near to the great yogi in the cave. Led by the scent of the stag, two ferocious hounds; a red and a black-coloured appeared in lightning speed, rushed inside the cave in pursuit of the stag. Milarepa also calms them by singing yet another stanza of song dedicating to the hounds which subsides its rage and calmly sits beside Milarepa waggling its tail alike to their owner. Subsequently, the merciless hunter, the owner of the dogs, Gonpo Dorje soon arrives in pursuit of his target, the hounds, and steped into the cave frustrated, drenched in sweats, tired and a bow and arrow ready to release the trigger. The sight of his hounds and the stag calmly sitting together with Milarepa infuriates him, thinking that the yogi has used some kind of black magic on the animals. Dragged by his rage, he shoots an arrow at Milarepa which in-turn slips the arrow from his bowstring. Milarepa then sings the hunter a song to calm his mind and open it to the Dharma, but the hunter remains uncertain whether Milarepa is a great saint or else a black magic practitioner. Gonpo Dorje inspected Milarepa’s cave, and upon noticing nothing in it but an empty bowl surprised him. Overwhelmed by feelings of profound respect for Milarepa, feled deep remorse for all his past sinful actions and thereafter vowed never to commit such acts and became a faithful disciple. The mask dance has various characters such as; Shawa (the Stag), Sha-khi/che (two hounds), Acho (the hunter), Phen-to (servant), Milarepa (the Saint) and a package of Atsa-ra (clowns). The mask dance is performed only during the annual Tshe-chu (Mask Dance Festival) with several episodes portraying different scenes. The element is still vibrant in the country.
Bhutan -
Khaen music of the Lao people
The khaen is a mouth organ in which each tube has a reed. It looks like panpipes, but with bamboo (previously rice stalks or sometimes other plants) tubes of variable length, each with a metal reed. One blows into it through an air chamber called ‘marqunamdtow’. The sound produced is higher or lower depending on the size of the tube. It is a favourite instrument used in Lao traditional and folk music. Its design and number of tubes have evolved according to the changes in Lao folk melodies and songs. Today there are three kinds: the khaen 6 (12 tubes), the khaen 7 (14 tubes) and the most successful one, the khaen 8 (16 tubes). The khaen is very popular in all regions and communities of Laos due to its music’s richness and abundance, which represents the nation's soul for its population. The instrument is suitable for melodies and harmonic richness since it can produce several sounds simultaneously, like a piano. Its music is customarily part of numerous village festivals, accompanying traditional songs and dances. It symbolizes popular culture and it is customary for all villagers who listen to it to become actors rather than spectators, by participating actively and joyfully in the songs and dances it offers.
Lao People's Democratic Republic 2017 -
Arirang folk song in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
Arirang is a lyrical singing genre, which has been handed down orally for centuries and which never has lost its popularity among the Koreans. Arirang was sung by the people in the northwestern part of the Korean peninsula as early as in the late 14th century. Today Arirang is sung in its traditional form by people all over the country, while it is also performed in symphonic arrangements and in dance music. Arirang typically contains a gentle and lyrical melody in five scales, and the refrain: Arirang, arirang, arariyon Over the Arirang hill you go. Arirang songs speak about leaving and reunion, sorrow, joy, and happiness. There are various categories of Arirang songs that can be classified by the lyrics or the melody used, and by place of origin. Currently 36 versions of Arirang are known. Most typical versions are Sodo Arirang, Phyongan Provincial Arirang, Jonchon Arirang, Haeju Arirang, Kangwon Provincial Arirang, Kosong Arirang, Onsong Arirang, Tanchon Arirang, Thongchon Arirang, Musan Arirang, Ku Arirang and Kosan Arirang, Arirang, as living heritage, up till the present day has undergone continuous developments, always reflecting the history of the Korean people. Under Japanese colonial rule, for instance, Arirang was widely sung as it reflected the distress about national ruin and the people’s spirit of resistance. In recent days such modern versions as “Arirang of Reunification” and “Arirang of Great Prosperity” have been produced reflecting the realities of our time.
North Korea 2014 -
Yoga
Yoga is a time honoured Indian holistic system of personal, physical, mental and spiritual wellness focused on all-round unification of body, mind and soul. Traditionally handed down over the centuries from teacher –Guru to disciple –Shishya, who after attaining mastery become a Guru to teach others. While Indian mythology traces the origin of yoga to the God Shiva as the first teacher its presence is well documented in Indian textual tradition from the Rigveda dated between c. 1500–1200 BCE to Satapatha Brahmana texts of 300 BCE to the philosophical treatises of the Upanishads – Mundaka and the Bhagvad Gita dated before fifth or fourth century BCE. The sage Patanjali systematised the text in his treatise -Yogasutras dated 400 CE while many other great sages and Yoga masters contributed to the furtherance of the system and its practice through their writings. The practice of Yoga leads to the union of individual consciousness with universal consciousness to attain harmony between the elements. The aim of Yoga is to realize the inner self, to mitigate all kinds of sufferings and to pave way for attaining the state of liberation. Yoga practices include Yama or five abstentions, Niyama-five observances, Asana –postures, Pranayama -Suspending Breath, Pratyahara –Abstraction, Dharana –Concentration, Dhyana –Meditation, Samadhi - Full integrated consciousness, Bandhas –Lock, Mudras – Gestures, Shat-karmas - Cleansing practices, Yukta-ahara - Holistic food, Yukta Karma -Right Action and MantraJapa -Chanting sacred words. Yogic practices have helped many millions learn to maintain a balanced way of life.
India 2016