Gold has been long viewed and used as an ornament of preciousness and luxury. Gold is often used to decorate textiles and this process is referred to as gold appliqué. Gold appliqué has a long history in Korea, and there are several records explaining a situation where the government prohibited the use of gold appliqué during the Three Kingdoms era (4-7 CE) due to concerns about the dissipation of the country’s wealth.

Knowledge is the foundation of indigenous cultures. As an expression of a given culture, it establishes relationships among an indigenous community with respect to its ancestral territory. The concept of knowledge or traditional knowledge is closely related to intangible cultural heritage. Intangible cultural heritage shapes the spirit of a culture, and central to its promotion and protection, is the revitalization and safeguarding of knowledge and cultural systems.

On 30 August 2019 at the National Intangible Heritage Center, Jeonju, Republic of Korea, ICHCAP held a special roundtable talk facilitated by Dr. Seong-Yong Park, Editor-in-Chief, to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the ICH Courier. Among the invited guests were Gaura Mancacaritadipura, Editorial Advisory Board Member; Boram Kim, Editor-in-Chief, UNESCO News for KNCU; Aigul Khalafova, Culture Specialist, UNESCO Almaty Office; and Phuttitarn Linina, UNESCO ICH Facilitator. Additional participants from ICHCAP included KEUM Gi Hyung, Director-General; Michael Peterson, Chief of Communications; Min Jung Kim, Programme Specialist. KEUM Gi Hyung opened the talk with his remarks.

Chonbuk National University established the Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage Studies in 2012. The Center started its initial mission for researches on ICH with collecting and inventorying ICH on the domestic level. The Center’s work has increasingly expanded to study various issues regarding safeguarding, policy-making and revitalization of ICH. On the basis of it, we were able to open an introductory course for graduate students starting in the fall of 2014. In the next semester, spring of 2015, we opened another seminar on “tangible and intangible cultural heritage.” As the next step, our university established the Department of Intangible Heritage and Information, opening its graduate program for ICH studies in March of 2016. \n\nInterdisciplinary Curriculum \nICH is a new field of academia in Korea. We have courses related to ICH such as folklore, anthropology, oral literature, and traditional arts. ICH area should cover diverse fields and subjects from everyday life to arts, from the secular to the sacred and from research to practice. We have specified in curriculum to clarify course descriptions and pedagogic principles in order to distinguish the ICH field. There are five fields of the subjects, such as ideology, methodology, management and policy making, education and policy. Each field consists of its corresponding sub-fields with which specific courses are offered. Our graduate program systematically arranges each level from introductory through intermediary up to advanced courses for graduate students.

An indigenous oral legend copied and published without authorization… Traditional music taken from an ethnomusicological archive, remixed and sold without any attribution…

Marriage in a Bhutanese context is a social event that encompasses several Buddhist rituals; it does not end simply with exchanging vows and rings and kissing the bride. The centuries-old traditions in Bhutanese marriage ceremonies are much richer and involved; however, despite this, these traditions have been disappearing over the years.

Food, together with its preparation, cooking, sharing, and consumption, is now considered a form of cultural heritage (Brulotte, 2016). Traditional cuisine is passed down from generation to generation and is often an expression of cultural identity of communities. For example, sometimes the only thing migrants carry with them is the food of their countries, and cooking traditional food is a way to preserve their culture outside their place of birth. It is not surprising that today, food is receiving special attention from governmental organizations with the aim of preserving historical roots and cultural identication, providing food as close as possible to the farms of production and addressing health problems such as reducing obesity and\nunbalanced nutrition.

In Palau, the healing process after birth is an essential part of a woman’s reproduction and life cycle. Great emphasis on and development of rituals have persisted to ensure women’s childbearing and rearing capabilities. Processes and details in carrying out this ceremony establish connections among family and clan members for the new mother and her husband. It is a celebration of the success and joy of the first child, the family, and relatives.

Bongsan Talchum, or the Bongsan mask-dance drama, was originally transmitted in Giryang-ri, Dongseon-myeon, Bongsan-gun, Hwanghae Province in the northern part of Korean Peninsula. However, with the relocation of administrative bodies, including the district office to Sariwon in 1915, the mask-dance drama and its transmission activities were also transferred to the area. In South Korea, Bongsan Talchum had been transmitted since its restoration by performers who originated from the North, including Jin-ok Kim and Cheon-sik Min, and was designated as Important Intangible Cultural Property No. 17 in 1967. The office of the Bongsan Mask Dance-Drama Preservation Society is currently housed within the Training Center for Important Intangible Cultural Properties in Seoul.

Located in the midwestern part of the Korean Peninsula’s southern region, the Seomjingang River is the fourth largest river in the Republic of Korea. The basin area totals 4,896.5㎢, and the river is 212.3km long. \nGeographically, the river basin features the Sobaek and Jiri mountain ranges that stretch towards the southeast. As such, the region is replete with tall mountains and peaks. Historically, the Seomjingang River has served as a border between the Gyeongsang and Jeolla regions. Ecologically, the river has been home to diverse fauna and flora, including endangered species and state-designated.

What do sauna bathing, folk dance tikkuristi, rag rug weaving, picking mushrooms and snow games have in common? They are all part of living intangible cultural heritage, present in the everyday life and celebrations of the people in Finland. They are practised by people of all ages, in different corners of Finland. And yes, they are very much alive! \nAll of the Nordic countries have ratified the UNESCO Convention on the Safeguarding the Intangible Cultural Heritage. Web-based inventories have been created in all of them to make it possible for strong standing of grass-roots communities to create more awareness for their ICH and to dig deeper into safeguarding. This paper looks more closely on the example of Finland with its Wiki-Inventory for Living Heritage. As a good example of Nordic cooperation, the web platform Nordic Safeguarding Practices is introduced.

Intangible heritage is a part of daily life in Korea. Intangible heritage inscribed to the UNESCO Representative List such as kimjang culture, arirang, ssireum are not difficult to come across, and a wide range of elements have been identified for conservation and transmission by national and regional authorities. However, there have been concerns in recent years that public participation should be increased, with greater emphasis on the role of the public in intangible heritage education and research in recent years. The reason why such concerns exist despite the fact the intangible heritage is easily accessible everywhere with many people participating in their practice may be that people have different understandings of intangible heritage and actual life.