Materials
multinational nomination
ICH Materials 70
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Roles of Shared Heritage of South Korea and North Korea Based on the Viability of ICHCultural heritage had been defined and maintained centered around physical structures or tangible features. It is only recently that the focus has shifted to nonphysical and intangible values of heritage, which incorporate natural, social, and cultural elements. Roles of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) are increasingly emphasized, as it involves the respect for cultural diversity and the representativeness of each cultural heritage, rather than just recognizing excellent universal values accepted by all. ICH has been created, practiced and used by people and has been inherited through generations in a cultural context. The viability of ICH is like a person’s life cycle. As our life is the finite period between birth and death, heritage is also doomed to disappear without a conscious effort to continue the viability of created heritage. Heritage has a finite life and transmission is the force to keep it alive.\n\nKorea is the only divided country in the world. Seventy years have passed since the Korean War, but the wounds of the war and the pain of the division still remain in the hearts of displaced people and dispersed families. Even amidst such a tragedy, there are intangible cultural properties of North Korea that have been transmitted in the South. One of them is “Aewonseong,” a song that has been designated in South Korea as an intangible cultural property of the ibuk odo (which literally means five northern provinces). “Aewonseong” (哀怨聲) reflects the joys and sorrows of life and expresses sounds of sadness and lamentation as the name suggests. People living in the barren areas of Hamgyeong-Do in the North used to hum the song when things were hard and tiring. Currently in South Korea, the song is transmitted by displaced people as a form of a musical performance accompanied by instruments and dance. It allows those people to find consolation and ease their longing for their hometown, thus providing a special sense of identity. Although the song is being practiced differently compared to its original version performed in the North, it still has the same function of consoling people now living in the southern part of the peninsula.\n\nDuring the thirteenth Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the ICH, which was held in Mauritius in November 2018, Traditional Korean Wrestling, ssirum/ssireum was jointly inscribed on the Representative List of the ICH of Humanity. The joint inscription was especially meaningful as it was intended for ‘peace and reconciliation.’ Since 2014, ICHCAP has organized biennial sub-regional meetings of five Northeast Asian countries (South Korea, Mongolia, China, Japan, and North Korea). The participants looked at the status of ICH safeguarding in North Korea and discussed the necessity for stronger exchange and cooperation in the fields of ICH in the region, laying a collaborative foundation for support for North Korea. This year in October, the fourth sub-regional meeting will take place in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, under the subject of the safeguarding of shared heritage in East Asia.\n\nAccording to the ‘Kit of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage’ published by UNESCO, safeguarding activities promote reconciliation through intercultural dialogue and respect for cultural diversity around the practice of living heritage and thus constitute an effective and sustainable way to restore peace and security within society. Even in the situation of national division, the viability of ICH can bring together different parties beyond the border to share a collective memory and the values of heritage. As such, shared heritage can play a vital role in maintaining peace and security in the two Koreas. ICH, which has survived to date and can be shared by both peoples, could hopefully help achieve inter-Korean cooperation and further establish a culture of peace in Northeast Asia.\n\nPhoto : Joining two Koreas © Shutterstock/eamesBotYear2020NationSouth Korea
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The Case of Ssireum/Ssirum Joint InscriptionThe joint inscription of Traditional Korean wrestling (Ssiruem/Ssirum) of 2018 was the first-ever and the only joint inscription on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) of Humanity between the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. This inscription was decided by the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of ICH on an exceptional basis. It demonstrated “the extraordinary strength of cultural heritage for a vehicle of peace and dialogue.” The course of the joint inscription was neither smooth nor ordinary. The nominations were submitted and evaluated separately and submitted initially to different cycles. However, the apparent characteristics of a shared heritage were included in both nominations, leading to the joint inscription.Year2021NationNorth Korea,South Korea
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Opening SessionCo-orgarnized by ICHCAP and Hue Monuments Conservation Centre (HMCC), this year’s Asia-Pacific ICH NGO Conference was held in Hue, Vietnam under the theme of ICH NGOs towards Sustainable Development of Communities.Year2018NationNortheast Asia
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Implementation of the 2003 Convention in Mongolia and ICH Safeguarding TasksThe intangible cultural heritage of any nation and ethnic group depends upon a locality, environment, business way of life, language, and condition of cultural history that is very diverse and unique. Thus, the intangible cultural heritage of any nation symbolizes their identities and constitutes an integral part of the world culture. The Mongolian nation and its ethnic groups are an inseparable part of the global population. The Mongols and their ancestors have lived and moved from place to place on the vast territory from the Altai Mountain ranges to the Khyangan Mountains, from Lake Baikal to the Chinese Great Wall. This area is a part of the vast and grassy Eurasian plain that stretches for several thousand kilometers from the Danube River to the Korean peninsula, and on which animal husbandry–based nomadic cultures and agricultural farming–based sedentary civilizations long co-existed.Year2013NationSouth Korea
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Discussion 5Among the five countries making up the North-East Asian region, four of them—the Republic of Korea (South Korea), China, Japan, and the Democratic People’sof Korea (North Korea)—have a lot of common cultural characteristics based on their historically agrarian lifestyles and the influence of Confucianism and Buddhism. Mongolia, as nomadic society, crisscrossing the vast grasslands with livestock, displays different cultural characteristics. In addition, even within the four nations that share common elements, each country’s natural environment facilitates cultural differences among them. This essentially means that the North-East Asian region is home to the simultaneous convergence and divergence of culture. So, in the process of cultural development in the region, the interaction between homogeneous and heterogeneous elements materialised into various forms intangible cultural heritage (ICH) and cultural expressions with unique features but similar origins.Year2011NationSouth Korea
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Intangible Cultural Heritage and Soft Power — Context Matters!Reflection on the role of ICH as an element of countries’ soft power has developed in recent years (Schreiber 2017, Sargent 2020). While the soft power concept was coined in the Western Hemisphere by Joseph Nye, in the specific context of United States foreign policy in his 1990 book Bound to Lead, it has gained recognition worldwide and influenced cultural policies, programs, and diplomatic strategies in Asia, such as “Cool Japan,” “Incredible India,” and “Discover Korea, your way.”Year2022NationPoland
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Discussion 1The Central Asian region is a unique area where centuries-old civilisations, religions, and cultures have intersected. The region’s ICH provides the basis for historical self-identification of the people that inhabit the region, and this ICH has influence on their future spiritual development. The ancestral heritage is intertwined in a vast cultural material, which reveals itself in folklore, legends, festivals, and games; in the rules and norms of social behaviour; in music, songs, and dances; and in national costumes as well as in decorative and applied arts and crafts.Year2011NationSouth Korea
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Regional Collaboration for Safeguarding ICH: Overview, Tasks, and Strategies with Special Reference to India, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives Shubha CHAUDHURI Secretary-General Executive Director American Institute of Indian Studies"As we all know, the importance of intangible cultural heritage has been greatly enhanced since the 2003 Convention though the forms we are talking about are old if not ancient in many cases, and the individuals who have worked in the arts with what was called ‘expressions of folklore’ were involved in efforts to preserve and transmit these traditions. However, the 2003 Convention, which has at its centre the aim of safeguarding, has helped bring these issues to the centre, resulting in debate and the need to define the ‘intangible’.\nI am discussing these issues not only as one who works in this area but as one providing perspective from India, from the standpoint of an archivist who is involved in the documentation, preservation, and dissemination of forms of intangible cultural heritage, including music, oral traditions, rituals, and other forms of performance.1 Though this is an attempt at providing an overview of the status of the Convention, my aim will be to deal with the spirit rather than the Though my experience is limited to India, this paper is based on input from Moe Chiba of the UNESCO New Delhi office for an overview of issues from Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives, which fall under their aegis."Year2011NationSouth Korea
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Implementing the 2003 Convention and Its Safeguarding MeasuresThis paper begins by reviewing the current implementation of the 2003 Convention at the international level, notably its ratification status and the inscriptions on its two lists—the Urgent Safeguarding List and the Representative List—as well as on the Register of Best Safeguarding Practices. It then examines how procedures to process nominations and inscriptions on the lists and register have been improved and rationalised since drawing up the first version of the Operational Directives in 2008.The paper takes note of the significance of the capacity-building activities undertaken by the UNESCO Secretariat. It then addresses the implementation of the Convention at the national level on the basis of the First Periodical Reports on the implementation of the Convention that have recently been submitted to the Committee. Various fundamental issues are brought to light.Finally, the paper discusses the importance of distributing tasks among the three East-Asian Category 2 Centres for the implementation of the 2003 Convention in the Republic of Korea, the People’s Republic of China, and Japan and underscores the significant roles that have been entrusted to the information and networking centre in the Republic of Korea.Year2012NationSouth Korea
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"Regional Collaboration for Safeguarding ICH in the Asia-Pacific Context: Overview, Tasks, and Strategies in North-East Asia"Intangible cultural heritage presents an important form of living cultural heritage. It covers fundamental, yet extremely vulnerable aspects of living culture and tradition embodied in the spiritual life, traditional knowledge, skills, and practices of communities. It presents one of the most vivid and colourful forms in which the world’s cultural diversity is expressed and preserved.Year2011NationSouth Korea
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Appendix: Rapporteur's Report/ Summary of Conference/ Paritipants' ProfileAn eminent gathering of experts and the diversity of their knowledge based on first-hand efforts at safeguarding intangible heritage makes the task of a rapporteur daunting. Please allow me to share some reflections from a day of intense discussions. Rather than a summary of presentations, which are already provided by the organisers, I beg your attention to the following. The Director-General of UNESCO, Madame Irina Bokova, has consistently emphasised the critical role of a culture in peace and sustainable development. She says that it ‘is a source of identity and dignity for local communities, a wellspring of knowledge and strength to be shared’. The safeguarding of intangible heritage is critical to the viability and sustainability of this ‘source of identity and dignity’. Safeguarding is a process that informs intercultural, intergenerational, interagency, and interdisciplinary dialogue.Year2011NationSouth Korea
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Safeguarding ICH in Central Asia: Overview and PerspectivesCentral Asia stands at the crossroads of ancient civilisations. Its territory, crossed by the northern part of the great Silk Road, constitutes an ensemble of cultural heritage sites and monuments that express common historical experiences as well as reflect an extraordinary cultural diversity dating from prehistoric times to the Islamic period and beyond. For centuries, the phenomenon of intangible cultural heritage was a key factor for the transmission of indigenous cultural traditions for future generations as well as a matching point for intercultural dialogue in Central Asia—a region with unique oral and music traditions.Year2011NationSouth Korea