Materials
folk song
ICH Materials 230
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GANGNEUNG DANOJE FESTIVAL, ANCIENT EVENTS REVITALISING DOWNTOWNThe Gangneung Danoje Festival has maintained typical elements of ancient festivals that were held in May (seedtime) and in October (harvest time) during the Samhan period (around 300 CE). In the fifth lunar month, which includes Dano day, local people perform rituals for driving away evil spirits and welcoming the fortune and participate in traditional games and activities. The main deities of the festival are the mountain god, Kim Yusin, who was the general of Shilla and the United Three Kingdoms, and the royal tutor tutelary deity, Beomil, who was a Shilla monk. The first documented record of Dano folklore appears in the Samguksagi (A History of the Three Kingdoms). Other records indicate that Dano has commonly been referred to as ‘Suri’ in local dialects.Year2012NationSouth Korea
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Mongolian Culture and HeritageThe culture of the Central Asian steppes expresses itself vividly in the lifestyle of traditional nomadic practices. Mongolian culture has been in practice in the nomadic life and the traditions surrounding the nomad’s home (ger). And it is present in religious celebrations, national festivals, art and crafts, music and dance, language and literature, which form the backbone of Mongolian intangible cultural heritage of Mongolia. Mongolia is filled with valuable cultural properties and intangible cultural heritage of humanity that have been kept or practiced for thousands of years.\n\nGer, Mongolian Traditional Dwelling\nThe traditional architecture of the Mongols differed strongly from that of the settled peoples of Asia and other continents. Centuries ago, there the ger, also known as a yurt, appeared. It still offers shelter to nomads in particular places in Central Asia. Its development and fundamental principles are determined by the specific features of the way of life of Mongol tribes, which made it necessary to evolve a light and collapsible structure to be used as a dwelling or for public functions.\n\nMongolian Language and Literature\nMongolian is the language of most of the Mongolian population and inner Mongolia. By origin, Mongolian is one of the Altaic family of languages, and the history of the Mongolian language is long and complicated. Significant literary work of early Mongolia includes The Secret History of the Mongols, which was published in 1228).\n\nMongolian Religion and Beliefs\nThe Mongols have practiced several religions, of which Shamanism and Buddhism were the most common. The faith in Mongolia is Buddhism, though the state and religion were separated during the socialist period, but with the transition to the parliamentary republic in the 1990s, there has been a general revival of faiths across the country\n\nMongolian Art and Crafts\nMongolian arts and crafts have been passed down across generations from the Paleolithic times to today, leaving behind deep impressions on all facets of life and conscious, aesthetic, and philosophical thinking. Highly developed Mongolian arts and crafts come from the second millennium BCE. The works included sculptured heads of wild animals with exaggerated features. Other items include knives, daggers, and other items of practical and religious use.\n\nMongolian Music and Dance\nMusic is an integral part of Mongolian culture. Among Mongolia’s unique contributions to the world’s musical culture are the long songs, overtone singing, and morin khuur (the horse-headed fiddle). The music of Mongolia is also rich with varieties related to the various ethnic groups of the country. Among the most popular forms of modern music in Mongolia are Western pop and rock genres and the mass songs written by contemporary authors in the form of folk songs.\n\nHorse Culture of Mongolia\nIt is famously known that horses play a large role in the Mongols’ daily and national lives. Common sayings are, “A Mongol without a horse is like a bird without wings,” and “Mongols are born on horseback” these are arguably true words. Even today, horse-based culture is still practiced by nomadic Mongolians.\n\nVisit https://www.toursmongolia.com/tours for additional information about Mongolian culture.\n\nPhoto 1 : Prairie meadow grass inner Mongolia traditional clothing © Batzaya Choijiljav\nPhoto 2~7 : © Batzaya ChoijiljavYear2020NationMongolia
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TRADITIONAL MUSIC OF THE MORIN KHUURThe Mongols have traditionally shown great respect for the horse, honoring it in their national values and symbols (flags and emblems) as well as in folk songs. The morin khuur, so named for the ornamental horse-head carving at the top of its neck, is a unique two-stringed musical instrument developed by nomadic Mongols. The strings of both the bow and fiddle are made from the hair of a horse’s tail.Year2010NationSouth Korea
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Current Status and Safeguarding Measures of Oral Traditions and Epics in MongoliaCentral Asia is a region that has served as the centre of social and economic, in particular cultural interrelations of East and West. The nations of this region have a rich cultural heritage and ancient traditions like any nation in the world. The nations of Central Asia - Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan – make up a unified cultural space, defined by great grassland steppes and famous mountains, nomadic culture and common history, relics and traditions. Throughout this region we find petroglyphs, keregsur, steles, ruins and other monuments attesting to the mingling of peoples in the Central Asian steppe since prehistory. The territory of our own nation, Mongolia, has indeed been the centre several nomadic empires at various stages in history, established by different peoples of Central Asia sharing a similar cultural origin – Hunnu, Khitan, Turks, Uighurs, Kyrgyz and Mongols.Year2015NationSouth Korea
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Community Empowerment through Promoting Intangible Cultural HeritageNagorik Uddyog (NU) was founded in 1995 by a group of nationally and internationally renowned Bangladeshi human rights activists and academics aiming to promote good gover- nance, access to justice, and the institutionalization of democracy at the local and national level. In the beginning, the organization worked on voter education programs and raised awareness among women that they could claim their rights from local government institutions and from the community. In this awareness-raising initiative, community cultural heritage properties like the Baul folk songs were used and earned immense popularity. Over a period of time, NU extended its activities across the country with specific focus on the rights of marginalized people, especially Dalit rights, land and human rights of Indigenous peoples, and access to justice for rural communities.Year2018NationSouth Korea
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WATER PUPPETRY: A GLANCE FROM VILLAGE TO CITYPerformed in villages and closely attached to water rice agriculture, water puppetry is a unique performing art and is the intangible cultural heritage of the Viet people in the Northern Delta region of Vietnam. Created in the tenth century, the first historical record on water puppetry was inscribed in an ancient stele in 1121 called the Sung Dien Dien Linh in the Long Dọi Buddhist Temple of Ha Nam Province. The inscription reads that water puppetry was performed to entertain the king on the occasion of his longevity ceremony.Year2011NationSouth Korea
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Communities Connecting Heritage: From West Bengal to WashingtonCultural exchange promotes cultural diversity and contributes to cultural sustainability. This was the key learning from the Communities Connecting Heritage (CCH) program supported by the US Department of State and administered by World Learning. Learning Together for a Brighter Future was a collaboration under this program, between banglanatak dot com, an Indian social enterprise working on culture and development, and the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (CFCH) in Washington DC. Around twenty young cultural professionals from the USA and thirty-one young tradition bearers from the state of West Bengal in eastern India had varied exchanges on art, music, food, lifestyle, and globalization as well as the use of social media in popular culture. The Indian participants included traditional storytellers or patuas, who paint stories on long scrolls and sing them; artists practicing the ancient dokra metal craft; Baul folk singers; and theatre artists. There were also in-person visits to West Bengal and Washington DC by a five-member delegation from each side. The youngsters not only shared photos and videos explaining their culture but also discussed cultural sustainability; virtual workshops were held to develop skills in interviewing and recording, and effective storytelling. Finally, the Indian and American participants paired up to write blogs on shared interests and experiences; the subjects varied from discovering common concerns on raising a child to managing heritage sites. Commonalities were also found in the traditions, for example food items like sopapilla and luchi, and painting traditions like patachitra and retablo.\n\nDuring the CFCH delegation’s tour of West Bengal in February 2018, the Americans met the artists at the World Peace Music Festival Sur Jahan in Kolkata, visited cultural and heritage landmarks, and learned about community-based cultural industries. They also participated in a round table on heritage education for youth and an exhibition titled Through the Eyes of Young Americans that summed up their experience. From June to July 2018, the Indian delegation visited Washington DC. The city’s vivid cosmopolitan character, a mind-boggling array of cuisines, and a stunning nightlife mesmerized them. Engagement of community and the larger public in a weekend drum circle, weekly jazz concerts, DC Alley Museum, and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival left a deep impression. The patuas painted a scroll on the story of rights campaigns at the National Mall; the audience loved it and the song narrating the story. On 13 August 2018, a webinar was held to share the participants’ experiences and insights. As the program drew to a close, it had succeeded in bringing the multicultural roots and ethos of America to the young Indians’ hearts and sensitized the young Americans about Bengal’s cultural traditions. For detailed information, please check the webinar below and the event’s blog.\n\nPhoto 1 : Learning scroll painting at Patua village ⓒ banglanatakdotcom\nPhoto 2 : Bauls discussing music on the move with Catalonian musicians ⓒ banglanatakdotcom\nPhoto 3 : Indian team at the Lincoln Memorial in the USA ⓒ banglanatakdotcomYear2018NationIndia
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The National Program for ICH Safeguarding in MongoliaBy the 68th resolution of the government of Mongolia, the National Program for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage was approved on 13 February 2019. This national program will be implemented between 2019 and 2023, and it has six parts.\n\n 1. Justifications\n 2. Objectives, purposes, and duration\n 3. Activities to be implemented within the framework of the national program\n 4. Evaluation criteria for implementing the national program\n 5. Financing the national program\n 6. Monitoring and evaluating the implementation of national program\n\nSeveral articles associated with protecting and safeguarding traditional culture, its transmission, development, research, and dissemination were reflected on the Constitution of Mongolia, the National Security Concept of Mongolia, the Concept of Mongolia’s Foreign Policy, the Concept of Sustainable Development of Mongolia, the State Policy on Culture, the Law of Culture, the Law on Protection of Cultural Heritage, and the Law of Mongolian Language.\n\nThe Mongolian Law on Protecting Cultural Heritage was amended in 2014 by the State Great Khural for regulating relations associated with the fifteen ICH classifications, the rights and duties of ICH practitioners, an organization of transmission activities and so on.\n\nBetween 2005 and 2016, the government of Mongolia approved and implemented national programs for ICH elements, including morin khuur, traditional long song, and Mongol khoomei, which were inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, and Mongolian traditional folk dance bii biyelgee, Mongol epic, and Mongol tsuur, which were inscribed on the List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding. The NCCH has taken part in implementing these programs. As a result, these national programs have had positive changes in safeguarding ICH, such as identifying ICH practitioners from elders, organizing apprenticeship training, promoting traditional culture and cultural heritage abroad and nationwide, transmitting ICH to younger generations, building pride in ICH, and self-researching ICH.\n\nThe national programs were implemented only for the folk performing arts domain—one of the five UNESCO domains of ICH—but were not implemented for the other domains.It is a demanding task to implement ways to increase and improve research and safeguarding efforts for ICH in every domain represented in nomadic culture as well as to promote ICH abroad and nationally, and, at the same time, also increase the social and economic status of ICH practitioners while improving their skill and opening possibilities to introduce the cultural industry as a form of a tourist product.\n\nThe main objective of this national program is to identify ICH elements of ethnic groups in Mongolia and to research, register, document safeguard, transmit, and disseminate the ICH elements abroad and nationally.\n\nWithin the program’s framework, the following objectives were put forward to be implemented:\n\n-To improve the policy and legal environment of ICH and to intensify the implementation of the UNESCO 2003 Convention for Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage\n-To improve research, documentation, and activities of ICH registration and information database in accordance with international standards\n-To organize and conduct activities associated with raising the general public’s awareness about ICH and disseminating ICH abroad and nationally based on intersectoral cooperation\n-To increase the ICH specialists’ capacity and support ICH practitioners\n\nPhoto : Sambuugiin Pürevjav of Altai Khairkhan (an overtone singing ensemble from Mongolia) playing a morin khuur near Centre Georges Pompidou in 2005 CCBY 2.5 Eric PouhierYear2019NationMongolia
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Chhaitun: A Childbirth Ritual in NepalIn some parts of Asia, childbirth ritual still exists, guided either by religion or folk belief. Chhaitun, a childbirth ritual of the Gandharba community in Nepal, is held on the sixth day after the delivery of a child into the world. This is a major ritual where a fortune writer unveils the fate of a newborn.\n\nThe Gandharba community in Nepal believes that individual fortune is written by the Vabi or the god of fate. On the occasion, after dusk, the entire surrounding of the house is purified by sprinkling it with holy water from Marsyandi, the nearest river to the community and recognized as holy since its water comes from the Himalayas. The host family invites their neighbors for a musical performance. Older men in the community sing an auspicious song with their instruments to welcome the fortune writer. The main entrance of the house will be opened throughout the musical performance. The child will be kept alone in a room with its doors and windows open. The elder person in the family keeps a notebook and a pen placed beside the child together with one mana (local measurement of the volume of rice) of uncooked rice on a brass plate; a traditional oil lamp will be kept on middle of the same plate. The entire procession of welcoming the fortune writer takes about an hour but the musical performance lasts till midnight. The host family serves snakes and home-made wine to the neighbors. The ritual ends with the neighbors giving blessings to the child.\n\nIn other words, Chhaitun is far beyond of a short ritual where a fortune writer unveils the fate of a newborn but the whole package of blessing which includes the hours of celebration.\n\nPhoto : A stage in the ritual © Anil GandharbaYear2017NationNepal
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Ganggangsullae Public Event, a Play under the MoonlightThe Ganggangsullae public event was held on the morning of May 22 at Unrimsanbang Square in Jindo-gun. Ganggangsullae, a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity and Korea’s National ICH, presents performances to the general public every year, sponsored by the National Intangible Heritage Center and the Korea Cultural Heritage Foundation. Ganggangsullae bearers and the members of the preservation committee performed at the event.\n\nGanggangsullae is a song, a dance, and a game. The basic composition of the song is that the lead singer sings the chant, followed by a group of people singing ‘ganggangsullae’. It was important to sing with good lyrics. Sometimes the singers quoted lyrics from pansori and folk songs, but also wrote lyrics about what he/she saw and experienced in his/her daily life. A good lead singer was so important that he/she was called from various villages during the Ganggangsullae season.\n\nThe basic dance with singing is to go round and round in a circle. Start by holding hands with the people on either side and skipping counterclockwise in a circle. Sometimes a person enters a circle and dances, forming several small circles, straight lines, and curves.\n\nThe exciting dance soon leads to play. The formation is moved between the round ganggangsullae, which is called sullaenori. Ganggangsullae and sullaenori together are called ganggangsullae.1. The game encourages the spectators to make a louder sound, and the yard is filled with people’s excitement through the round circles made by joining hands.\n\nTherefore, Ganggangsullae can be called a festival in name and reality. A big festival was held on the full moon in January, Baekjung in July and Chuseok in August, centering on the Southwest Sea coast, and a crowd of young people from the village led the game of Ganggangsullae. It was mainly led by women, but men and women performed together.\n\nPeople gathered in the yard of the wealthy noble men, the sandy beach, and the riverside sand. The villages were officially united to play, and there were people who climbed the mountain and crossed over to visit other villages. Ganggangsullae was a festival that excited young people to the point where they went on an expedition by hiking at night.\n\nPlay induces improvisation. In the past, there was no set order, nor formation, and people played however they wanted to play. Every little thing that they saw and experienced in their daily life became the lyrics of a song, and it became a song by adding melodies. The lyrics to sing along were different for each region. In this village, it was called ‘Ganggangsullae’, while in other villages it was called ‘Ugwangganggangsullae’, ‘ganggangdosullae’, ‘sullaeyaha’, and ‘gwanggwangsullae’.\n\nHolding hands can only be accomplished with someone else. The same goes for dancing and playing to the beat. In Ganggangsullae, a person can experience becoming a member of a community. Because we played together between people, generations, and villages, the things that were there and those that didn’t exist flowed and mixed with ease. It can be inferred that ‘Ganggangsullae’, which everyone sings together, has the power to give diversity and a sense of belonging.\n\nPicture 1: Ganggangsullae © Daejeon Metropolitan City, Korea Open Government License Type 1, Source\nPicture 2: Ganggangsullae of Haeundae Daeboreum © Busan Metropolitan City, Korea Open Government License Type 1. SourceYear2022NationSouth Korea
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MONGOLIA: Some Thoughts on Multinational Intangible Cultural Heritage NominationsThe fundamental purpose of the 2003 Convention is to contribute to peacebuilding, mutual understanding, respect, dialogue among different people and communities and to empower and enrich the cultural diversity of humanity. The concept and nature of ICH are linked with the expression of valuable knowledge and skills transmitted among ethnic communities and groups, in a word, with the spiritual memory of the people and societies, which transcend geographical spaces and political borders. As ICH is often shared by communities on the territories of more than one state, the multinational inscriptions of such a shared heritage on the UNESCO List of ICH constitute an important mechanism for promoting international cooperation. \n\nThe Committee, therefore, decided (7.COM 14) to establish an online platform through which State Parties can announce their intentions to nominate elements and other State Parties may learn new opportunities for cooperation in establishing multinational nominations. Mongolia holds the multinational nomination with China on the ‘Urtiin duu, Mongolian traditional folk long song’ (2008) and with 18 States Parties on the ‘Falconry, a living human heritage’ which are inscribed on the Representative List of the ICH of HumanityYear2021NationMongolia
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Dumbara Rata Mat Weaving: Life in Sri Lanka’s Fertile Dumbara ValleyDumbara Ratā mat weaving, producing Dumbara mats that are used as wall hangings, tapestries, and cushion covers, is done by a community of traditional weavers living in the fertile Dumbara Valley in the central highlands of Sri Lanka. The folk song kinnara gītaya (date unknown) attributes the craft’s origins to the legendary “original king of the human race” (mahāsammatha-raja).Year2023NationSri Lanka