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The Remarkable Revival of Vietnamese Xoan MusicIn just six years, an important element of intangible cultural heritage went from being an element in need of urgent safeguarding to being an active part of the lives of Vietnamese people. The Hat Xoan Phu Tho tradition, a distinctive call-and-response musical genre of Phu Tho Province in northern Vietnam, was inscribed on the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding in 2011, and as a result it became the focus of an extensive revitalization program to ensure its survival.\n\nA unique blend of song and dance performance, xoan originated in the upland region of Viet Tri in Phu Tho for the people to express the richness of their community lives. Some of the performances are to venerate ancient kings while others are expressions of the people’s skills and artistry or their knowledge of farming, fishing, hunting, weaving, and other rural crafts. xoan is considered the core and essence of the social and cultural identity of the villages of Phu Duc, Kim Dai, Thet, and An Thai.\n\nSince 2011, the state and local communities have been supporting a project to revitalize xoan. A series of creative collaborations between knowledgeable elder practitioners and a nucleus of over sixty younger artists have committed themselves to xoan practice and dissemination and have subsequently secured xoan transmission to future generations. Training classes are held monthly and weekly within the communities. An active set of xoan guilds with as many as a hundred members of three or even four generations of practitioner families are successfully recruiting new adherents.\n\nTo generate an audience for the genre, xoan has been introduced into the regional school curriculum as a reference point for teaching on issues of heritage and local history. Demonstration activities and social events outside the xoan communities, have attracted young people and increased their understanding and enjoyment of xoan.\n\nWithin the xoan communities, many of the temples and shrines used for performances had deteriorated because of war and time, becoming unusable. The state, however, has allocated priority funding to restore these performance areas. Through the government-funded program, community members are fully involved in the restoration and have been empowered to manage their own cultural spaces. On 28 March 2017, the country’s largest site for xoan practice was inaugurated in Kim Duc, a commune of Viet Tri. Legend has it that this space, within the Lai Len temple in Kim Duc, was the first site of xoan performance in Vietnam.\n\nThrough these unique programs, xoan communities have become vibrant places of practice and the transmission of xoan.\n\nPhoto : In marked contrast to the traditional past, Xoan is now widely performed by young practitioners © Le Thi Minh LyYear2017NationViet Nam
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NauryzNauryz is the first day of the new year according to the solar calendar in many Turkic cultures and symbolizes the renewal of nature associated with the cult of fertility. Nauryz unites people around traditional values. Before the holiday, it is necessary to pay off debts, forgive each other’s offenses, tidy up the house, prepare refreshments, clean the springs, and plant trees. All people are in a hurry to congratulate relatives, friends, colleagues, and neighbors; they smile and say warm words when meeting people by chance as well as invite them over and sit down at a dastarkhan, which has a round shape like a table many more people can fit around than from behind a rectangular one. This shows the original hospitality and kindliness of Kazakhs.\n\nLegends Associated with the Name of Nauryz Holiday\nAccording to one legend, Nauryz is the name of the ancestor of Kazakhs, he did not have children. Before his death, Nauryz turned to Abdraim (the prophet) with words of regret that he had no one to leave his name. To preserve the name of the old man, Abdraim gave the name to Nauryz-kozhe. Nauryz is the birthday and death of this old man. On this day they prepare a sacrificial meal, read prayers from the Koran in memory of their ancestors. According to another version, Nauryz is the name of a beggar. Before his death, he turned to the old people with the words that he had no one to leave his name. Old people promised to cook Nauryz-kozhe annually and read prayers from the Koran in memory of him.\n\nHoliday Symbols\nThe white color on the dastarkhan is a symbol of contentment, welfare, and prosperity. Therefore, its mandatory attributes are: koumiss, kurt, cottage cheese—livestock products.\n\nThe most indispensable thing in Nauryz is the presence of a traditional dish—nauryz-kozhe on each holiday table. Kazakhs believe that in Nauryz you need to eat this dish to e fulfilled and then the year will pass in abundance. Nauryz-kozhe is a nourishing and rich soup prepared from seven ingredients: meat, water, flour, butter, millet (can be replaced with rice or corn), salt, and milk. Each component of the dish symbolizes one of the seven vital principles: growth, luck, happiness, wealth, health, wisdom, and the patronage of heaven. Nauryz is generally full of symbols. At the celebration of Nauryz the presence of the number seven was obligatory for Kazakhs, which represent seven days of the week, units of time of universal eternity: seven cups were placed before the elders with a nauryz-kozhe drink made from seven varieties of seven types of cereals.\n\nAmusements\nThe celebration of Nauryz has always been accompanied by mass games, traditional horse racing and amusements. Improvised contests of wit poets (akyns) take place in Nauryz, the holiday is not without national competitions among which the kazaksha kures national wrestling, the game of logic called toguz kumalak and of course kyz-ku and baiga horse games. Actors play theatrical performances right on the streets. Another ancient tradition of Nauryz celebrating revered to this day is called altybakan when girls and boys come together to chat and ride on a swing.\n\nAll people, regardless of gender, age, and communal affiliation are released from everyday duties and take part in fun and games on equal terms. The day ends with a performance where two akyns in poetic form competed in songs. Their competitions stopped when the sun goes down over the horizon, when good conquers evil. Then they make a fire, and people with torches light them up from go around all the neighborhoods of the village, singing and dancing, thereby completing the festival of spring renewal and the equinox.\n\nNauryz was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2016.\n\nPhoto : Nauryz © Nazym MalibayevaYear2020NationKazakhstan
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Jeju Fire Festival Reenacts Old Pastoral TraditionsThe twenty-second Jeju Fire Festival will run for four days from 7 to 10 March 2019 at places across Jeju, including Jeju City Hall Square and Saebyeol Oreum in Aewol-eup.\n\nThis year, the festival has the theme “Light up the world with wildfire and dreams.” The first day will begin with a torch lighting ritual at Samseonghyeol. The torch will be conveyed along a route from Samseonghyeol to the KAL intersection, Gwangyang intersection, and Jeju City Hall Square. In addition to the torch ceremony, various events will be held at the city hall, including writing wishes on paper and a music concert.\n\nThe second day will see a number of programs taking place, including a prayer ritual for the prosperity and development of the Jeju city, a sheaf making contest, and diverse cultural and media art performances staged by delegates from other countries. There also will be a large full moon ceremony where visitors can wish upon the moon, which will be followed by putting the torch to a field, a torchlight parade, and a sheaf burning event.\n\nOn the third day, various traditional cultures of the island will attract visitors. One of them is majoje, a ritual of praying for the health of horses, which is representative of the pastoral culture of the island. Others include neokdungbegi, the traditional yutnori (board game) of Jeju, and deumdol-deulgi (stone lifting), a coming of age ceremony of the residents. A forum on how to develop the festival is scheduled as well. In addition, there will be a burning of a pig sheaf to hail the year of the pig according to the Chinese zodiac. Then, the oreum will be set alight, which is the highlight of the festival, to pray for good fortune in the new year.\n\nEven during the 1970s, farming households in Jeju raised a couple of cows to plow the land and carry the harvest from the fields to their homes or village market. In the off-season, farmers in each town took turns to manage the fields for their livestock. They set the pastures alight to get rid of old grass and harmful pests between late winter and early spring, so their livestock could graze fresh quality grass. The fields were set alight all over the hilly areas, and it created a spectacular sight. The Jeju Fire Festival is a modern interpretation of the ancient pastoral traditions of the island.\n\nPhoto : Jeju Fire Festival ⓒ Jeju CityYear2019NationSouth Korea
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TIES AND TIDES OF KNOWLEDGE: LIVING AS A COMMUNITY, LIVING AS THE SEA PEOPLETraditional coastal communities possess marine knowledge that enable them to live with and live on resources in different eco-niches like intertidal strands, mangroves, mudflats, beach forest, and coral reefs. Chao Lay (which means Sea People in Thai language) or former sea nomads of Thailand are indigenous groups who used to make temporary settlement on islands and along the coastal areas. The sub-groups of Moken, Moklen and Urak Lawoi, total of 43 villages in southern Thailand, have intangible marine heritage that facilitate their wise uses of marine and forest areas for centuries. The Chao Lay are said to have the great ability in, “reading the water to remember the wind, and reading the sky to remember the star” (Kuain 2008). At present, marine knowledge and skills remain significant in some communities. The case in point is Rawai beach community in Phuket Province in southern Thailand, where two sub-groups of Chao Lay, the Urak Lawoi and the Moken have chosen this area as a settlement hundreds of years ago; not only because of the shallow water near the beach and the nearby coral reefs, but also because it is a bay that is sheltered from the winds from two directions. So the place is very suitable for both living and for foraging and fishing with abundant land and marine resources. The knowledge of settlement site selection is very crucial, and most of the Chao Lay villages on the islands and shore are located in the bay or beach protected from the wind and storm. Fresh water can be easily found nearby in the form of spring, stream, or pond.Year2020NationSouth Korea
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Visiting the Boysun District, a Representative Cultural SpaceNestled in the southeastern mountains of Uzbekistan, Boysun developed into a cultural hub over centuries, since the age of the ancient Silk Road. Given its long history and outside influence through the famed trade route, the region’s cultural heritage evolved to become as diverse as the flora and fauna that inhabit the region. As a way of celebrating the diverse cultural heritage that dates back to the pre-Islamic days, the Boysun Bahori Festival was first developed as an annual spring festival in the early 2000s, with some interruptions on certain years.\n\nUNESCO officially listed Boysun culture as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage, and in the following year, the first festival was held. April was chosen as the optimal time for the festival as Boysun is unusually pleasant at that time, with flowering fields and green mountains creating a perfect backdrop for a festive environment.\n\nThe locals set up a yurt camp that includes workshops and stages for ensembles to perform. In addition, they set up makeshift arenas for traditional sports like wrestling, horse-related sports, and other activities, such as tightrope walking and acrobatics.\n\nIn April 2019, with the support of the Uzbek Ministry of Culture to explain well-known cultural spaces that I wanted to visit for a long time, I went to Boysun to interview some of the locals. During these interviews, some interesting insights about cultural heritage in the Boysun area were uncovered. According to the local community, much of the younger generation, both male and female, have tendencies to pursue careers or education in larger cities. However, in spite of decreasing number of young generation, community people expressed their satisfaction with living in the heritage city. They appear proud of the many rituals and traditional games that have remained a part of daily life.\n\nSuch customary knowledge is in traditional carpet weaving, craftsmanship, games, and rituals, which are still a part of Boysun communities. Some youth activities include stick-tossing games that are similar to jachigi, a Korean children’s game and commonly played throughout the world. In Boysun, I interestingly noticed that some practices have been influenced more by Zoroastrianism than Islam.\n\nDuring my visit, many of community members were absent in the village to visit Termez to participate and observe the International Bakhshi Art Festival, which was held for first time in Uzbekistan. Nonetheless through my visit to this unique cultural place, I felt deep aspiration of the people for safeguarding their own culture and heritage inherited through generations.\n\nPhoto 1 : Boysun entrance ⓒ ICHCAP\nPhoto 2 : Local people in Boysun District ⓒ ICHCAP\nPhoto 3 : Interviewing locals in Boysun ⓒ ICHCAP\nPhoto 4 : Prayer hall in the trunk of a tree that is hundreds of years old ⓒ ICHCAP\nPhoto 5 : Overview of Boysun District (seen from the entrance hill) ⓒ ICHCAPYear2019NationUzbekistan
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Integrating the Circles of Academia and ICH PractitionersChonbuk 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.Year2018NationSouth Korea
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Role of the Tiger in Mongolian Oral TraditionAccording to the Mongolian astrological calendar, as well as in other Asian countries, this year is the Year of the Tiger. As well as a year, the third of the twelve animals of lunar astrology is also marked with the day of the tiger (the day of the conquest of the tiger), the month of the tiger (the first month of spring), and the tiger hours of the day (3.40 a.m. to 5.40 a.m.). Mongols teach that, “If you do not get up with tiger i.e., during the tiger hours, then the day will be late. If you do not study in young age, then growing up will be late.” The tiger is also one of the eight cardinal directions on the map of Mongolia, representing northeast. This corresponds with the octagonal shape of a yurt, on which homeowners place the appropriate symbols depending on the direction of each face.Year2022NationMongolia
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Kimchi Refrigerators, a Journey to Find the Flavors of a MillenniumThe consumption of vitamins and minerals is essential to endure the harsh winters of Korea. Today, we can easily buy fresh vegetables at a supermarket, even in winter. But in times before greenhouses and imported agricultural products, how did our ancestors obtain vegetables? In the past, people salted vegetables in the autumn and consumed them through midwinter until the following spring. The famous Korean dish kimchi, made using a fermentation method, is a representative example of these preserved vegetables.Year2022NationSouth Korea
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TSAGAAN SAR: LUNAR NEW YEAR FESTIVALLunar month festival of the Mongols or holiday celebration of the first day of “White Moon” or “White Month” symbolizes the departure of winter and welcoming the spring of the new year. This festival and its rituals and traditions are unique and naturally accorded with a specific lifestyle of Mongolian nomadic culture. Therefore, during this festival, there are no gatherings of masses on the street to participate in folk parades and street carnivals as in urban cities and villages.Year2020NationSouth Korea
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NAVRUZ, SHARING TOGETHER ON NEW YEAR’S DAY—SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE CULTURE OF NAVRUZNavruz (Nowruz) is not just about the first day of spring, but it is also not just a celebration of the New Year marked by indulging in a feast; it has a much wider historical and cultural context with deep doctrinal significance.Year2011NationSouth Korea
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The Revival of Local Koumyss Festivals in Kazakhstan: Safeguarding Traditions and Contributing to Sustainable Development GoalsA triad of spring festive rites—biye baylau, ayghyr kosu, and kymyz muryndyk, identified and documented in Terisakkan village in the northern outskirts of Ulytau province of central Kazakhstan—were inscribed in the UNESCO Representative List in 2018. The annual festive event starts in early May with new grass, flowers, and foals, opening a year-round cycle of reproduction and a new season of making koumiss, an ancient sacred drink. It had become the case that only the community in Ulytau province conducted this local festival from an earlier time. Now the tradition is being revived in several areas of Kazakhstan, and there is a strong interest in other countries with nomadic cultures.Year2023NationKazakhstan
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Sumbi-sori Path, Life, and Beliefs of Women Divers in Jeju"Sumbi-sori is the sound of pain and the sound of life,” said Yun-bok Kim, a native Jeju islander whose deceased mother dedicated her entire life as a haenyeo, a female diver in Jeju.\n\nSumbi-sori is a huffing sound the diving women make upon exhaling after diving up to twenty meters. Kim said that his mother worked day and night, half on earth and half in the sea. He used to bring some food to his mother at dawn, when she was resting on a bulteok, a small, stone-walled structure built on the coast, where women divers can change into or out of their diving gear or gather around a fireplace to talk about their know-how and families. Kim remembers sweet grilled seaweed that his mother would make for him at the bulteok. “I didn’t really want to get up early and go to the bulteok, but now I miss the old days.”\n\nOn 25 May, I participated in a field trip program, Walk along the Haenyeo, organized by the Jeju Haenyeo Museum. I was excited to walk around the vast, crystal-clear ocean under the blue sky. About twenty participants walked for an hour and a half with Kim along Sumbi-sori Path, a trekking course in Sehwa-ri, which is home to the largest haenyeo community in Jeju with 280 female divers. Along the path, we could find agar harvested and dried on the ground, shrines built near the seaside to pray for the safety and a good harvest of haenyeo and fishermen, spring water as a source of drinking water for the village, field walls built with basalt rocks formed from volcanic activities, and bulteoks.\n\nSumbi-sori Path was a good representation of haenyeo life. The women dive to pick various marine products, such as agar and seaweed, until May. Then, they stop harvesting when the spawning season starts in June. The work of the diving women never stops, however. During the spawning season that continues until August, they go back to their farms and plant seeds for carrots, potatoes, radishes, and other crops and harvest crops from winter to spring.\n\nPhoto 1 : Photos of Shamanistic rituals organized by women divers in Jeju, taken by Kim Soo-nam, exhibited at Sanjicheon Gallery ⓒ Jinhee Oh\nPhoto 2 : A bulteok at the seashore of Sehwa-ri in Jeju ⓒ Jinhee OhYear2019NationSouth Korea