Materials
workers
ICH Materials 49
Publications(Article)
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Kazakh Jewelry: Continuity of Nomadic TraditionsThe Kasteyev State Museum of Arts in Almaty has gathered a unique collection of Kazakh jewelry made during the eighteenth through twentieth centuries. These examples vary in form, type, and technique. The distinctive features commonly found on Kazakh jewelry make them true masterpieces which reflect a specific philosophical understanding of the world and demonstrate the great artistic abilities of the Kazakh people. Indeed, every element that comprises an individual piece of Kazakh jewelry, including its form, details, the material it was produced from, and patterns, has a specific purpose and meaning.\nKazakhstan’s abundant supply of nonferrous and precious metals, including gold and silver, encouraged the development of its metalwork for millennia. Casting, forging, molding, stamping, and embossing techniques emerged as early as the second millennium BC, during the Bronze Age, as did signatory traditional designs for jewelry worn by the Kazakhs both historically and today. Saka treasures discovered in different areas of Kazakhstan—the Issyk Kurgan and the Besshatyr, Kargaly, Altyn-Emel, Tagisken, Uigarak, and Berel burials—are true masterpieces.\nBy studying jewelry, scholars can discern a great deal of important social, economic, and cultural information about the people who wore them. The style of jewelry changed during the Migration Period when the Huns moved westward from 47 BC until the fourth century AD. Artisans applied fine metalwork to nearly all objects where metal was used, from jewelry and household items to harnesses.Year2022NationKazakhstan
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Nuad Thai: Traditional Thai Massage as ICHNuad thai or Thai Massage is a body and mind therapy, a traditional method of healing integrating the knowledge of science and art and local wisdom. Transmitted from generation to generations since the ancient times, it is still remarkably widespread throughout the country because of its effectiveness. In the past, it was practiced only within family bounds, such that wives or children would massage their husbands, parents, or grandparents after farming or gardening to relieve muscle ache.\n\nBasically, nuad skills involve applying hands, elbows, knees, and feet to press, squeeze, chop, stretch, knead, and pound. Thai people believe that the human body consists of four basic elements: earth, water, air, and fire. Nuad can stimulate energies of the body, and thus it betters blood circulation. In 2011, the Department of Cultural Promotion, Ministry of Culture inscribed nuad thai on the list of National Intangible Cultural Heritage under the domain of Knowledge and Practices Concerning Nature and the Universe.\n\nNuad has two important purposes. One is to secure the capacity of one’s health to carry out the demands of professional life. In fact, people can select a kind of massage according to their individual preference such as reflexology, oil massage, hot herbal ball massage, hydrotherapy massage, or foot massage. For this purpose, plenty of spas or massage houses provide this kind of comforting service. On another hand, nuad thai is a remedy to health problems. In this case, therapists are required to be specialized and certified for this treatment to diagnose, cure, heal, or relieve the symptom. Felling off the pillow, low back pain, ankle sprain, constipation, and paralysis are some example of this treatment.\n\nNowadays, nuad thai is more extensively famous, not only for farmers or workers but also for other areas of work. As modernization, social pressure of technology, and increase of office work, burnt-out people tend to have nuad to reduce their body pain and relax their minds. Nuad has gained a wider acceptance as self-care practice for social value as the body and mind treatment. In fact, it recently becomes more popular for foreign tourists, too.\n\nPhoto : Nuad Thai 1ⓒ The Department of Cultural Promotion, Ministry of Culture in ThailandYear2018NationThailand
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Inspire Tasmania: A Matter of Cultural Sustainable DevelopmentThe Migrant Resource Centre Inc. (MRC) in Southern Tasmania has launched Inspire, an innovative and vibrant program connecting Tasmanian performing artists to a broader community. The project’s website introduces a range of artists—migrants and refugees alike—bringing multicultural creative practices to the fore. They are talented individuals and groups of musicians, dancers, and public speakers who have been selected for their exceptional cultural skills and their ability to deliver professional performances in a range of settings. Tasmanian Chinese Community, for example, can present 56 different Chinese ethnic performances incorporated with traditional Chinese instruments. The Neeraalaya School of Dance is Tasmania’s premier Bharatanatyam dance troupe while Shuang Zhang is a conservatorium trained Chinese opera singer and dancer.\n\nInspire is funded by the Tasmanian government, Department of State Growth, while its website receives funding from the Tasmanian government, Department of Premier and Cabinet, Communities, Sport and Recreation. On its website, the performing artists are shown with a brief introduction about their own stories and expertise.1. The public can access the site and request performer(s) accordingly.\n\nThe performing artists get every opportunity to showcase their talents; in return, already-existing communities can experience their distinct performance for free. They say it is generating “common benefit and mutual prosperity.” MRC is not just giving the performing artists an online platform but more importantly it is helping them receive appropriate professional training to further refine their competence. Also, bi-cultural workers and volunteers have supported Inspire participants throughout the program. It is expected that this project can contribute to settle cultural sustainable development in Tasmania.\n\nPhoto : Karen Choir Hobart - The Karen people are a culturally and linguistically diverse ethnic groupYear2017NationAustralia
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Coral Stone Mosques of the Maldives: The Vanishing Legacy of the Indian OceanThe Department of Heritage of the Republic of Maldives held an exhibition to display architectural drawings showcasing Maldivian craftsmanship skills at Maldives National Museum of the Maldives from 28 May to 31 July 2017. The event also featured the illustrations on Maldivian coral carpentry by a renowned Maldivian architect, Mohamed Mauroof Jameel. In the opening ceremony of the exhibition, “Coral Stone Mosques of the Maldives: The Vanishing Legacy of the Indian Ocean” was launched. It is a book detailing the architecture and coral carpentry of coral stone mosques co-authored by Mohamed Mauroof Jameel and Yahya Ahmad, a Malaysian architect.\n\nThe coral stone mosques in Maldives embody the intricate carpentry skills of the Maldivian. Intricately carved, they are exceptional with their lacquerware; an architectural creation seen only in Maldives. Coral carpentry dates back to the Buddhist era in the twelfth century and continued till the introduction of masonry in the late eighteenth century. As the only long-lasting and easily available materials were coral stone and timber, coral stones became the primary building material for monumental buildings. Skilled workers would lift live reef coral boulders or Porite corals from the seabed, cut them into stone blocks while still soft, air dry, and then interlock them to build an edifice. The method of construction using coral blocks was the tongue and groove method, an excellent building technique used in the ancient Maldives. Coral stone construction became even more refined during the emergence of Islam, particularly when the cutting techniques of Swahili region in East Africa influenced Maldivian artisans. The fusion of Buddhist and Islamic cultures in Maldives is reflected in the architecture of the mosques.\n\nHowever, removing corals is now prohibited due to environmental implications. The physical setting of the Maldivian islands with faros (ring-shaped reefs) by reef sediments resulted in the formation of coral reef islands. It is believed that the traditional lifestyle of the people had almost negligible impact on the marine environment. Being a country with more territorial sea than dry land, Maldivians highly depend on resources from the sea. Henceforth, coral reefs are not only economically important to Maldives in terms of revenue since they also function as a buffer to shorelines from wave action and other oceanic processes. It is found that coral mining for coral carpentry could be highly destructive and is carried out at a high cost to the reef environment with a very small return of corals as building materials. Consequently, the Government of Maldives is controlling coral mining with legislation, mindful of the environmental implications of such practice.\n\nThe only coral stone mosques left are those that were built during the ancient times. Maldivians do not practice coral carpentry anymore; however, coral carpentry as a skill is still being transmitted for the future generations. The existing coral carvings and construction are safeguarded by the government and local communities. This heritage embodies spiritual values and history of the Maldivian communities.\n\nPhoto : Detail of coral carving on the premises of Male' Friday Mosque © Dominic SansoniYear2017NationMaldives
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Interview with Charis Loke about Arts-ED and Integrating ICH into Non-Formal EducationOn 8 November 2018, ICHCAP’s Associate Expert B.B.P. Hosmillo interviewed Charis Loke, a teacher and artist from Malaysia, after the 2018 NGO Conference in Hue, Vietnam. Charis Loke is an artist programmer and junior trainer at Arts-ED Penang, where she designs and implements community-based arts and culture education for the youth. She also trains schoolteachers in incorporating cultural heritage into their teaching. The following is an excerpt from a two-hour interview with Charis Loke about integrating ICH into non-formal education in Penang, Malaysia.\n\nB.B.P.H.: How does your work relate to ICH?\n\nC.L.: At Arts-ED, we have facilitators, freelance cultural workers, and volunteers. We may not be able to articulate ICH in terms of how it is delineated by the UNESCO 2003 Convention as people working at Arts-ED are regular people, we have day jobs, but we know that where we are has a lot of tangible and cultural heritage. Our goal is to get the younger people to appreciate the values that ICH has. As you can see from our programs, we have some focused on transmitting art forms, where primary school children learn with master teachers. To a great extent, our master teachers reinterpret such art forms though they are still deeply connected to their roots. We are not really about continuing such forms in their original sense because our organization is founded on creative education in which reinterpretation is a viable method of teaching and learning.\n\nIf you ask what specific ICH element we are focusing on, we may perhaps refuse to pinpoint anything but rather suggest that our location, Georgetown, a multicultural place in Penang, is composed of many groups living together. When we do cultural heritage, we have to consider that these groups’ ways of life have evolved, and so the values present in Georgetown cannot be attributed to one ethnic group. We cannot say that this element or that is a Chinese cultural heritage or maybe it is Malay, so it is really hard to define and maybe locating the specificity or source of cultural heritage cannot really enrich that cultural heritage. What we do is integrate the values we know ICH has into subject contents and global issues. For example, a teacher may be asked to use shadow puppets as a tool to teach creativity and collaboration.\n\nB.B.P.H.: Your programs and activities are for free?\n\nC.L.: Yes, our students don’t have to pay.\n\nB.B.P.H.: And your students are mainly children?\n\nC.L.: Yes, but ICH practitioners in Penang are also involved. Actually, there are more people involved than we expected. For instance, some of our programs are done in a market community that’s been around for more than 120 years, so the market sellers and the market administrators can be involved, too.\n\nB.B.P.H.: Earlier this year, ICHCAP hosted an international symposium and network meeting with academics based in Asia-Pacific universities that have or will have degree programs and research initiatives concerning ICH. There has been wider efforts to integrate ICH into formal education, even the UNESCO ICH Chairs are basically entrenched within the system of universities mainly across the world. I think this is a reflection of how more visible and more pronounced the connection between ICH and formal education is. As somebody like you who is involved with integrating ICH into non-formal education, what do you want people to know about the work that you do as an agent of ICH safeguarding in the non-formal education sector?\n\nCL: Being in the non-formal education sector gives you a lot of creative freedom with how you approach the work of ICH Education. When it is not formalized, facilitators have more creativity to come up with teaching resources, and students can also have more creativity in response. This implies, of course, that even the larger community we are a part of gets to have a bigger room in our programs. Because of the freedom we get from the framework of non-formal education, we get to enjoy genuine interaction among those participating in our activities. More importantly, because there is deficiency in Malaysia’s education system, our work can also address the problems of content relevance or fill in the gaps between our culture and the present time that formalized training and schools tend to not be concerned about.\n\nphoto : Charis Loke speaking at the ICH NGO Conference ⓒ ICHCAPYear2018NationMalaysia
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Thanaka: A Traditional Beauty Commodity in MyanmarThe cosmetic value of thanaka is nationally recognized in Myanmar. Extracted from trees, thanaka holds a high level of public trust due to its connection to the traditional life of Burmese people. In the past, thanakha was worn as a natural cosmetic concoction during the period of Myanmar kingdoms. During the monarchy period, lighter and more fragrant thanakha was used for royal families, and it was added with tiny gold powder while commoners used the pollen of flowers named gant gaw (Mesua ferrea). In addition to it being considered a beauty product, thanaka is also used by farmers and sun-exposed workers for sun protection.\n\nSince Myanmar is in a tropical climate zone, thanakha can give cool sensations and heal sunburns. When thanakha is applied on the face, it becomes a moisturizing treatment that primarily soothes the skin. It also has antibacterial properties that help clear the skin of pimples. As a result, thanaka paste is an essential part of our beauty routine. The glorification of thanaka is well-reflected in Myanmar’s idealization of beauty, particularly female beauty. The ideal woman is perceived to have a long hair, wearing Myanmar’s traditional attire, and using thanaka. This idealization is portrayed in media culture of the country, as well as in folk literature.\n\nPeople make thanaka throughout the Myanmar. Following simple traditional procedures, it is taken from thanaka tree (Limonia acidissma Linn). Ten-year-old thanaka trees are downed and made logs about fifteen centimeters long. Thanakha paste is extracted from the bark by grinding it with a bit of water on a stone slab called kyauk pyin, until it becomes a yellow paste. The yellow paste, thanaka, is kept in a small container for daily use.\n\nIn recent times, Myanmar has seen the proliferation of foreign cosmetic brands in the country, specifically in urban areas. Despite this, thanaka is still used by many and promoted by concerned associations, as it represents Myanmar culture. Although people in the countryside faithfully use thanaka, the collective perception of people about it as a cultural component of ideal beauty should not be missed in understanding the intangible heritage of Myanmar.\n\nPhoto 1 : Mother and son with thanakha ⓒ Pisi (U2 Photo Studio) photography\nPhoto 2 : Lady with thanakha at a five-day market in Hsi Hseng , Shan State ⓒ Mg Chit Pan (Taunggyi) photography\nPhoto 3 : Little boy with thanakha applied ⓒ Sai Moon (tgi) photographyYear2018NationMyanmar
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3.10. Helping Maldives' Weavers: Connecting Islands of Ancient CraftsMaldives Authentic Crafts Cooperative Society (MACCS) is a cooperative marketing handicrafts produced by communities living in the atolls. Based in the capital city of Malé, MACCS was founded by a group of women to assist and promote the development of local handicrafts. Registered in 2011, MACCS primarily facilitates market access for local products. It aims to support and educate communities to revive traditional handicraft forms. The cooperative works with home-based workers and procures finished crafts directly from them.Year2017NationMaldives
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01 Advocate of Local Knowledge, Culture, and Heritage : Bangladesh Resource Centre for Indigenous KnowledgeBangladesh Resource Centre for Indigenous Knowledge(BARCIK) is a non-governmental, nonprofit development organization that was established in 1997 in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, by a group of development practitioners, researchers, and social workers. It has been working in the fields of environment, biodiversity conservation, and development since its inception. \n\nMoreover, it engages in exploring and incorporating indigenous knowledge and local practices into contemporary development programs. Throughout these years, it has promoted and presented the significance of local and indigenous knowledge in development initiatives as well as in the empowerment of local and indigenous communities.Year2016NationBangladesh
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Preserving Uncultivated Food Resources for Food Security in Bangladesh"BeezBistar Foundation (BBF), a community action-based non-governmental organization, was formed in 2009 by development workers and researchers. “BeezBistar” means prosperity in life and peaceful and joyful relations between human beings and all other life-forms. BBF works with local communities, especially farmers, weavers, fishers, adivashi, dalit, and other marginalized and socially vulnerable people for a prosperous and healthy life. Its guiding ethical principles are non-discrimination on the grounds of caste, race, class, and gender. BBF believes in people’s capacity to transform their existing situation of poverty and become pros- perous through a mediated process of interdependent, collective, and community support and actions. The notion of BEEZ is grounded in the local and indigenous culture of the peoples of Bangladesh, as well as advanced by science and life-affirming knowledge and technologies."Year2020NationBangladesh
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Fishing, Housing, and Barter: A Threefold to Living Sea-Based Economy in Lamalera, IndonesiaOur society is moving toward becoming more urban, individualistic, and modern. As it does so, traditional communities may eventually experience a real, and not just relative, local cultural decline. There is a threat that more traditions will vanish as the traditional way of life becomes less and less known, and the local economy system becomes outdated. However, we should also acknowledge that some traditional\ncommunities still exist. Lamalera is one of those traditional communities. In this paper, I try to single out the Lamalera tradition—namely ola nua, particularly its sea-based economy, which might be different from most economy systems in modern society. There are three reasons for this choice. First, Lamalera is a traditional community that exemplifies a sea-based economy as an integral part of society. Second, Lamalera has a long history of this traditional economy. Third, the sea-based economy in Lamalera has been a unique and distinctive culture that appropriates traditional economy as a way of life for Lamalerans, not as an ‘imposed thing’ from outside. In modern society, which is characterized by capitalism and mechanization (industrialization), the economy system causes alienation and exploitation: workers are alienated from their own human potential. In a contemporary perspective, as individual workers become highly specialized in division of labor, the deployment of tasks per person results in the performance to be more impersonal and\nautomated. In Lamalera, on the other hand, even with differentiation in positions and roles, Lamalerans work and express their potentials for the purpose of the community to which they belong.Year2021NationSouth Korea