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Republic of Korea
ICH Materials 8
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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
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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
Open Archive 4
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Somok(소목, Wood Furniture Making)
These photos were taken at my Somok Class. Somok means Wood Furniture Making and Somokjang, the person who makes wood furniture in traditional way is registered on the National Intangible Cultural Heritage No.55 of Republic of Korea. In National Intangible Heritage Center, there was a class for the general people practicing ICH. I took a Somok class and made Seoan(a desk) and Sabangtakja(a furniture sort of storage and decorations). I am using my works at my house very well. By using traditional way, Somokjang trims, cuts, carves and puts together without nails in making furniture.
South Korea -
Punnuk, Tugging Rituals and Games of the Philippines (Hungduan, Ifugao)
The photos were taken at Hungduan, Ifugao, Philippines during 8 to 12 August, 2019 In three communities of Hapao, Baang, and Nungulunan of Hungduan, distinct harvest rituals called Houwah are being practiced by the Tuwali group. These are the baki, inum and the Punnuk. The rituals, particularly Punnuk determine which group will have a bountiful harvest, and to express appreciation to the deities of the communities. Punnuk is inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity with Cambodia, Republic of Korea, and Vietnam.
Philippines -
Weaving of Mosi (fine ramie) in the Hansan region
These photos were taken at the Hansan Mosi Museum in Seocheon, Republic of Korea on 26 July, 2019. Weaving of Mosi in Hansan is transmitted by middle-aged women in the township located in South Chungcheong Province, Republic of Korea. The region boasts fertile land and sea winds that allow ramie plants to thrive. Weaving ramie cloth involves a number of processes, including harvesting, boiling and bleaching ramie plants, spinning yarn out of ramie fibre, and weaving it on a traditional loom. Ramie cloth is comfortable in hot summer weather and is used to produce a variety of clothing from dress suits and military uniforms to mourning garments. The whiteness of the bleached ramie fabric, as well as its refined quality and neatness, makes it suitable for high-end clothing as well as for clothing for ordinary people. Weaving of Mosi traditionally takes place in the form of women-led family operations in which mothers transmit techniques and experience to their daughters or daughters-in-law. The tradition also binds the community together with neighbours gathered and working in a designated section of the town. At present, around 500 people in the province are engaged in the diverse activities of weaving fine ramie. (Reference. UNESCO https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/weaving-of-mosi-fine-ramie-in-the-hansan-region-00453) As National Intangible Cultural Heritage No.15, it is enlisted on the UNESCO Representative Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2011.
South Korea -
Baekje Culture Festival in Republic of KOREA
The picture shows the beautiful light of the "Baekje Culture Festival" The ferryboat that used to go to Baekje "Gom-Naru" has been reproduced. "Naru" means a place where ships cross a river or underwater. The festival has been held since 1955 in Gongju and Buyeo, the second and third capitals of Baekje, to console the souls of Baekje's ruined country. Baekje is a country of the Three Kingdoms Period that developed around the Geumgang River basin, and you can experience various cultures related to Baekje at this festival. 사진은 백제문화제 축제를 수놓은 아름다운 불빛들이다. 백제의 곰나루를 다니던 나룻배들을 재현해놓았다. 나루는 강 또는 바닷목에서 배가 건너다니는 일정한 곳을 말한다. 이 축제는 1955년부터 이어져 온 행사로 백제의 2, 3번째 수도였던 한국의 공주(웅진성), 부여(사비성) 두 지역에서 개최되며 백제 망국의 원혼을 위로하는 제의에서 시작되었다. 백제는 금강 유역을 일대로 발달한 삼국시대의 한 나라로 이 축제에서 백제와 관련된 여러 문화를 체험할 수 있다.
South Korea