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ICH Elements 19
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Traditional knowledge related to embroidering and making of 'Tush kiyiz’
Tush kiyiz represents intensely embroidered ornamental carpet used to decorate the house. It is of a rectangular shape and embroidered on different types of fabrics. Initially it was used for insulating purposes in the yurt. Most probably, the first wall carpets were made of felt, which is evident from its name: tush – meaning “outer” or “in front”, and kiyiz – meaning “felt.” tush kiyiz is an example of Kyrgyz embroidery. Embroidery is one of the most ancient and most wide-spread crafts of Kyrgyz people. During the centuries Kyrgyz women have developed their own ornamental style, which is dominated by vegetative and zoomorphic motifs such as the ornaments of leafs, branches, flowers as well as round and spiral patterns. Kyrgyz embroidery leaves a lot of room for artistic expression and improvisation. Some Kyrgyz women embroider without stencils based on their own memory and imagination.
Kyrgyzstan -
Vanuatu sand drawings
Situated in the South Pacific, the Vanuatu archipelago has preserved a unique and complex tradition of sand drawing. This multifunctional “writing” is more than an indigenous artistic expression and it occurs in a wide range of ritual, contemplative and communicative contexts. The drawings are produced directly on the ground, in sand, volcanic ash or clay. Using one finger, the drawer traces a continuous meandering line on an imagined grid to produce a graceful, often symmetrical, composition of geometric patterns. This rich and dynamic graphic tradition has developed as a means of communication among the members of some 80 different language groups inhabiting the central and northern islands of Vanuatu. The drawings also function as mnemonic devices to record and transmit rituals, mythological lore and a wealth of oral information about local histories, cosmologies, kinship systems, song cycles, farming techniques, architectural and craft design, and choreographic patterns.
Vanuatu 2008 -
Chakan, embroidery art in the Republic of Tajikistan
The art of chakan embroidery is a kind of sewing ornaments, image of flowers and symbolic drawings with colorful threads on cotton or silk fabrics. Chakan embroidery is used to decorate women’s shirts, pillows, bed spreads, head scarves, towels, curtains and coverlets for cradles. In the chakan embroidery art, there are symbolic depictions and mythological images related to the surrounded nature and cosmos, which express people’s wishes and hopes. Each ornament has special name and meaning, for example, pomegranate flower, willow leaves, almond, tulip, cockscomb, nightingale, peacock’s tail, moon, star, sun, cloud and so on. Process of chakan embroidery consists of selection of textile and threads, drawing ornaments, doing the needlepoint images, and sewing clothes. The threads were prepared in the past from cotton and silk fibers, and colored them with natural paints prepared with some kinds of plants and minerals. Now, chakan dress makers use fabric threads for needlework. In the Khatlon region chakan shirt is an important dress of brides. Every bride should have chakan embroidered curtain and pillows as well. Grooms during wedding ceremony will put on tāqi – the national skulp-cap with chakan embroidery. In houses of the Khatlon are hang chakan embroidered needlework curtains. During the traditional festival and holy days Tajik women and girls wear chakan dress. Musical folklore groups and dancing ensembles of Tajikistan widely use chakan embroidered dress in the scene. Annualy in Tajikistan are held festivals and competitions of traditional costumes titled "Jilvai chakan".
Tajikistan 2018 -
Sericulture and silk craftsmanship of China
Sericulture and Silk Craftsmanship refers to the craftsmanship applied in traditional sericulture, silk dyeing and weaving process, which has been handed down from generation to generation, and relevant folk-customs derived thereby. China’s sericulture and silk craftsmanship boasts a history of 5000 years. The silk fragments, preliminary loom and potteries decorated with silkworm patterns excavated from sites dating 4000 years ago in the Taihu Lake area; demonstrate the time-honoured history of the sericulture and silk production in the region. Alongside the historical process, traditional manufacturing craftsmanship develops, and the main elements include: Mulberry planting: including cultivation of mulberry seedling, mulberry trimming, and various methods of engraftment; Silkworm production: including the selection, hybridization, and breeding of silkworm eggs, incubation, instruments for silkworm rearing, control of the temperature and humidity, and frame mounting methods; Silk reeling: including sorting and stripping of cocoons, ways for preserving the cocoons such as drying and salting, temperature control and process for boiling the cocoons, facilities and techniques for silk reeling, etc; Silk floss making: including techniques of water rinsing and tearing; Weaving tools: including various looms such as treadle looms, multi-shaft and multi-treadle patterning looms, lesser draw looms, greater draw looms, etc, and arrangement of heddle drafts and programming of patterns on draw looms; Design and weaving of fabrics: including the design and weaving of various structures and patterns, such as the Shuanglin silk damask which is calendared by stamp rocks, the Hang gauze with warps crossed, the Shu silk with warp-faced patterns, the Song-style silk in lampas weave, and Kesi woven in tapestry structures.
China 2009 -
Mongol Biyelgee, Mongolian traditional folk dance
Mongolian traditional folk dance “Bii Biyelgee” is an outstanding form among traditional performing arts of Mongolia, and unique and distinguished art expression which has embodied and originated from the nomadic living style of Mongols. Bii Biyelgee expresses the customs, traditions and spiritual practices through dancing elements, and its movements are typically confided to small space inside the Nomad’s dwelling-ger. Biyelgee is performed while half sitting or cross-legged sitting, coupled with fist and hand opening and waving, stiff and swift movements of chest and shoulders, shrugging and shaking them, crossing legs, steps and walks, as well as flexible body movements involved in prevalence. In doing so, biyelgee performers imitate the expressions of their lifestyle, household activities, courage, love, prides and livestock to the accompaniment of morin khuur, ikel khuur, tovshuur, tsuur, coupled with ethnic costumes.
Mongolia 2009 -
Viên Khê Five Perfomances (Đông Anh Folk Songs)
There is a view that Viên Khê Five Perfomances originated from the period of Northern domination (the Tùy Dynasty) associated with the name of Cả Lãng Đại Vương - the son of the leader Le Ngoc. Legend has it that he often went to the villages to join in the fun with the people, thereby teaching and popularizing to the community the songs, chants, and dances he created. Another opinion is that the heritage originated from the Later Le Dynasty, taught to the people by the Ministry of Rites official Nguyen Mong Tuan (originally from Vien Khe). Viên Khê Five Perfomances (Đông Anh Folk Songs) is a system of performances held during festivals in Vien Khe village, Dong Anh commune (Dong Son district - Thanh Hoa province) reflecting the daily life and feelings of farmers, with the wish to pray for rain, pray for sunshine, fight against natural disasters, epidemics, wild animals, and natural forces to protect agricultural production and maintain the growth and prosperity of humans and animals. Over hundreds of years of cultural exchange and acculturation, the system of performances has been enriched, so that today's Viên Khê Five Perfomances has been restored with 12 plays: the Lamp Dance, the Drum and Gong Play, the Ngo Quoc Play (belonging to the Ngu Tro Rủn Dong Khe), the Xiêm Thành Play (Champa), the Tiger Catching Play (Vằn Vương), the Tien Cuoi Play, the Ha Lan Play, the Thủy Play, the Nu Quan Play, the Tú Huần Play (Dong Anh), the Thiếp Play, the Ai Lao Play accompanied by folk songs, creating a unique cultural feature of the Dong Son countryside in general and Dong Khe in particular. The system of performances of Viên Khê Five Perfomances is extremely unique, the most popular is the Lamp Dance: a comprehensive performance with many layers of ancient culture, related to the calendar of wet rice agricultural production. The lantern dance is a dance with lyrics performed by 12 girls in white pants, red shirts, green belts, red scarves, and a lighted lamp on their heads, singing and dancing with graceful movements. The lantern dance refers to the production work of farmers during the year: lighting lamps, planting cotton and bean beds, sowing seedlings, splitting bamboo strips, weaving bamboo, pulling seedlings, transplanting, spinning, weaving, sewing, and harvesting. The performance ends with three dances of “fighting boiled chicken, offering new rice, and offering cakes” to express the gratitude of the people to the gods for a year of bountiful and abundant crops. The performances depict a panoramic picture of the material and spiritual life and aspirations for a better future of the people, imbued with profound humanistic values. The songs and dances in the Viên Khê Five Perfomances system still exist in the people's consciousness, expressing feelings and aspirations for life and indirectly condemning bad habits that existed in the old feudal society. Up to now, Viên Khê Five Perfomances has been restored relatively intact. In 2017, Viên Khê Five Perfomances (Đông Anh Folk Songs) was officially included in the list of national intangible cultural heritage by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism with a system of 12 performances (dance and singing).
Viet Nam -
Sedge mat weaving
The craft of Sedge mat weaving in the Can Duoc district appeared in the 17th - 18th centuries with two popular local materials: bamboo and jute. There are two types of sedge: saltwater sedge and freshwater sedge. Jute is used to create warp and foot threads. The walking frame (walking comb) is the most important part of the mat-weaving loom. Before weaving, people shake, turn, and tie the jute fibers (warp, foot) to form the warped surface on the loom. When weaving mats, two people are needed: one person sets the frame and one person spins the thread. Each type of mat has different weaving technique requirements. Weaving techniques include: weaving plain mats and weaving floral mats (printed flowers and woven flowers). Plain mat: yarn cleaning technique - the person cleaning the yarn sequentially interlaces one base strand, and one tip strand, reversing each other, breaking the original cover, and so on until the product is completed. Printed flower mat: A dry, smooth mat placed on a flat surface and fixed to the four corners. Place the printing frame on the mat, use a bristle brush or color brush, and then sweep it onto the printing frame, the color will be printed on the mat. When the printing mat color is dry, steam absorption (cold steaming) is done to let the printing color absorb and adhere tightly to the sedge. Weaving flower mats: The technique is to interweave between dyed and white silk sedges as the background. Some types of woven flower mats are woven mats, border-striped mats, fine-striped mats, mother-striped mats. Weaving mats is the most difficult technique of weaving jacquard mats. The artisan uses the weaving technique of pressing the legs, cutting the legs, and connecting the legs of the weaver in coordination with the person cleaning the sedge so that the color of the sedge sinks or emerges on the white background, therefore it can create patterns that the artist has designed. There are three lever motifs: picture lever, letter lever, and pattern lever.
Viet Nam -
The Balai or Ulai Dance
The origin of the Balai or Ulai Dance is unclear. However, it is believed that it has settled in Terengganu about 300 years ago. The existence of this dance in the Bukit Gemuruh Village in Hulu Terengganu revolves around the story of a couple who were farmers namely Tok Jambul and his wife Tok Senik with their child. Whenever To Senik lullabied her child there was an invisible voice as if reciprocating her quatrain. The voice invariably reciprocated Tok Senik’s quatrain when she continued quatraining while working in the paddy field. One day Tok Jambul dreamt meeting a man that told him that a genie wanted to jolly with Tok Jambul’s wife. The man directed Tok Jambul to plant upright a number of the pulai tree trunk and to sprinkle chanted flour around the tree using banana leaf, as well as reciting mantras. Eventually his paddy grew as well as fertile and the invisible voice was nowhere. Originally this dance is related to appeasing the spirit of paddy and performed by young maiden of the Bukit Gemuruh Village. The dance is accompanied by songs portraying the farmers’ happiness after obtaining the produce. The dance movements picture the farmers doing paddy field works. Colourful umbrellas that signify the spirit of paddy are placed in the middle of the stage and the dancers dance encircling the umbrellas. Paddy planting equipment like hoe, paddy harvester, and the farmers’ hats are turned into props.
Malaysia -
Kara Zhorga - Kazakh folk dance
Kara Zhorga (kaz. 'Kara zhorga','black horse') - is the Kazakh folk dance, when a dancer performs an experienced rider, horseman, prancing on the pacer. Dance promotes horsemanship. Initially, it was considered male kind of dance. Gradually Kara Zhorga was danced by girls too. The Kazakh dance has reflected peculiarities of worldview and material culture of cattle-breeding nomads, embracing different aspects of labor, spiritual activity and way of life in the steppe. For the nation who poeticized everything within its environment any move could be the impetus for creating a dance element. A horseman that rode past at a gallop was compared with a darted arrow. A girl strolling slowly in the steppe was compared with a lonely grass-blade swinging in the wind, or a bird’s flight in the endless blue. The nature of Kazakh dances reflects the depth of a specific world-perception of the nation, which is spilled over into a certain style of performance and expressed in a particularly upright proud bearing of a performer, in certain positions and movements of her/his hands. Kara-Zhorga dance reproduces a picture of a traditional horse competition called bayga. "... The Maman village gathers for a feast (‘toy’). The young joyful horsemen step out from the crowd. The young men, bending their bodies slightly forward and swinging harshly with their whips, eagerly enter the competition. The horsemen, moving in circles, lines and diagonals, outrun each other, demonstrating the agility of a leap or an intricate hop. The imitation of horserace - rhythmically sharp-cut hops from one foot, big leaps with a curved body – have interspersed with dance technique. A sharp-cut, rough and springy folk tune of Kara-Zhorga dance and the movement which coincides with the horserace rhythm, successfully merge into a single image of bold horsemen (‘dzhigits’) who have equestrianism at their finger tips." (Sarynova, 1976: 37) “Kara-Zhorga is a dance that embodies a variety of nuances and technique. Kara Zhorga dance differs by nuances and technique of execution. It combines the 'militancy and buffoonery, softness and mobility, speed and peace' (A. Ismailov). The folk dance has various performance types: as 'a pair of zhorgas' ('qos zhorga') and 'male zhorga' ('erkek zhorga').
Kazakhstan -
Lkhon Sbaek Thom (Large Shadow Theatre)
There are three types of "shadow theater: large shadow theater, small shadow theater, and colored shadow theatre. "Large Shadow Puppet or Lkhon Sbaek Thom" is one of the oldest and most revered theaters in the country. It is interesting that in the inscription of Wat Baseth (K, 78) written in AD. 668 and 677 with the word "tokkatak" and the inscription of Kork Chak temple (K. 155) in the 7th century CE, there was the word "tokk tor", which are now called "tokkaktar". A picture that can be held up or down or a drawing that plays a story. Although it is not possible to confirm that this word is an ancient Khmer word called for "shadow theater", but it is also a proof or idea for consideration. The Lkhon Sbaek Thom only plays the story of Reamker, which is an ancient epic, and because the story of Reamker is too long, the whole story is never performed. Therefore, it is only excerpted the scene only. Traditionally, Lkhon Sbaek Thom is performed only in large ceremonies that are characterized by faith, devotion, prayer, and so on. Major ceremonies with large shadows include the Royal Cremation Ceremony and the Royal Family, Samdech Preah Sangkhareach, Chao Athikar Wat, Coronation Ceremony, and Birthday Celebration of the King, Chao Athikar Wat .... As for the ceremonies in the villages and districts, there are burial ceremonies in Khan Seima, the Inauguration Ceremony of the Buddha Statue, the ceremony for various achievements in the pagoda, Bon Phum, and so on. Lkhon Sbaek Thom is performed with a white canvas, about 2-3 meters wide, about 8-10 meters long, stretching about 1 meter above the ground. Behind the white cloth, there is a fireplace about 1 meter above the ground for lighting to illuminate the skin on the white cloth. Before the performance, they have to hold a ceremony to offer and pray to the masters and the souls. In that ceremony, a puppet shadow is put in front of the stage, and the most important image is Ey Sei, which is placed in the center and accompanied by the main characters, such as Noreay Pleng Sor, Preah Ream, Krong Reap, Hanuman, etc. In front of the skin, they prepare offerings of Bay Sei, Sla Thor, bananas, Mlu Sla, flowers, candles, incense, and rice ... as well as a bowl of blessing water. During the ceremony, all the performers must come and light candles and incense, with a teacher leading the prayer ceremony. At the end of the ceremony, the performance begins with the performer (also known as the "Neak Jert Sbaek") picking up a piece of Sbaek that is already arranged according to the story, places it next to the white cloth to reflect the shadows, and move it up and down with the rhythm of the music, accompanied by a narrative voice. In a fighting scene, the Sbaek are placed one on top of the other, or sometimes the two Sbaek are pressed against each other, slightly apart from the canvas, in order to make the fighting scene more realistic, leaving the two skins behind the performers to turn to a fight, pretend that the Sbaek is fighting like that. The audience can easily understand the story of the large shadow drama because of the narrator. That is why the narrator has a very important role. The narrators are usually old people who know the story well, although sometimes they have to look to the Sastra for help. Narrators sometimes have one and sometimes two to correspond. The words that are said are a collection of words, a poem and a list of words. The best narrator is one who uses humorous words to make the audience laugh. The fire that accompanies the large shadow theater is the music of Pin Peat ensemble. Usually, the skins for the large shadow theatre are made of cow skin, but according to some opinions, the main characters such as Ey Sei, Eyso and Noreay in ancient times were made from the skins of big tigers or bears, because these characters have higher power than the other characters. Freshly peeled skin is first cleaned and "killed" by staining the ashes and soaking in boiling water. The type of wood that is used to soak the leather is mixed with a strong sour and bitter wood so that it gives the leather color, lasts a long time and prevents insects from eating. Then the leather is carved into pictures according to the desired story. When carved, the bark is boiled to make ink to turn the leather brown, and the most important bark is the middle bark. Finally, a bamboo stick is used to tie the leather vertically, using one or two bamboo strips the size of the figure to hold the skin so that the leather can be held for the performance. According to research reports, between the 1960s-70s, there are large shadow theater groups in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Battambang. In 1965, the large shadow theater troupe was formed in the traditional dance troupe under the "National Preservation of Performance" and later become the "Department of Performing Arts", now under the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts. In addition to the large shadow theater group of the Department of Performing Arts, there are also large shadow groups of the Arts Associations and Communities such as large shadow group, Sovannaphum Arts Association (Phnom Penh), Kork Thlok Arts Association (Phnom Penh), Wat Reach Bo (Siem Reap), Large shadow troupe Lok Ta Ty Chien (Siem Reap), large shadow group Lok Ta Hing (Siem Reap) and Banteay Meanchey Provincial Department of Culture.
Cambodia -
Ganchkarlik (ganch-alabaster plastering and carving)
Ganchkarlik (plastering and carving special alabaster – ganch) is one of the most ancient types of architectural-decorative arts of Uzbekistan. In the ХХ century its main centers were located in Khiva, Bukhara, Tashkent, Samarkand, Andijan, Namangan and Qoqand. Ganch carving art is indivisibly connected with architectural art than other types of applied folk art. From time immemorial, it has been used for decorating palaces, madrasahs, mosques and houses. The technique of creating a pattern on ganch surface is labor-intensive one. First, on the raw surface draft picture of the future ornamental pattern is drawn. Then, relief pattern is cut along the outline, while the background is deepened and salient parts of the pattern are finished. Also, special skill requires the work on relief pattern, because the effect of perception of the whole carved panel depends on it. As a matter of fact, Uzbek masters have developed many techniques of finishing relief patterns, which make carved panels look more dynamic, their salient and deepened parts more expressive thanks to the effect of light and shade.
Uzbekistan -
Traditional astronomical knowledge
Based on the recurrence of the sun, moon and planetary motions, Mongolians drew up a table of measuring the time and periods by sixty cycles, periods, years, months, days and nights, hours, and moments while reckoning the number 12 as the basics. Accordingly, the table of the sixty cycles used for their everyday lives. There are many facts that Mongolians have studied the astronomy from the scientific principles since ancient times. For instance, there is a wide spread picture with names of 1400 stars and their locations and descriptions called “Tümen odnii lit (almanac of ten thousand stars)” is being kept at the State central library.
Mongolia