Materials
contests
ICH Materials 13
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Gangneung Danoje Festival
The annual Gangneung Danoje Festival takes place in the town of Gangneung and its surroundings, situated east of the Taebaek Mountain Range on the Korean peninsula.The festival includes a shamanistic ritual on the Daegwallyeong Ridge, which pays tribute to the mountain deity and male and female tutelary deities. It encompasses traditional music and Odokddegi folk songs, the Gwanno mask drama, oral narrative poetry, and various popular pastimes. The Nanjang market, Korea’s largest outdoor marketplace, is today a major element of the festival, where local products and handicrafts are sold and contests, games and circus performances take place. The four-week long festival begins with the brewing of a sacred liquor and the Dano shamanistic rituals, in which a central role is played by a sacred tree, the sinmok, and the hwagae, a ritual object made of feathers, bells and bamboo wood. One of the specific features of the festival is the coexistence of Confucian, shamanistic and Buddhist rituals. Through the rituals devoted to the deities, the region is believed to remain unaffected by natural disasters, allowing all its residents to live in peace and prosperity.
South Korea -
Kuresi in Kazakhstan - Kazakh national style of wrestling
Kuresi in Kazakhstan is a type of wrestling that requires players to battle it out on foot, the objective being to get the opponent’s shoulders on the ground. It is a traditional practice where trainers would coach young boys who would then take part in local contests.
Kazakhstan -
Kuresi in Kazakhstan - Kazakh national style of wrestling
Kuresi in Kazakhstan is a type of wrestling that requires players to battle it out on foot, the objective being to get the opponent’s shoulders on the ground. It is a traditional practice where trainers would coach young boys who would then take part in local contests.
Kazakhstan -
Naadam – Mongolian traditional festival
Naadam is Mongolian traditional Festival during which Mongols compete at horse racing, wrestling and marksmen participate in the archery contests. Such Festivals are usually organized in summer and autumn months nationwide. Naadam Festival was included on the “Representative List of ICH of Humanity”
Mongolia
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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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The Kyrgyz Shyrdagy FestivalThe Kyrgyz Shyrdagy Festival was inaugurally organized in 2010 by felt carpets producers in Kyrgyzstan, after UNESCO inscribed the traditional Kyrgyz felt carpets ala-kiyiz and shyrdak into the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.\n\nThe festival is held every year in June in the mountainous Naryn region, famous for its felt carpets. The festival is managed by the Craft Council of Kyrgyzstan under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and the Information and Tourism of Kyrgyz Republic with the support of the regional administration and in partnership with the local crafts communities, NGOs, international agencies, and private businesses.\n\nThe goals of the festival are to attract social attention to the necessity of safeguarding the art of traditional Kyrgyz felt carpets, to develop the local market of the felt carpets, and to develop event/cultural tourism, especially in remote mountainous areas of Kyrgyzstan.\n\nThe art of making felt carpets among Kyrgyz has ancient historical roots dating back to the first century BCE. Felt carpets are an important decorative component in the yurt, the traditional nomadic dwelling of Kyrgyz people, which is used by local residents in everyday life.\n\nThe process of making felt carpets is a socializing, unifying factor. It involves all family members and often relatives and neighbors. During the joint work, knowledge and skills are interactively transmitted by the older generation to young people.\n\nIn the past, felt carpets were not intended for sale; they were passed down from generation to generation, playing the sacred role in the family as an ancestral memory of the mother. Therefore, the carpet ornamentation was marked individually by the woman-creator—an imagery of the benevolence or the blessing of the mother to her descendants.\n\nShyrdak felt carpet today is a popular product on the local tourist market and international craft market, providing a significant income for rural women. Being exported to western countries, shyrdak carpets are highly appreciated as handmade eco-friendly products with unique ornamentation.\n\nWith about three hundred crafts artisans and participants, the Kyrgyz Shyrdagy Festival has become a national holiday, recognizing the Kyrgyz people’s cultural values. Residents of neighboring villages go to the festival, dressed in traditional festive clothes. At the festival, attention is given to master classes of the carriers of knowledge of ancient felt-making methods and contests are held for felt carpet producers to better carpet preservation.\n\nIn the past festivals, seventy craftspeople were awarded with diplomas and monetary prizes from state institutions and private foundations. Twenty-five awarded shyrdaks were gifted by organizers to five leading museums in Kyrgyzstan. In 2018, within the framework of the festival, it is planned to hold an international conference on preserving traditional crafts with the participation of the National Commission for UNESCO, museum representatives, and tourism and craft organizations.\n\nThe Kyrgyz Shyrdagy Festival is currently a meeting point for artisans, traders, representatives of travel companies, scientists, and aficionados of felt carpets from Kyrgyzstan and other countries. It promotes the development of the craft market in Kyrgyzstan and other regions, consequently improving the living standards and social status of artisans. The festival also demonstrates the inseparability of cultural ties between generations, stimulating young people to study, preserve, and develop traditional crafts and drawing the attention to preserving Kyrgyz ICH.\n\nPhoto : Shyrdagy festival photo © Photographer Urmat Osmoev CACSARC-kgYear2018NationKyrgyzstan