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natural world
ICH Materials 45
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TWO-PART SINGING OF THE NUNG ETHNIC GROUP IN VIETNAMOf the fifty-four ethnic groups in Vietnam, the Kinh (also known as the Viet) people account for 85 percent of the entire population of Vietnam while the remaining 15 percent of the population is made up of the other fifty-three minorities. Within the group of minorities are the Nung people who have a population of around one million and reside in the northern mountainous provinces on the border with China.Year2015NationSouth Korea
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Sources and OriginsIn my earliest, groggiest memories, I can recall waking up to the ticking burner of a gas stove, the gurgle of a Bialetti cafetière beginning to boil, the grinding gears of a coffee machine crushing each bean to a fine powder, magic dust that became the first sip of the morning. To those who grew up in Italian households, rackety espresso mornings (and afternoons and evenings) echo memories of childhood, grandparents’ houses, or the kitchens of countless cousins. As a result of memories like this of an upbringing deeply infused with Italian culture, I feel Italian right down to my bones. I have Calabrian blood, brown eyes, Sicilian skin, an Italian passport; but I was born and raised far from the Mediterranean.\n\nMy grandparents moved to Canada in a wave of immigration of young people from all over post-war Italy to North America. In the decades that followed, European and Asian immigrants blew like dandelion fluffs across the vast Canadian landscape, rooting themselves into the fabric of a now very multicultural nation. Those seeds planted so many communities like my own, homegrown by expatriates in the image of the cultures and lifestyles they carried with them across the sea. There are so many people like me, the sons and daughters and grandchildren of that first generation, who still speak and act and cook and live under their influence.\n\nMy associations with morning coffee are a simple example of a wider tendency within us all: each person senses and conceptualizes the world according to their unique cocktail of intimate personal experiences. Comfortingly, our senses are pre-programed, predisposed towards the semblance of where we come from, what we grew up doing. But our origins stretch far beyond the place in which we grew up and the family that reared us, especially when many of our generation, born during waves of migration and globalization, grew up between countries and continents, or at least with distant homelands close at heart. We became who we are in a multitude of places.\n\nThese are the circumstances under which the process of self-identification becomes even more difficult than it already is. For those with scorched origins, those who understand dialects spoken but never written, those christened with names that the next-door neighbors of displaced homes couldn’t pronounce, unpacking one’s cultural identity is no easy feat. We are left to grapple with the conflicting inferences of how we look, what passports we hold, what language it feels most natural to curse in.\n\nHow can we possibly know who we are when there’s no singular trace of where exactly we come from? What is it that makes a person associate with a culture and consider their own? What permits them to wear that badge of identity rightfully? Is it a matter of language or lifestyle or geography or genealogy or gastronomy? Need it be justified and by whom?\n\nI would argue that following a distinct checklist of prerequisites in the interest of culturally profiling ourselves and others is surely one of the reasons so many of us feel so mixed up about who we are. Humans are messy beings and we live messy, sprawling lives. And the ongoing identity crisis within us all, especially those who can’t exactly pinpoint where we come from, simply won’t be solved by the validation by any number of other people.\n\nThe only broad response I can put forward is something like the cliché usually used in reference to relationships: when you know, you know. Each of us just knows what makes us feel at home, connected to who we are. We can feel, sense, hear, see and smell it all around us. We sweep our eyes across a room and a slideshow of recollected images play behind our eyes. Certain words bowl off of our tongues more easily than others in second and third languages because they are quotations of a linguistic background unique to each of us, selected from the dialogues of our entire lives. We might find ourselves at home with the landscapes and humidity levels and smells that resemble the setting of our grandparents’ stories rather than our own memories. Wherever we end up, wherever they might be, we are all painfully, inevitably connected to our origins. Our tie to them is a cord that can’t be cut, one that stretches with our efforts to pull away and always offers enough give to coax us back to the source.\n\nRead more from Issabella on cultural heritage and thoughtful travel at www.museandwander.co.uk.\n\nPhoto : Word cloud © Shutterstock / TupungatoYear2020NationItaly
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Thruebab, the Blessed Rainy Day in BhutanAmong fifteen national festivals celebrated in Bhutan, Thruebab or Thrübab is considered a grand event observed not only by the Bhutanese but also by Tibetans. It is a spiritual event that roughly falls between 20 and 25 September coinciding the early date of the eighth month of the Bhutanese calendar. Based on the etymology of Thruebab (thrue—wash, bath, holy water; bab—descend), the Buddhist term literally means “holy water descending”. Due to climate change, however, there is an unexpected shower and sometimes not a single drop of rain (or holy water as it were) from the sky. Regardless, the day of Thruebab is widely known as Blessed Rainy Day. The significance of the day is well connected to the view of both astrological and philosophical texts of Tibetan Buddhism. A special star, believed to be Rishi, is formed by crystal (chu-shel) and a gemstone (ketaka). With similar precious stones, an image of Vairocana Buddha was said to be erected by the great yogis with prayers to fulfill the wishes of all sentient beings. While the star Rishi revolves around the mythological mount Meru, it’s calculated that the star reaches directly above the Buddha’s figure exactly on the early date of the eighth lunar month emitting divine water drops from the collusion of rays from the star and from the Buddha’s crest. Both the rays and water drops permeate the streams and rivers of the world with immense healing power and blessings.\n\nThruebab, as an officially declared holiday, is observed by the whole of Bhutan. Various media platforms predict the beginning of the descent of the holy water and cover the entire event. However, the descent may happen early morning, after dawn, or sometimes even at noon. If it happens early in the morning, people would fill a container of flowers with the water falling down and keep it outside their house to receive the light of Rishi. As the descent happens, people use the water in taking a bath and drinking. Although Thruebab is primarily a spiritual event, people also take advantage of it to celebrate. They would take shower in open streams, ponds, or water taps and wash their clothes. Elderlies merrily shout Thrue! Thrue! Thrue! It means “cleanse us of sins and diseases”. Taking a bath is certainly the highlight of the day.\n\nThe program is then followed by making offerings and prayers. After supplication, family members gather in the dining room to eat rice porridge called thugpa as served either by the mother or eldest daughter. After this, families either visit temples and monasteries or go out for a picnic with relatives, friends, and neighbors. While men often play traditional games like archery, women sing and dance to give the game more elements of entertainment. Thruebab is considered as an integral part of intangible cultural heritage of Bhutan, fortifying social cohesion among the people. It engages people with religious activities and connects them to natural resources.\n\nPhoto : CONTRIBUTED BY YESHI LENDHUPYear2017NationBhutan
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Ethnic Food Tradition of Kerala Fishermen CommunityAs India is surrounded by Arabian Sea in the west, Bay of Bengal in the east, and the Indian Ocean in the south, the fishing tradition had its roots in Indian civilization from ancient past. Moreover, India is also considered the land of rivers as there are several rivers flowing across the country. The origin of fishing traditions can be traced back to the ancient Harappan civilization. The earliest available records on the life of the fishermen of the Southern region of Indian is from the Sangam literature, such as Ahananuru and Kuruntogai Anuru, which have literary references of the fishermen communities, including their cultural, economic, and social history. Sangam literature, though it was written in Tamil, sheds light into early Kerala life and dates back to the first five centuries of the Christian era. The physiographic divisions of the Sangam period were termed as tinais or five eco zones. The neythal(coastal) region was occupied by people like Minavar, Parathavar, Parthavas, Nulayars, and Turaivans. In Thiruvilayadalpuranam, a collection of epic stories written by Paranjothi Munivar, described the fishermen as neyther, parathavar, valayar, karayar, arayar, and pattanavar. The term valayar was derived from the Tamil term valai, meaning net. The term karayar was derived from the Tamil world karai, meaning shore. The term pattanavar, was derived from the Tamil word pattanam meaning town with the natural advantage of coastal region as the people engaged in fishing and salt making as their livelihood.Year2021NationSouth Korea
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KalpureganIntroduction\nThe vast land of Sistan and Baluchistan, the place with such a rich history associated with legends and narrations of great poets, is known as one of the few main genesis centers of pottery around the world.\n\nKalpuregan is an ancient village South of Sistan and Baluchistan Province with the most enchanting deserts, including the incredible vegetation and magnificent climate, which caused the unique lifestyle of the inhabitants that has penetrated through the veins of the culture recognized on the needlework and pottery of Kalpuregan design.\n\nThe Untold History\nHistory, as a diary of events, has recorded the origins of pottery and needlework in this region. Pottery in Kalpuregan dates to 3000 BCE, and the precise art of needlework of this region is estimated to be from 5000 BCE. In the past, only men did pottery, and women did needlework art. Today, both arts are performed by the hands of Kalpuregan women.\n\nSimilar Design and the Identity Behind\nThe art comes from the heart, and penetrates through the fingers onto the body of subjects, the warp and weft of carpets, and within the yarns of the fabric, to create forms to tell the history and the interaction between the people and their environment, to depict definitions, and identities, as the bones of the culture.\n\nLiving in the severe desert conditions has turned concepts such as alliance, integrity, and protection into the values of Kalpuregan society. The basic forms used in Kalpuregan needlework and pottery are simple geometric forms carrying a deep meaning and value, turning these spectacular arts in this ancient village so special.\n\nCircle: Represents unity and integrity and shows the connection between people and their living environment.\n\nZigzag: Represents how Baluchs stand against natural harshness, which you may not face in other ethnic groups.\n\nTriangle: Giving an offensive sense that in Baluch folk beliefs, it separates enemies and evil spirits because, in ancient beliefs, spirits are intertwined with the existence of Baluch.\n\nThe Pottery Design\nFrom the combination of the basic geometric shapes in the design of pottery, simple designs express the values among the traditional people of Kalpuregan. The values are derived from demanding lifestyles, unique living environments, failures, or wishes. Behind these forms, there are deep semantic concepts that express the depth of Kalpuregan artists’ perception of the environment and the nature of human existence and people’s tendency to self-fulfillment to reach a high level of aesthetics.\n\nThe closer he got to perfection, the more he resorted to his surrounding environment to solve his issues and became more in touch with the atmosphere. Following that, he sought to express his concepts and beliefs in nature. As a result, the combination of designs became more complex. And after combining a few simple shapes, he created more complicated forms to create abstract images of nature on artifacts to evoke the sense of being in nature.\n\nThe Needlework Design\nSince art is the reflex of human emotions and senses he receives from his living environment, it expresses the way it affects people’s thoughts.\n\nEven though they picture the environment, the way the lines and shapes are assembled are born of the artist’s mind. Among the forms created, shapes of flowers are the most used on the fabric.\n\nAlso, figures with sharp angles and triangle-based ones are common among other shapes originating from the nature and history of Sistan and Baluchistan. Especially through the people’s point of view that reminiscent of war scenes. Each line and form are the wage of the cultivation in the artist’s thought to have an abstract expression in the form of the visual structure.\n\nHow Similar but Different\nA comparison of needlework with Kalpuregan pottery shows the close relationship between these motifs. In addition to their structural similarities, in many cases, they also have common semantic domains. These characteristics are influenced by the nature, culture, beliefs, and rare wishes of Kalpuregan people. Women in both fields are the essential creators of these historical arts. Despite being inspired by nature over the centuries, these mothers, who are a symbol of birth and growth, have not limited themselves to imitating the environment and creating new designs. They are very creative. However, the role of animals is less used in both areas.\n\nSimple geometric forms are most present in various combinations due to the changes that occur through the minds of these artists. Visual qualities such as rhythm, repetition, symmetry, balance, and centralism have put both the Kalpuregan pottery and needlework art in order. In the end, the existence of many commonalities in both areas leads to the strengthening of cultural values. And will become the identity of the Baluch people in the Kalpuregan.\n\nPhoto : Kalpuregan designs © Mohammad ShirkavandYear2020NationIran
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Community Resilience through Safeguarding ICHIn the face of the climate crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the economic, social, and technological transformations that this generation is experiencing, many people are beginning to realize that the ability to respond to crises is key to enabling people, communities, cities, and nations to recover quickly. When a disaster occurs—both natural events such as flooding and forest fires, and other difficult times such as economic crisis—it affects communities. Therefore, the starting point for building community resilience is to deal with problems and provide mutual support in times of crisis. Both the public and private sectors are indispensable in working together for long-term crisis management. The government and public sector play an important role in strengthening communities facing change. The communities in turn sustain their identity and transfer abilities and perspectives that deepen our understanding of the world and influence our ways of working and living.Year2023NationThailand
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Roles of Shared Heritage of South Korea and North Korea Based on the Viability of ICHCultural heritage had been defined and maintained centered around physical structures or tangible features. It is only recently that the focus has shifted to nonphysical and intangible values of heritage, which incorporate natural, social, and cultural elements. Roles of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) are increasingly emphasized, as it involves the respect for cultural diversity and the representativeness of each cultural heritage, rather than just recognizing excellent universal values accepted by all. ICH has been created, practiced and used by people and has been inherited through generations in a cultural context. The viability of ICH is like a person’s life cycle. As our life is the finite period between birth and death, heritage is also doomed to disappear without a conscious effort to continue the viability of created heritage. Heritage has a finite life and transmission is the force to keep it alive.\n\nKorea is the only divided country in the world. Seventy years have passed since the Korean War, but the wounds of the war and the pain of the division still remain in the hearts of displaced people and dispersed families. Even amidst such a tragedy, there are intangible cultural properties of North Korea that have been transmitted in the South. One of them is “Aewonseong,” a song that has been designated in South Korea as an intangible cultural property of the ibuk odo (which literally means five northern provinces). “Aewonseong” (哀怨聲) reflects the joys and sorrows of life and expresses sounds of sadness and lamentation as the name suggests. People living in the barren areas of Hamgyeong-Do in the North used to hum the song when things were hard and tiring. Currently in South Korea, the song is transmitted by displaced people as a form of a musical performance accompanied by instruments and dance. It allows those people to find consolation and ease their longing for their hometown, thus providing a special sense of identity. Although the song is being practiced differently compared to its original version performed in the North, it still has the same function of consoling people now living in the southern part of the peninsula.\n\nDuring the thirteenth Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the ICH, which was held in Mauritius in November 2018, Traditional Korean Wrestling, ssirum/ssireum was jointly inscribed on the Representative List of the ICH of Humanity. The joint inscription was especially meaningful as it was intended for ‘peace and reconciliation.’ Since 2014, ICHCAP has organized biennial sub-regional meetings of five Northeast Asian countries (South Korea, Mongolia, China, Japan, and North Korea). The participants looked at the status of ICH safeguarding in North Korea and discussed the necessity for stronger exchange and cooperation in the fields of ICH in the region, laying a collaborative foundation for support for North Korea. This year in October, the fourth sub-regional meeting will take place in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, under the subject of the safeguarding of shared heritage in East Asia.\n\nAccording to the ‘Kit of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage’ published by UNESCO, safeguarding activities promote reconciliation through intercultural dialogue and respect for cultural diversity around the practice of living heritage and thus constitute an effective and sustainable way to restore peace and security within society. Even in the situation of national division, the viability of ICH can bring together different parties beyond the border to share a collective memory and the values of heritage. As such, shared heritage can play a vital role in maintaining peace and security in the two Koreas. ICH, which has survived to date and can be shared by both peoples, could hopefully help achieve inter-Korean cooperation and further establish a culture of peace in Northeast Asia.\n\nPhoto : Joining two Koreas © Shutterstock/eamesBotYear2020NationSouth Korea
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Virtual K-Culture: Promotion of Korean Culture During COVID-19Normally, the summer season is a busy time for the Korean Cultural Centre (KCC) in Canada’s capital city of Ottawa. KCCs are a global initiative that were started in 2009 by the Korean Culture and Information Service, a subdivision of South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. As of this moment, there are 32 KCCs in 27 countries. The KCC in Canada was created in 2016 under the jurisdiction of the Embassy of the Republic of Korea to Canada and its mandate is “to enhance Korea-Canada relations by promoting mutual understanding between Koreans and Canadians through the sharing of Korean culture, and facilitating bilateral cooperation between arts and cultural institutions.” The KCC does this through a number of engaging and interactive cultural activities which include exhibitions, performances, film screenings, festivals, cultural/language classes and outreach programs. This all had to be put on hold due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has resulted in the temporary closure of a number of cultural institutions around the world, including the KCC in Canada.\n\nHowever, the KCC has managed to find a way to continue to deliver their programming. According to Mr. Jung Joon Rhee, Public Relations Coordinator to the KCC and the Embassy of the Republic of Korea, the KCC shifted its activities online and created “Virtual K-Culture”.\n\n“We launched the ‘Virtual K-Culture’ initiative to bring light to the variety of digital cultural content produced by our partner institutions in Korea, and provide Canadians an opportunity to experience Korean culture from the comfort of their homes,” says Mr Jung Joon Rhee.\n\nVirtual K-Culture includes a combination of their longstanding initiatives such as the promotion of K-Cinema as well as new content. There are three components to the Virtual K-Culture series: audio-visual, participatory and educational.\n\nThe audio-visual content is focused on videos that showcase Korean culture such as art exhibitions and performances as well as film screenings.\n\nThe participatory content requires the contribution of the audience, for example, in the form of K-pop cover dances, which are then used by the KCC to produce compilation videos. Another example of the participatory content are food “webtoons” (a digital comic format that originated in South Korea) that teach the audience how to cook different Korean food while talking about the cultural history of the dish.\n\nThe educational content is aimed at enhancing people’s knowledge about Korea and Korean culture through such means as Korean language learning resources and hosting online Korean culture workshops.\n\nThe shift to virtual content was quite natural for the KCC.\n\n“We already had those digital channels to complement our offline activities prior to COVID-19, so it was just a matter of searching for content and items and executing them with our audiences in mind,” says Mr. Jung Joon Rhee.\n\nAs a global leader in the field of ICT (information and communication technology), South Korea is one of the most digitally connected nations in the world with nearly every household having high-speed Internet access. South Korea’s success with ICT is due to their government’s policies aimed at promoting the use of digital technologies as well as Koreans’ enthusiastic response to them. South Koreans have a “balli balli” (meaning hurry up/faster in Korean) approach to life which also transcends to their use of technology as the majority of people are known to be early adopters of new digital technologies and services.\n\nTherefore, it is no surprise that along with the KCC, other cultural institutions in South Korea have transferred their programming online. One notable example is the National Gugak Center (located in Seoul). The National Gugak Center is focused on promoting traditional Korean music and dance by offering classes and showcasing performances. With the Center being closed due to COVID-19 and all performances currently cancelled, the organization has started to host concerts on their YouTube channel.\n\nAs the future surrounding COVID-19 remains uncertain, the KCC in Canada is planning on prioritizing their digital outreach as they look for new ways to allow people to experience Korean culture while adhering to the regulations concerning COVID-19.\n\nPhoto : VKC Logo © VKZYear2020NationSouth Korea
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Gai Jatra, a festival of grief and laughterNepal, a small landlocked country situated between two giant countries, China and India, is a multilingual, multi-cultural and multi-ethnical country. It observes innumerable feasts and festivals throughout the year. These festivals are adhered to different ethnical groups of the country. ‘Newar’ is a local indigenous ethnical group of people mainly residing in Kathmandu valley and also found living in different parts of the country. ‘Newars’ are known for their agricultural farming, business and trade but basically for their unique cultures and feast and festivals. Such feasts and festivals are entrenched firmly to their lives. Among many festivals of such kind, ‘Gai Jatra’ (‘Gai’ means Cow and ‘Jatra’ means street festival. Hence, ‘Gai Jatra’ means Festival of Cow.) which ‘Newars’ have been observing since the unmemorable time.\n\nEach festival has its own cultural, historical, and religious values. ‘Gai Jatra’ has both religious and historical significance in its observance among ‘Newars’. They believe that it is the day the souls of deceased can enter the world of the dead (heaven) without having gone through the suffering of multiple rebirths of different creatures. Cows are believed to guide the soul of the deceased to heaven. And the deceased can cross the ‘Baitarani’ river (Symbolically River of suffering and torments) over to the heaven by grabbing the tail of a cow. So, on the very day of ‘Gai Jatra’, anyone that has had a family member passed away is supposed to lead a calf during the procession. However, since many families cannot afford for a calf, they dress children in cow mask as a substitute, and these children walk in the procession instead.\n\nA story about the festival goes back to the 17th century King Pratap Malla and his queen of Kathmandu. One day their young son died, and the queen was grief-stricken by the unexpected and untimely demise of her beloved son. Many days passed but the queen could not overcome her grief. To restore her happiness and see smiles on her face, and to show his wife that death is a natural part of life, the king called on his people to hold a carnival if someone has died in their family. Many people answered this call which helped the queen by showing that she was not alone in her grief and that all those who participated in the festival had also lost a loved one. Since then, ‘Gai Jatra’ festival has been being celebrated across Nepal by ‘Newars’.\n\nOn the day of Gai Jatra, the deceased’s family ceremonially purifies the house in the morning scrubbing the rooms and porch with cow dung. Family members and relatives gathers and prepare for the festival. They need to find a real cow for the cow procession, if not they must bring a young child and dress him up like a cow and the procession marches the square. All people meet in the square, console each other showing death is a natural phenomenon and we are not alone in it.\n\nDespite the solemn theme, Gai Jatra is a festival that is an amalgamation of mourning and celebration. It is a festival of grief and laughter. After the procession has concluded, the rest of the day is filled with street performances of dances, plays, and comedic routines, various funny conversations, jokes, sarcasm, even standup comedy are performed—making it an incredibly light-hearted affair. Considering the means of fun and laughter in the procession in memory of the deceased relatives. ‘Gai Jatra’ seems to call on the bereaved family of the deceased to move forward as a necessary process of life. Gai Jatra is not only limited to this. On the day, people also can freely express their feelings of love and flirting, suffering and agony, and ill-fated lives in the form of songs. People do not hesitate to mock and make sarcastic remarks to the public figures and the rulers on this day. This sort of practice had been observed even during the tyrannical regime of Ranas and Panchayat autocracy when people were strictly forbidden to speak against the rulers on normal days.\n\nIn a nutshell, ‘Gai Jatra’ is the only day on which people remember their deceased family members by sending a cow procession, people could joke, satire and enjoy all together. Hence ‘Gai Jatra’ is a festival of not only grief but also the festival of freedom and joy.\n\nphoto 1~3 : Gai Jatra Festival in Kathmandu of Nepal © S PakhrinYear2021NationNepal
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Hoi An Center for Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation: The 10-Year Effort to Revive a Traditional Custum Hoi AnHoi An Ancient Town: A Living Heritage\nHoi An is a city located in the South Central Coast region of Vietnam. The city covers an area of 60 km2. Despite its small size, Hoi An has diverse natural beauty and a rich history and culture dating back three thousand years. Hoi An Ancient Town, a World Cultural Heritage Site, was a trading port from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Hoi An today is still home to more than 1,200 artistic and architectural structures and urban features from the past. The daily lives and intangible cultural values of the local communities living there are still maintained and passed on. Therefore, Hoi An is considered a site of living heritage that still maintains its soul.Year2023NationViet Nam
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The Safeguarding and Diffusion of Native Traditional Foods of Baja California, MexicoTraditional food systems of native peoples around the world are critical to cultural identity and customs as well as to the continuation of biological genetic diversity. However, such traditional cuisines are becoming increasingly vulnerable due to the advent of global food systems, agroindustry, and changing lifestyles as well as to shifting preferences and ignorance of original ingredients. Furthermore, territorial transformations and distancing from ancestral lands have led to the loss of knowledge regarding the benefits of diverse ecosystems and their natural resources.Year2019NationSouth Korea
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Current Status for Multilevel Pedagogy for ICH Education and its Safeguarding: Focused on Cases in KoreaSince the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was initiated in 1946 to promote world peace and development based on international understanding and cooperation, there have been continuous efforts to safeguard cultural heritage of humanity. However, it is undeniable that tangible cultural heritage, which includes natural and cultural heritage, received greater emphasis than intangible heritage. The Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage adopted in 2003 in Paris ("2003 Convention" hereinafter) is regarded as a milestone that changed the historical perception and marked a turning point.Year2019NationSouth Korea