Materials
oral
ICH Materials 500
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LEPA: THE SEA AS HOMEAs sea gypsies, the Sama Dilaut of the Philippines are known for living on the sea throughout most of the year. Part of the Sama ethnic group of Southeast Asia, they crisscrossed the islands of the coral triangle until recently when they chose more permanent settlements along the coast.Year2016NationSouth Korea
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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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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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KOMUZ TEACHING METHODS IN FORMAL AND INFORMAL SYSTEMS IN KYRGYZSTANThe Kyrgyz komuz is a national musical instrument. Traditionally, komuz was made from a single piece of wood. The instrument has three strings, which were traditionally made from dried ram innards, but in modern times, fishing lines are often used instead.Year2017NationSouth Korea
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Memory and ICH in KyrgyzstanKyrgyzstan, a landlocked country the territory of which is more than 94 percent mountainous, is among the most attractive lands located at the heart of Asia on the ancient Silk Road trade routes. The cultural heritage of the Kyrgyz people has been greatly influenced by their nomadic history. Kyrgyz people occupy a unique cultural environment and have a rich ICH. The vitality of this cultural heritage is safeguarded and transmitted from generation to generation as collective memory, orally or through practice and expression.Year2021NationKyrgyzstan
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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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Mongolian Culture and HeritageThe culture of the Central Asian steppes expresses itself vividly in the lifestyle of traditional nomadic practices. Mongolian culture has been in practice in the nomadic life and the traditions surrounding the nomad’s home (ger). And it is present in religious celebrations, national festivals, art and crafts, music and dance, language and literature, which form the backbone of Mongolian intangible cultural heritage of Mongolia. Mongolia is filled with valuable cultural properties and intangible cultural heritage of humanity that have been kept or practiced for thousands of years.\n\nGer, Mongolian Traditional Dwelling\nThe traditional architecture of the Mongols differed strongly from that of the settled peoples of Asia and other continents. Centuries ago, there the ger, also known as a yurt, appeared. It still offers shelter to nomads in particular places in Central Asia. Its development and fundamental principles are determined by the specific features of the way of life of Mongol tribes, which made it necessary to evolve a light and collapsible structure to be used as a dwelling or for public functions.\n\nMongolian Language and Literature\nMongolian is the language of most of the Mongolian population and inner Mongolia. By origin, Mongolian is one of the Altaic family of languages, and the history of the Mongolian language is long and complicated. Significant literary work of early Mongolia includes The Secret History of the Mongols, which was published in 1228).\n\nMongolian Religion and Beliefs\nThe Mongols have practiced several religions, of which Shamanism and Buddhism were the most common. The faith in Mongolia is Buddhism, though the state and religion were separated during the socialist period, but with the transition to the parliamentary republic in the 1990s, there has been a general revival of faiths across the country\n\nMongolian Art and Crafts\nMongolian arts and crafts have been passed down across generations from the Paleolithic times to today, leaving behind deep impressions on all facets of life and conscious, aesthetic, and philosophical thinking. Highly developed Mongolian arts and crafts come from the second millennium BCE. The works included sculptured heads of wild animals with exaggerated features. Other items include knives, daggers, and other items of practical and religious use.\n\nMongolian Music and Dance\nMusic is an integral part of Mongolian culture. Among Mongolia’s unique contributions to the world’s musical culture are the long songs, overtone singing, and morin khuur (the horse-headed fiddle). The music of Mongolia is also rich with varieties related to the various ethnic groups of the country. Among the most popular forms of modern music in Mongolia are Western pop and rock genres and the mass songs written by contemporary authors in the form of folk songs.\n\nHorse Culture of Mongolia\nIt is famously known that horses play a large role in the Mongols’ daily and national lives. Common sayings are, “A Mongol without a horse is like a bird without wings,” and “Mongols are born on horseback” these are arguably true words. Even today, horse-based culture is still practiced by nomadic Mongolians.\n\nVisit https://www.toursmongolia.com/tours for additional information about Mongolian culture.\n\nPhoto 1 : Prairie meadow grass inner Mongolia traditional clothing © Batzaya Choijiljav\nPhoto 2~7 : © Batzaya ChoijiljavYear2020NationMongolia
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A Tale of Two Curries: Culinary Tradition as a Form of Cultural Heritage'Like this,’ the old woman says, raking her fingers through red lentils clouding a stream of bottled water. We’re crowded together in the kitchen of the guesthouse I am staying in—consisting of not much more than a single gas burner, a rice cooker, a table, and a shelf full of an array of spices—in a village on the outskirts of Kandy, Sri Lanka. While my hostess demonstrates how she makes the dahl, she feeds hungry travelers, and her daughter marinates chicken for a second curry. The way the pair dance through their routine tells me they’ve done this many times before, I imagine both in the presence of foreign guests as well as in the comfortable silence of private company.\n\nThe cooking lesson my hostess gave me years ago has evidently stuck with me in memory, and in practice, as I try my hand at the recipes, I was taught. The preparation of food, after all, is not just a duty performed by people out of necessity but also a ritual cherished across cultures. It can unite the members of a household, each individual playing a role in the making of a meal, from sourcing ingredients to cooking the dishes to laying the table. Though their responsibilities might differ from culture to culture, the collaborative element of preparing to eat together is one that can bind the women and the men, the young and the old, the past and the present.\n\nRecipes themselves are more often passed between generations hand to hand rather than neatly written on recipe cards, as grandmothers and grandfathers teach their young ones to simmer and season a dish to perfection. It’s a part oral tradition and, part ritual, and in this manner, tradition can be maintained, not just the combinations of ingredients that come together in proper proportions, but the act of making something together, whether as a family, community, or patchwork group of temporary visitors.\n\nThat tradition can then become characteristic of an entire region or country, as can any cultural craft. But culinary customs have exceptional quality, as the tradition can be intimately experienced by family members and foreigners alike. Anyone who participates in local cuisine is invited to taste the past and present of a people in a single bite. As traditional meals feed the bellies and satiate the souls of entire nations and their visitors, tradition is kept alive not only in the art of making the meal but in those it substantiates in both body and spirit. This is how heritage is kept alive; when it continues to nourish people.\n\nHeritage is also invited to take a seat at modern tables when the keepers of local traditions share the customs they’ve inherited. When foreigners, for instance, take the initiative to learn the ingredients, recipes, etiquette, and conversation that circulate the kitchen in a culture that is not their own and they are permitted to do so, they are offered a glimpse at so much more than just local cuisine. They are personally introduced to a custom that has preceded even grandmothers’ generations, one that remains alive thanks to the conscious dedication to tradition and its maintenance. In this process, which we may be privileged to take part in as we travel, intangible elements of cultural heritage are shared, rehearsed, and solidified. A magical merger can happen between local and foreign, and between ancestors and today is made possible.\n\nSo it’s no wonder that something more potent than curry spice lingers at the table in Sri Lanka after we have prepared dinner and sat together to eat. The simple act of cooking and sharing a meal carries far more weight than I then realized, although I could feel it; a sense of being tied together with not only the people in the room but with those who built this tradition so long ago. This invisible connection remains uncompromised by the limited language and experiences people of different walks of life are expected to have in common. And it’s a sentiment I encourage travelers to seek to experience anywhere they go, no matter how different and far-flung those corners of the globe might be. When we explore culinary traditions and local teachings, we approach the vast and various nuances that characterize culture and ultimately participating in the preservation of tradition.\n\nMore of Issabella’s work is available at museandwander.co.uk\n\nPhoto : Split Red Lentil Seeds Ready for Curry CC BY-SA 4.0 Sanjay AcharyaYear2020NationSri Lanka
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Cheoyongmu, the New Year’s Eve DanceIn the traditional society, on New Year’s Eve, the day before January 1st of the lunar calendar, the civilians and the royal court held a Narye ceremony to welcome the new year. Narye is an event to drive out the evil spirits of last year and pray for peace. In the private sector, green bamboos with nodes were burnt to make explosive sounds in order to frighten the evil spirits way from the house. Even in the royal court of the Joseon Dynasty, they wore a naryero mask and walked around the palace playing jegeum(Korean cymbals) and drums. This ceremony is the Cheoyongmu (meaning Dance of Cheoyong), a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.\n\nCheoyongmu is based on the Cheoyong tale. Records related to Cheoyong can be found in Samguk Yusa, the historical book. According to records, Cheoyong was a person during the reign of King Heongang of Unified Silla. Cheoyong discovers that while he was away from home, the spirit of plague comes and secretly slept with his wife. However, Cheoyong sang and danced and withdrew, and the spirit who repented of his mistake by Cheoyong’s attitude vowed not to appear before him again. Afterwards, in private houses, the image of Cheoyong was attached to the gate to ward off the bad spirits, and Cheoyong took on the meaning of driving out evil spirits and welcoming auspicious events.\n\nBecause of this story, Cheoyongmu was an indispensable dance in the royal court narye. The current Cheoyongmu was prepared during the Joseon Dynasty and is performed by five male dancers. The dancers wear blue, white, red, black, and yellow robes and a Cheoyong mask decorated with tin earrings, peonies, and peach fruits on red skin. All of these decorative elements of the masks symbolize as the amulets of warding off the bad spirit and welcoming the auspicious events. Cheoyongmu has its origins in the aforementioned period of King Heongang of Unified Silla, and has been transmitted to this day. As the historical origin is long, it has rich artistry and value, and in recognition of this, it was registered as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009.\n\nCheoyongmu has freely crossed between the civilian and the royal courts, spreading through in various forms such as dance, writing, and oral tradition, resulting in many changes and developments. Today, Cheoyong is recreated and enjoyed as a “living heritage” with various popular cultural contents such as creative dance, animation, and drama, and Cheoyong’s long vitality and symbolism are noteworthy. The reason is that court dance which had strict content and form and was an art for the few, is passively reproduced and slowly approaching the public as opposed to folk dances combined with various media and styles in modern society.\n\nIn the past, before the development of science and medicine, in traditional societies that were vulnerable to natural disasters and diseases, amuletic events such as Cheoyongmu were held to prevent diseases and bad luck in the New Year. In modern society, amuletic rites are no longer held at the national and private level, but people today are living with the rites of passage for the new year, such as eating red bean porridge or ringing of the Bosingak bell. The new year is a time when hope and anxiety for the future intersect. Even if the way of living in the past and the present changes and the form and method of spending the old year and welcoming the new year are different, wishing for good luck will be the wind that runs through the century. I conclude this article with a speculation that these winds may be bringing life to the 21st century Cheoyong.\n\nphoto : Cheoyongmu © Taewook KimYear2022NationSouth Korea
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Kyrgyz Folklore: Imagination, Orientation, and Explanation of the PastWith stupefying landscapes to explore, marked by the remnants of ancient tribes and Silk Road travelers, Kyrgyzstan is the perfect place to let one’s person and imagination roam wild.\n\nThe stunning Eurasian mountain country of Kyrgyzstan is renowned for its splendid natural panoramas and vast landscapes that, although isolated, belong to a unique cultural context. Human traces—Paleolithic petroglyphs, Saka burial mounds, Silk Road caravanserai, and Soviet-era monuments, to name a few—punctuate the mountains and valleys once roamed by the vagabonds and villagers of past centuries.\n\nTo the present day, the complex natural and historical Kyrgyz terrain elicits curiosity and wonder among those who attempt to navigate it. Furthermore, the interpretations by later ancestors of ancient remnants are interesting keystones in the development of culture. Over the decades and centuries, the distant, obscured past tends to remain a source of imagination, superstition, and inevitably, storytelling. While this reception of the past is not unique to the Kyrgyz culture, its history is characterized by many waves of migration, and thus the people who have traversed its mountains and valleys were at times vastly different to their predecessors.\n\nIt may be possible that as a result of their roaming, the ancient settlers of Kyrgyzstan felt a need to establish a sense of place within the overwhelming land they occupied, a desire to understand it and know what it had witnessed before they arrived. This attempt to fabricate a connection to the land and earlier peoples might account for the legends of Kyrgyz folklore that seek to explain the etiology of various monuments and natural phenomena, their reasons for being.\n\nCholpon-Ata\nCholpon-Ata, now a popular resort destination on the north shores of Lake Issyk-Kul, takes its compound name from the maiden of the origin myth of the lake. Legend has it that long ago lived Cholpon, a beautiful blue-eyed Kyrgyz girl who lived with her tribe near the mountains. The amoured Ulan and Santash fought and injured one another for her affections, their rivalry expanding to two groups of allied kin. In the face of a choice which would result in the detriment of one of the dijigits (horseback warriors), Cholpon tore her own heart from her chest, rendering it unattainable to either, and died on the sunrise-facing hill that commemorates her. The mourning Kyrgyz, who remained divided from the feud, filled the valley between the mountains with their tears and created Lake Issyk-Kul, which separated the bitter tribes. The two groups thus name the northern and southern banks, Kungey and Terskey while the Ulan and Santash dijigits blow as the east and west winds, occasionally grappling with one another in the form of a storm above the lake.\n\nJeti-Ögüz\nThe photogenic ridge of seven red sandstone peaks known as Jeti-Ögüz are also the setting of Kyrgyz myths. The formation’s name, meaning Seven Bulls, may reference a folktale in which the eponymous animals were petrified by the gods to protect human inhabitants of the region from their wild rampage. In another legend, a Kyrgyz khan seeks to avenge the theft of his wife by another man and is advised by an elder to do so by killing the wife as punishment. His plan is hatched at a funeral feast, when, after the sacrificing of seven bulls, he similarly stabs and kills his stolen wife. Her bleeding heart flooded the valley, the blood carrying the slaughtered bulls with it to the current position of the red rocks.\n\nTengrism and the Tien Shan\nSome of the vast mountains which Kyrgyzstan is known for belong to the Tien Shan range, also shared with China and Kazakhstan. These majestic snow-capped peaks cast upon those who face them the impression of a force that was mighty, powerful, and divine. Such mountains are held sacred in the Central Eurasian religion of Tengrism, rooted in the ancient Mongol and Turkic tradition that worshipped the god Tengri personified by the sky, whose name attests to the religious and legendary significance of the mountains. The Kyrgyz ‘Tengri’ and Chinese tian are linguistically linked, both meaning sky as well as god; the Tian Shan can thus be translated to mean ‘Sky Mountain’ in honor of the god.\n\nRecounting these ancient legends are only a small sample group of the rich folkloric tradition woven into Kyrgyzstan’s vast landscape and varied population. We can only assume there to be infinite variations to the stories that are continually told, and far more strands of the oral tradition that may survive either sparsely or not at all. But there is a timelessness about these tales of the origin of natural phenomena that continue to punctuate Kyrgyz land and something in their phrasing and rhythm that longs to be shared aloud, repeated, and remembered.\n\nPhoto : Kyrgyz LandscapeYear2020NationKyrgyzstan
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KamanchehIntroduction\nKamancheh could be considered one of the national and novel instruments of Persia with a long history in the Orient. Through the historical pages of Baluchistan, an instrument named ghaychak is found and is similar to ghazhak or ghazh, a Perso-Islamic instrument.\n\nHistorical evidence, such as the great music book of Farabi, the poetry book of Masoud Saad, and the paintings of the Chehel Sotoon hall show the antiquity of using this instrument and its similarity to rabab, and give us this information that at the time of Safavid dynasty, it was common to play Kamancheh in the royal court.\n\nHistory\nKamancheh is filled with a history full of ups and downs from the far East to the West and played in different lands in such a way that it is known as an ancestor of the violin, able to perform all the techniques of that instrument; however, its Persian origin is clearly recorded and mentioned in Egyptian documents from the fifteenth century.\n\nThe paintings in the Chehel Sotoon hall shows that this instrument, initially, included three strings, quoted from Edward Brown the British orientalist at nineteenth century, and at the time of Western influence on our culture, during the Qajar period, the fourth string was added to imitate one of its grandchildren: the violin.\n\nIn the region of Lorestan the instrument includes a rich history in such a way that you can find a Kamancheh in every music lover’s house. In this region, the players are called kamancheh-kesh, whereas in other regions, they are called as kamancheh-zan.\n\nLiterature of Music\nMusical instruments, the way they are played, and the essence of the sound created from them have penetrated in the human soul and has somehow transpired into oral literature. What we are speaking of are the poems written by great Persian poets in which we see the use of literature that has been common among musicians and musicians as a common language of the past. Poems written by poets such as Masoud Saad Salman, an eleventh century poet, who mentioned the name Kamancheh along with the names of other musical instruments in his poems as follows:\n\nFrom canon, cheerfulness, glory, welfare, and play\n\nFrom harp, oud, nay, kamancheh, and party\n\nFarrukhi Sistani is another eleventh century poet who had mentioned Kamancheh in his poems:\n\nEvery day there was glory and welfare\n\nEvery day there was canon and tar played\n\nInstrument Components\nResonant Bowl and Skin\nThe bowl is almost spherical and hollow. The upper surface is open, on which the skin is peeled, and the vault is installed. The outer surface of the bowl is decorated with pieces of oyster or bone. Some of the local fiddles are also open behind their bowls, which makes a louder sound. The skin of the aperture is made from the thin hull of quadrupeds such as deer, goats, and lambs.\n\nHandle\nThe handle of the instrument is like a tube full of wood, which is about 25 cm long and 3 cm in diameter.\n\nVault\nThe fiddle vault is made of wood or bone, which is 4 cm long and 2 cm high. The vault rests on the skin of the bowl with its two small pedestals.\n\nThe Claw\nThe claw is located at the beginning of the handle and is made of wood. Its surface is hollow. Four phones are placed in pairs on their sides. At the top of the head is a straight, crown, or narrow.\n\nEars\nThe Kamancheh includes four ears with several instrument strings and in the form of a wide-headed nail made of wood, which are located on the sides of the toe. The flat part of the phone rotates left and right in the player’s hand to tune. The narrow part is inside the space of the claw head, and one end of the wire is wrapped around it.\n\nPawl\nIt is the thin, not long bone or stick the same size as the width of the handle between the claw and the handle, which the wires pass through its shallow grooves and attach to the ears.\n\nStand\nThis stand is a thin, moving metal bar ten centimeters long, that when played, one end is fastened to the bottom of the bowl with a screw, and the other is placed on the foot or the ground.\n\nPhoto : Kamancheh Player by Ibrahim Jabbar-BeikYear2020NationIran
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Let’s Listen to the Stories: “Baakhan Nyane Waa” in NepalStorytelling is an integral part of many cultures and social practices. It is also a way of transmitting knowledge from one generation to another. There is an undeniable change in the ways people across cultures practice storytelling due largely to the advent of technology. People in the past, as televisions, computers, internet, and even electricity were nonexistent, used to gather and share stories, even life events were narrated in the form of a story.\n\nOld people still recall gathering near a fireplace during winter and telling stories in Nepal. Slowly this traditional conduct of storytelling is being replaced by new media, so young people have little to no chance of experiencing storytelling as a form of social bonding and interpersonal interaction. With the aim of reviving the traditional form of storytelling as well as documenting these stories relating cultural heritage and social practices in the public space, a group of young people engaged in heritage conservation started a storytelling program known as Baakhan Nyane waa (literally: let’s listen to the stories).\n\nThe first edition of Baakhan Nyane waa started on 8 September 2018 with a storytelling session about the Gunla Festival celebrated by the Newar Buddhist in Kathmandu Valley. Gunla Festival is held in the September. The venue for the event was a courtyard known as pinganani in Kathmandu of the Tamrakar community, and the storyteller was Mr. Swatantra Bahadur Tamrakar, a retired professor of physics and one of the gurus of Tamrakar Gunla Baajan Khala, the traditional musical group of the Tamrakar community.\n\nThe latest storytelling series (fifth edition) was done on 19 January 2019 in Kirtipur city in front of Uma Maheshwor temple with the theme, “Name of the places.” Since the first edition, the event has been taking place in the different historic cities around the Valley, and stories related to the history and culture of the place have been shared. The chosen storyteller is somebody who has a deep knowledge about the community where the storytelling session is held, including the community’s history, culture, and rituals. The participants of the event are locals as well as people from other places, since the event information is disseminated via a Facebook event page. Live streaming of the event is done through Facebook live for the people who are not able to attend physically. One of the interesting parts of this event is after the storytelling session the organizer distributes popcorn or nuts, traditionally known as baakha paa, which used to be distributed traditionally after every storytelling session. The small snacks after the stories used to be a motivational factor to come and listen to the stories for many as joyfully remembered by older community members.\n\nThis is a new initiative by young people to safeguard oral traditions. Those engaged in this program contribute their free time, expertise, and even resources. More details about this event can be found at https://www.facebook.com/baakhannyanewaa/ .\n\nPhoto : A Scene of Baakhan Nyane Waa ⓒ Baakhan Nyane WaaYear2019NationNepal