Materials
performing art
ICH Materials 224
Publications(Article)
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BAKHSHI ART FESTIVAL TO REVIVE SILK ROAD CULTUREA wide range of festivals are held in Uzbekistan to generate public interest in intangible cultural heritage. This includes the recent International Bakhshi Art Festival, which was held for a week from 5 April in the ancient city of Termez. Bakhshi is a multi-genre art form that brings together singers, musicians, and performers of Doston, a Central Asian oral epic. Teams from seventy-five countries took part in this festival, which featured not only a wide range of performances but also an enlightening international conference.Year2019NationSouth Korea
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Kreta Ayer Heritage Gallery: Singapore’s First ICH Community GalleryNestled in the cultural heartland of Singapore’s Chinatown, the Kreta Ayer Heritage Gallery is Singapore’s first community gallery that showcases different aspects of the intangible cultural heritage (ICH) of the Chinese community as well as ICH elements practiced by the arts and cultural groups located in Kreta Ayer.\n\nCovering a gallery space of 1,076 square feet (100 square meters), the Kreta Ayer Heritage Gallery was co-curated by the National Heritage Board in partnership with the Kreta Ayer Community Centre and officially launched on 14 July 2019. The gallery features a total of 123 artifacts, of which 68 are on loan from the community and/or arts and cultural groups operating in Chinatown.\n\nThe gallery is made up of five sections covering five ICH elements comprising Chinese opera, Chinese puppetry, Nanyin music, Chinese calligraphy, and tea appreciation. It introduces visitors to the history of the precinct and showcases the aforementioned ICH elements while tracing their evolution from the days of old Chinatown to contemporary times.\n\nThe first section on Chinese opera traces its popularity as a form of local live entertainment between the late 1800s and the 1930s and showcases the different elements of the form including costumes, music, and characters. It also covers opera houses that used to operate in Chinatown and the characteristics of different types of opera according to dialects.\n\nThe second section on Chinese puppetry explores the roots of the art form and focuses on the common types of puppetry practiced in Singapore, including hokkien glove puppetry, teochew iron-stick puppetry, hainanese rod puppetry, and henghua string puppetry. The section also features a mock-up stage where puppetry performances are given, and visitors can try their hand at operating stringed puppets.\n\nThe third section on nanyin music, meaning “music of the south,” traces the origins of the art form and features nanyin performances, instruments, and musical scores on loan from Siong Leng Musical Association. It also showcases different genres of nanyin music such as Fujian nanyin and Cantonese naam-yam.\n\nThe fourth section on Chinese calligraphy focuses on the roots of Chinese calligraphy and the Chinese calligraphy scene in Singapore. It also features the first generation of calligraphers in Singapore and explores how the cultural art form is still practiced in schools, community centers, and cultural institutions today.\n\nThe final section on tea appreciation explores the long history of Chinese tea, the establishment of tea houses and the act of brewing and drinking tea as a cultural art form. It also looks at the different types of Chinese tea and how they are typically paired with different types of cuisine.\n\nThe gallery also features interactive components that allows visitors to experience the different ICH elements on show. These components include a puppetry stage where visitors can test their skills as puppeteers, multimedia stations that allow visitors to experience playing nanyin instruments, and a Chinese calligraphy station that allows visitors to practice their calligraphy using “invisible ink.”\n\nFollowing its official opening, NHB and Kreta Ayer Community Centre is partnering with various arts and cultural groups in Chinatown to present regular programs, including Chinese opera, Chinese puppetry, and Nanyin music performances and workshops as well as calligraphy and tea appreciation classes for students and members of the public to promote greater awareness of these ICH elements and, where possible, facilitate the transmission of skills.\n\nWith the opening of the Kreta Ayer Heritage Gallery, NHB hopes to showcase the richness and diversity of the Chinese community’s “living” ICH, provide a platform for ICH practitioners and groups to showcase their skills, and create more opportunities to collaborate with community partners to showcase the heritage of specific precincts or estates as well as the history and heritage of different ethnic communities.\n\nPhoto : An interior shot of the new Kreta Ayer Heritage Gallery ⓒ National Heritage Board, SingaporeYear2019NationSingapore
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A Graph Database for Performing Arts in SwitzerlandThe Swiss Archive of the Performing Arts (SAPA) emerged in 2017 from the joining of three independent archives in Bern, Lausanne, and Zurich. The histories of SAPA’s predecessors demonstrate the ever-developing approaches in documenting performing arts—a field that, like ICH in general, cannot be preserved in its original form. In our case, the documentary efforts started nearly 100 years ago with an initiative to collect books and other documents on theater culture in Switzerland. Later, objects such as stage design drawings and models followed and found their way into a small museum. The increasing usage of video in contemporary dance in the 1990s resulted in the establishment of the former Dance Media Library in Zurich in 2005, the youngest of the three SAPA predecessors.Year2021NationSwitzerland
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Appreciating the Traditional Music of the Maldives through Bodu BeruBodu beru (literally “big drum”) is the most popular and one of the oldest surviving forms of music and dance in the Maldives. The tradition is thought to have been brought to the Maldives by African slaves in the nineteenth century. Some people also believe that it evolved as an alternative to eleventh-century court music.\n\nBodu beru is usually performed by a group of fifteen to twenty people—composed of at least a lead singer and three drummers. Goat skin is commonly used as the drum’s membrane and the wood of coconut palm as the drum’s barrel; stingray skin is also used as a substitute for goat skin. The beat is hammered out with bare hands in a slow tempo, building up into a crescendo. This intensity continues before reaching an abrupt end. The song accompanying this drumming is called baburu lava or negro song. In the olden days, the lyrics were a meaningless combination of local and African words usually sung after a hard day’s work.\n\nNowadays, songs sung with bodu beru accompaniment are written in Dhivehi, the local Maldivian language. During musical shows, performers render a dance called baburu neshun or negro dance while wearing a sarong and white short-sleeved shirt. Bodu beru is popular at weddings, Eid occasions, and events held in relation to the circumcision of young boys. Also, with many tourist resorts realizing the commercial benefit of a relatively inexpensive cultural activity for their tourists, many bodu beru groups have been formed to perform in resorts. A current and more commercial revival has been led through an annual reality show/competition known as Boduberu Challenge. Some videos of the program are available here.\n\nPhoto : Bodu beru performance by young practitioners CCBY2.0 Shafiu HussainYear2017NationMaldives
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Inspire Tasmania: A Matter of Cultural Sustainable DevelopmentThe Migrant Resource Centre Inc. (MRC) in Southern Tasmania has launched Inspire, an innovative and vibrant program connecting Tasmanian performing artists to a broader community. The project’s website introduces a range of artists—migrants and refugees alike—bringing multicultural creative practices to the fore. They are talented individuals and groups of musicians, dancers, and public speakers who have been selected for their exceptional cultural skills and their ability to deliver professional performances in a range of settings. Tasmanian Chinese Community, for example, can present 56 different Chinese ethnic performances incorporated with traditional Chinese instruments. The Neeraalaya School of Dance is Tasmania’s premier Bharatanatyam dance troupe while Shuang Zhang is a conservatorium trained Chinese opera singer and dancer.\n\nInspire is funded by the Tasmanian government, Department of State Growth, while its website receives funding from the Tasmanian government, Department of Premier and Cabinet, Communities, Sport and Recreation. On its website, the performing artists are shown with a brief introduction about their own stories and expertise.1. The public can access the site and request performer(s) accordingly.\n\nThe performing artists get every opportunity to showcase their talents; in return, already-existing communities can experience their distinct performance for free. They say it is generating “common benefit and mutual prosperity.” MRC is not just giving the performing artists an online platform but more importantly it is helping them receive appropriate professional training to further refine their competence. Also, bi-cultural workers and volunteers have supported Inspire participants throughout the program. It is expected that this project can contribute to settle cultural sustainable development in Tasmania.\n\nPhoto : Karen Choir Hobart - The Karen people are a culturally and linguistically diverse ethnic groupYear2017NationAustralia
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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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3.23. Keeping Bhutan's Performing Arts AliveLhayee Lugar, literally meaning Dancers of Heaven, is one of the oldest organizations in entertainment business and certified by the Government of Bhutan. The cultural troupe was formed in 2008. They feel that preservation and promotion of indigenous Bhutanese culture is one of the four pillars that constitute the development philosophy of Gross National Happiness laid out by the King of Bhutan. They think that preservation and promotion of traditional values, crafts, artists’ sensibility, songs, dances and music add to the uniqueness to cultural heritage. Their aim is to keep the traditional songs, dances and music of Bhutan alive through performances in Bhutan and abroadYear2017NationBhutan
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Lkhon KholInscribed in 2018 on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding, Lkhon Khol Wat Svay Andet (Lkhon Kohl) is practiced in a community surrounding Wat Svay Andet, a Buddhist monastery located around ten kilometers east of Phnom Penh on the Mekong River. Lkhon Khol is a traditional mask theater performance of Cambodia with its origins during the Angkor period (ninth to fifteenth centuries). It exclusively is performed by men wearing masks to the accompaniment of a traditional orchestra and melodious recitation.\n\nLkhon Khol, also known as “the monkey dance,” is ceremoniously performed once a year after the Khmer New Year for ritual purposes, linked mostly to the cycle of rice farming and the needs of farming communities. A specific theatrical performance is the Reamker, the Khmer version of Ramayana, which includes an introduction by storytellers who play an important role in the performance.\n\nLkhon Khol is passed across generations orally. However, from 1970 to 1984, due to war and the Khmer Rouge regime, transmission was nearly impossible. In addition, economic factors, insufficient resources, and economic migration from the community have also limited transmission, which is what led it to be inscribed on the Urgent Safeguarding list.\n\nTwo theater groups, Kampong Thom and the National Theater troupes from the Department of Fine Arts and the Ministry of Culture and fine arts, have started performing the Lkhon Khol. In addition, the theatrical performance is also part of the syllabus at the University of Fine Arts.\n\nPhoto 1 : Lkhon Khol performance Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts of Cambodia, 2017\nPhoto 2 : Lkhon Khol Art painting CCBYSA PPPOfficial\nPhoto 3 : Cambodian dance: Reamker (public domain)Year2021NationCambodia
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Poe (Incense sticks) Production in BhutanThe burning of incense in the sacred shrines of Buddhist monasteries, temples, and also in the consecrated spaces that house the representations of the supreme spiritual beings is considered a kind of offering of sweet fragrances to the enlightened beings and also has the power to purify the impurities associated with us in any form that prevent us from realizing the innate Buddha nature and receiving the blessings. For this reason, incense is crucial in the performance of any type of ritual in the world of Buddhism. In general, burning herbs and making smoke offerings outdoors and burning incense in shrines have the same meaning and benefit; to purify defilements, pacify spirits, accumulate merit for oneself, and connect people to the spiritual world.\n\nThe production of incense is considered one of the religious crafts, as the product is used exclusively for religious purposes. There are two different types of incense: Ja-ju poe (herbal incense) with a yellowish texture and Zu-poe or Choe-jue poe (incense mixed with flesh and blood ingredients) with a brown color. Ja-ju incense is usually burned explicitly for the enlightened beings and when performing Drol-chog (ritual of Goddess Tara) and Rio-sang-chod (smoke offering at the summit of ridges and mountain to attract good fortunes), rituals associated to Nagas (subterrain sentient beings), while the other is offered to the guardian deities and guardian spirits during affirmation rituals.\n\nThe basic raw materials for both incenses are: Powder of Shug-pa (juniper), Tsen-den (weeping cypress), Balu (Rhododendron ciliatum), Sulu (Rhododendron setosum), Aru (Terminalia chebula), Baru (Terminalia bellirica), Manu (Inula racemosa Hook. f), Ruta (Saussurea lappa), Pang-poe (Valeriana officinalis) and water extracted from Zangdrug; (six valuable substances) Chu-gang (bamboo pitch), Gur-gum (saffron), Li-shi (clove), Ka-ko-la (cardamom), Za-ti (nutmeg), Sug-mel (cubeb) Ga-bur (camphor) and also Tsho (colours). When special ingredients such as Kar gsum; (three white substances) milk, curd and butter and an additional mixture of Ngar-gsum; (three sweet substances) brown sugar, molasses and honey are added to these mixed powders, the product becomes herbal incense and similarly, various ingredients of special animal meat, blood, La-tsi (musk), Gi-wang (elephant bile) and alcohols are added to make Zu-poe incense.\n\nMr. Lhundrup (80) learned the art of making incense sticks at the Government Incense Production Center in Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan, and worked for nearly 8 years. In 1918, after his retiremen, while some friends located their incense production more promisingly in the city, Lhundrup established the present incense production named Lhundrup Poezo-khang in his remote village of Urug in Chumey Gewog (block), Bumthang Dzongkhag (district), Bhutan. Currently, he supervises the production unit while his son Sangay Tenzin (50) takes the main role and his mother Uden (67) sometimes assists her son. Two other employees help them produce a plethora of incense sticks with five different types to meet consumer demand.\n\nProduction Process: Based on the license to produce incense sticks, the raw materials, especially dried junipers, are collected from the opposite foot of Yotong la (a mountain pass in the central region at 3425 meters above sea level) and the rest of the materials are purchased from the highlanders. After collecting the raw materials, they are chopped, dried in the sun and processed into fine powder with the help of an electric grinding machine. In the meantime, a helper prepares the extraction of water from the Six Valuable Substances. During mixing in the kneading machine, 80% of the raw material powder is carefully kneaded with the extracted medicinal water. After removal from the kneading machine, the dough-like incense is formed into a palm sized shape and placed into Tsir-shing (traditional wooden compressor) hole, creating a noodle like discharge while an employee places his or her body weight on the compressor liver. These noodle-like incense sticks are rolled between two wooden boards by the incense makers, cut evenly when the bottom wooden board is full, and dried in the sun. The incense sticks are tied into bundles using thread, dried again, and finally ready for making offering.\n\nphoto 1 : Finished product © Yeshi Lhendup\nphoto 2 : Raw materials being dried © Yeshi Lhendup\nphoto 3 : Drying right after the processe © Yeshi Lhendup\nphoto 4 : Incense being offered in the Local Shrine © Yeshi Lhendup\nphoto 5 : Raising of incense smoke © Yeshi LhendupYear2022NationBhutan
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ICHCAP ICH Video Documentary Series #6: Traditional Igal Dance in the PhilippinesIgal is a fast but gentle dance that is shared by the Sama people of Tawi-Tawi Island, located in the southernmost part of the Philippines, and the people of the western provinces of Mindanao. Igal is called Pangalay in Tausug and Pamansak in Yakan, all meaning ‘dance’.\n\nIgal has no specific choreography and is improvised without repeated movements. It is also rooted in the form of worship performed with the body. It expresses the ecstasy that accompanies the tauhid, that is, the manifestation of a divine being, and tries to become one with nature through dance and get closer to God. Igal is a dance of the moment. Basically, there is no song, and it proceeds in smooth and soft movements according to the sound of traditional instruments, and this music is an important element that inspires the dancer’s movements. While other dances move faster in proportion to the beat of music, the Igal dance moves slower as the music speeds up. Also, when performing the Igal dance, an ornament called Janggay is worn on the fingers, which maximizes the movement of the fingers to add elegance and artistry. The characteristic of dancing is to not stop moving the hands until the end of the dance, and to avoid excessive body movements.\n\nThe Igal dance is an important element that expresses the cultural identity of the Sama people, and it has inspired modern dance and contemporary art creations in the Philippines. In the Simunul region, local festival dances were created based on the Igal dance, and this phenomenon is an important part of the life of today’s generation, and it is an important example of vitality and reinvention handed down to tomorrow’s generation.\n\nThe Igal dance:\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eViUTF7id68&list=PLXen1g2tAaHDVurZGxieuywxmvMjFfgPZ\n\nThis traditional Igal dance of the Philippines video is one of the 10 ICH video Documentary Series, which is the result of the collaborative project between ICHCAP and National Commission for Culture and the Arts(NCCA) in the Philippines. Both organizations aim to raise visibility and strengthen the public’s access to ICH in the Philippines through this project.\n\nVideos represent the most accurate method of capturing ICH as it exists in the real world, as well as being effective tools for communicating with the public. ICHCAP will endeavor to continue vividly documenting the scenes of ICH that are hidden across the Asia-Pacific region with the aim of raising the profile of ICH elements as treasures of humanity and introducing them to the public.\n\nPlease refer to the brochure for more information on the Philippines ICH video documentary.\n\nPicture 1~6: Traditional Igal Dance in the Philippines © ICHCAPYear2022NationPhilippines
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FOLKLAND INITIATIVES FOR SAFEGUARDING TOLPAVAKOOTHU TRADITIONSFolkland, International Centre for Folklore and Culture is a nonprofit NGO devoted to promoting folklore and culture. Headquartered in Kerala in south-western India, Folkland has three main centers and several chapters in India and associations with other organizations abroad through MOUs and collab-orative partnerships. Folkland has been affiliated with the UNESCO ICH sector since 2010. Folkland envisions a society that respects cultural heritage by conserving arts and cultural traditions and transmitting them to future generations. As such, Folkland is proudly dedicated to promoting Indian culture and values with a focus on intangible cultural heritage. The center provides access to knowledge and information about intangible cultural heritage and is known for promoting indigenous culture that inspires audiences to explore the cultural and artistic heritage of Kerala. The main domains covered by Folkland are performing arts; oral traditions and expressions; social practices, rituals, and festivals; and traditional crafts. Folkland documents oral traditions and practices and extends training to younger genera-tions to revitalize old and near-extinct traditional art forms. One ICH element of particular interest to Folkland is tolpavakoothu (shadow puppetry).Year2016NationSouth Korea
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5. Tracing the Traditional Bandura Making in Modern UkraineOn identifying and researching the intangible cultural heritage of Ukraine together with local communities, local and regional cultural organizations, Development Centre “Democracy through Culture,” as an NGO accredited to UNESCO for ICH issues and engaged in ICH safeguarding, has found that music and singing traditions are inherent in all regions and localities of Ukraine as one of the most important national ICH manifestations. Among the different types of these arts (including one inscribed into the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding, Cossack Songs of Dnipropetrovsk Region) there is one common and popular elsewhere, reflecting the past, present, and provisional future of Ukrainian culture. \n\nWhat is referred to as music and singing art is related to bandura. A bandura (Ukrainian: бандура) is more than a traditional music instrument in Ukrainian culture—it represents the entire social and cultural complex combining such integral parts as bandura making, bandura \nplaying, and bandura singing, writing texts of special poetical forms (dumas), performing, leading a certain lifestyle of travelling performer or travelling philosopher. Bandurysts, musicians who play the bandura have had a profound impact on Ukrainian folk culture as bearers of special knowledge and skills, even as magicians and prophets.Year2021NationUkraine