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TRADITIONAL SPRING FESTIVE RITES OF KAZAKH HORSE BREEDERSA triad of spring festive rites—biye baylau, ayghyr kosu, and kymyz murundyk, identified and documented in Terisakkan Village in the northern outskirts of Ulytau District, Central Kazakhstan—is a testimony to nomadic culture surviving up to today. Regarded by its bearers as the most important annual festive event, it starts in early May with first spring warmth, new grass, flowers, and foals, opening a new year-round cycle of life reproduction and a new season of making koumiss, an ancient sacred drink.Year2017NationSouth Korea
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Traditional Performing Arts in Times of a PandemicThe novel coronavirus fears have affected various sectors of the economy, politics, society, and culture. Notably, the cultural sector has been directly and substantially affected by the coronavirus crisis. Most of the public cultural facilities, including museums and art galleries, were temporarily shut down, and many cultural events and performances have been canceled or postponed due to the outbreak. The crisis has wreaked havoc on the performing arts industry. With measures taken to curb the spread of the coronavirus by preventing mass gatherings, concert halls, and theaters have been closed to help people avoid close contact with others.\n\nThe pandemic is also tough on traditional performing arts. It should be noted, however, how the performing arts community is trying to overcome this difficult time and use the crisis as an opportunity. They are looking for various ways to get through the health crisis. The National Gugak Center (https://www.youtube.com/user/gugak1951) and the Seoul Donhwamun Traditional Theater (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr2aWbG8Hz-EAl7cznvGO5Q), for example, are streaming live performances without audiences via Naver TV and YouTube. And several classical music companies around the world, including the Paris National Opera and the Bolshoi Ballet, are trying to bond with fans, using advanced technologies, by, for example, sharing videos of dancers practicing within the confines of a studio.\n\nLivestream performances provide audiences with virtual content they can partake in from home. Artists can have a live chat with viewers and be inspired to perform free improvisations, making audiences feel as if they were sitting in the front row. By using video technologies, online concerts offer audiences various views, unlike in-person theaters, where spectators can watch the stage from specific angles and distances. Livestream performances also enhance audience convenience. Viewers can enjoy great art while enjoying snacks and drinks from the comfort of their own homes. They can also talk to the people beside them and share their feelings with other audiences in real time while watching shows.\n\nHowever, there are some downsides. Audiences might find it difficult to concentrate on a performance when they experience it via screens and speakers. And although the latest technologies are used to deliver high-quality images and sounds, there are still limitations in bringing the full force of actual performances. This situation raises doubts about whether live streams can appeal to audiences with the same intensity that they might have in physical theaters.\n\nThe coronavirus pandemic has changed many aspects of life. It has also led to noticeable changes in the performing arts. Although there are still varying opinions about the audience’s absence, which is one of the most fundamental elements of performances, the recent proliferation of live streams can be considered a significant leap forward and have shown the possibility of further development.\n\nLivestreaming of traditional performances via online platforms is expected to play a significant role in lowering physical and emotional barriers and increasing accessibility to traditional culture, especially among young people who are more exposed to pop culture. Traditional performing arts will hopefully survive this crisis and come out of it stronger.\n\nPhoto : ‘Ogomu’ Traditional Performing Arts of Korea ⓒ Shutterstock/Jack Q.Year2020NationSouth Korea
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Narration of PersiaIntroduction\nThrough the rich history of Persia, few cultural elements have remained intact, one of which is the art of narration. Ever since Aryans entered the plateau of Iran, they brought this way of performance art with themselves through which they would tell the stories of their ancestors and later the epics of their gods.\n\nThis play, which is a combination of narrating, solo-acting, singing, and an improvisation performance, is done in two ways: Open-Space (at squares, passages, farmlands, etc.) through which the stories were drawn on a scroll curtain that would be opened slowly in front of the audience, and Closed-Space (in coffee houses or mansions) in which the curtain was hung or mounted on a wall before the performance and covered by a contrast curtain to be removed from the main curtain when the narration starts.\n\nThe influence of this art was so great that it was used to motivate and encourage the army, and in the Safavid era, it was highly valued.\n\nThe Elements of Scene Reading\nThe main parts of this way of performance are:\n\nPreface or Pre-event (A lament to gather people)\nHymn (A song in which they ask God for help)\nMonaghab Khani (Merit Reading—Praise the family of the Prophet Mohammad)\nSpeech in the sanctity of the curtain\nOpening the contract curtain or the scroll curtain\nSermon Reading or the beginning of the speech\nStorytelling (Dealing with side stories)\nDescription of the main event\nEscaping (This will be improvised, based on how people are feeling, and the recent events)\nMonody and Requiem\nGiving the promise to tell a more joyful story on the next event\nPray for the audience\nTo fold the curtain\nThe Curtain\n\nThis curtain is a piece of fabric on which scenes of mythological stories, historical narratives, and even stories of the great prophet’s lives are drawn. There’s a believe that says seventy-two stories are drawn on the curtain but in reality, it does not include exactly that many. This belief is created in terms of the multiple stories and the large number of the images. It is on connection with this belief that a famous conversation happens in between the narrator and the audience; The narrator may ask, “how many stories and faces are drawn on the curtain?” and the audience replies “366 faces and 72 stories.”\n\nThe characters are drawn on a background of natural colors, the components together and the composition of the images are arranged in such a way that it conveys concepts through the role of the narrator and the story itself. The illustration of the good characters and the bad characters are painted differently; you may see the bad characters with elongated faces and the good characters with kind, round faces.\n\nBesides all these, the positioning of the characters is determined by their rank. If it’s the narration of a war, the soldiers are drawn smaller, without the usage of perspective or anti-perspective. The commander, the prince or, the king is drawn slightly bigger to show the distinction, which also includes their horses and ammunition. This illustration of the characters must be included and drawn stereotypically, and to give emotion to the characters, their body language is also drawn in such spectacularly, showing the feeling of pain or death. The characters are mostly painted with Qajar-style clothes. Even the emotion that lies within their eyes is uniquely painted; like if they show power or their weakness, if it’s comforting or terrifying, it is drawn in a realistically.\n\nIranian dramatic story-telling: Morshed Ahadi Photograph: Sa’id Azadi © 2005 by the Department of Traditional Arts at the Research Center of ICHHTO\nThe Scene Reader\nIt is not just the role of the curtain that will fascinate the audience but how the narrator tells the stories and leads the eyes on the curtain to drown the audience in the depth of the narrations on the background of the scene.\n\nHe is the person who tells the stories drawn on the scene. A singer and actor—someone with high physical ability and excellent creativity in improvisation who, with the usage of the stories, can play the role of all the characters.\n\nNow that’s the time when the magic happens—the narrator walks between the curtain and the audience, acting out each character, singing the poems and epic songs and telling the painted stories. As his voice tonnage changes and plays out the narrations with his hands and using his stick, and the moves he makes with his body, takes the audience deep into the scene, where the events are happening. All of a sudden, the audience feel no border between them and the scene, finding themselves in depth of the story, playing the role of one of the characters.\n\nPhoto 1 : Narration of Persia--2005 Department of Traditional Arts ICHHTO Research Center, Morshed Ahadi points to the part of the screen he is reciting its story\nPhoto 2 : Iranian dramatic story-telling: Morshed Ahadi Photograph: Sa’id Azadi © 2005 by the Department of Traditional Arts at the Research Center of ICHHTOYear2021NationIran
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People on Vanuatu’s Malekula Island Speak More than 30 Indigenous Languages. Here’s Why We Must Record ThemMalekula, the second-largest island in the Vanuatu archipelago, has a linguistic connection to Aotearoa. All of its many languages are distantly related to te reo Māori, and the island is the site of a long-term project to document them.\n\nVanuatu has been described as the world’s “densest linguistic landscape,” with as many as 145 languages spoken by a population of fewer than 300,000 people.\n\nMalekula itself is home to about 25,000 people, who among them speak more than thirty indigenous languages. Some are spoken by just a few hundred people.\n\nIndigenous languages around the world are declining at a rapid rate, dying out with the demise of their last speakers. The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues estimates one indigenous language dies every two weeks. As each language disappears, its unique cultural expression and world views are lost as well. Our project in Malekula hopes to counter this trend.\n\nMalekula Languages\nThe work in Malekula began in the 1990s when the late Terry Crowley hosted a Neve’ei-speaking university student from a small village. The encounter inspired his interest in the island’s many Indigenous languages.\n\nThe Malekula project works with communities to facilitate literacy initiatives, often in the form of unpublished children’s books and thematic dictionaries. The research highlights the value of Indigenous languages as an expression of local cultural identity. The Malekula project is a response to the urgent need to record the island’s indigenous languages in the face of significant changes to almost every aspect of traditional life. These changes have brought indigenous languages into contact and competition with colonial English and French and the home-grown Bislama, a dialect of Melanesian pidgin. From education to religion, administration, and domestic life, Bislama is now often the language of choice.\n\nWhy is that a problem? The value of indigenous languages lies in the fact that they articulate the way in which people have engaged with and understood their natural environment.\n\nMalekula has a 3,000-year history of human settlement. Each language spoken on the island encodes unique ways in which its speakers have sustained life. Indigenous languages preserve ways in which people engage with their environment.\n\nAnother fundamental aspect of indigenous languages is their direct link to cultural identity. In a place where distinctive local identities are the norm, the increasing use of Bislama reduces the linguistic diversity that has been sustained for millennia.\n\nIn recent times, the way of life for the people of Malekula has shifted from intensely local communities to broader formal education. Imported religions have similarly influenced local belief systems.\n\nThe same centralized governance that facilitates infrastructure development and access to medical care also affects the autonomy of small communities to govern their affairs, including the languages in which children are taught.\n\nTraditionally, linguistic field research has produced valuable research for a highly specialist linguistic audience. Most scholars had no expectation of returning their research to the community of speakers. We initially followed this tradition in writing about the Neverver language of Malekula but grew increasingly dissatisfied with the expectations of the discipline. Looking to modern decolonizing research methodologies and ethical guidelines in Aotearoa, we developed the “first audience principle.” This means indigenous language communities should be the first to hear about any field research findings.\n\nIn 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic and travel bans brought linguistic fieldwork to an abrupt halt. During this unwelcome hiatus from fieldwork with Malekula communities, it has been tempting to focus on more technical analysis for our fellow academics. But our obligation to communities remains, and we are developing new ways of working with our archived field data in preparation for the time when we can return to Malekula.\n\nThis article is based on the free flow of information, the creative commons from https://theconversation.com For the original source with additional links, please visit https://theconversation.com/people-on-vanuatus-malekula-island-speak-more-than-30-indigenous-languages-heres-why-we-must-record-them\n\nPhoto : Indigenous languages preserve ways in which people engage with their environment. CCBY Royce Dodd, Author providedYear2021NationVanuatu
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TattooingThe arc of cultural heritage is far broader than many realize. For many, the term calls to mind the physical remains of the past, often in the image of ancient buildings and ruins, or the history of a collective. If prompted to define what heritage encompasses in a personal sense, one might think of their own family’s lineage and ancestry. But in either sense, many of us understand heritage to be something outside of the self rather than something that we are a living part of. We are vehicles for living cultural heritage, not just ethnically, socially, or culturally, but physically. Tangible heritage might be best understood as very much alive, close to home, and applicable to each of us when we consider the body as a context for it.\n\nFrom the way we style our hair and the makeup we paint on our faces to the clothes we choose to wear and the adornments we dress up in, we all adopt insignias of culture and express our identities on the physical plain in modes that have been shaped by heritage. Tattooing is one of these mediums. Inking the skin as to permanently brand ourselves with a visual marker communicates something about who we are or what has touched our lives, to others as much as to ourselves. In this practice, the unseen intangible heritage and identity we know and feel is transformed into something tangible and corporeal.\n\nWe are hardly the first people to manipulate the body in such a way. Tattooing has a long history, a tradition adopted from ancient cultures from the Alps to Mongolia, from Greenland to China, from Egypt to Mexico, from Russia to the South Pacific. Whether marking the skin of a newly initiated member of a group, a tribe leader, a spiritual worshipper, a loyal warrior, or an outcast criminal, tattoos carried their potential to express diverse meanings into more recent history and the modern day. We’re all familiar with the sailor’s anchor, the Indian bride’s henna, the biker’s skull and crossbones, the adoption of the tribal tattoo or Chinese character in Western popular culture. But what stands out is not so much the range of meanings and contexts that tattoos might indicate, but rather the instinct to mark one’s skin in a permanent way, a tale as old as time.\n\nIt is striking to me that no matter where in the world these practices developed, so many diverse groups of indigenous ancestors were inclined to physically demarcate themselves and others, developing a technique of self-expression that would live on. I wonder why.\n\nMaybe they all recognized how powerful the skin can be as a medium for message-bearing. Upon this visible and undetachable bodily canvas, the way one is seen by others is manipulated from the first glance. As we dance through this ancient-turned-modern ritual today, whether the symbols we choose speak for themselves or inspire questions about who we are or where we’ve been, we consider ourselves branded for life.\n\nBut ‘for life’ and forever are not the same thing. In the past and at present, tattoos represent an attempt at permanence that is almost endearing in its falsehood. Though the ink on the skin itself may be unremovable, the skin and body itself is not eternal. The corpses discovered across Europe, Asia, the Americas and Oceania that attest to the long history of tattooing remind us that ‘undoable’ physical manipulations we make will last only as long as the body does. Whatever we regard as permanent is never really such, and after a time the tangible becomes intangible, whether we are referring to body or brick. Palpable proof becomes a fairy tale, man becomes myth. The physical is not perpetual, and tangible heritage does not last forever just because it takes material form.\n\nIt’s within this ongoing cycle of permanence and impermanence that cultural heritage is situated. Though we feel compelled to preserve the flesh of the past on personal and broader scales, matter is more delicate than we often accept, and the risk of disintegration is always looming. Tattooing is a poignant example of one of the most effective ways to retain the substance of the past as centuries go by: to keep it alive in practice, even if not in the exact form it once took, with the stories of where it came from accessible for inspiration.\n\nMore of Issabella’s work is available at museandwander.co.uk\n\nPhoto : Traditional Tattooing ToolsYear2020NationPacific Ocean,China,Egypt,Mexico,Russian Federation
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“Tết Trung thu” – an element contains traditional intangible cultural valuesWhen the festive activities of Lunar July ends, it is the beginning of “Tết Trung thu” (or “the Mid-Autumn festival”). It usually falls out on the 15th day of Lunar August when the weather turns a little cooler after the unpleasantly hot summer. In Vietnam, this event has many humanistic meanings such as: regarding as “family union holiday”, thanksgiving to the nature Gods for the harvest and growth of life, praying to ask the blessings for families and relatives. As time went by, it is known as the Children’s festival because of its pureness and closeness to the natural world. Moreover, watching the moon’s color on that day can predict the harvest as well as the national destiny: namely, the successful silk-making season (golden moon), natural disasters (blue moon), peaceful country (orange moon).\n\nAlthough the origin of “Tết Trung thu” is not really clear, Vietnamese people still practice it as an intangible cultural heritage (ICH) belonging to ancient wet-rice civilization. There have been several folktales about it: the story of Hằng Nga (Moon Lady), the legend about the woodcutter named Cuội, the tale of the king went to visit the moon, ect. And the oral tradition of Cuội was the most popular story and it reflects the Vietnamese folk identity. It is said that Cuội’s absent-minded wife poured dirty water on a magic tree which caused it to fly towards the moon. He failed to pull the tree back and stuck with it on the moon. Therefore, children often carry colorful lanterns on the full moon night of Lunar August to help him find the way back to Earth.\n\nVietnamese people spend whole a month preparing for the celebration. Some outstanding customs indispensable on the brightest moon night include:\n\n– Worshiping the natural Gods: This practice demonstrates knowledge concerning nature and the universe of indigenous people. The mid-autumn day is the occasion to show their respect to the natural Gods and ancestors. Besides, the worshiping tray with five kind of fruits (representing the universe’s five elements), moon-cakes with many unique shapes including two main types: “bánh dẻo” (symbol of reunion) and “bánh nướng” (meaning of life’s taste), toys which expressed the desire for a good harvest year, a happy and reunited family.\n\n– Enjoying traditional mid-autumn specialities: After the full moon rises, when the Gods and ancestors have received the devotion of living people, it will be time for everyone to enjoy the fruits and cakes together. It can be said that gathering in the moonlight is a traditional practice and also a rare time of year for everybody to gather and show the connection between family members.\n\n– Carrying lanterns: For Vietnamese children, the traditional lantern is the most meaningful gift to parade in the Mid-Autumn festival. The making lantern is considered as one of the famous traditional craftsmanship of agricultural residents as well. Traditional lanterns are made from bamboo and cellophane, going through many stages. There are many lantern shapes designed with folk symbolic meanings: the star lantern shows the purity of children, the rabbit lantern represents the moon, the toad lantern describes a desire about favorable weather for crops, the carp lantern stand for wishing peace and prosperity, ect.\n\n– Performing the unicorn dance: This performance art originated from the folk legend about the unicorn. Legendarily, unicorn was very aggressive and often caused trouble for human. Then “ông Địa” (the character incarnated by Maitreya Buddha) appeared and tamed it into a sacred animal to bless everyone in annual Mid-Autumn festival. Hence, the simulation of “ông Địa” hanging out with his unicorn among the children’s lantern lights is an unforgettable image in this festival.\n\nIn general, “Tết Trung thu” in Vietnam retains positive traditional elements in the modern time. It still has attracted the younger generation and directed them to the values of truth – goodness – beauty which are inherent to the festival. As an element that covers most of the specific domains of ICH, Vietnam’s Mid-Autumn festival has its own identity despite the great impact of globalization in its culture and the recent transformation of customs.\n\nPhoto : The worshiping tray with an identity of agricultural residents © Hoang The PhucYear2019NationViet Nam
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Thanaka: A Traditional Beauty Commodity in MyanmarThe cosmetic value of thanaka is nationally recognized in Myanmar. Extracted from trees, thanaka holds a high level of public trust due to its connection to the traditional life of Burmese people. In the past, thanakha was worn as a natural cosmetic concoction during the period of Myanmar kingdoms. During the monarchy period, lighter and more fragrant thanakha was used for royal families, and it was added with tiny gold powder while commoners used the pollen of flowers named gant gaw (Mesua ferrea). In addition to it being considered a beauty product, thanaka is also used by farmers and sun-exposed workers for sun protection.\n\nSince Myanmar is in a tropical climate zone, thanakha can give cool sensations and heal sunburns. When thanakha is applied on the face, it becomes a moisturizing treatment that primarily soothes the skin. It also has antibacterial properties that help clear the skin of pimples. As a result, thanaka paste is an essential part of our beauty routine. The glorification of thanaka is well-reflected in Myanmar’s idealization of beauty, particularly female beauty. The ideal woman is perceived to have a long hair, wearing Myanmar’s traditional attire, and using thanaka. This idealization is portrayed in media culture of the country, as well as in folk literature.\n\nPeople make thanaka throughout the Myanmar. Following simple traditional procedures, it is taken from thanaka tree (Limonia acidissma Linn). Ten-year-old thanaka trees are downed and made logs about fifteen centimeters long. Thanakha paste is extracted from the bark by grinding it with a bit of water on a stone slab called kyauk pyin, until it becomes a yellow paste. The yellow paste, thanaka, is kept in a small container for daily use.\n\nIn recent times, Myanmar has seen the proliferation of foreign cosmetic brands in the country, specifically in urban areas. Despite this, thanaka is still used by many and promoted by concerned associations, as it represents Myanmar culture. Although people in the countryside faithfully use thanaka, the collective perception of people about it as a cultural component of ideal beauty should not be missed in understanding the intangible heritage of Myanmar.\n\nPhoto 1 : Mother and son with thanakha ⓒ Pisi (U2 Photo Studio) photography\nPhoto 2 : Lady with thanakha at a five-day market in Hsi Hseng , Shan State ⓒ Mg Chit Pan (Taunggyi) photography\nPhoto 3 : Little boy with thanakha applied ⓒ Sai Moon (tgi) photographyYear2018NationMyanmar
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Foods, Roots, and Routes: Gendering Memory in the Age of DisplacementDiscourse about intangible cultural heritage is anchored on the question of memory, which has become a topic of great interest today not only within academia but also in popular culture. America’s newfound taste for cupcakes and macaroni and cheese, for instance, is not so much about society’s gastronomic craving for these foods, as it is about society’s craving for history and the comfort of things past. In essence, it is about restorative nostalgia and the memories that these foods evoke and make possible through the imaginary. Our preoccupation with memory and remembering, in large part, is driven by our recognition of the fragility of memory, a fragility that is underscored by this age of mass displacement in which we live. As the Iranian American writer Roya Hakakian notes in her recent memoir, “When you have been a refugee, abandoned all your loves and belongings, your memories become your belongings.” In a world where over 80 million people are currently forcibly displaced, amounting to one person being forcibly dislodged from his or her home and lifeways approximately every two seconds, dislocation, uprooting, and rupture are as much a facet of our lived experience as are connectivity and interdependence. Exilic condition is an unfortunate but undeniable feature of modernity.\nEven within living memory, Asia has had her share of tumultuous histories. Colonization, conflict, war, and other calamities have engendered mass dispersal. Over 2 million Vietnamese, Cambodians and Laotians fled their homelands in the aftermath of war, revolution and genocide, and many more Southeast Asians continue to be displaced in varied contexts and conditions as we speak. The genocide in Cambodia left deep wounds and ravaging effects on the cultural memories of the nation that is now bifurcated between Asia and the diaspora. Even without the trauma of war and mass atrocities, globalization, modernization, and urbanization have progressively divested traditional knowledge of its merits, and peripheralized certain memories into oblivion.Year2021NationSouth Korea
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Revitalizing the ICH of a Million Village Goddesses in IndiaVisually imposing sites often catch the imagination of the public. But there is often more than the monumental that informs local’s and visitor’s experiences. Few realize the importance of local civic spaces that demonstrate community benefits from safeguarding heritage in all its manifestations. Engagement with the local primary stakeholders and their spaces reveals deep knowledge for pilgrimage, tourism, education, and recreation. Safeguarding intangible cultural heritage (ICH) requires benefit analysis and integrated local area planning through a bottom up praxis for sustainability.\n\nA promising development in Amaravathi Heritage Town, Andhra Pradesh, birthplace of Mahayana Buddhism, is a major program for safeguarding its tangible and intangible heritage. Known to the outside world for its famous Amaravathi School of Buddhist Art, recent systematic cultural mapping revealed 2,900-year layers of history and a rich inventory of intangible heritage. Significant is the first Government Order for safeguarding the Balusulamma Thalli Gudi or temple. Its archaeological and historical importance is amplified through the collective memories and living heritage of Balusulamma as the village patron goddess of the ancient Dharanikota.\n\nTwo hundred years ago, local king Raja Vasi Reddy Venkatadri Naidu used to dismount his elephant on returning home from other villages and make offerings to Balusulamma. Last month, his direct descendants on an annual pilgrimage visited the place during the harvest festival and conducted vermillion or Kumkuma Puja for Balusulamma. They are now sponsoring an onsite educational room built strictly according to traditional architecture and in partnership with the Amaravathi Heritage Centre and Museum.\n\nThe priest or pujari, potter Sambayya, is reviving famous Dharanikota pottery traditions. Scaled drawings of the cultural space were prepared by the School of Planning and Architecture, Vijayawada. Local farmers are assisting with documentation and the use of the cultural space for revitalizing the diversity of intangible heritage. The landscape has been carefully fenced. Five solar lamps, a water tank, and boring pump have been installed. A gateway has been constructed and landscaping is preventing soil erosion.\n\nThe rachhabanda or traditional meeting place under the large 200-year-old Banyan tree has been renovated with smooth granite. It is being used by the local village administration, school groups, and families. Everyone loves the ambience of the place, irrespective of caste, faith, age, and other cultural affiliation. The access road to the temple, along with drainage, has been completed. Festivities that have revived the intangible heritage of the place are once again bringing back people from the surrounding twenty-three villages. The Village Vathavaranam or village ambience is revitalized. It is a concept that is rarely addressed in critical heritage discourse.\n\nBalusulamma Thalli Gudi is an illustration of locating culture in development in safeguarding intangible heritage through integrated local area planning. There are about 14,000 villages in the state and an estimated 100,000 shrines to a high number of village goddesses across its thirteen districts—perhaps a million of heritage-rich sites in India. They are the bedrock of Andhra and Telugu culture and Indian heritage. They provide the essence of what it is to experience village atmosphere in the face of rapid urbanization and globalization.\n\nBalusulamma signifies culture as an essential component of human development as it is a source of identity, innovation, and creativity for the village life in India. UNESCO emphasizes that many people, especially the poor, depend directly on ecosystems for their livelihood, and, in effect, their economic, social, and physical well-being, including nonetheless their cultural heritage. Balusulamma Gudi is also a good representative example of the UNESCO 2011 Recommendation on Historic Cultural Landscapes and the 2003 Convention on Safeguarding Intangible Heritage. The value and role of community cultural reclamation and responsible tourism through safeguarding and promotion of heritage landscapes is better understood in Amaravathi Heritage Town.\n\nPhoto : Local folk theater revitalized © Amareswar GallaYear2018NationIndia
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The Many Faces of Ramayana through the Lens of Benoy K. BehlBenoy K. Behl is described as one of the great art historians of India by various media platforms. He has a record of taking more than 35, 000 photographs and producing more than 100 documentaries. It is possible to draw forth a comprehensive visual imagery of Buddhist art in India and other parts of Asia through his outputs over the years; a subject that is beautifully explored in his work.\n\nWith the support of the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, Benoy K. Behl has created another landmark project: a documentary on Ramayana as staged in India and beyond. Entitled Ramayana: The Great Epic of South and Southeast Asia, Behl’s most recent documentary had its world premiere at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, California on 3 December 2016.1. The documentary is generally a montage that presents Ramayana performances from nine countries such as Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. It decisively attests to the claim that there was indeed a close historical cultural contact between Hindu India and Asia; this is among other things crucial to say about the documentary.\n\nAs current discourse on contemporary cultural production tends to emphasize the importance of transnational and diasporic tendencies, it should be noted that Behl’s documentary reflects previous studies on Ramayana, specifically the account of it being seriously regarded outside India. For example, Santosh N. Desai, in the essay Ramayana—An Instrument of Historical Contact and Cultural Transmission between India and Asia2., provides a useful cartography about how Ramayana travelled from North and Northwest Asia to Southeast Asia. In addition, Desai states some important details about how Ramayana was recreated into a text once taken from its geographic and anthropological origins, deviating from the Valmiki original version.\n\nBehl’s documentary on Ramayana gives a capacious effort to bridge the cultural gap between understanding Ramayana as a literary text and appropriating it as a performance text. It speaks of how literature can be a medium of exchange, surviving ancient stories which in some ways have shaped taste and perception across lands and generations. More importantly, it captures the evolution of an old and transcendental text as it is staged and performed in many Asian countries. As each country featured in the documentary showcases an appropriation of Ramayana different from the rest in terms of theatrical elements, Behl’s documentary shows that performing arts can be a vehicle to share cultural differences.\n\nDocumenting the movement of a text that has always been a part of tradition—from how it was once told to how it is received in the present—is itself an act of preservation. It immortalizes the journey of inheritance and reinforces the ways in which individuals appreciate their cultural roots.\n\nPhoto : The Battle at Lanka, Ramayana © SahibdinYear2017NationIndia
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Wall of the Lord: Famed Pilgrimage Temple Branches into ICH PromotionNathdwara is a famed Vaishnavite pilgrimage site in the Aravalli Hills, fifty kilometers northeast of Udaipur, Rajasthan. Hundreds of thousands of devotees annually visit its central Shrinathji Temple to worship a fourteenth century icon of Shrinathji, a beloved child incarnation of Lord Krishna.\n\nBesides Shrinathji’s sanctum, Nathdwara was also widely known for its unique regional arts—the worship-related pichwai paintings that depict Krishna’s life stories for the unlettered and the reverential semiclassical haveli sangeet music that was sung and played directly to Krishna. The area was also famous for delightful terracotta sculptures that portray sacred images from the countryside and touching scenes of village life.\n\nIn recent years, however, haveli sangeet has lost its following, and few young musicians try to learn its demanding dhrupad-based songs. Similarly pichwai painting and local terracotta arts have fallen on hard times. While there is still a bit of tourist interest in these ancient traditions, the impact of western fashion, mass advertising, and globalized culture have driven both out of vogue domestically.\n\nMost of India’s religious institutions confine their efforts to purely spiritual endeavors, but given Shrinathji’s long intimate relations with the town’s cultural life, the temple took notice of its artists’ plight. The Nathdwara Temple Board, Shrinathji’s managing trust, and trustee Sri Vishal Bava suggested providing some kind of innovative platform for artists to showcase their paintings and crafts on the crowded streets outside the temple.\n\nSri Dinesh Kothari, Nathdwara Temple Board CEO, took this concept and designed a project called Wall of the Lord that used a broad empty stretch on the temple’s own outer wall as a public gallery. Approximately 140 pichwai painters have now completed 63 masterful paintings on this 180 meter expanse, in styles ranging from traditional and devotional to expressively modern. Three exquisite large terracotta murals have also been installed there, and together, these exhibits not only beautify the temple but also offer dramatic visibility, hopefully renewing market demand for struggling local ICH artists.\n\nLaunched on 26 January 2017, the novel Wall of the Lord initiative has already started attracting its own audience as a must-see site of the Nathdwara pilgrimage that reminds visiting devotees of the splendor of their heritage and the inseparable nature of creativity and the divine.\n\nPhoto : Nathdwara painters adorning the temple wall © Lokesh PaliwalYear2017NationIndia
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Intangible Aspects on Vernacular Architecture Between Joglo Pencu Kudus (Java Traditional House) and Hanok (Korean Traditional House): Comparative Study about Philosophies and Local Insights of Traditional HousesThis research discussed the intangible aspect such as philosophy and local insight that lies in the traditional house of Joglo Pencu Kudus from Indonesia and Hanok from Korea. Based on the result of research found that both traditional houses have the philosophy to respect nature and can adapt to the environment around them. Hanok can adapt to two extreme seasons (harsh winter and humid-hot summer) while Joglo Pencu Kudus can adapt to two seasons (rainy and dry). \nMoreover, the materials used in both traditional houses are natural and originate from the environment. Some constructions support sustainable development and it can be developed or combined further with the recent necessity. Some of its constructions can deal with the earthquake and heavy storm. Even some local insights can be applied directly such as natural waterproof from Hanok and natural substance for the preservation of wooden houses from Joglo Pencu Kudus.Year2019NationIndonesia