ALL
metal craft
ICH Elements 14
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Traditional Blacksmith
Blacksmithing includes a variety of techniques, including casting, welding, copper embossing, thread inlay, steel engraving, and double-engraved silver. Blacksmithing is inseparable from nomadic pastoral cultures, and is one of the wonders created by the nomadic pastoralists of Mongolia. The steel hearth, fire tongs, and other household tools are made by blacksmiths. Since ancient times, Mongolian artisans have made weapons and other army equipment, as well as tools and instruments, in a communal manner, meaning that blacksmithing workshops are found in many different sites in Mongolia. There are famous designs and schools of blacksmithing, such as Dariganga, Noyon Sevrei and Archuul, and although the artisan creates his work according to customary designs, one can find individual styles in their works. Traditionally, Mongolian artisans transmit their knowledge to the next generation through a master-to-apprentice way. In this method, the master becomes both a parent and teacher for the apprentice.
Mongolia -
The art of steel carving
The traditional technique of steel engraving, perforating, drying and polishing with both hot and cold processions is one of the wonders created by nomadic Mongols. The hearth place of the origin of steel carving is believed was at the Dalaichoinkhor Van khoshuu (smaller territorial unit) of Sain Noyon Khan aimag (province). The Dalaichoinkhor style steel crafts of deities, teapots, incense burners, stirrups, knives, and other accessory of household items are famous for their design and makes.
Mongolia -
MISGARI
Copper working, process of making different stuff with copper.
Tajikistan -
Casting silver bowls
As widely used and greatly respected by the Mongols, cast silver bowls are the most popular items that clearly demonstrate the true skills of Mongol artisans. Each style or make has specific features of craftsmanship by its region. Most popular ones are the Borjigin, Dariganga, Noyon-Sevrei and Batnorov which also variably differ by their design, carvings, ornaments, input and mould.
Mongolia
ICH Materials 107
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Casting silver bowls
As widely used and greatly respected by the Mongols, cast silver bowls are the most popular items that clearly demonstrate the true skills of Mongol artisans. Each style or make has specific features of craftsmanship by its region. Most popular ones are the Borjigin, Dariganga, Noyon-Sevrei and Batnorov which also variably differ by their design, carvings, ornaments, input and mould.
Mongolia -
Casting silver bowls
As widely used and greatly respected by the Mongols, cast silver bowls are the most popular items that clearly demonstrate the true skills of Mongol artisans. Each style or make has specific features of craftsmanship by its region. Most popular ones are the Borjigin, Dariganga, Noyon-Sevrei and Batnorov which also variably differ by their design, carvings, ornaments, input and mould.
Mongolia
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Ngar Myoe Pyinzali TaungYoe Maun: Gyi (big gong)
Since the time of Shan Saw-bwas, TaungYoe nationals created and used this big gong. During the reign of Pway- Hla Sawbwa, some TaungYoe nationals were arrested for their action of protecting the gong from the motive of Sawbwa to confiscate it.\nIt was casted with the craft of bronze-casting. The gong was made of alloy of gold, silver and copper weighing 6.5kg of each metal. That gong is collectively owned by two TaungYoe villages of Kyay Twin Gone village and Hsan Thee village. It's a national heritage of TaungYoe nationals and has been preserving for 114 years. That's been still protecting by two brothers in rotation for six months each. It's struck by a knobbed beater on the central dome carrying by two men on the shoulders hanging with a rope on a pole.\n-25 inches of gong in diameter\n-5 inches of central dome in diameter\n-4 inches of knobbed beater in diameter
Myanmar 2014-07-04 -
Tuku-Osan (Traditional Blacksmithing)
In several rural communities of Timor-Leste, Tuku-Osan—meaning “iron striking” or traditional blacksmithing—remains a respected livelihood and cultural craft. Practitioners, often known as tukun-besi (blacksmiths), transform scrap metal into ritual accessories and functional tools using simple, locally made equipment: a small furnace, a bellows typically fashioned from bamboo or wood, hammers, anvils, and chisels.\n\nThis blacksmithing tradition is not just about utility but also ceremony. Items created include decorative arm rings (li’uli’u), ritual knives, and symbolic metal accessories worn during important events like weddings, funerals, and traditional dances. These artifacts often serve as markers of identity, social status, or ancestral ties.\n\nApprenticeship usually begins at home, with young boys observing and gradually assisting their fathers or uncles in forging metal. Mastery takes years and involves not only technical skill but knowledge of the symbolic meanings tied to each object. For instance, some blades or tools are believed to possess protective properties or spiritual significance, especially when used during sacred rituals or by lia-nain (custom custodians).\n\nThe process itself requires intense physical labor and patience. The blacksmith begins by heating pieces of iron until they are malleable, then striking them repeatedly on an anvil to shape them. The rhythmic clanging of hammer against metal is accompanied by puffs of smoke from the wood-fired furnace—an image that recalls generations of artisans practicing the same technique.\n\nWhile modern materials and factory tools have reduced the demand for handmade ironwork, many rural communities continue to commission traditional blacksmiths for ceremonial needs. These craftspeople are regarded as keepers of ancestral knowledge, and their work is vital to ensuring that elements of Timorese identity endure in tangible form.
Timor 2024
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ICH Video Production in the Asia-Pacific Region : Central Asia (Living Heritage : Wisdom of Life)
ICH Video Production in the Asia-Pacific Region : Central Asia\n\nRapid urbanization and westernization are changing the environments in which intangible cultural heritage is rooted. The importance of documentation that traces the effect of social changes on intangible cultural heritage is being emphasized as a safeguarding measure. Quality video documentation is an important resource that enables the conservation and transmission of existing intangible cultural heritage and raises its visibility.\n\nVideo documentation is the best medium to record intangible cultural heritage in the most lifelike manner, using the latest technologies. It is also an effective tool for communicating with the public. However, conditions for video production in the Asia-Pacific remain poor, requiring extensive support for quality video documentation.\n\nICHCAP has been working to build the safeguarding capabilities of Member States and raise the visibility of intangible cultural heritage in the Asia-Pacific by supporting the true-to-life documentation of intangible cultural heritage as this heritage is practiced and cooperating with experts, communities, and NGOs in related fields.\n\nSince 2010, ICHCAP has hosted annual Central Asian sub-regional network meetings with Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Mongolia to support the ICH safeguarding activities of Central Asia. Through their collaboration, ICHCAP has supported projects involving collecting ICH information, producing ICH websites, and constructing ICH video archives.\n\nAt the Sixth Central Asia Sub-regional Network Meeting in Jeonju in 2015, ICHCAP, four Central Asian countries, and Mongolia adopted a second three-year cooperation project plan on producing ICH videos to enhance the visibility of ICH in Central Asia.\n\nICHCAP developed guidelines and training programs for the project and invited video and ICH experts from the participating countries, and held a workshop in November 2015. After the workshop, focal points for the project were designated in each country, and each focal point organization formed an expert meeting and a video production team to produce ICH videos.\n\nInterim reports were submitted to ICHCAP in February 2016, and the first preview screening was held in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, during the Seventh Central Asia Sub-regional Network Meeting in May 2016. Since then, each country has carried out the project according to the project plan. ICHCAP met with each country between October 2016 to February 2017 to check on the project progress.\n\nAfter the final preview screening during the Eighth Central Asia Sub-regional Network Meeting in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, in 2017, final editing process took place in each country, and fifty ICH videos were completed by October 2017.\n\nAll photos introduced on this page along with fifty ICH videos are from the exhibition 'Living Heritage: Wisdom of Life' held in the Republic of Kyrgyzstan and the Republic of Korea. Designed for introducing various ICH in the five countries, this exhibition shows photos on representative twenty elements in each country collected during the process of on-site survey and documentation for ICH Video Production Project in Central Asia by experts participated in the ICH video production project.\n\nICHCAP will continue its ICH documentation projects in the Asia-Pacific region for the next ten years by expanding the scope from Central Asia and Mongolia to Southeast Asia, Southwest Asia, and the Pacific.\n\n\nPartners\nMongolian National Commission for UNESCO • National Commission of the Kyrgyz Republic for UNESCO • National Commission of the Republic of Kazakhstan for UNESCO and ISESCO • National Commission of the Republic of Uzbekistan for UNESCO • National Commission of the Republic of Tajikistan for UNESCO • Foundation for the Protection of Natural and Cultural Heritage Mongolia • National Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage under the National Commission of the Republic of Kazakhstan for UNESCO and ISESCO • School of Fine Art and Technical Design named after Abylkhan Kasteyev • State Institute of Arts and Culture of Uzbekistan • Tajik film • Tajikistan Research Institute of Culture Information • Korea Educational Broadcasting System • Asia Culture Center\n\nSupporters\nUNESCO Almaty and Tashkent Cluster Offices • Cultural Heritage Administration • Panasonic Korea • Turkish Airlines
Kyrgyzstan,Kazakhstan,Mongolia,Tajikistan,Uzbekistan 2017 -
2020 ICH NGO Conference : ICH and Resilience in Crisis
On 12 and 13 November 2020, ICHCAP and the ICH NGO Forum virtually held the 2020 ICH NGO Conference entitled “ICH and Resilience in Crisis.” The fifteen participants, including eleven selected presenters from ten countries around the world, discussed various cases and activities of each country applied under the Corona-era, and proposed solidarity for the resilience of ICH for a ‘New Normal.’\n\nSession 1: In the Vortex: COVID-19 Era, Roles of NGOs to Safeguard ICH\n\nSpecial Lecture 1: 'Resilience System Analysis' by Roberto Martinez Yllescas, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Mexico\n1. 'Uncovering the veil of immaterial cultural heritage towards and autonomous management of well-being as well as cultural and territorial preservation' by Carolina Bermúdez, Fundación Etnollano\n2. 'Holistic Development Model of Community-Based Intangible Cultural Heritage of Yuen Long District in Hong Kong of China' by Kai-kwong Choi, Life Encouraging Fund \n3. 'Indigenous Knowledge System as a vector in combating COVID-19' by Allington Ndlovu, Amagugu International Heritage Centre\n4. 'Enlivening Dyeing Tradition and ICH: The initiative of ARHI in North East of India' by Dibya Jyoti Borah, President, ARHI\n\nSession 2: Homo Ludens vs. Home Ludens: Changed Features COVID-19 Brought\n\n1. 'The Popular Reaction to COVID-19 from the Intangible Cultural Heritage among Member Cities of the ICCN' by Julio Nacher, ICCN Secretariat, Algemesi, Spain\n2. 'Innovation for Arts and Cultural Education Amid a Pandemic' by Jeff M. Poulin, Creative Generation\n3. 'Promoting Heritage Education through Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Kalasha Valleys of Pakistan' by Ghiasuddin Pir & Meeza Ubaid, THAAP\n4. 'Shifting to Online Activities: Digital Divide among the NGOs and ICH Communities in Korea' by Hanhee Hahm CICS\n\nSession 3: Consilience: Prototype vs. Archetype for Educational Source\n\nSpecial Lecture 2: 'Geographical imbalance: the challenge of getting a more balanced representation of accredited non-governmental organizations under the 2003 Convention' by Matti Hakamäki, Finnish Folk Music Institute\n1. 'Crafting a Post Covid-19 World: Building Greater Resilience in the Crafts Sector through Strengthening Ties with its Community’s Cultural System' by Joseph Lo, World Crafts Council International\n2. 'Arts and Influence: Untangling Corporate Engagement in the Cultural Sector' by Nicholas Pozek, Asian Legal Programs, Columbia University\n3. 'ICH in the South-Western Alps: Empowering Communities through Youth Education on Nature and Cultural Practices' by Alessio Re & Giulia Avanza, Santagata Foundation for the Economy of Culture\n\n
South Korea 2020
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ICH Courier Vol. 53 Food Storage for Tomorrow’s Well-being
Thanks to food storage technology transmitted as a form of traditional knowledge, we can maintain healthy lives. Traditional knowledge of preserving food for a long time allows people to continue their lives even in harsh environments where food is scarce. Intangible cultural heritage as food storage technology has kept the food with the best taste. Let’s take a look at related stories of India, the Republic of Korea, Vietnam, and Kyrgyzstan together.
South Korea 2022 -
Information&Networking for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage
South Korea 2009
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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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Urushi Lacquer in Japan: Restoration of Cultural Properties and the Current State of Urushi ProductionAt present, there are 23 nationally designated urushi lacquerware production sites4) in Japan. Most of these regions are known for making everyday household items such as dishware. Urushi production sites exist all across the country, and have developed region-specific techniques that are adapted to the local environment and lifestyles. These techniques have been passed down by artisans.\nOn the other hand, urushi is also used in many traditional buildings. The urushi production sites involved in architectural applications are not limited to the abovementioned 23 areas. In recent years, there have been many instances of urushi reapplication during repair and restoration of buildings that are over 100 years old and nationally recognized as important cultural properties. This paper will summarize the current state of urushi application in repairing important cultural properties, and offer context to the issues raised in Japan’s domestic lacquer industry and supporting systems of production.Year2021NationJapan