Inscribed in 2008 (3.COM) on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (originally proclaimed in 2005) The annual Gangneung Danoje Festival takes place in the town of Gangneung and its surroundings, situated east of the Taebaek Mountain Range on the Korean peninsula.The festival includes a shamanistic ritual on the Daegwallyeong Ridge, which pays tribute to the mountain deity and male and female tutelary deities. It encompasses traditional music and Odokddegi folk songs, the Gwanno mask drama, oral narrative poetry, and various popular pastimes. The Nanjang market, Korea’s largest outdoor marketplace, is today a major element of the festival, where local products and handicrafts are sold and contests, games and circus performances take place. The four-week long festival begins with the brewing of a sacred liquor and the Dano shamanistic rituals, in which a central role is played by a sacred tree, the sinmok, and the hwagae, a ritual object made of feathers, bells and bamboo wood. One of the specific features of the festival is the coexistence of Confucian, shamanistic and Buddhist rituals. Through the rituals devoted to the deities, the region is believed to remain unaffected by natural disasters, allowing all its residents to live in peace and prosperity. Every year, a large number of visitors attend the various ritual performances and actively participate in events such as making Danoje festival fans, brewing the sacred liquor, drawing masks for the Gwanno Mask Drama, preparing and eating Surichiwi rice crackers and washing their hair in Iris water. The Gangneung Danoje Festival enjoys immense popularity. However, cultural standardization and increased media coverage over the years have resulted in the loss of some traditional elements of the festival. In the traditional context of the festival, one of the functions has been to transcend social differences by allowing people of all social classes to participate.

South Korea 2008

Lullaby is a unique and independent form of traditional folk song, which reflects the traditional knowledge and wisdom for bringing up the children, relationship between mother and child, and various practices and manners of Mongols. Lullaby is a song with specific meanings and independent melody, poetic system as well as character and description dedicated for calming and pacifying the baby. Its lyrics encompass meaning of convincing and fondling the baby and detailing his/her lineage. The tradition of Lullaby has transmitted in 2 different names as “Song of Cradle” and “Cradle-Song” or Lullaby. The Lullaby does not have a specific narratives, it is more dedicated melodies that lull a child for calm down. There are various different lullaby are sung by mothers depending on their emotion, instinct, range of throat and way of singing.

The Urtiin duu or “long song” is one of the two major forms of Mongolian songs, the other being the short song” (bogino duu). The Urtiin duu is a lyrical chant, which is characterized by an abundance of ornamentation, falsetto, an extremely wide vocal range and a free compositional form. The rising melody is slow and steady while the falling melody is often intercepted with a lively rhythm. Performances and compositions of Urtiin duu are closely linked to the pastoral way of life of the Mongolian nomads on their ancestral grasslands.

China,Mongolia 2008

Trống quân singing (i.e. folk singing with drums) usually takes place on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month every year. This kind of folk singing is sung not only for entertainment, love exchange during the leisure time of agricultural seasons, but also for prediction of the weather for the upcoming work by watching the moon and stars. Trống quân singing of Liêm Thuận commune has its own characteristics of the people living in lowland fields. Due to their life attached to water, they need to communicate on the water. As a result, water culture is created and Trống quân singing is taken to perform on boats and becomes a cultural beauty of this land