Date: 5th September 2020, Saturday
Time: 1930-2100 Indian Standard Time (7:30 – 9:00 PM)
Recording of Session: Audio | Video
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Source: The Korea Times
Yeondeunghoe, the Lotus Lantern Festival, held every year to celebrate Buddha’s Birthday, was listed by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage, Wednesday, becoming Korea’s 21st intangible cultural heritage recognized by UNESCO.
According to the Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA), the lantern festival was included on the list during the 15th session of the Intergovernmental Committee of the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Heritage, the same day. The event was held at UNESCO headquarters in Paris as well as online due to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic.
“It is with great pleasure that the evaluation body highly commends Yeondeunghoe for its function in encouraging dialogue among communities and cultures, which lead sto enhancing the visibility of intangible cultural heritages in general,” Chung Jae-suk, an administrator of the CHA, said.
“I do anticipate that the spirit of dialogue of Yeondeunghoe will be widely shared, offering inspiration in addressing conflicts between countries.”
The Lotus Lantern Festival is held around Buddha’s birthday, which falls on the eighth day of the fourth month on the lunar calendar. The festival, which consists of a Buddhist ceremony, a lantern procession and memorial service, symbolizes lighting up the world to make it an abundant and fair place for everyone.
The history of Yeondeunghoe dates back some 1,200 years, first appearing in the “Samguk Sagi” (History of the Three Kingdoms). In the book, under the reign of the 668-935 Unified Silla Kingdom, King Gyeongmun and Queen Jinseong visited the Hwangnyong Temple to observe lanterns on the occasion of the first full moon of the year in 866 and 890, respectively.
The tradition of lantern lighting continued in the 918―1392 Goryeo Kingdom, when Buddhism flourished. Directions for hosting Yeondeunghoe were included in “Hunyosipjo” (The 10 Injunctions) compiled by Goryeo’s first King Taejo for his successors. In the early Goryeo era, the lantern festival was held to observe the full moon of the first or second month in the lunar calendar and was later moved to the fourth day of the fourth month, to commemorate Buddha’s birthday.
The Lotus Lantern Festivals of Silla and Goryeo were primarily a Buddhist event, but the event became a folk event during the 1392-1910 Joseon Kingdom. As the authorities discontinued the official Buddhist lantern festival, the tradition continued as Gwandeung-nori, or the lantern celebration, in the Joseon era.
In the modern day parade, participants hold lanterns symbolizing Buddha’s wisdom. The shape and size of the lanterns varies, with each design symbolizing different cultural meanings ― a turtle shaped lantern symbolizes longevity, while fruit represents prosperity and fecundity.
Yeondeunghoe was designated as Intangible Cultural Heritage no. 122 in 2012 and the Yeondeunghoe Safeguarding Association is in charge of transmitting and passing down the tradition.
“Yeondeunghoe began as a Buddhist event, but it evolved into a spring festival anyone can participate in. People regardless of faith, age and gender take part in the Lantern Lighting Festival now and such traits correspond to the UNESCO’s guidelines for the Intangible Cultural Heritage list emphasizing community involvement,” an official of the CHA said.
This year’s Yeondeunghoe was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Next year’s event is scheduled from April to May, with the main lantern parade on May 15.
The CHA first nominated Yeondeunghoe for the UNESCO list in 2018 and amended it in 2019. It received a recommendation for inclusion on the list from the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in November.
Other Korean intangible cultural heritages recognized by UNESCO include ssireum (traditional Korean wrestling), Jeju haenyeo (women divers), nongak (community band music), kimjang (the making and sharing of kimchi) and the folk song Arirang as well as Jongmyojerye (royal ancestral rituals in the Jongmyo shrine and its music) and pansori (musical storytelling).
Date: 12th December 2020, Saturday
Time: 1930-2100 Indian Standard Time (7:30 – 9:00 PM)
Recording Link: Click Here
Panellists: Prof Dr Ana Pereira Roders, UNESCO Chair in Heritage and Values, TUDelft, Delft; Prof Rabindra Vasavada, Architect FRAS, Former Head, Centre for Conservation Studies, CRDU CEPT University, Ahmedabad; and Ritika Khanna, Heritage Consultant and Researcher, MA in World Heritage, New Delhi.
Host: Prof Dr Amareswar Galla, Professor of Inclusive Cultural Leadership, Anant National University, Ahmedabad and Executive Director, International Institute for the Inclusive Museum, Australia.
Date: 21st November 2020, Saturday
Time: 1930-2100 Indian Standard Time (7:30 – 9:00 PM)
Recording of Session: Audio | Video
∎ Venue: Vietnam Museum of Ethnology, Hanoi, Vietnam
∎ Primary language: Vietnamese (with English interpretation)
∎ Organizer: Vietnam Museum of Ethnology (VME)
VME was established in 1995 and officially opened to the public since 1997. The museum carries out the mission of scientific research, collecting, inventorying, preserving artifacts, organizing exhibitions, performing and operating educational activities to contribute to the preservation of cultural diversity of ethnic groups in Vietnam, Southeast Asia and around the world.
CONFERENCE PURPOSE
Exhibition is one of the most important aspects of museum’s work, promoting other works. Therefore, exhibitions always require high scientificity, aesthetics and updates with the development level of science and technology in each country. Museum’s exhibitions are a bridge connecting the public and museum artifacts. Without exhibits, a museum is just a storehouse, an archive of systematized collections. The development of ideas and exhibits as well as the renovation of exhibitions play a significant role in museums, especially in the context of modernization and international integration. Therefore, VME plans to organize an international conference on “Innovative Methods of Organizing Exhibitions: Lessons for Vietnam”.
The Conference is a scientific forum aiming at exchanging and updating the concepts, methods and new trends in exhibition work of museums among national and international experts in Vietnam as well as around the world in the direction of modern approaches and international integration. Thereby, it will make an important contribution to improving the Museum’s staff capacity, drawing lessons for Vietnamese museums in general and for the VME in particular to appropriately and effectively apply to the renovation of museums for a future sustainable development.
The Conference focuses on three key themes as follows:
Firstly, approaches in developing exhibitions
(museological/ethnological/anthropological approaches, community-participatory approach, community-based approach, educational exhibitions, artistic/aesthetic value featured exhibitions, exhibitions using 4.0 technology and multimedia, virtual exhibitions, etc.).
Secondly, new trends in organizing exhibitions in the world and in Vietnam.
Thirdly, lessons learnt for the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology.
Click here for the detailed schedule
Date: 5th September 2020, Saturday
Time: 1930-2100 Indian Standard Time (7:30 – 9:00 PM)
Recording of Session: Audio | Video
Date: 22nd August 2020, Saturday
Time: 1930-2100 Indian Standard Time (7:30 – 9:00 PM)
Link to the Recording: Audio | Video
Panellists Day 1:
Keynote Speaker: Prof. Dr. Amareswar Galla, Anant National University, Ahmedabad, India & International Institute for the Inclusive Museum, Australia/USA.
1. Dr. Shubha Chaudhuri, Associate Director General (Academic), Archives and Research Centre for Ethnomusicology, American Institute of Indian Studies, India;
2. Prof. Dr. Sarit Kumar Chaudhuri, Professor and Director, Department of Anthropology, RG University, Arunachal Pradesh;
3. Dr. Subhra Devi, Assistant Curator, Department of Cultural Studies, Tezpur University, Assam; and
4. Dr. Anand Krishnan Plappally, Associate Professor, IIT Jodhpur.
Panellists Day 2:
1. Dr. Sachidanand Joshi, Member Secretary, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi;
2. Dr. B Venugopal, Honorary Director, Centre for Intangible Heritage studies, Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady, Kerala.
3. Dr. Madan Meena, Director, Bhasha Research and Publication Centre, Baroda;
4. Prof K.G. Suresh, Dean, School of Modern Media, UPES, Dehradun;
5. Prof. Ashok Ogra, Advisor (Mass Communication), Apeejay Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi;
6. Mo Diener, Artistic Director, Roma Jam Session art Kollektiv, Switzerland; and
7. Mr. Kuldeep Kothari, Secretary Rupayan Sansthan (Rajasthan Institute of Folklore), Jodhpur
Date: 18th July 2020, Saturday
Time: 1930-2100 Indian Standard Time (7:30 – 9:00 PM)
Webinar Recording: Audio | Video
Panellists: Dr Ida Brændholt Lundgaard, Senior Advisor, Danish Agency for Culture and Palaces, Copenhagen & former Head of Education, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark. Dr Bindu Bhadana, Doctorate from Karl Jaspers Centre for Advanced Transcultural Studies, University of Heidelberg & Professor, Anant National University, Ahmedabad. Dr Anunaya Chaubey, Well known artist, Provost of Anant National University & Salzburg Global Fellow.
Host: Professor Dr Amareswar Galla, Director, International Centre for Inclusive Cultural Leadership, Anant National University, Ahmedabad, Founding Executive Director, International Institute for Inclusive Cultural Leadership, Australia/USA & Salzburg Global Fellow.
Dr. Amareswar Galla (Amar), the then Chairperson of Asia Pacific Executive Board of International Council of Museums interviewed Dr George F MacDonald, the Chief Executive Officer of Museum Victoria, Australia’s largest public museums organisation, on 2 November 2000. The following are abridged reflections of Dr. MacDonald at the opening of the Melbourne Museum, the flagship of Museum Victoria. Transcribed text was approved by Dr MacDonald. Two decades on the museological wisdom in these reflections remains just as valid.
Amar: What does the opening of the Museum Victoria mean to museum development and re-development in Australia and within the museum world in general? What does it mean to George MacDonald CEO who oversaw the foundation of a major national museum in the world, i.e. the Canadian Museum of Civilisation, Ottawa, and now another major museum development on the other side of the world?
George: The thing that did strike me is that dates and events are very important, and they galvanise thinking and create thresholds and so on. I think the opening of Victoria Museum of this magnitude at this point in time as we enter a new millennium certainly struck me as being an opportunity to make a statement – To try and balance things a little differently than had been previously done. The more I thought about it the more I realised that what I was doing in Ottawa was to respond to a generation of visitors, which covered 80 percent of the people who were coming to the museum, raised in the television age from their very earliest memory. That generation were looking at the world through a television screen which is very different than looking at the world as you move around a village or a town or within your own experience frame of reference. Suddenly you were in this bionic electronic world that was being shown to you through a window that was global, and people accelerated their sophistication very rapidly. Now it has been about 50 years that television has been current in North America and in that 50 years people have become very sophisticated in a whole series of things such as how things work and the long sequences of history consistently recapitulated in television series. I thought that’s it, we are doing a project for a whole new generation of people and we won’t re-do it for some time. Read the full interview here.
Read Here: In Memoriam George F MacDonald, 1938-2020
Read Here: The Museum is the Medium ’Remembering Dr. George F MacDonald'(1938–2020)