무형유산 국가목록 작성 및 정보 역량강화를 통한 문화유산 국제협력 - 중앙아시아 및 몽골 지원사업을 중심으로

International Cooperation through the National Inventory-making and the Capacity-building for Information of Intangible Cultural Heritage : Focused on the Joint Projects in Central Asia and Mongolia

The international cooperation of the Republic of Korea in the field of intangible heritage began with the project to promote the Living Human Treasure System, adopted by UNESCO in 1993. In relation to this initiative, Korean government hosted international expert meetings and organized four international training workshops as part of the UNESCO program, while also developing and disseminating guidelines for the project. The full-scale cooperation gained momentum under the framework of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, particularly with the establishment of the UNESCO Category 2 Center (ICHCAP) for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific region. Since 2007, during the planning phase of the center, Korea has supported Asia-Pacific countries in effectively implementing the convention. Mongolia and the Central Asian countries were all once under Soviet influence, and establishing a clear national identity became a critical task for Central Asian nations following their independence. Consequently, Mongolia and the Central Asian countries have actively participated in the implementation of the 2003 Convention, with support from Korea playing a vital role in helping these nations build institutional systems to safeguard intangible cultural heritage. The ICHCAP has supported the establishment of intangible heritage safeguarding systems, drawing from Korea's experience in heritage protection and UNESCO convention guidelines. This support involved creating legal and institutional mechanisms to protect intangible cultural heritage and establishing heritage inventories to allow for ongoing national management. The first such support project focused on Mongolia from 2007 to 2010 to establish the Living Human Treasure System, with subsequent multilateral cooperation projects based on this experience extended to the Central Asian countries. The purpose of this article is to introduce ‘Cooperation Project: the Utilization of Online Tools for the Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage’, which was promoted as a multilateral cooperation project with Central Asian countries from 2010 to 2014 through the inventory-making and ‘Cooperative Project to Raise the Visibility of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Central Asia’ as the project for enhancing the visibility of intangible cultural heritage through the video production, which was promoted with Mongolia and Central Asian countries from 2015 to 2018, and to examine its achievements and tasks.