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| ▲ This photo, provided by the Cultural Heritage Administration, shows harvesting oysters from a tidal flat. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
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| ▲ This photo, provided by the Cultural Heritage Administration, shows shrimps caught in net. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
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| ▲ This photo, provided by the Cultural Heritage Administration, shows a harvester moving around using Ppeolbae. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
SEOUL, Oct. 20 (Yonhap) -- The traditional skills of catching sea creatures such as shells, oysters and small octopuses with bare hands or with tools along the western and southern coasts of the Korean peninsula will be designated as the National Intangible Cultural Heritage.
The Cultural Heritage Administration announced Tuesday that they are planning to enlist “tidal flat harvesting” that encompasses the traditional knowledge and skills, community cultures and rituals for the National Intangible Cultural Heritage.
This is the second fish harvesting skill to be planned to be designated as the National Intangible Cultural Heritage after “Uhsal” (translated). “Uhsal” means the tool and way of let down bamboo lines or stack up stones to collect the fishes that were blocked by these obstacles when the tidal flats’ ocean water slides back to the sea.
“As tidal flat harvesting is being transmitted across the western and southern coastal areas in many villages, no particular individuals or organizations will be recognized as "holders" of this element,” said the administration.
Tidal Flats (called Getbol in Korean) have also been regarded as “sea-fields” as various marine creatures inhabit there, and it is still an important residence place for seaside villages as well. Some parts of tidal flats have been become provincial parks or UNESCO Biosphere Reserves and portions of tidal flats in Seocheon·Gochang·Shian·Boseong·Suncheon were listed as the World Heritage.
“Tidal flat harvesting” slightly differ depending on condition of the tides and currents, geological aspects and qualities. The compositions of the area such as mud, sand or gravels affected the tools and ways of harvesting.
For instance in muddy areas, people used ppeolbaes, little boats to navigate through the muddy land, and in sand areas, they used rakes or tools to scrape the land. In mud flats with various elements mixed, farming equipments such as hoes, spades and pitchforks were used. For gravel areas, harvesters carried metal oyster-shuckers.
As it is hard to trace the origin of tidal flat harvesting from documentaries, various shell mounds ranging from that of the New Stone Age to Iron Age were found indicating that the residents of the Peninsula caught shells from tidal flats long ago as well, according to the Cultural Heritage Administration.
Jeong Yag-jeon, an author from the late Joseon Dynasty, documented in details on his book of fish about the shells and invertebrates found in tidal flats
Folks people passed on their own community rituals related to tidal flat harvesting such as “a rite to call clams” or “a rite to call oysters” in which the villagers wish to be able to harvest a lot of sea creatures and call for clamsoysters as if they were human beings into their tidal flats. These are also called “get je.”
In other regions, there are also “watching ghost lights” (translated) to predict whether there will be enough fish, “Deungbaru game” (translated) in which the villagers play together after collecting oysters and clams and “goblin gosa” (translated) a ritual for fisheries.
“Goblin gosa” (translated) is said to have originated to a fish villagers’ thought that the “pyong pyong” sound of the water flushing out of tidal flats were the sound of goblins walking. The villagers thought that goblins were taking care of the fishes in tidal flats, so they offered a mix of buckwheat or buckwheat jellies that the Goblins are said to like.
Tidal flat harvesting is still an important activity and the villagers set species that shouldn’t be collected and let go of cubs to protect the land and creatures.
“The tidal flat harvesting carries traditional values regarding nature as something humans have to coexist with and interact with not a place where humans can take away thing from,” explained an official of the Cultural Heritage Administration.
In that the harvesting “possesses a time-honored history with many active transmission communities over an extensive area” and its “diverse skills and techniques manifested in tidal flat harvesting hold great potential for academic research,” the administration think it is worthy of becoming an official national heritage, according to their press material. Also, they marked high that records related to tidal flat organisms could be found in documents and that rituals and plays are continually done.
“The notice on the planned listing of tidal flat harvesting will be posted for 30 days, during which opinions from the public will be collected to inform the final decision on the designation of this new element as National Intangible Cultural Heritage,” announced the administration.
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