The Cultural Heritage Administration submitted nominations of the “Uigwe, Records of Royal Protocols in the Court of Joseon Dynasty” and the “Tripitaka Koreana and Miscellaneous Buddhist Scriptures in Haeinsa Temple” for the UNESCO Memory of the World Register through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade on the 30^th. The two documentary heritages were selected through expert advisory meetings and deliberation by the Cultural Heritage Committee, from 14 proposals that had been recommended for nomination to the Memory of the World Register.

 

The Uigwe refers to the collection of documents that record and prescribe in prose and illustration all the procedures, protocols, formalities and requirements needed to conduct important ceremonies, events, rites and rituals performed by and for the royal family of the Joseon Dynasty of Korea. The Uigwe is presently in the custody of two different institutes in Korea: 2,940 volumes of 546 types at Kyujanggak Institute for Korean Studies, Seoul National University and 490 volumes of 287 types at Jangseogak, the Academy of Korean Studies. Some Uigwes are in foreign countries including France and Japan. The Seoul Government is negotiating with Paris and Tokyo on listing Uigwes in those countries in the Nominations.

 

Since the Uigwe was supposed to be read by the king, it was elaborately transcribed by the best scribes and exquisitely bound with the best technology of the day. The Uigwe, a compilation of state rituals for over 300 years, is of great significance because it shows how the Joseon Dynasty maintained consistency of and made changes to the Confucian ritual systems in accordance with geopolitical conditions.

 

The Tripitaka Koreana and Miscellaneous Buddhist Scriptures in Haeinsa Temple are invaluable artifacts proving the existence of the now extinct early technique of printing with woodblocks, and historical records revealing to us the social, cultural and ideological trends of Northeast Asia. The Tripitaka Koreana, better known as Palman Daejanggyeong (Eighty-Thousand Tripitaka), is a Korean collection of the Tripitaka (Buddhist scriptures), carved onto more than 87,000 wooden printing blocks between 1237 and 1248 during the Goryeo Dynasty. Its producers compared the contents of all the then existing tripitakas and made thoroughgoing corrections, thereby creating the most perfect collection of Buddhist scriptures possible. As a result, soon after the Tripitaka Koreana was completed, it served as an authoritative source for other Asian countries such as Japan, China and Taiwan creating their own Tripitaka. If the Tripitaka Koreana is listed with the Memory of the World Register, it will be all the more significant because both the documentary heritage (software) and the storage facility (hardware) are recognized as having world heritage values: Janggyeongpanjeon housing the Tripitaka Koreana was registered with the UNESCO World Heritage List in December 1995.

 

Decisions on the registration will be made at the ordinary biennial meeting of International Advisory Committee (IAC) around in June or July in 2007, after the submission period of any missing information and assessment by the Register Sub-committee in the first half of the same year. The UNESCO Director-General will announce the IAC’s final decision in the latter half next year.

 

UNESCO established the “Memory of the World” Program in 1992 in order to facilitate preservation, by the most appropriate techniques, of the world’s documentary heritage and to assist universal access to them. Currently, there are 120 documentary heritages from 59 countries on the Memory of the World Register. As of the Republic of Korea, Hunminjeongeum (Proper Sound to Instruct the People) and Joseonwangjosillok (Annals of the Joseon Dynasty) were registered in 1997, and Seungjeongwon Ilgi (Diaries of the Royal Secretariat) and Jikjisimcheyojeol (Essentials of Zen Buddhism) in 2001.