Park Weonmo / Director of Research and Information, UNESCO ICHCAP (pweonmo@hanmail.net) An international organization expert who has been traveling throughout Asia for the past 20 years to support member countries' intangible heritage protection activities for the implementation of the UNESCO 2003 Convention. He began to take an interest in Korean shamanism while studying at Yonsei University, and as a Japanese Ministry of Education scholarship student at Rikkyo University, he conducted comparative research on folk performing arts of both countries, especially ritual performances including shamanism, through field surveys in various parts of Korea and Japan. After returning to Korea, he was in charge of the documentation project for national intangible heritage (formerly important intangible cultural properties) at the National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage (formerly National Research Institute of Cultural Properties) and carried out the mission of attracting UNESCO Category 2 institutions to Korea at the National Heritage Promotion Agency (formerly Korea Cultural Heritage Foundation). Currently, he is promoting projects to build cooperative networks for the protection of intangible heritage in countries within the region and to strengthen information capabilities at the UNESCO ICHCAP. In addition, he is working as an adjunct professor at the Korea National University of Cultural Heritage, which trains cultural heritage experts, teaching UNESCO policies and intangible heritage studies.
