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The Depository documents 9 techniques in Dominican Republic; by risk level: 2 critically endangered, 4 vulnerable, 2 stable, 1 thriving. Each record opens with a public summary; the full research record is free to view once registered.
The hand-mining and lapidary working of larimar, a rare blue pectolite found nowhere else on Earth outside the Los Chupaderos deposit in the Bahoruco mountains near Barahona, in the southern Dominican Republic.
The hand-mining and lapidary working of amber — fossilized resin from the extinct legume tree Hymenaea protera — from narrow, hazardous vertical shafts across the Cordillera Septentrional (Santiago and Puerto Plata provinces) and secondary…
The hand-crafting of elaborate horned carnival masks — most famously the Diablo Cojuelo (limping devil) of La Vega — built over a clay mold with layered papier-mâché, then sanded, painted, and decorated with mirrors, bells, feathers, and…
The hand-crafting of the vividly colored, feather-crowned costumes and decorated masks worn by Guloya dancer-performers of San Pedro de Macorís, the sole surviving expression of the Cocolo dance-drama tradition — descended from…
Hand-thrown and hand-built utilitarian pottery centered on El Higüerito and the neighboring town of Reparadero, near Moca in Espaillat province — most notably the burén, a flat clay hotplate of direct Taíno origin used to bake casabe…
The hand-modeling and painting of ceramic figurines deliberately left without facial features, created in their present form by Dominican sculptor Liliana Mera Limé in 1981 in the town of Moca, Cibao region.
The etching, carving, and shaping of higüero (calabash, Crescentia cujete) gourds into utilitarian and decorative objects, a craft with direct Taíno origin — the same gourd historically supplied the shells for maracas and güiro scrapers,…
The cultivation, curing, fermentation, and hand-rolling of premium cigars centered on Santiago de los Caballeros and the neighboring Cibao Valley and Esperanza growing region of the Dominican Republic — today the world's single largest…
The making of the congos — double-headed drums played with the hands — central to the ceremonial practice of the Cofradía del Espíritu Santo de los Congos de Villa Mella, an Afro-Dominican religious brotherhood founded by African and…