Dory
The hand-carving, from a single massive hardwood trunk, of the dory — a dugout boat whose name derives from the West African word duri and which is technically distinguished from the plain hollowed-log canoes of earlier Indigenous tradition by its shaped bow and stern — built by Creole and Garifuna craftsmen alike and central enough to Garifuna identity that the annual Garifuna Settlement Day holiday is anchored by a reenactment of the community's 1802 arrival in Belize by dory.
Risk level: Endangered · Dory/canoe-building is explicitly named as one of the traditional knowledge domains preserved within Garifuna song traditions in UNESCO's own inscription text for 'Language, Dance and Music of the Garifuna' (proclaimed 2001, inscribed 2008, covering Belize, Honduras, and Nicaragua), though the craft itself is not separately inscribed. Belize is not listed as a State Party to the UNESCO 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in generally available current reference sources.
The carving of soft black slate into relief images of Maya deities, rulers, and ceremonial scenes, revived from a lost ancient practice by five sisters — the Garcia Sisters — of the Yucatec Maya village of San Antonio, Cayo District, after…
The weaving of slender, thorny titai vine — harvested from swampy and water-adjacent forest areas in rural communities of Cayo and Corozal districts — into baskets, hampers, fruit bowls, lampshades, bassinettes, coasters, and furniture.
Hand- and workshop-built solid wooden furniture — dressers, cupboards, beds, tables, doors, shutters, and cribs — produced by Old Colony and Old Order Mennonite communities in Belize, most prominently the more traditional colonies of…
The construction of the pink-painted wire-mesh masks and elaborate crepe-paper crowns worn by Wanaragua (Jankunu) dancers during Garifuna Christmas and New Year celebrations, centered on Dangriga, Belize's Garifuna cultural capital.
A coiled basket-weaving technique of the Maya of Toledo District, southern Belize, using unspun fiber from the jippi jappa palm (Sabal mexicana), in which roughly eight plants' worth of prepared fiber is boiled to prevent fungal…
The hand-carving of solid-wood Garifuna drums — hollowed without joins or glue from single hardwood logs, traditionally started by burning coals directly into the trunk, then chiseled, planed, and fitted with a deer-, peccary-, or…
An ancestral Aymara boat-building technique from Suriqui Island, Lake Titicaca, in which bundles of totora reed are shaped by hand and foot into Viking-canoe-silhouetted vessels without nails, adhesive, or powered tools — reeds alone,…
The Kora-Kora is the traditional multi-oared war and ceremonial canoe of the Maluku (Moluccas) archipelago — historically the primary naval vessel of the Maluku Sultanates and the instrument of the spice trade wars that shaped global…
The harvesting, drying, and hand-bundling of totora reed (Schoenoplectus californicus subsp.
The Greek caique (καΐκι) boat building tradition — the production of the distinctive Greek wooden fishing and cargo boats whose specific double-ended hull form has sailed the Aegean and Mediterranean for over 3,000 years.
The hand-construction of traditional wooden dhows -- collectively called boom -- by the Al-Qallaf family and other shipwrights recognized by this hereditary craft surname (qallaleef), sustained today at the workshop of Diwaniyat…
The hand-construction of dhows, traditional Arabian sailing vessels, at Khor Al Batah, a natural harbor in Sur, one of the most historic boatbuilding centers in Arabia, where ships have been built or moored for more than 500 years.