Morocco · Mask / Carnival / Performance Costume Craft
Boujloud (Moroccan Arabic, 'father of skins'); Bilmawn or Bulmawn (Tamazight); also called Herma or Bu-lbtayen in some regions
The preparation of fresh sheep or goat hides and construction of accompanying masks worn during Boujloud, an Amazigh masquerade performance held in the days following Eid al-Adha across Souss-Massa, the High and Anti-Atlas, and the Rif Mountains. Participants prepare freshly sacrificed animal skins by soaking them in water and salt over four to five days to remove odor and preserve the fur, then don the cured skins whole (often with the head intact as a mask) alongside carved wooden or leather masks, horns, and hoof or leg attachments, embodying a pre-Islamic ritual figure believed to symbolize renewal and communal transformation.
Risk level: Vulnerable · Not inscribed; the tradition has been the subject of contemporary domestic controversy, with some religious authorities characterizing it as inconsistent with Islamic practice, a debate this record notes as documented context without adjudicating
At-Tasfir, the art of Moroccan leather bookbinding, practiced in Fes and combining three distinct component crafts: papermaking, binding the text block, and decorating and covering the finished book with leather.
The carving, skin-covering, and stringing of the guembri, a three-stringed bass lute carved from a single log and covered with tanned camel or goat skin, central to Gnawa spiritual and healing music.
The construction of fortified earthen kasbahs and ksour (walled villages) using pisé — a compacted mixture of local earth, clay, straw, and water, packed layer by layer into wooden formwork and pounded until it hardens like soft stone.
The harvesting and coiled weaving of dried doum palm leaf fiber into baskets, using a distinctive stitched-spiral technique in which the basket takes shape from its center outward, built up in a continuous woven strip mounted in a…
The hand-engraving of decorative and calligraphic designs onto copper, silver, and gold objects, originating in Fez in the late 12th to early 13th century and later spreading to other Moroccan cities, particularly Marrakesh.
The preparation of henna paste from dried, crushed leaves of the Lawsonia inermis shrub and its freehand application in intricate geometric and floral designs onto the hands and feet, a practice rooted in Amazigh culture that accompanies…
The Tyrolean Dirndl embroidery tradition — the making of the decorative embroidery on the Dirndl (the traditional Austrian and Bavarian folk costume blouse and apron) whose specific chain stitch, satin stitch, and eyelet combination…
Peking opera costume making is the specialist theatrical garment tradition serving Jingju (京剧) — China's national opera form inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List in 2010.
Teochew Chinese opera (chao ju) is Singapore's most practiced Chinese opera dialect — performed in Singapore's Teochew community temples and community stages for deity birthdays, festivals, and ritual occasions.
Hun Krabok is the traditional Thai rod puppet — a performance art form using elaborately costumed puppets manipulated by rods from below — telling stories from the Ramakien and Thai classical literature.
The Salzburg marionette making tradition of the Salzburger Marionettentheater — the construction and stringing of the specific performance marionettes used by the Salzburg Marionette Theatre (established 1913), whose characteristic…
Hanbok is the traditional Korean garment — a deceptively simple form (jeogori jacket, chima skirt for women; jeogori and baji trousers for men) whose making requires extraordinary precision in cloth preparation, cutting, and assembly to…