Türkiye · Wood craft; Architectural woodcarving; Ottoman heritage
Safranbolu Ahşap İşçiliği — Osmanlı Miras Şehri Geleneği
The Safranbolu woodcarving tradition — the production of the distinctive Ottoman domestic architectural carved woodwork (ceiling panels, doors, window screens, corbels) in the UNESCO World Heritage Ottoman town of Safranbolu, whose specific combination of walnut, chestnut, and pine and the characteristic Ottoman geometric and floral relief vocabulary creates the most complete surviving Ottoman domestic interior woodcarving tradition. The Safranbolu ahşap işçisi reads the correct wood readiness through a chisel-and-listen assessment calibrated to the Black Sea region walnut and chestnut.
Risk level: Vulnerable · Not listed; Safranbolu woodcarving within the UNESCO WH site context 1994
The illumination of manuscripts, calligraphic panels and documents with gold and color.
The Turkish leather craft tradition centered in the Istanbul Kapalıçarşı (Grand Bazaar) — the production of the distinctive Ottoman natural-dyed leather goods (slippers, bags, book covers, belts) whose specific vegetable tanning and…
The Turkish Karagöz shadow puppet theater tradition — the Ottoman source tradition from which the Greek Karagiozis (CRAFT-1554) was adapted; the making of the flat jointed leather tasvir (figures) and the hayalci performance tradition that…
The Turkish hat sanatı (calligraphy art) tradition — the Ottoman Islamic calligraphy tradition using the specific reed pen (kamış kalem) cut to the hattat's personal specifications, writing in the six classical scripts (sülüs, nesih,…
The Gaziantep coppersmithing tradition — the production of the distinctive Southern Turkish hammered copper objects (trays, pots, ewers, and decorative objects) in the historic bakır çarşısı (copper market) of Gaziantep, whose specific…
The Bursa silk weaving tradition — the production of the imperial Ottoman luxury textiles (kemha, seraser, çatma) in the Ottoman silk capital of Bursa, whose specific combination of silk, gold thread, and complex compound weave structures…
The roof shisa (屋根獅子) is the guardian lion modeled in lime plaster directly on the red-tile roofs of Okinawan houses by the tile roofers who laid them.
The production of Berchtesgadener Ware — the traditional craft objects (Schachteln — round bent-wood boxes, and turned wooden bowls, toy figures, and decorative objects) produced by the craftspeople of the Berchtesgadener Land since the…
The hand-carving of unpainted linden-wood figures and moving toys in the village of Bogorodskoye, near Moscow, in which counterbalances, hidden springs, strings, and simple mechanical devices set carved figures into motion — most famously…
The wood carving tradition of Oberammergau — the Bavarian Alpine village world-famous for its Passion Play (Passionsspiele), where the entire village community has performed the life of Christ every ten years since 1634 as a plague vow.
Kyō-Busshi (京仏師) is the Buddhist sculptural tradition of Kyoto — producing wooden Buddha images in two historic construction methods: ichiboku-zukuri (一木造 — single-block carving, dominant in early period) and yosegi-zukuri (寄木造 —…
A portable wooden shrine with folding painted doors, made by the Jangid carpenters (suthars) of Bassi, Chittorgarh district, Rajasthan, and carried by Kavadiya Bhat storytellers of Marwar.