Major Traditional Archery Festival in Korea, May 2007

Bill Metcalfe · Post by **Bill Metcalfe** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 3:48 pm

Thanks for the post about busses it will be very helpful in the planning. Bill

jack farrell · Post by **jack farrell** » Sat Feb 10, 2007 6:20 pm

What is the format of this Festival? Is it a horseback competition, a demonstration type event? And how would the Koreans like to use our archery gifts? to shoot, to display, as prototypes? -j-

Thomas Duvernay · Post by **Thomas Duvernay** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 12:56 pm

Jack,

There will be exhibitions (both display and demonstration) during most of the festival, plus there will be a major seminar/discussion on May 14th; Col. Kim is still busy arranging the presentation schedule.

Exactly how the archery gifts will be used, I am not sure, but most likely for study and display, from what I understand.

T

Thomas Duvernay · Post by **Thomas Duvernay** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 1:01 am

I have uploaded three registration forms for the festival:

http://www.koreanarchery.org/AppFormA.doc Full Support

http://www.koreanarchery.org/AppFormB.doc Self Support

http://www.koreanarchery.org/AppFormC.doc Companion registration

It is important to fill out one of them and return it right away, as the organizing committee needs to finalize their attendees' list.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

T

Andrzej Abratowski · Post by **Andrzej Abratowski** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 10:04 am

hello
One question for start, what does "long knives" mean, how is max long?
The Polish national dress withaut the sabre look like incomplete

Andrzej

Stephen Selby · Post by **Stephen Selby** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 2:11 am

No swords or sabres

Nothing bigger than a pen-knife.

S

Thomas Duvernay · Post by **Thomas Duvernay** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 11:51 pm

Hi Folks! I just got back from a meeting of the festival organizing committee late last night. I have info to give about the festival and will be getting it sorted and put together sometime today. I just wanted to let everyone know that things are moving right along. More soon!

Thomas

jiao · Post by **jiao** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 9:46 am

I hope i and see more picture or movie about it

Thomas Duvernay · Post by **Thomas Duvernay** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 10:17 am

Jiao,

There will certainly be plenty of pictures and I believe there are plans for videotaping much of the festivities, etc.

T

Thomas Duvernay · Post by **Thomas Duvernay** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 11:22 am

A more detailed translation of festival activities is underway, but I'll translate a few things discussed at our meeting yesterday.

The first day (May 12) will pretty much be for getting everyone settled into the country and festival area. As far as guests, there are about ninety people coming from twenty-two different countries. As they enter the country, people will be at the airport to greet them and take them to where they need to be. Until 6:00 p.m., the concentration of efforts will be to making sure people entering the country are taken care of.

After 6:00 p.m., there will be dinner time, an orientation and a demonstration of international traditional bow making (I'll get more details on this later) until 10:00 p.m. After that will be a break for the evening.

The next day (May 13) will begin with breakfast and then heading to the stadium where archery activities will take place (around 9:00 a.m.). From 9:30-12:00 will be the opening ceremony and demonstration (I believe it will be a combination of different martial arts, folk performances and traditional weaponry of Korea, including such things as the rocket arrow cart). That will be followed by a group of Korean traditional archers giving a demonstration. During that same time period (12:00-12:30) there will be a drawing for prizes.

From 12:30-4:00 p.m., international archers will be demonstrating their skills. From 4:10-5:10, there will be a friendly international combined shoot. The details are still being worked out, but there will be different sized targets at various distances (probably 30m, 60m, 90m, 120m). From 5:10-5:30 will be a second drawing for prizes. Also, at this time, until about 6:30 p.m., attendees will travel from the stadium to the National Youth Center (http://www.nyc.or.kr), where our symposium will be held and also where attendees will be staying. Also, we will visit the Institute for Traditional Korean Culture Studies, where there will be a welcoming ceremony for everyone that will last until about 9:30 p.m. After that, there will be some various activities and time for people to spend time together and also get some rest.

The next day (May 14), will be a busy one, for sure. After breakfast (~9:00 a.m.), until 4:00 p.m., there will be an international friendly shoot at a Korean archery club (Cheonan Jung). At the same time (but going on until 5:30 p.m.), the first session of presentations and discussions will be held (more info on those to follow). The second session will be held from 7:30 p.m. until 9:30 p.m. Also, from 7:20-9:30 p.m., there will be a farewell campfire at the National Youth Center (Outside, of course

). Things will conclude after all that is done.

The next day will mainly be for sending people off, although there will also be a trip to a local museum available for those who are interested.

Please remember that my descriptions above are not complete, but just to give you an idea as to what will be happening. It will be a very busy event for sure!

Now for the sessions:

Session 1--

I will be chairing the morning presentation; Col. Ki-hoon Kim will chair the first afternoon session; Prof. Jin-hee Choi (former KMA prof) will chair the second afternoon session.

In the morning, the first presentation will be by Hilary Greenland (Traditional archery and bowmaking in Europe); the second presentation will be by Steve Allely (Traditional archery and bowmaking in the USA); the third presentation will be by Roland Bohr (Indigenous archery in North America).

For the first afternoon session, there will be five presentations:

1. Shamanic Archery Practices in Central Asia (Jack Farrell)
2. Traditional Archery and Bowmaking in Bhutan (Tsewang Nidup)
3. Traditional Archery and Bowmaking in China (Xu Kaicai)
4. Traditional Archery in Japan (Sato, Akira)
5. Traditional Archery and Bowmaking in Korea (Jeong, Jinmyong)

This will be followed by a panel discussion

The second afternoon session will have three presentations:

1. Traditional Archery in Inner and Outer Mongolia (Yi Degang)
2. Xibo Minority's Traditional Archery in China (Feng, Hui)
3. Japanese Traditional Archery in North America (Jaap and Kay Koppedrayer)

This will be followed by a panel discussion.

The second (evening) session will be presided over by Stephen Selby, who will also give a keynote address. I don't have an exact list of the speakers, but there will be about six to eight who will come from host and visiting countries.

Everything above comes from my poor translation skills, so any errors are totally mine.

If there are questions, I'll try to answer them.

Thomas

Thomas Duvernay · Post by **Thomas Duvernay** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 12:51 am

Here is a web album I made showing some of the venues:

http://www.koreanarchery.org/2007koreafestival/

Thomas Duvernay · Post by **Thomas Duvernay** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 11:52 pm

In case anyone is interested here are the approximate coordinates for the National Youth Center (for looking on Google Earth or your GPS):

36?47'30.85"N
127?13'33.07"E

Stadium:

36?48'44.81"N
127? 9'46.02"E

I have a couple other coordinates at home; I'll add them later.

T

jiao · Post by **jiao** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 12:08 pm

Thomas Duvernay wrote:Jiao,

There will certainly be plenty of pictures and I believe there are plans for videotaping much of the festivities, etc.

T

the best , the DV show the archer left ,right,back, front, make a slowy movie of differ archary

jack farrell · Post by **jack farrell** » Tue May 15, 2007 1:13 pm

Hail everyone; I am in Soeul, the festival ended today and I can
hardly express how much fun we all had. Met many of the folks who post here, folks from all over the world. The Koreans were truly more hospitable than one could think possible. But of course, the heart of the festival was the shooting. Don't ask me how I did with the Comanche horse bow which I presented to the Koreans. I was drafted to the "USA" team only days before the event, No excuses though.

Shooting at four different ranges was truely difficult. I only had access to a 120 m course for six practice arrows before leaving for Asia. Some others obviously did not have that. It was obvious that many of us are shooting arrows too heavy for our bows. I hope sincerely that I can return with a more perfected set of equipment designed for the difficult course.

We shot four arrows at a 3d deer target at 20m, four at a Japanese three-ring target at 60m, four at the Mongolian hide spools on the ground at 75 m, and five arrows at the modified (soft) Korean target at 120 m, seventeen arrows total.

The results are something like this, others can clarify the details;

A Korean from California placed first, A Hungarian placed second in the play-off and the current champion of the Mongolian Nadam placed third.

Everyone who brought a bow to trade got a Korean bow, arrows and case in exchange. Will get back later as things begin to settle.Jack.

Thomas Duvernay · Post by **Thomas Duvernay** » Tue May 15, 2007 10:49 pm

As Jack said, the festival is now concluded. It was really nice meeting people who for years I only knew through Internet. Here is a short summary I wrote up:

Well, the festival here in Korea has concluded and I would call it a success. As with any event--especially one of this size and being the first one ever--there were glitches here and there, but nothing major.
There were people from about twenty-two different countries, representing a number of archery traditions. Even so, I never once heard anyone criticize another. Archers from cultures that were traditionally opposed to each other ate, discussed, laughed, and shot with one another; everyone spoke the common language of archery. Nobody ever tried to claim their bow and culture was better than the rest; in fact, some very impressive archers (Bhutan) shot with bows that were no more than two slats of bamboo lashed together.

The festival was divided into two sections: academic and shooting. The one thing mildly disappointing to some was that on Monday, our seminar day, both shooting and presentations were going on simultaneously; many presenters would have loved to have been out shooting and many people shooting would have loved to have been listening to presentations. However, those who were at either one enjoyed being there. The presentations were literally world-class--look at http://archery.news-paper.co.kr/news_vi ... _id=62&hd= for a list of the topics and presenters (English is towards the bottom). Watching the different cultures shoot was truly eye-opening and wonderful to behold.

Members decided to now form the World Traditional Archery Association (WTAA), which will help to revitalize traditional archery and sustain it so that future generations can also enjoy it.

There is much more to say about it, but I will close for now with a link to pictures I took during the festival. They are currently unedited and uncaptioned, but they should give a little flavor for what went on. Other forum members can jump in and talk about their experiences.

http://www.koreanarchery.org/WTAF/

Thomas

Major Traditional Archery Festival in Korea, May 2007

transportation