South Korean Kite Festival, Culture Fascinates Team Mangalore

Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (PS/SP)
Pics by Nitin Shetty, CA

Mangalore, Apr 11: The city-based group of amateur kite flyers, ‘Team Mangalore’, which has in the past, exhibited its flair for kite flying and creating excellent kites in Europe and American continents and earned lot of accolades, did it this time at Uiseong of South Korea by flying their unique kites high in the sky.

At the Uiseong Korea International Kite Festival-2011, kite ambassadors, Prashanth, Sarvesh Rao, Nithin Shetty and Dinesh Holla, explored much of the cultural richness of that county, in addition to flying kites there. At the event, teams of kite flyers from 24 countries participated, and Team Mangalore, as usual, mirrored the cultural richness of India through its kites. The sky in Korea was splashed with rich colours of Indian culture, as the team’s kytes soared high. Themes like Bharatnatyam, Yakshagana, Kathakkali, Bhoothakola, Pushpaka Vimana etc were portrayed by Team India, attracting the attention of a large audience, which had gathered at Uiseong.

This ace international kite festival, organized by the Governor of Uiseong County, Kim Bokgyu, focused on promoting the theme of ‘Global Culture Partner’. It was not just about what was there to see in the sky at this festival. There were non-aerial activities including fun at exploring the county’s richness with hills and tunnels, knowing that joint family culture still exists there, their traditional games and getting to know more of them including their music, dance, moon house burning (burning of a gigantic effigy denoting victory of good fortunes over bad), offering of pig heads and rice wine to the deities, etc. Koreans believe that organizing of kite festivals helps them to get good harvest from their fields, peace in the county, and pleasure in every component of their lives.

Speaking to Daijiworld, one of the members of the four-member-team, Nitin Shetty, revealed a few fascinating pieces of cultural heritage and practices prevalent in that county. Though people follow Buddhism, the people of South Korea tend to consume non-vegetarian food. Change of the guard takes place in front the palace every three hours. The unique way in which the people there bring up their children by inculcating values of being attached to the family in them, is worth emulating. General Lee’s Signal kites order chart, of which Nithin has taken photographs, says that kites were used even during war times. Based on the type of kite flown, its colour, etc, the soldiers understood the signals for example, whether to surround the enemy, to serve the captain of the little warship, whether to attack the hill or to end the fight.

Shetty says that black garlic is predominantly grown in that region. Team India's gesture in presenting shawl and memento was very much appreciated by the organizers. They in turn, gifted a kite to Team India. He adds that the people there are very responsive, and trust the guests wholeheartedly without an iota of suspicion, and without even demanding identification papers from the visitors.
 
The kite festival was held between March 31 and April 2. At the inaugural ceremony, 20 men and 20 women dressed in Korean costumes performed dances, and offered prayer. When the teams from 22 nations with their own costumes carried out a parade, it made everyone to dream of organizing ‘Kite Olympics’. ‘Team India’ presented the cultural identity of their homeland to the Koreans by way of performing Yakshagana dance.