The Kyungsan Association and The Korean Political Science Association held a joint seminar, on the topic of cultural heritage concerning the includsion of Palgong-san as a potential UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In an era of culture in the 21st century, while preserving and inheriting traditional culture has been receiving global spotlight, all countries of the world have been making use of UNESCO as the arena of competition to promote their countries.

When the country’s cultural heritage is listed as a World Heritage Site, it can expect economic gain by increasing the number of tourists and feel effects in the field of education, society, and environment. Being listed as a World Heritage Site can be a blue chip for ‘sustainable life’.

All countries in the world are competing hard to make their own cultural heritage locations become listed as World Heritage Sites. The event to have the cultural heritage site labelled as such in Palgong-san, including Gatbawi (Gwanbong Seated Stone Buddha) designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site was held both last year and this year.

The Kyungsan Association(president Sung Ki Chung, a professor at Kyungil University) held an academic seminar concerning ‘value study on cultural heritage in Palgong-san as a World Heritage’ in concurrence with The Korean Political Science Association(president Yang Sam Suck, a professor at Pusan University) in the conference room at KIU on November 2nd Wednesday.

In this seminar, with the support of Daegu, Kyungsan, and Kyungsan study laboratory, almost 100 people from academia, journalists, and cultural circles attended. 6 topics were presented through two sections, and the debate went on for each topic.

For the 1st topic of the first section, “the value of Palgong-san cultural heritage’s being listed as a World Heritage” was presented by Prof. Yoon Ju Cheol from Daegu University, “excellence of religious remains in Palgong-san and value to be listed as a World heritage in ecological and natural landscape” by Prof. Jeon Young Kwon from the Daegu Catholic University for the 2nd topic, and “operation and meaning of UNESCO World Heritage system” by Prof. Sung Ki Chung from Kyungil University, president of The Kyungsan Association for the 3rd.

Prof. Noh Jung Kuk, from  Kyemyung University(former chairperson in the promotion committee to make Baekje historic area a World Heritage Site), Prof. Lim Nam Su from Youngnam University(expert member for cultural properties in Kyungsangpook-do and Daegu-si), and Choi Soung Ho, who is the president of the Kyungsan newspaper, attended as debaters in the first section.

For the first topic of the second section, “cultural heritage in Palgong-san and aspects of fable transmission”, was presented by Kim Jong Kuk, a former director of the Kyungsan Museum, “evaluation of cultural policy in Daegu” by Prof. Park Hwung from Youngnam University for the second topic, and “Saemaeul movement in Korea and Saemaeul movement as community development strategy-international cooperation strategy” by Prof. Park Sung Bok from Daegu University for the third topic.

Park Gyu Hong, president of the Palgong cultural forum (professor at Kyungil University), Prof. Yang Sam Suck from Pusan University, and Kim Jin Man a manager at Maeil newspaper, took part in the debate of the second section.

Sung Ki Chung, president of the Kyungsan Association, said with greetings “Daegu and Kyungpook have the most cultural heritage in Korea and this cultural heritage can be the pride of residents and the property to be passed down to future generations” and “as one of the community development strategies in global times, we try to shed light on the possibility of becoming listed as a World Heritage site with regard to the cultural heritage in Palgong-san and use this opportunity as a means of globalization in the local area.”