Just like a little kid who cannot describe the taste of chocolate, my experience and feeling in Republic of the Korea particularly in the beautiful place of Jeonju city cannot be described easily. Thus, fitting in a few paragraphs or even to a page is impossible. Visiting South Korea remains on the top of the list among 5 countries which overseas people would like to visit at least once in their lifetime. The thirst of visiting is not due to the assets of advanced settings of the physical structure of the buildings, sophisticated technologies, beautiful sceneries or the unique intangible cultural heritage ingredients, but, because of the broad-minded people who carry enormous human value that is capable to change the surroundings in a way the an outsider would love to stay.

I could not believe it is my third time visiting this beautiful country Korea. Every time, the wonderful country and its people provide valuable knowledge and tastes of the social environment are different. When I left this country last time, the weight of the memories and knowledge I reaped was always heavier than the limit of the baggage allowed while departing from Korea. However, this time as one of the fortunate participants of Cultural Partnership Initiative(CPI) programme, regulated under the gracious support from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of the Republic of Korea (MCST) and the CPI Secretariat (Arts Council Korea). I am dispatched to the International Information and Networking Centre for Intangible and Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (ICHCAP), founded under the auspices of UNESCO, a cultural hot spot and tourist destination of Korea, Jeonju, Jeonju-si prefecture.

Working with ICHCAP, for me, has great relation to my profession and as well as to the functions of National Library & Archives of Bhutan (NLAB), Department of Culture. It is due to the fact that, preserving and promoting of literary and cultural heritage resources and rendering support for the research communities in literary and cultural resources are some of our main objectives. All our activities of NLAB are pertinent to the ICH subjects and striving for safeguarding the country’s identity and maintaining its original form for posterity.

Therefore, I feel satisfied and grateful to be a part of ICHCAP, since all the members provides both physical and mental support such as; guiding in research fields related to Networking and Information sharing in safeguarding ICH and especially the kind and friendly approach the staff holds which upholds our spirit. Their love and affection showered aids to nature and transforms Joenju city in general and ICHCAP into a beautiful place and fascinating ambience to work. All the settings here are perfect environment that provides a homely-feeling.

However, the aforementioned are the glimpse of my personal feelings and impression on Korea and the place where I am currently working at. I would like to sincerely thank and express appreciation on behalf of NLAB giving me an opportunity and for the CPI Secretariat for taking such an important initiative. Nevertheless, within this short period, we, the CPI participants have already started reaping the intangible human values that is provided by the host institution and we cannot imagine the enormous knowledge we will be gaining when we finish our period.