Jeju Marks 10 Years of Haenyeo Culture on UNESCO List; ‘Sumbisori’ Festival Opens on the 19th

【Financial News Jeju=Reporter Jeong Yong-bok】 A festival will be held to mark the 10th anniversary of Jeju Haenyeo Culture’s inscription on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Thirty-three events, ranging from haenyeo gut rituals and diving experiences to nighttime coastal programs, will look back on the past decade of cultural transmission and connect haenyeo culture to the next generation.
According to Jeju Special Self-Governing Province on the 9th, the 19th Jeju Haenyeo Festival will take place over two days, September 19–20, around the Jeju Haenyeo Museum in Gujwa-eup, Jeju City.
This year’s theme is “A Confession Carried on the Sumbisori: Tracing 10 Years Since Inscription as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.” Jeju Haenyeo Culture was added to UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2016.
Sumbisori is the distinctive breathing sound haenyeo make as they surface after diving, exhaling the breath they have held and inhaling again. It is also regarded as a sound symbolizing the arduous labor, vitality, and life by the sea that Jeju haenyeo have carried on through generations.
The festival will begin with a haenyeo gut ritual and a street parade, held to pray for the haenyeo’s safety and well-being and for abundant seas. The ninth Haenyeo Day commemorative ceremony will be followed by 33 programs across five categories, including performances, competitions, hands-on activities, and exhibitions.
The opening ceremony will feature a children’s original musical, followed by a reading of the Jeju Haenyeo Charter. A choir performance by haenyeo and children, as well as a special performance marking the 10th anniversary of the UNESCO inscription, will also take the stage.
The festival has expanded programs that allow visitors to experience haenyeo life up close. The Sumbisori Song Festival will feature active haenyeo competing in singing, while the Bulteok Talk Show will bring to the stage the stories haenyeo once shared at the Bulteok, with haenyeo themselves recounting their lives and diving experiences.

Bulteok is a communal space where haenyeo warmed themselves, prepared for work, and exchanged information before and after diving. It is a representative setting that shows haenyeo culture is not merely an individual diving technique, but a communal culture in which knowledge and experience are passed down together.
Visitors will also be able to experience haenyeo diving firsthand. For children and families, the festival will offer Sumbi Snap, where participants can wear traditional haenyeo diving suits and take photos with haenyeo.
This year, the festival will extend into the night. Visitors will take part in a Trash-picking Run, walking along the coast at sunset while collecting litter, and a DJ performance combining music and lighting will be introduced for the first time. The effort is intended to extend the festival, previously centered on daytime performances and activities, into the evening and encourage longer stays.
The 10th anniversary of the UNESCO inscription will not be limited to commemorative events in Jeju. On the 7th, six haenyeo from the Jeju Haenyeo Association visited the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) headquarters in Rome, Italy, where they presented haenyeo cuisine, including sea urchin noodles. After introducing Jeju haenyeo’s diving practices, cuisine, women’s community, and marine-resource management culture to the international community, Jeju is now holding a local festival to mark the anniversary.
During the inscription process for Jeju Haenyeo Culture, UNESCO recognized its demonstration of Jeju Island’s cultural identity, the transmission of knowledge and skills needed for diving within the community, and the sustainable use of marine resources in an environmentally friendly manner, among other values.
Jeju Special Self-Governing Province plans to use this year’s festival both to look back on the achievements of the past decade and as a venue for tourists and the next generation to experience and carry on haenyeo culture. In the long term, the province envisions developing the Jeju Haenyeo Festival into a marine cultural festival enjoyed by people from around the world.
Kim Jong-su, head of the Jeju Special Self-Governing Province Oceans and Fisheries Bureau, said, “We have prepared a variety of events so residents and tourists can directly enjoy and experience Jeju Haenyeo Culture. We hope you will feel the value and appeal of haenyeo culture at the festival.”
[email protected] Reporter Jeong Yong-bok Reporter