Juldarigi

Juldarigi

A juldarigi rope knotted around a binyeomok at the Hi! Seoul Festival
First played	Known since at least 1500 C.E.
Characteristics
Contact	Non-contact
Mixed-sex	Yes
Type	Team sport, traditional, outdoor
Equipment	Rice-straw ropes, binyeomok peg
Presence
Country or region	Korea, particularly Dangjin and Yeongsang

Juldarigi (Korean: 줄다리기, also chuldarigi) is a traditional Korean sport similar to tug of war. It has a ritual and divinatory significance to many agricultural communities in the country, and is performed at festivals and community gatherings. The sport uses two huge rice-straw ropes, connected by a central peg, which are pulled by teams representing the East and West sides of the village (the competition is often rigged in favour of the Western team). A number of religious and traditional rituals are performed before and after the actual competition.

Several areas of Korea have their own distinct variations of juldarigi, and similar tug-of-war games with connections to agriculture are found in rural communities across Southeast Asia.

It is inscribed in UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List from 2015 as "Tugging rituals and games" along with other similar forms in Cambodia, the Philippines and Viet Nam. It is also enlisted as South Korean Intangible Cultural Property from 1969.