(LEAD) Korean medical book listed as world documentary heritage

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SEOUL, July 31 (Yonhap) -- A U.N. education and cultural body has designated a
traditional Korean medical encyclopedia on oriental medicine as a world
documentary heritage, officials said Friday.

The Cultural Heritage Administration said the U.N. Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) added the "Donguibogam," or the "Principles and
Practice of Eastern Medicine," to its Memory of the World Register at the ninth
meeting of the International Advisory Committee held in Barbados.
UNESCO said the book, edited in 1613 by Heo Jun, a court physician, is an
important source of knowledge on treatment techniques and highlights the
evolution of medicine in East Asia. It described Donguibogam as an encyclopedia
of medical knowledge and treatment techniques and a precursor to the
establishment of a state-led preventive medicine and public health care system in
the 19th century.
The South Korean government, which designated the book a national treasure, had
requested in March last year that the U.N. agency include it in the Memory of the
World Register.
South Korea now has seven documents on the UNESCO-recognized list, the most among
Asian countries. China has five.
The Annals of the Joseon Dynasty and the Hunmin Chongum Manuscript were included
in 1997, followed by Seungjeongwon Ilji, the Diaries of the Royal Secretariat, in
2001, and the Royal Protocols of the Joseon Dynatsy in 2007.
The Memory of the World program, established in 1992, seeks to protect the
world's valuable documents from dispersal and destruction and widen access to
them by digitizing the copies in order to make them available through the
Internet.
A total of 193 documents are protected by UNESCO, including 35 newly inserted
documents added to the catalog this year, among which are the diaries of Anne
Frank of the Netherlands and the Magna Carta 1215 of Britain.
Countries who obtain the designation receive assistance from the secretariat of
the program.
yonngong@yna.co.kr
brk@yna.co.kr
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