Shadow puppetry is a kind of performing art. It uses music and operatic singing, to accompany silhouette figures made from leather or paper. These figures are manipulated by performers to create the illusion of moving images in front of an illuminated backdrop. The inheritors, props, scripts, and musical instruments decide the survival of shadow play groups. A silhouette figure has from 12 to 24 moveable joints, head, hands and so on, and is controlled by 3 poles or sticks. The music and songs of shadow puppetry have distinctive regional characteristics. There are many unique tunes which have come down from generation to generation. Shadow plays are performed by bigger troupes with 7 to 9 performers and smaller troupes with 2 to 5 performers. And 2-person troupes with one person performing and the other playing the instruments now exist in Shandong, Hubei, and Sichuan provinces. Most performers make a living from shadow plays, which are mainly performed for entertainments or for religious rituals, weddings and funerals and other special occasions. The manufacturing of puppets may require 10 different carving processes, the tools often being home-made. Many shadow puppetry performers can carve the puppets, sing and perform by themselves. And there are two types of scripts, that is, oral-transmitted scripts and written ones. Some shadow puppetry performers are professional, while many play as amateurs during slack farming seasons. The relevant skills are handed down in families, in the troupes, and from master to pupil. Shadow puppetry has been handed down for over one thousand years. With the evolution of history, the plays, puppets, types of lighting and performance, and the related crafts have developed with regular innovation. Shadow puppetry is a traditional folk drama that is created by and for the community and contains a thousand years of cultural deposits, as well as passing on diverse cultural information such as cultural history, social beliefs, folklore, and local customs. It spreads knowledge, improves cultural development, and entertains the community, especially the youth. Chinese Shadow Puppetry has significant historic and cultural importance, and should be protected and set on a footing of sustainable development.

China 2011

Mongolian language belongs to the Altaic language family. It is an ancient and independent language with rich history of thousands of years which has been transmitted through generations to ours. Over 20 ethnic groups in Mongolia are divided in to 2 different language groups, for instance over 90 % of these 20 ethnic groups are speak in Khalkh, Bayad, Barga, Buriad, Dariganga, Darkhad, Dorvod, Zakhchin, Myagngad, Oold, Torguud, Uzemchin, Khamnigan. Kharchin, Khotgoid, Eljigen, Sartuul and Tsakhar dialects of Mongolian langugage group. The Kazakh, Uriankhai, Tuva and Khoton are classified into Turkic language group. The marvel of the Mongolian language is its phonemic, morphological and syntactic harmony, its flexibility, and its unusually rich lexicology. Mongols have created innumerable oral and intangible expressions in Mongolian language which manifested in the forms of folk literature, folklore, traditional performing arts, customs and practices.

Proverbs and sayings are also genres of Uzbek oral folk art. A proverb is often in the form of grammatically completed sentence in which folk wisdom is expressed in instructive form. It is a wise adage, which is short, figurative and grammatically and logically complete, a phrase with a deep meaning. Proverbs, which have certain, steady and widely used rhythmic formula, emerged on the basis of people's centuries-long experience. In proverbs found its reflection people's life-related observations, their attitudes to the society, their history, spiritual state, ethical and aesthetic feelings and positive qualities. Having been preserved by the people throughout centuries, they acquired concise and simple poetic form. A saying is a phrase that reflects a phenomenon of life, one of the small genres of folklore. Often has a humorous character. Saying, unlike the proverb, does not contain a generalizing meaning and is not a complete sentence. Sayings are beautiful examples of figurative thinking, which decorate our speech. Although they emerge relatively slow, they remain in use for several years. Sayings bear some similarities to folk proverbs. At the same time they differ from the latter with their peculiar features. These are the following: while proverbs are used as single complete conclusion in a speech, sayings act only as parts of that conclusion; while proverbs have a wide range of themes, sayings have exact themes and their exact functional purposes; while proverbs have their established form structures, sayings do not have such form structures; while proverbs are used sometimes in a figurative sense (or sometimes in a literal sense), sayings are used only in a figurative sense.

Cultural space of Baysun was recognized by UNESCO as the “Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity” among the first 19 in 2001. Consequently, in 2008, it was included in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of the Humanity of UNESCO. Inclusion the space to the List enhanced the opportunity of preservation, documentation and conduct scientific researches of artistic traditions and culture of Baysun district. It is a world bringing together settled and nomadic traditions, Turkic and eastern Iranian peoples. The traditional culture of Baysun, besides Islam, has its roots in ancient cults and faiths. In its folklore one can see traditions with elements of Zoroastrianism and Buddhism, animism and ancestors worship. Grazing patterns have not changed in a thousand years. Livestock are still the main measure of wealth, and gardening is a male tradition. Hand spinning wheels, graters, tandirs, water mills, and blacksmiths using bellows all still exist. National clothes are made, such as doppi and chapans and head scarves for men and women, using craft traditions and local ornamental decorations dating from the tenth and eleventh centuries. Old customs and rituals govern life from birth to death. There is much historical heritage and native wisdom in them.

Uzbekistan 2008

The entire epos includes a historical range of the legendary achievements of the ancient national hero of Gorogly and his 40 cavalrymen by recording all major events of traditional lifespan of the Turkmen people. The aspiration of the Turkmen nation for a happy life, unification, freedom and justice as well as their features such as bravery, honesty, partiotism, freindship, tolerance and fairness have been reflected in the epos. The element is a combined genre of oral traditions and performing art incorporating narrating, singing, vocal improvisation and musical composition, where a prose and poetry are alternated in its perforamnce. Its bearers and practitioners are epic performers-dessanchy bagshy specialized in the Gorogly epic. It is by tradition performed by one dessanchy bagshy playing the dutar (a two stringed, long-necked lute) in a sitting position, while narrating prose and reciting poetry in a way to deliver the characters' feelings and emotions to the accompaniment to the traditional musical instruments such as dutar and gyjak (a fiddle-like Turkmen musical instrument). It is traditionally performed at social gatherings, celebrations, national ceremonies, life rituals, national festivals and special "Folklore Festivals". The element provides related communities with a sense of social and cultural identity and it is considered as a main symbol of Turkmen people to sustain their cultural identity being as an oral encyclopedia and it remains the inexhaustible fountain-head to nurture their cultural psychology, national character, mentality, creative capacity and artistic skills.

Turkmenistan 2015

Uzbek tales, legends and stories, like those of other peoples, are part of the oral folk art. The tale is based on traditional plot and refers to prose folklore. A legend is often about any historical events or personalities, and stories are genre of folklore non-fairytale prose, passed down from generation to generation and developing historical themes in its folk interpretation. Tale is one of the most ancient and mass genres of Uzbek oral folk art. Oral stories, which are constructed based on fantastic ideas and artistic fiction, and which bear didactic idea and purpose, are called "tale" (in Uzbek – "ertak"). While representing an example of intangible cultural heritage, tales reflect, to a certain degree, worldview, national character, lifestyle and thinking of the people. Important role in the emergence of tales occupy ancient myths, traditions, rituals and customs. Although in Uzbek folklore studies the term "ertak" is used to denote a tale, in various regions of Uzbekistan this genre is commonly known as "matal", "ushuq", "varsaqi" and "chopchak". Legend is a verbal story, which is transmitted from generation to generation and is mixed with magic, sorcery and dreams. It is one of the examples of intangible cultural heritage. Legend, being one of the most ancient genres of oral folk art of Uzbeks, narrates about events and occurrences, in which notions aimed at understanding and perceiving reality based on artistic storyline, are embodied. For this reason, in legend it is possible to find brief information about social life, people's worldviews, traditions and customs and historical events. Story is a narration, which is done verbally. In terms of origin and historical roots it is considered one of the examples of ancient folklore and as such represents an element of intangible cultural heritage. It is a work of small size without commonly established form, which describes certain historical occurrence (that took place in the past) or past event by means of artistic fiction.

Children's folklore is a specific area of ​oral artistic creativity, which, unlike adult folklore, has its own poetics, its own forms of existence and its bearers. The common practice of children's folklore is the relationship of the artistic text with the game. It is a kind of tool for the socialization of a child, an area of traditional folk culture, including verbal genres and forms of children's creativity, as well as adult folklore addressed to children. It has its own genre system and aesthetic specificity. Children's folklore is one of the directions of oral folk art.

A tongue-twister as a kind of Uzbek oral folklore represents a phrase or a sentence that consists from rhymed words difficult to articulate. It can be a fascinating folk game - to quickly, cleanly and correctly pronounce the most complex combinations of sounds or long words.