The Dusun people of Brunei Darussalam, amounting to roughly 10,000 people, are traditionally swidden rice cultivators. They used to live in longhouses called alai gayo (big house) that could accommodate three to four generations of bilateral family members, each administered by a council of elders known as tetuwo. The tetuwo were composed of both male elders (usually shaman and medicine men) and female elders called balian (Dusun religious priestesses) who are responsible for Dusun religious ceremonies referred to as temarok. Nowadays, they live in single houses distributed into small clusters of hamlets, due to the erosion of the traditional administrative system as a result of British colonialism in Brunei beginning in 1906.

Ethnobotany is an area of scientic studies investigating practical uses of indig-enous plants by people in a particular culture and region, which are inherited through traditional knowledge (www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/ethnobotany). The term was first conceived by John William Harshberger, but the area really became well known by Richard Evans Schultes beginning with his Amazon expedition (Balick 2012). The use of plants as food sources and medicines date back to origin of human life, although the type of uses was not sophisticated as the modern forms. Overtime it has evolved into many forms in diverse cultures by local peoples. Since the first uses, people have learned to identify and classify the plants and understand the features and roles of plants. All the priceless knowledge has improved the uses of plants, and the knowledge has passed on across generations in the local cultures, which makes usage of plants even more sophisticated.

The International Mask Arts & Culture Organization (IMACO) was established in 2006 to construct archives of mask-related culture that is integral to cultural community symbols.

Pencak Silat is an intangible cultural heritage that allows a community to express its culture and, more importantly, is a vehicle that allows practitioners to manifest the best values passed to them by their teachers for the benefit of all in society. It is practiced in countries in Southeast Asia, including Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. However, not much research has been done on the history and culture of Pencak Silat in Singapore. The project entitled “Preserving Intangible Cultural Heritage: Documenting and Recording the History, Culture and Memory of Malay Martial Arts Groups in Singapore,” led by Dr. Mohamed Effendy from the Department of Southeast Asian Studies, National University of Singapore, and sponsored by the National Heritage Board of Singapore, is therefore a timely one. It aims to safeguard the history and culture of Malay martial groups of Singapore by documenting and recording their past and cultural activities. Thus, the project provides the inspiration and backdrop for this paper, which will describe how Pencak Silat connects communities in Singapore to their historical origins. The paper will also analyze how Pencak Silat has contributed to the social and cultural success of the Singapore Malay community today, and lastly, it will examine to what extent Pencak Silat values can be used to further enhance the development of a community.

Traditional pottery making in some areas in Indonesia has taken place since prehistoric period, especially during the craftsmanship era, which lasted until the early centuries of the Common Era, as shown by archeological findings. This tradition continued until the historical period in which Hinduism and Buddhism developed in some Indonesian societies (eighth to tenth centuries CE). Furthermore, the increasing number of ritual activities related to Hinduism and Buddhism temples led to a significant increase in demand for terracotta-based pottery in various forms, such as jugs, crocks, cups, urns, and pots as well as in materials for statues, architectural parts (walls and roofs), and ornaments in the peaks of roofs. In the Indonesian Hinduism-Buddhism period, a variety of pottery forms could be found in sacred structures—for example, in the foundation of the buildings and in the yard of the temples for ceremonies related to worshiping gods, sacralization ceremonies, and ceremonies to begin building temples.

Seong-Yong Park talks about the importance of ICH for the sake of sustainable development along with the characteristics of Silk Roads region. He also discusses the various Information and networking programs ICHCAP has implemented in collaboration with Central Asian nations, especially nations along the Silk Roads, showing ICHCAP’s interest in developing projects along the Silk Roads. At the same time, He proposes to develop a broader network targeting the Silk Roads region with upgraded functions of sharing information and building networks. In addition, he argues that for better opportunities for future collaborations, establishing a Silk Roads ICH Network would be a meaningful journey through cooperative and multilateral partnerships among the stakeholders to recreate the glory of the Silk Roads through ICH.

The tug-of-war is one of the most well-known intangible cultural heritage elements that represent the Republic of Korea. Tug-of-war games were widely enjoyed by people across the country before the 1930s and 1940s. During the 1960s, the tug-of-war came under the protection of the Cultural Heritage Conservation Policy and has been appointed and is being managed by local and national governments. Locally, eight tug-of-war traditions have been inscribed on the national inventory list. Moreover, compared to other ICH element studies, of the element has been significantly researched.\n\nTug-of-war is a cultural heritage element of many East Asian nations, and these nations are preparing to nominate the element to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. In this context, the goal of this paper is to discover universal traits in tug-of-war traditions in East Asia. However, besides the Republic of Korea and Japan, there is insufficient research on tug-of-war traditions in the region, which limits the scope of this presentation. In case of China, despite the existence of various records on tug-of-war in literature, the tradition as it exists in China today seems to be more of a sports match than a ritual event. I would also like to mention that this paper is a draft based on document records, the Internet, and the academic symposium hosted by Gijisi Tug-of-War Conservation Institute.

ICCN, Interurban Cooperation Network for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, is an international organization of local governments and cultural institutions which includes 31 states, 29 cities and 34 associations. Its main objective is the protection of the intangible cultural heritage around the world and the promotion of sustainable local development. Moreover, it also seeks to achieve cultural peace through mutual understanding and intercultural dialogue between the different populations that are part of it. Julio Nacher shared some good examples of cultural events that successfully held in pandemic situation.

Traditional music is a form of art capable of determining the survival of the safeguarding of tradition. This is related to the factor of increasing decline of people’s interest in the existence of tradition and increasing advancement of technology, which is considered a sign of modernity. It is as if technological advancement is considered one of the most important needs of the current age, which is then used as a yardstick to measure a person’s ability. Those who have not mastered technology are considered incapable of following the developments of the age, and thus the focus of society is more toward the development of technology. This will surely influence people’s interest in safeguarding the tradition, as the opinion arises that things related to tradition are considered obstacles toward developing technology itself. \n\nThus, technology and tradition are placed as being opposed to one another. On another side, the existence of tradition is often considered something old-fashioned, behind the times, and boring for the younger generation. Even arts practitioners and academics appear to be less interested in researching or doing treatment of new compositions so that the above tradition might become attractive to the younger generation. This article will not discuss all traditional music in Indonesia, but rather will focus on the matter of traditional music of the Dayak ethnic community as one of the original ethnic communities of Kalimantan island.

Until the last moments of the drafting process of the Convention, the Intergovernmental Meeting of Experts was debating the issue of whether the Convention should employ a listing system or a registration system. The Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage was finally adopted in October 2003 using a listing system. Some of the experts who were not in favor of this system are still criticizing it today. Today, the Convention has 155 States Parties. There are 288 elements inscribed on the two lists and a selection of ten elements on the Registry of Best Practices. The inscription of elements of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) on the Lists has triggered unprecedented enthusiasm for the ICH among practitioner communities as well as the general public. The Chengdu International Conference held last June to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the UNESCO Convention discussed the listing system currently being used and identified points concerning, on the one hand, the procedure for inscription on the Lists and, on the other, the impact of public recognition on the inscribed elements and their practitioners. This paper offers some suggestions that might be taken to mitigate the problems raised, such that the Convention will not become the victim of its own success.

UNPLI, the italian network of Pro Loco associations, represents approximately 6,000 Pro Loco associations (a unique type of Italian association devoted to promoting a specific town or location) from various municipalities and old medieval towns, where approximately 600,000 members work as volunteers organizing over 10,000 events, fairs, festivals and much more. Many Italian towns and small cities have a Pro Loco, a civic membership association of volunteers that works with schools, universities and institutions in order to project ways to enhance the town and provide assistance to visitors. In 2010 UNPLI created the online inventory on You Tube “Progetti UNPLI” with hundreds of videos and interviews with craftsmen, musicians, local experts and many other people on their connections with the cultural heritage of their\nregions: http://www.youtube.com/user/ProgettiUNPLI. UNPLI in collaboration with SIMBDEA, another italian accredited NGO, is working in order to build an Italian network for ICH. These Ngos are collaborating in the building of a participatory inventory strategy in Cocullo, a little town in Abruzzo, where every 1th of May takes place the “Feast of San Domenico Abate and the rite of snakes”.Since 2013 UNPLI runs the website of the ICH NGO FORUM (www.ichngoforum.org) and the Facebook’s page “Intangible cultural heritage and civil society”.

Abstract: This paper discusses lion dances as an example of shared heritage. In the local communities of Japan, there are several thousand lion dance troupes. These types of performances, where the dancers don animal costumes, can be found in various locations across Asia. While the dances are similar in shape, they vary in meaning, religious background, music, style, etc. Such differences are a manifestation of diversity. As such, when considering shared heritage, it is important to recognize the aspect of diversity.\n\nJapan has never made a multinational nomination to the UNESCO’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH). The reason for this lies in Japan’s method of selecting candidate properties for nomination. That is, Japan abides by a unique policy of selecting candidate properties from among those designated as cultural properties by the national government. “Cultural properties” refer comprehensively to the system for safeguarding cultural heritage in Japan and can be designated not only by the national government but also by local administrative units such as prefectures and municipalities. However, only nationally designated cultural properties have so far been eligible for nomination as a UNESCO’s List of ICHs, and the national designation criteria include no requirement to consider international compatibility. The designation criteria of local governments include no such requirement, either.\n\nIn other words, as long as Japan’s criteria for selecting candidate properties for nomination to the UNESCO’s List of ICHs conform to the domestic criteria for selecting cultural properties, making a multinational nomination would continue to be extremely difficult. Under the present system, responding to proposals from other countries would also be difficult. Yet, I have hope. In 2021, the cultural properties system for ICH in Japan was slightly modified. In place of the conventional system of designation, a system of registration was adopted with respect to intangible cultural heritage to provide more flexibility in safeguarding a wider scope of properties than ever before. Such a new system might promote the awareness of the need to take a more international perspective. At the same time, views that Japan should strive to make multinational nominations are emerging within discussions about UNESCO’s List of ICHs. When considering such trends, the prospect of Japan making multinational nominations or responding to proposals from other countries may be realized in the future.\n\nThus, in this paper, I wish to discuss what types of multinational nominations would be possible, based on case examples of folk performing arts, my specialty area. It should firstly be noted, however, that there are two categories of performing arts in Japan, namely traditional performing arts and folk performing arts. Traditional performing arts are fundamentally performed in theaters by professional performers. There are also amateur performers of traditional performing arts, who generally study under a specific master. Folk performing arts, on the other hand, are fundamentally performed by amateur performers within a specific event held in a particular region. Most are linked to faith and have been inherited through festivals and annual events. In placing them under the domestic system for safeguarding cultural properties, traditional performing arts are judged by their artistic and historical value, and folk performing arts are evaluated mainly by their folkloric value (stipulated by law as performing arts that show transitions in lifestyles). A large number of folk performing arts exist in Japan. As of 2020, as many as 8443 properties, including festivals and annual events, have been nationally or locally designated for safeguarding as intangible folk cultural properties. When including properties that have not been designated, more than several tens of thousands of performing arts are thought to exist. These folk performing arts have emerged from diverse historical contexts and are further classified into a number of subcategories. Among these performing arts, I wish to focus on Lion Dances, or “Shishi-mai.” I must, however, confess that I am regrettably not well-versed in the intangible cultural heritage situation in East Asia as a whole. I, therefore, wish to apologize in advance that the case examples I present herein are not necessarily common to all countries in East Asia.