Balinese Barong Dance Show in Batubulan

Baris Gede performance at Pura Besakih

Rejang Dewa Dance performance at Besakih

Bamboo grows in the wild in hilly region is used to make this oboe. The bamboo stick is needed to be dried first. And then, holes are perforated on it with the use of drill. It has to change the sizes of drills depending on the sizes of oboes. The oboes are in three different sizes- big, medium and small. Each of them has a total of four perforated holes. A thumb hole is perforated on the lower side with the distance of an inch from the first finger hole. The four finger holes must be made with same distance. Reed made of dried straw is inserted on one end of oboe and young female buffalo's horn is put on another end. The horn and oboe are decorated with manau traditional designs. The player must blow the reed made of straw to play this oboe by opening and closing the finger holes. Dumba is played in Manau festival, housewarming ceremony, honoring ceremony, Htaungkar Dance festival and funeral rite. There are designated melodies for different occasions.\n-2 feet 6 inches in length\n-2.5 inches in length if dried straw reed\n-1.5 inches in length of oboe\n-10 inches in length of buffalo horn\n-9 inches in circumference of horn

Inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008\nSpecific to the villages of the state of Kelantan in northwest Malaysia, where the tradition originated, Mak Yong is a kind of musical that combines acting, singing, music, dancing, and colorful costumes. \nMost roles are performed by women, and the stories are based on ancient Malay folk tales Kelantan-Pattani. The lyrics of the songs in Makyong primarily revolve around themes of war, loyalty to the king and kingdom, and the association of this loyalty with religious piety. Mak Yong is also associated with rituals in which shamans attempt to heal through song, trance-dance, and spirit possession. In addition, this performing art properly mixes Hindu and Islamic elements and portrays traditional Malay court life.

Sau-Batar is one of Timor-Leste’s most cherished agricultural ceremonies, marking the successful harvesting of corn—batar, the staple crop that lies at the heart of both sustenance and spiritual life for many communities. Far more than an agricultural routine, this ritual reflects a worldview where nature, ancestors, and community are deeply intertwined.\n\nThe ceremony typically begins with a symbolic act called “taking out the old corn and bringing in the new.” This signifies a transition between agricultural cycles and expresses gratitude to the spirits of the land for their blessings. Families gather at their sacred houses (uma lulik), bringing both harvested corn and cooked rice to share in a ritual meal that reaffirms communal bonds.\n\nCentral to the ritual is the lia-nain—a customary elder responsible for oral tradition and ritual practice—who recites prayers, chants, and invocations handed down through generations. These words are not merely spoken; they are believed to activate ancestral protection and ensure future abundance. The corn offered during the ceremony becomes sacred, often preserved in specially designated granaries or placed on altars within the sacred house as a gesture of respect to the ancestors.\n\nMusic and dance are vital parts of Sau-Batar. Performances of Tebe Lilin (Candle Dance) and other local dances transform the occasion into a festive gathering, where movement and rhythm mirror the unity and joy of a successful harvest. The babadok drum keeps the beat as men and women, elders and children, participate in a shared expression of thanks and renewal.\n\nThe ceremony also involves the symbolic sharing of corn among relatives and neighbors, emphasizing that harvest is not an individual achievement but a collective gift. In some cases, leftover corn from the previous season is burned or ceremonially discarded to make room for the new yield, representing a fresh start and spiritual cleansing.\n\nBeyond its religious and social meanings, Sau-Batar also serves as a moment of informal education. It is during this event that younger generations hear the stories of how rituals are performed, why they matter, and what each gesture or offering means. Through active participation, children and youth absorb the knowledge of land stewardship, spiritual ethics, and cultural identity.\n\nIn recent years, as commercial farming methods expand and traditional schedules shift, Sau-Batar has faced challenges. Yet in many rural areas, the ceremony continues to be practiced with dedication, often with support from local schools and cultural preservation initiatives.\n\nFor the communities that uphold it, Sau-Batar remains a vital link between past and present, the visible and the invisible, and the land and its people. It is a ceremony not just of harvest, but of harmony—a living tradition that continues to nourish both body and spirit.

Pleng Chaiyam is lively, funny and captivates the audience's attention. This music is played to celebrate in many festivals and events.\nChaiyam musical instruments include 5, 7, and 9 long drums (may be more or less as possible), and other traditional music instruments such as one or a pair of Krab, one or a pair of Chap, one Gongmong (as a rhythm giver or so-called master) And sometimes there are Cheong and Tro to support as well. For the costume, men are wearing Kben, Sontaes shirts, using different bright colors with a scarf around their waists. Most of the characters wear funny face masks made of paper. Sometimes there is also a female character holding Chap to accompany the dance. There must be a man dressed as a woman if there is no woman.\nMany festivals are held at pagodas, so each pagoda always has a Chaiyam band.\n

I remember the dancers of Asia, who flew in from far and wide each year without hesitation. Meeting these dancers, united in their passion for keeping the beauty of traditional dances alive against the impending threat of rapid urbanization and globalization, was a deeply moving and happy experience for me. Their joy, talent, earnestness and pure intent were what made "One Asia in Dance" possible.\n\nDance is a living and breathing art form. In performance, it goes beyond the preservation of the fixed original form, to connect the past, present and future, evolving and developing. 'One Asia in Dance' showed not only the transmission of traditions but also the continuing reinvention of traditions to reflect contemporary sentiments in the traditional dances of Asia. I sincerely hope that a wider audience will find an opportunity to rediscover the value of cultural heritage in the Asia Pacific through the window of dance.\n\n*This collection is donated by the Asia Dance Culture Institute in Korea

On 12 and 13 November 2020, ICHCAP and the ICH NGO Forum virtually held the 2020 ICH NGO Conference entitled “ICH and Resilience in Crisis.” The fifteen participants, including eleven selected presenters from ten countries around the world, discussed various cases and activities of each country applied under the Corona-era, and proposed solidarity for the resilience of ICH for a ‘New Normal.’\n\nSession 1: In the Vortex: COVID-19 Era, Roles of NGOs to Safeguard ICH\n\nSpecial Lecture 1: 'Resilience System Analysis' by Roberto Martinez Yllescas, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Mexico\n1. 'Uncovering the veil of immaterial cultural heritage towards and autonomous management of well-being as well as cultural and territorial preservation' by Carolina Bermúdez, Fundación Etnollano\n2. 'Holistic Development Model of Community-Based Intangible Cultural Heritage of Yuen Long District in Hong Kong of China' by Kai-kwong Choi, Life Encouraging Fund \n3. 'Indigenous Knowledge System as a vector in combating COVID-19' by Allington Ndlovu, Amagugu International Heritage Centre\n4. 'Enlivening Dyeing Tradition and ICH: The initiative of ARHI in North East of India' by Dibya Jyoti Borah, President, ARHI\n\nSession 2: Homo Ludens vs. Home Ludens: Changed Features COVID-19 Brought\n\n1. 'The Popular Reaction to COVID-19 from the Intangible Cultural Heritage among Member Cities of the ICCN' by Julio Nacher, ICCN Secretariat, Algemesi, Spain\n2. 'Innovation for Arts and Cultural Education Amid a Pandemic' by Jeff M. Poulin, Creative Generation\n3. 'Promoting Heritage Education through Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Kalasha Valleys of Pakistan' by Ghiasuddin Pir & Meeza Ubaid, THAAP\n4. 'Shifting to Online Activities: Digital Divide among the NGOs and ICH Communities in Korea' by Hanhee Hahm CICS\n\nSession 3: Consilience: Prototype vs. Archetype for Educational Source\n\nSpecial Lecture 2: 'Geographical imbalance: the challenge of getting a more balanced representation of accredited non-governmental organizations under the 2003 Convention' by Matti Hakamäki, Finnish Folk Music Institute\n1. 'Crafting a Post Covid-19 World: Building Greater Resilience in the Crafts Sector through Strengthening Ties with its Community’s Cultural System' by Joseph Lo, World Crafts Council International\n2. 'Arts and Influence: Untangling Corporate Engagement in the Cultural Sector' by Nicholas Pozek, Asian Legal Programs, Columbia University\n3. 'ICH in the South-Western Alps: Empowering Communities through Youth Education on Nature and Cultural Practices' by Alessio Re & Giulia Avanza, Santagata Foundation for the Economy of Culture\n\n

ICH Video Production in the Asia-Pacific Region : Central Asia\n\nRapid urbanization and westernization are changing the environments in which intangible cultural heritage is rooted. The importance of documentation that traces the effect of social changes on intangible cultural heritage is being emphasized as a safeguarding measure. Quality video documentation is an important resource that enables the conservation and transmission of existing intangible cultural heritage and raises its visibility.\n\nVideo documentation is the best medium to record intangible cultural heritage in the most lifelike manner, using the latest technologies. It is also an effective tool for communicating with the public. However, conditions for video production in the Asia-Pacific remain poor, requiring extensive support for quality video documentation.\n\nICHCAP has been working to build the safeguarding capabilities of Member States and raise the visibility of intangible cultural heritage in the Asia-Pacific by supporting the true-to-life documentation of intangible cultural heritage as this heritage is practiced and cooperating with experts, communities, and NGOs in related fields.\n\nSince 2010, ICHCAP has hosted annual Central Asian sub-regional network meetings with Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Mongolia to support the ICH safeguarding activities of Central Asia. Through their collaboration, ICHCAP has supported projects involving collecting ICH information, producing ICH websites, and constructing ICH video archives.\n\nAt the Sixth Central Asia Sub-regional Network Meeting in Jeonju in 2015, ICHCAP, four Central Asian countries, and Mongolia adopted a second three-year cooperation project plan on producing ICH videos to enhance the visibility of ICH in Central Asia.\n\nICHCAP developed guidelines and training programs for the project and invited video and ICH experts from the participating countries, and held a workshop in November 2015. After the workshop, focal points for the project were designated in each country, and each focal point organization formed an expert meeting and a video production team to produce ICH videos.\n\nInterim reports were submitted to ICHCAP in February 2016, and the first preview screening was held in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, during the Seventh Central Asia Sub-regional Network Meeting in May 2016. Since then, each country has carried out the project according to the project plan. ICHCAP met with each country between October 2016 to February 2017 to check on the project progress.\n\nAfter the final preview screening during the Eighth Central Asia Sub-regional Network Meeting in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, in 2017, final editing process took place in each country, and fifty ICH videos were completed by October 2017.\n\nAll photos introduced on this page along with fifty ICH videos are from the exhibition 'Living Heritage: Wisdom of Life' held in the Republic of Kyrgyzstan and the Republic of Korea. Designed for introducing various ICH in the five countries, this exhibition shows photos on representative twenty elements in each country collected during the process of on-site survey and documentation for ICH Video Production Project in Central Asia by experts participated in the ICH video production project.\n\nICHCAP will continue its ICH documentation projects in the Asia-Pacific region for the next ten years by expanding the scope from Central Asia and Mongolia to Southeast Asia, Southwest Asia, and the Pacific.\n\n\nPartners\nMongolian National Commission for UNESCO • National Commission of the Kyrgyz Republic for UNESCO • National Commission of the Republic of Kazakhstan for UNESCO and ISESCO • National Commission of the Republic of Uzbekistan for UNESCO • National Commission of the Republic of Tajikistan for UNESCO • Foundation for the Protection of Natural and Cultural Heritage Mongolia • National Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage under the National Commission of the Republic of Kazakhstan for UNESCO and ISESCO • School of Fine Art and Technical Design named after Abylkhan Kasteyev • State Institute of Arts and Culture of Uzbekistan • Tajik film • Tajikistan Research Institute of Culture Information • Korea Educational Broadcasting System • Asia Culture Center\n\nSupporters\nUNESCO Almaty and Tashkent Cluster Offices • Cultural Heritage Administration • Panasonic Korea • Turkish Airlines

The traditional musical instruments of Myanmar were prominent throughout the nation’s history. The instruments were developed as early as the Pyu Era, Bagan Era and many were dominant features of music during the Innwa Era and Konbaung Era.\n\nWhile some of these instruments have been preserved and are used today, others have been lost to history.\nIn an attempt to preserve the traditional musical instruments of Myanmar, the Ministry of Culture displayed traditional instruments and distributed the books about the instruments during an exhibition in 1955. This research shows thirty-three kinds of instruments. Moreover, in a 2003 celebration of traditional instruments, the Ministry of Culture exhibited over two hundred traditional instruments at the national museum.\nWhile the instruments on display were representative of many regions and states, many instruments were not included.\nBecause of this lack of full representativeness, additional research through field studies is required. This project proposal addresses this need.\n\nTo create a preliminary basis towards developing a national ICH inventory of craftsmanship and performing arts of traditional musical instruments in Myanmar. To safeguard ICH related to the craftsmanship and performing arts of traditional musical instruments and to promote cultural diversity among multi- ethnic groups in Myanmar. To raise awareness of the Myanmar public on the importance of ICH. To expand networking and information sharing between Myanmar and Korea.

This is an extract from the Paddana of Koti-Chennaya, a long epic that is popular in Tulunadu. It tells the story of twin heroes Koti and Chennaya, describing their heroic deeds, and finally their deification as daivas (local gods). Selected portions of Koti-Chennaya are sung in different contexts: a) while performing “Agelu Seve” at the shrines of Koti-Chennaya, b) during ritual performances, specifically the annual festival in front of the shrines (Baidarle Nema), c) while tapping toddy from palm trees, d) while transplanting paddy seedlings, d) in the wedding ceremony during the traditional decoration with colors (Madarangi), e) in a satirical theatrical performance called the Purusha Dance, f) during a marriage or funeral ceremony, g) while peeling dry areca nuts, and f) during leisure time for the purpose of relaxation. However, the major portions of the epic are performed during the Baidarle Kola, the ritual performance with Koti and Chennaya as mythical heroes.

Mo’og Magar is a traditional Yapese chant performed during girls’ standing dances in Balebat village, Rull municipality in Yap. The chant is basically intended to thank God for the lives of all grandparents in the community and for allowing their longevity to enable the little ones to spend more time with them in this life. In the dance, the girls also thank their grandparents for raising their parents as well as their parents for raising them to become who they are today.

This traditional folk song comes from the Dhimal community, which inhabits the forests of the Eastern Terai area in the south of Nepal. Both men and women sing and dance to this song sung in the Dhimal language.\nInstruments: dhimal dhol, baansuri, juri

Yawur is a traditional Yapese men’s standing dance from Tomil municipality on the eastern side of Yap. The dance was composed in the early days based on the hardship the Yapese people had experienced in Palau during the German colonial period. Yapese people were brought to Angaur (Yawur) in Palau by the Germans to excavate phosphate for Germany. Many were reluctant to go to Angaur because of the belief that it was a land of sickness and home of the evil spirits. They were also unsure if they could make it back home to be with their families again. The dance talks about all the hardship experienced during the time in Angaur as well as the apologies to the evil spirits on Angaur to save their lives. It also talks about the survivors who made it back home and their hope for not going back to Angaur again.

CD2_HISTORICAL RECORDINGS FROM THE 1930S OF ARNOLD BAKE VOL. II: EVERYDAY SONGS\n\nThe recordings by Dutch ethnomusicologist Arnold Adrian Bake in India in the 1930s and later are one of the earliest examples of what may be called “ethnographic” recordings. Arnold Bake and his wife Corrie spent a long time in Bengal but travelled all over India, recording the music, sounds, and other forms of intangible culture of the people. These recordings cover an immense range of music and recitations that are part of people’s everyday lives, such as work songs, devotional pieces, and ritualistic performances, and include a high number of women’s songs and cultural expressions. Bake’s first field trip was in 1925 and his last was in 1955. During that time, he travelled not only to India but also to Nepal and Sri Lanka. Collections of Bake’s recordings are held in archives in the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States. Recordings from 1925 to 1929 were on cylinders, and those from 1938 to 1939 were recorded on a machine called Tefifon. The collection that has been digitized for this project consists of the recordings made in 1938 and 1939. \n\nThe Tefi recordings were transferred to spools and deposited in ARCE in 1982. During those two years, Bake travelled from Sindh, the Gujarat coast, to Kerala, and thus the recordings are from Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Kerala. There are also recordings made in the Maldives and Sri Lanka. Thus, the selections presented on these albums are largely from the Southwest Coast of India. These recordings were chosen because they carry great historical value yet were not easily accessible until now. NB: The titles given by Arnold Bake have been retained. However, in the notes, places and names have been changed to reflect current designations – e.g. Canarese was changed to Kannada. Place names have also been modified to follow current spelling conventions.\n\nEveryday Songs - The everyday lives of people are what make up the core of intangible cultural heritage (ICH). This selection includes rituals, work songs, devotional and religious songs, as well as common songs that express joys and sorrows. In addition to songs, some tracks include cries and noises, reflecting the wide variety of sounds that Bake recorded.

This selection tells how native Yapese learned to use betel nuts (areca nuts) and how they learned tying patterns and techniques. It also talks about the roles and responsibilities of newly married Yapese couples and their families.\n

Uzbekistan in Central Asia is mostly grassland and desert, and much of its population is nomadic. However, there are also several oasis regions where people have settled into agricultural lifestyles. Uzbekistan used to be a strategic point in the Silk Road where the cultures of East and West met. There are several Kazakh and Tajik groups living in Uzbekistan and its borders are open to traders and nomads. Uzbeks love to sing and dance. Local folk performance groups called ensembles are a long standing tradition in Uzbekistan and lead all festivals and events. They compile and edit traditional folk songs and instrumental music to stage song and dance performances. The Boysun Festival is held annually in Boysun City, Southeastern Uzbekistan, and ensembles from all across the nation participate.\n\nTo hear the unadulterated versions of Uzbek folk songs, one has to ride a donkey into remote mountain villages. The mountains offer beautiful scenery and warm hospitality on top of humble folk songs. Boysun district in Uzbekistan is an example of such a mountainous region.\n\nA noteworthy characteristic of Uzbek folk songs is the large number of children’s songs. The children of Uzbekistan still sing as many children’s songs as we used to in the past. Another important genre of Uzbek folk music is the grand epic song sung by professional epic singers called bakhshi.

CD1_BHAJANS OF NEPALI FOLK CULTURE\n\nA bhajan is a spiritual chant in traditional Nepalese culture that is performed mainly in temples. The lyrics typically recount the good deeds of various gods and goddesses. It is believed that the performance of a bhajan brings about peace and prosperity and an improved quality of life for all living beings. Bhajans of Nepali Folk Culture This CD includes examples from four distinct categories of bhajan, namely Devi Bhajan, Dafa Bhajan, Khainjadi Bhajan, and Usha Charitra Bhajan.

In 2015, ICHCAP with the National Commission of the Republic of Uzbekistan for UNESCO and the Fine Arts Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan released the CD collection Melodies from Uzbekistan as part of its cooperation project to restore and digitize analogue resources on ICH.\n\nThis selection of audio resources are aged audio recordings stored at the Fine Arts Institute of the Academy of Sciences that have been restored and converted into a format suitable for storage and playback in media used today. The audio tracks in the collection consist of folk music recorded from field research conducted in Uzbekistan and border regions from the 1950s to the 1980s as well as studio recordings made from the 1930s to the 1970s. The eight CDs contain Uzbek songs related to work, animal rearing, rituals, and other important parts of day-to-day life in the region; instrumental music featuring various traditional Uzbek musical instruments, such as the dutor and g'ajir nay; and important Islamic oral traditions, such as maqoms and dostons.\n\nAlthough the traditional music of Central Asia may be unfamiliar to listeners from other parts of the world, the CDs come with information booklets in Uzbek, English, and Korean to provide an engaging experience for people from outside the region.\nThe selection represents the diverse and rich musical traditions of Uzbekistan and will be invaluable resources in the field of ICH education and promotion.

Audio and Video Materials Collected from the Onsite Survey in the Ferghana Valley_2012 Uzbekistan-ICHCAP Joint Cooperation Project of Producing Digital Contents on ICH\n\nThe glorious intangible cultural heritage (ICH) of Ferghana Valley encompassing the state of Ferghana, Andijion, and Namangan in Uzbekistan includes oral traditional, performing arts, traditional rites and festive events, and traditional crafts. However, this heritage is largely unknown to the public in the nation and abroad, and it is fading out even more rapidly due to the young generation’s lack of interest.\n\nSince 2011, the four Central Asian countries, including Uzbekistan, have been implementing a three-year project, Facilitating ICH Inventory-Making by Using Online Tools for ICH Safeguarding in the Central Asian Region as a Central Asia–ICHCAP cooperative project. In the framework of the project, the countries have collected ICH information and tried to build an online system for managing the collected information.\n\nIn Uzbekistan, the Republican Scientific and Methodological Centre of Folk Art, under the Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Republic of Uzbekistan, in collaboration with the National Commission of the Republic of Uzbekistan for UNESCO, implemented the three-year project. They collected information on ICH elements in the Ferghana Valley (Andijan, Namangan, and Ferghana regions), Zarafshan Oasis and Southern Uzbekistan (Jizzakh, Samarkand, Kashkadarya, and Surkhandarya regions), and the Republic of Karakalpakstan (Navoi, Bukhara, and Khoresm regions) through onsite surveys from 2012 to 2014.\n\nIn 2012 when the first onsite survey was concluded, Uzbekistan and ICHCAP selected representative materials among collected videos, audios, and photos on ICH elements and ICH bearers, and compiled the materials as a ten-CD/DVD collection. Also, booklets in English, Uzbek, and Korean were made to spread related information to a wider audience.\n\nFerghana Valley is also home to Tajikistan, Uighers, and Turkistan. In the other words, different traditions co-exist in the same place. ‘Katta Ashula’, which integrates arts, songs, music, and epics, is one Uzbek cultural heritage representing the identities of the diverse people live in the valley\n\nThe collection could preserve the disappeared and disconnected ICH and encourage increased mutual understanding and communication by spreading the information widely from the experts to the people.

Sounds that Run in the Vast Grasslands of Mongolia_Oral Traditions and Performing Arts in Mongolia\n\nSince the early 1950s, the Institute of Language and Literature at the Academy of Science (ILL) has been sending survey teams one to three times a year to research and gather data on oral literature and local dialectics. These activities set the groundwork for officially establishing a new archive with written documents and magnetic audio tapes that could be used for research purposes and be maintained. Preserved on magnetic tapes are languages and dialects that have gone extinct, have lost their distinctiveness, or have been adsorbed into other languages or dialects.\n\nHowever, most of the magnetic tapes being kept at the ILL are more than sixty years old, and the expiration date on many tapes has already lapsed. Also, improper storage conditions have caused some tapes to dry out, cling to one another, or fracture. For these reason, it would be hard to transmit to the next generation. Accordingly, since 2008, efforts have been made towards restoring and digitizing superannuated magnetic tapes within the internal capability and capacity of the ILL. The lack of training, finance, and proper tools and technical equipment has, nevertheless, created several obstacles and the digitizing results have not been very successful.\n\nAt this crucial state, the ILL introduced a cooperative request to the Foundation for the Protection of Natural and Cultural Heritage (FPNCH), and the FPNCH proposed that ICHCAP continue the joint project and take measures for restoring and digitizing superannuated magnetic tapes and distributing and disseminating the data among the general public. According to the above decision, the FPNCH and ICHCAP implemented the Joint Cooperation Project of Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage by Using Information Technology from October 2011 to April 2012.\n\nAs the first stage of the project, the Expert Meeting for Safeguarding ICH by Using Information Technology was held in the Republic of Korea to exchange information with experts for digitizing and restoring the analogue data. The experts of Mongolian National Public Radio, the ILL, and the FPNCH started the project after sharing restoration and digitization knowledge with the Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) of Korea, the National Archives of Korea, and the Korea Film Council.\n\nAs the main outcome of the project, a total of 715 hours of superannuated magnetic tapes including epics, folk tales, tales accompanied by the morin khuur, traditional arts, khuumei, chor, long and short folksongs, and traditional customs were restored, digitized, and categorized. Among them, 128 audio clips were selected and reproduced in a ten-CD collection called Sounds from the Mongolian Grasslands. The collection also includes a twenty-page handbook in English or Korean. Through this project, the general public’s, involved organizations’, and domestic and international experts’ awareness about Mongolian ICH increased, and the archive and music contents of regional ICH were strengthened.

Lialiaci is a publication of the iTaukei Institute of Language and Culture, Ministry of iTaukei Affairs. \nLialiaci means to ponder or reflect upon deeply. \nThat is the intent of these articles and perspectives on culture. \n\nThe publication has 3 articles:\n1. Bulu, The Spirit World by Anasa Tawake\n\nThis brief research will try to explain Bulu or the iTaukei concept of the spirit world.\nIt is important to define Bulu or the spirit world because it can be a foundation to which our beliefs are derived from. It is understood that our culture is ‘fixated on Bulu’ (Sekove Bigitibau). If this is so, then our culture, customs and ethos are focused towards the spirit world known as Bulu. Prior to Christianity, who’s to say that the beliefs of our ancestors were inaccurate? It is a common belief that Christianity was the best thing to happen to our vanua. On the contrary, Christianity brought about the demonization of iTaukei belief system. At the offset, the missionaries knew that there was an existing belief system unfortunately they chose to disregard this and not use it as a foundation for Christian faith.\n\n2.The Sunken island by Inoki Kaloumaira:\nA few islands in Fiji and the Pacific are said to have submerged in the last hundred to thousand years ago. The island of Vuniivilevu is believed to have submerged in the year AD1200 in the Motoriki waters, Lomaiviti (2005). It is one of the islands that is regarded to have been inhabited first before other settlers arrived. Early migrants were said to be tall, muscular and tough and this could be proven with the skeleton that was found in Naturuku, Motoriki in 2002. What was also remarkable about this skeleton was the excellent state of preservation of the skull. It was of a female who would’ve been tall, muscular and tough and was believed to have lived in Motoriki around 800BC (2007). \n\n3. Ancient Sounds in Fiji by Ulaiasi Taoi:\nAncient sounds in Fiji is still echoed in traditional chant, traditional dances, polyphony, and sacred psalms. It is found to be unique from western sounds and sounds in many parts of the world. Most current Fijian music has adopted western sounds, this includes church hymns, folk songs, serenades, and also Tongan sounds which is practiced in serevakalau known as Polotu and also pesi (Lauan folksongs). Aporosa a traditional cartographer form Beqa stated that there was no Fijian alphabet, but instead was the practice of oral transmission through traditional dances. Lyrics, cartographer and sound were transmitted through vision (Bulivou, 1985). Once ancient sounds were not composed, it was inherently transmitted through the vanua as a gift, and intrinsically maintained its mana in the vanua livelihood. \n\n\n\n \n

Oral tradition consists of diverse narratives. It is passed on by word of mouth as everyday wisdom and transmitted through the generations. After that, it becomes infused in a region’s history, philosophy, and way of life, thus forming the foundation for a community’s knowledge systems. This volume introduces traditional tales in Sri Lanka, Palau, Kyrgyzstan, and Vietnam.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by the UN Member States on 25 September 2015, is an action plan for tackling the most challenging issues of our world today. The hope is that within the next fifteen years, the sustainable development goals (SDGs) will encourage universal efforts to end all forms of poverty and ensure that no one is left behind.\n\nThe methods and practices to accomplish these goals will vary depending on the context. In the Pacific region, incorporating intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is crucial to accomplish any of the SDGs since it plays an important role as a “driver, enabler and guarantee of sustainable development.\n\nAlthough each nation in the Pacific has its own diverse ICH, they all share a sense of longing for sustainable development and community well-being. Traditional and local knowledge have always played a pivotal role in protecting clean water supplies, coral reefs, and rainforests; healing the sick through traditional medicine; and building homes resistant to climate change. Ensuring the success of the SDGs in the Pacific will require an understanding of how ICH can be incorporated in the SDGs from the local perspective.

When we were young, we were told a lot of stories. Everyone hated the big, vicious, evil, and cunning animals. However, seen through grown-up eyes, there are no bad animals in the world. Animals personified in stories convey a message to the human world-that of peace and harmony. At a time when a message of peace is desperately needed, let’s enjoy some stories featuring various animals, from tigers to birds, rabbits, monkeys, and more.