Around four thousand years ago, Austronesian-speaking people sailed from Taiwan into the greater Pacific. A thousand years later, they were the first people to land in Vanuatu and Tonga. Then these Austronesian voyagers mixed with Papuan populations in what is now Papua New Guinea, and those people later became the Polynesian voyagers. Evidence now suggests that the extent of Austronesian and Polynesian voyaging was greater than once thought, ranging from Madagascar to Brazil—over two-thirds around the globe. The seafaring vessels that the Austronesian voyagers created were the vehicles of the greatest human migration ever made.

In Myanmar, the ceremony of novitiation or rite of passage is important for Buddhists. Buddhist parents believe that this ceremony is a great merit for the samsara or circle of life. The festival is held in March and April during holidays for students.

Newars, the indigenous people of Kathmandu Valley, have a unique and sustainable way of safeguarding tangible and intangible cultural heritage through an association of people known as guthi. This ancient practice can be traced back to the fifth century CE, and it continues to have an organic link with the society and cultural heritage today. Guthi responsibilities range from simple everyday rituals to take care of temples; organize big events like chariot processions and traditional mask dances; and teach music. They also support social functions by integrating young people into a caste-based society.

Taumako, one of the Duff Islands, is a Polynesian island within the Santa Cruz group in Temotu Province to the southeast of the Solomon Islands, in the southwestern Pacific. Taumakoans speak the Veakau-Taumako language, which comes from the Samoic branch of Polynesian languages. Taumakoans still practice ancient navigational techniques and are known for building a type of proa sailing canoe, the Tepuke, using local materials. They maintain traditional ways of living, relying heavily on subsistence farming and fishing.

The question of how to apply integrated approach in ICH safeguarding is a fundamental issue in implementing the 2003 Convention. It also entails further questions not only for intangible heritage field, but also other relevant cultural heritage fields.\n\nThis session aims to find out the best method of integrated approaches from the viewpoint of ICH safeguarding within the framework of the 2003 Convention. Such aim will require a discussion of the intangible value of tangible heritage and an inquiry of the tangible elements of ICH by looking into various case studies of 'cultural spaces’.\n

In the historical books and folk beliefs of the Việt, there have been many stories and legends of Thánh Gióng - the Saint of the ancient Việt who was considered as one of the four immortal gods by the Vietnamese nationwide. The monarchic dynasties of the Great Việt in Vietnam bequeathed him as a Heavenly King. Legend has it that he was born as the result of a magical union between a girl from Gióng village and the giant footprint of the rain god in the Việt’s myths. At the age of three, he grew miraculously into a giant after hearing the King’s appeal to find gifted people to save the country and its people. After defeating the foreign invaders, the hero went to Sóc mountain and flew into the heaven.

1970s and, in 2001, the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) started working with the organization. Prokritee works for the promotion of handicrafts made in Bangladesh and has supported 1,500 rural artisan families to become self-reliant, 90% of them women. The key principles of Prokritee are to work in a spirit of love, respect and compassion, encourage self-reliance, and to reach women with the greatest need.

In mid-April every year, Sri Lankans celebrate the Sinhala and Hindu New Year with distinctive rituals that fuse Hindu and Buddhist elements. With the introduction of Buddhism in the third century BCE, traditional Hindu New Year rituals were reinterpreted. While historians and sociologists believe these rituals were closely related to sun worship because they coincided with ancient myths about the sun moving from one celestial house to another—the major rituals today embody a sense of cultural heredity and tradition.

Co-orgarnized by ICHCAP and Hue Monuments Conservation Centre (HMCC), this year’s Asia-Pacific ICH NGO Conference was held in Hue, Vietnam under the theme of ICH NGOs towards Sustainable Development of Communities.

"Whether we call it clan, kin, family, tribe, or community, there are multiple ways of knowing and identifying ourselves in the Pacific. A few of these ways are captured here. This section explores how social relationships and their hierarchies within the Pacific islands are vital ways of understanding intangible cultural heritage. Social and spiritual rituals, religious ceremonies, and various other cultural practices reflect how Pacific islanders prioritize social cohesion as a pathway to sustainable prosperity, ensuring the transformation of skills, knowledge, and wisdom for survival. \nThe themes in this section are pivotal to ICH because relationships represent an important organizing principle of life among Pacific islanders and determine how intangible heritage can be safeguarded. Relationships are marked in ceremonial events and rituals such as the communal harvest of balolo in Fiji and other ceremonies such as the bel kol in PNG. Likewise, the omengat, the first-birth ceremony in Palau, brings unrelated clans and families together and is central to family ties and social cohesion. The essays on these and other topics collected in this section illustrate that Pacific islanders take care to mark and honor relationships important to them, as these relationships ensure family, clan, and tribal ties and help to achieve enhanced social cohesion and sustainability."

Facing the rising sun, Va Temple in Van Gia Village, Trung Hung Ward, Hanoi, is also known as the East Palace, marking its importance as one of the four major veneration sites of the Tan Vien Mountain God, a key figure of Vietnamese spiritual tradition. According to legend the site’s tutelary divinity is the Ancestral Deity of the Southern Heavens and God of the Tan Vien Mountain, one the country’s most ancient deities and one of the principal mountain gods. As such, the Tan Vien Mountain God is venerated throughout the northern plain region of Vietnam by the Viet people and by some of the country’s ethnic minorities as well.

"To the Pacific islanders, the waters that separate them are also a factor that connects them. Bearing this in mind, the four themes in this section offer a glimpse into the need to hold mastery over the sea for survival—for the fish that sustain the people and for the creation of pathways to connect them. Through extensive interisland trade, the ocean pathways maintain and sustain relationships for political, social, educational, economic, and most of all, spiritual benefits. \nIn “Palauan Knowledge of the Sea,” for example, we see how extensive methods and nuances of fishing and oceanic knowledge are part of both the livelihood and identity of Palauans. Similarly, by examining the Yapese knowledge related to canoes and ocean voyaging, we can see the effects and importance of inherited know-how on the connected lives of Micronesians through the ages and today. In these and all the themes in this section, we see how expressions by custodians of cultural know-how and development of sophisticated navigational systems have allowed Pacific islanders to travel safely and interact with the ocean and each other. Pacific navigation is perhaps one of the most singular human achievements of humanity. "