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.

From 1990 to 2010, as an ethnologist devoted to the process of heritagemaking, I investigated Alpine communities and their strategies in facing a changing world. In an historical perspective, my eldwork has been oriented to making memories and the ways they worked as strategies of resistance in facing the many uncertainties of the future (Certeau 1990).

Nepal is a multiethnic, multilingual, and multicultural country with rich cultural heritage located between India and China. The 2011 census recognized 125 caste and ethnic groups and 123 different languages. The new constitution of the Nepali federal republic has further recognized all the spoken languages as national languages. The National Foundation for Development of Indigenous Nationalities (NFDIN) recognized fifty-nine indigenous nationalities residing in Nepal in 2002 (NFDIN 2011). However, in the 2011 census only forty-seven indigenous nationalities were reported (CBS 2012). Among them, Tharu is the second-largest indigenous group with a population of 1.7 million residing in various districts of southern Nepal (CBS 2012).

This networking program is based on experiences and achievements obtained from the collaborative work of UNESCO-ICHCAP in the living heritage field in Central Asia over the last decade.\n\nFor reference, the networking program comes on the heels of a three-party MoU signed by ICHCAP and organizations in Uzbekistan in 2019 and was followed by a Central Asia network meeting in Kazakhstan in 2019. In 2020, ICHCAP in cooperation with International Institute for Central Asian Studies (IICAS), conducted a survey project about ICH festivals along the Silk Roads, particularly with countries along the steppe route. Regarding the survey result, ICHCAP, IICAS and Korea-Central Asia Cooperation Forum Secretariat of the Korea Foundation (KF) held an online webinar and a strategic meeting to consider the need for realizing the multilateral values of Silk Roads-related cooperation

In Turkey, it is mostly traditional female cooks who prepare wedding dishes in most villages, although their numbers have declined. Traditional female cooks have almost always been at the center of my culinary eld research. I carried out an important part of this research in the villages and small towns of the Aegean (Izmir, Aydın, Manisa), Mediterranean (Adana), Marmara (Balıkesir, Çanakkale), and Central Anatolia (Çorum) regions between 1998 and 2018. e data I obtained by interviewing and observing techniques in groups that describe themselves as immigrants, natives, Alawis, Yoruks, or Turkomans in these settlements showed that traditional female cooks who prepare ceremonial dishes, especially for weddings, have some common equipment and knowledge. is equipment included the ability to control the material, cooking and presentation techniques of ceremonial food and to transfer the traditional knowledge, skills, and experience of food to future generations.

Nauryz is the first day of the new year according to the solar calendar in many Turkic cultures and symbolizes the renewal of nature associated with the cult of fertility. Nauryz unites people around traditional values. Before the holiday, it is necessary to pay off debts, forgive each other’s offenses, tidy up the house, prepare refreshments, clean the springs, and plant trees. All people are in a hurry to congratulate relatives, friends, colleagues, and neighbors; they smile and say warm words when meeting people by chance as well as invite them over and sit down at a dastarkhan, which has a round shape like a table many more people can fit around than from behind a rectangular one. This shows the original hospitality and kindliness of Kazakhs.\n\nLegends Associated with the Name of Nauryz Holiday\nAccording to one legend, Nauryz is the name of the ancestor of Kazakhs, he did not have children. Before his death, Nauryz turned to Abdraim (the prophet) with words of regret that he had no one to leave his name. To preserve the name of the old man, Abdraim gave the name to Nauryz-kozhe. Nauryz is the birthday and death of this old man. On this day they prepare a sacrificial meal, read prayers from the Koran in memory of their ancestors. According to another version, Nauryz is the name of a beggar. Before his death, he turned to the old people with the words that he had no one to leave his name. Old people promised to cook Nauryz-kozhe annually and read prayers from the Koran in memory of him.\n\nHoliday Symbols\nThe white color on the dastarkhan is a symbol of contentment, welfare, and prosperity. Therefore, its mandatory attributes are: koumiss, kurt, cottage cheese—livestock products.\n\nThe most indispensable thing in Nauryz is the presence of a traditional dish—nauryz-kozhe on each holiday table. Kazakhs believe that in Nauryz you need to eat this dish to e fulfilled and then the year will pass in abundance. Nauryz-kozhe is a nourishing and rich soup prepared from seven ingredients: meat, water, flour, butter, millet (can be replaced with rice or corn), salt, and milk. Each component of the dish symbolizes one of the seven vital principles: growth, luck, happiness, wealth, health, wisdom, and the patronage of heaven. Nauryz is generally full of symbols. At the celebration of Nauryz the presence of the number seven was obligatory for Kazakhs, which represent seven days of the week, units of time of universal eternity: seven cups were placed before the elders with a nauryz-kozhe drink made from seven varieties of seven types of cereals.\n\nAmusements\nThe celebration of Nauryz has always been accompanied by mass games, traditional horse racing and amusements. Improvised contests of wit poets (akyns) take place in Nauryz, the holiday is not without national competitions among which the kazaksha kures national wrestling, the game of logic called toguz kumalak and of course kyz-ku and baiga horse games. Actors play theatrical performances right on the streets. Another ancient tradition of Nauryz celebrating revered to this day is called altybakan when girls and boys come together to chat and ride on a swing.\n\nAll people, regardless of gender, age, and communal affiliation are released from everyday duties and take part in fun and games on equal terms. The day ends with a performance where two akyns in poetic form competed in songs. Their competitions stopped when the sun goes down over the horizon, when good conquers evil. Then they make a fire, and people with torches light them up from go around all the neighborhoods of the village, singing and dancing, thereby completing the festival of spring renewal and the equinox.\n\nNauryz was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2016.\n\nPhoto : Nauryz © Nazym Malibayeva

In Bhutan, buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) is grown in non-rice growing regions and highland areas where cultivating other cereals is limited due to agro-geo-climate variations. Buckwheat is used throughout Bhutan in myriad culinary preparations, and of these, puta, a buckwheat noodle from the Bumthang Dzongkhag (Bumthang District), is very popular.