The Masion des Cultures du Monde (World Cultures Institute) The Maison des Cultures du Monde (“World Cultures Institute”), has been founded in 1982 in Paris by Chérif Khaznadar and Françoise Gründ with the support of the French ministry of Culture. Its goals, the promotion and the enhancement of world performing arts - as witnesses of human inventiveness, \n\n- as landmarks of a historical continuity - as factors of cultural diversity \n- as sources of inspiration and creative renewal. Its method: the on-stage presentation of musical, dramatic, choreographic and ritual expressions from all over the world and mostly unknown to the French public. Since the creation of the United Nations, a new vision emerged that international solidarity should be based on the knowledge of other cultures and on a “dialogue of cultures”. In France several initiatives were conducted such as : - the Theatre of Nations with the support of UNESCO\n- foreign cultural seasons such as the Year of India, the Year of China, the Year of Korea, the Year of Vietnam etc. \n- a Traditional Arts Festival which promoted world traditional arts in a spirit of open-mindedness, awareness raising, aesthetic pleasure and cultural enrichment.

I have a very fond memory of a 50 year-old man who worked in the kitchen of the hotel where we stayed for 20 days while participating in the 2007 Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington DC. Whenever this member of staff had any free time, he came along to enjoy our performances, and was especially keen on our sessions of Don ca tai tu singing. His face, which often had a look of sadness that made him appear far older than his years, brightened into a broad smile as he listened, and there were times when his eyes filled with tears. It turned out that he was Vietnamese, one of the expatriates formerly referred to in the USA as 'boat people', and he came originally from Rach Gia district in the southern province of Kien Giang.\nHe had left our homeland in 1975 and had never been able to return. I was deeply moved by this encounter and felt I was seeing the true power of culture to bring people together and show them how to share, to understand and to feel close to one another.

Lialiaci is a publication of the iTaukei Institute of Language and Culture, Ministry of iTaukei Affairs. Lialiaci means to ponder or reflect upon deeply.\n\nThat is the intent of these articles and perspectives on culture.

Lacquer work, or liyelaa jehun as locally known, is one of the most distinctive forms of handicraft. In simple terms, a piece of wood is sculpted into the desired shape and then coated with layers of different colors of lacquer. Once the lacquer coating is finished, it is polished with dry leaves. And intricate patterns are engraved on the item with simple tools, without any premade drawings. They can be seen on many wooden objects and in Coral Stone Mosques of the Maldives; six of which on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List are also adorned with lacquered works that contribute to their outstanding universal value.

Duong Bich HANH is the Chief of Culture Unit in the UNESCO Bangkok Office. She has been working to promote the ratification and implementation of UNESCO’s six cultural Conventions- including the 2003 ICH Convention- and coordinating a number of regional projects in Southeast Asia and Asia-Pacific. She is especially interested in promoting the role of culture and cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible, in sustainable development and in ensuring that local communities both participate and benefit from the protection of their own heritage. Ms Hanh is an Anthropologist with extensive knowledge and experience in Southeast Asia and international development.

1.0 SNAPSHOT OF FIJI \n\n1.1 The Fiji islands has a population of about 900,000 spread out over 100 islands, administered in 14 provinces or prefectures by an indigenous administration system and into four major divisions administered by Government. The 14 provinces fit into the 4 major divisions of Northern, Central, Eastern and Western. Approximately 51 % of the population are the ethnic iTaukei indigenous population, 49% are those of Indian descent and the Chinese and other Pacific islanders. Major languages spoken are English, iTaukei Fijian and Hindi.

The custom of traditional Japanese tug-of-war, or tsunahiki (綱引), can be outlined as follows:\n\n• It is practiced on different annual events, such as Ko-syogatsu (小正月), or New Year celebration around 15 January according to the lunar calendar), Obon festival (盆)celebrated around 15 August, the Boys’ Festival on 5 May (端午節句), or the fifteenth night of August of the lunar calendar (八月十五夜).\n• The tug-of-war ropes are made of either straw, kaya (kind of cogon grass often used as traditional roofing materials), or shobu (菖蒲 or sweet sedge).\n• A village is divided into two groups of farming and fishing areas, eastern and west-ern areas, and upstream and downstream areas, and in some cases, the two groups are subdivided into smaller groups such as children and young adults as well as men and women.\n• The rope is tugged by these groups, or dragged around, slammed against the ground, or sometimes cut into pieces.\n• The purpose of this traditional event is said to forecast the volume of the coming harvest, to ward off evil spirits, or to pray for a peaceful life.

The intangible cultural heritage of any nation and ethnic group depends upon a locality, environment, business way of life, language, and condition of cultural history that is very diverse and unique. Thus, the intangible cultural heritage of any nation symbolizes their identities and constitutes an integral part of the world culture. The Mongolian nation and its ethnic groups are an inseparable part of the global population. The Mongols and their ancestors have lived and moved from place to place on the vast territory from the Altai Mountain ranges to the Khyangan Mountains, from Lake Baikal to the Chinese Great Wall. This area is a part of the vast and grassy Eurasian plain that stretches for several thousand kilometers from the Danube River to the Korean peninsula, and on which animal husbandry–based nomadic cultures and agricultural farming–based sedentary civilizations long co-existed.

A great challenge for sustaining intangible cultural heritage is in finding appropriate forms and methods to document and communicate its inherently ephemeral aspects. Globalization in tandem with rapid political, social, and environmental change around the world is placing both cultural and material heritage at risk in ways that societies, governments, and global institutions could not anticipate nor prevent. Recently, however, digital recording and display technologies have opened up powerful new possibilities for the representation, preservation, transmission, and exhibition of immaterial experiences, including the reconstruction of lost places, vanished objects, and embodied and ephemeral practices, signaling a new way to imagine and transmit the memory of the world.

Vernacular martial arts (VMA) occupy a special niche within the diverse phenomena classified as martial arts. Cross-culturally, “Martial arts can be defined as systematic bodies of knowledge, belief, and practice that are associated with methods of attack and defense against … adversaries” (Green and Svinth, 2010, p. 331). On close examination, we learn that the behaviors we attempt to gather under this umbrella term are quite diverse, ranging from life-and-death struggles through rule-governed sporting contests to expressive forms, from globalized combat sports to localized martial culture. The systems that fall on the latter end of this spectrum I have applied the VMA label to, and among the various martial expressions these are the ones that most clearly qualify as intangible cultural heritage (ICH). The following distinctions are useful for the current discussion.

Director-General Samuel Lee, distinguished guests, and fellow participants of this important and significant UNESCO conference to reflect on the efforts to safeguard intangible cultural heritage and prospects for the future, it gives me pleasure and great honor to take part in this historical moment primarily as a student. I want to learn, to relearn, and also to unlearn, especially about intangible heritage that has suffered for\nmore than a hundred and fifty years—a great deal has suffered to a point of cultural marginalization or even annihilation, especially in the motherland of the cultural heritage. Of course, I am referring to Confucian tradition—not just temples, academies, and tangible structures, but Confucian tradition as one of the most precious intangible cultural heritage elements of East Asia, which includes not just China, but also Korea,\nJapan, Vietnam, and East Asian diaspora around the world.