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.

In the Federated States of Micronesia, UNESCO’s ICH program is off to a great start in Yap—the state chosen to be the first in the FSM to embrace the opportunity. We recently hosted our first UNESCO ICH workshop, which was well attended and promoted throughout the state. And it is evident that outside recognition of the value of Yapese ICH has energized local interest in talking about cultural heritage as an asset worthy of protection. From the beginning, it has been highlighted that the management of Yapese ICH must be a collective effort—with UNESCO and other outside facilitators such as me only being here to provide technical and material support when necessary.

Located Northern Vanuatu, Pentecost Island is home to a unique traditional marriage practice, different from practices on other outer islands of Vanuatu. Traditional marriage practices begin between families of future spouses with food gifts offered from the groom’s family to the bride’s family. If a marriage agreement is reached between the two families, the groom’s father will return later with mats for the future bride. Future gifts are exchange between the two families to prepare for the wedding ceremony, signaling respect and a sense of community between the families.

The Maranao are a southern Philippine ethno-linguistic group living along the fringes of Lake Lanao in the Lanao provinces of Mindanao. The Maranao are best known for their love of beauty as shown in their ukil art, poetry—the epic Darangen, inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List—and the torogan, the grandest type of Philippine architecture.

In 2003, the Bose Levu Vakaturaga (Great Council of Chiefs) and the vanua (confederacies) of Fiji raised concerns about the need to safeguard the traditional knowledge systems of the iTaukei as well as the cultural expressions of the people. However, to implement legal safeguarding mechanisms, villagers needed to establish some kind of an inventory to see what rituals, ceremonies, dances, customary practices, etc. existed in their territories. Thus there was a need to develop a system by which the vanua and different tribes could freely participate and thus ensure that their stories and traditional knowledge could be documented. In other words, to satisfy their various needs in relation to intangible heritage safeguarding, the Cultural Mapping Initiative was established.

Sri Lanka has a diverse dancing culture where three main styles represent the classical dance tradition. These styles are known as Kandyan dances of the hill country (Uda Raṭa Nätum), the low country dances (Pahata Raṭa Nätum), and the mid-country (Sabaragamuva Näṭum). These three classical dancing styles are transmitted across generations with their ritualistic identities that are unique to movements, motions, costumes, and instruments. In the context of mask dancing, it is more relevant to the low country style, which is highly ceremonial and performed for ritualistic offerings to various devils. The dancers wear masks portraying many characters in different forms of spirits according to their characteristic features.

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.

In Myanmar traditional dance, Yein Aka (group dance) is a form in which dancers perform solos, alternating with their fellow group members. It is performed with the accompa\u0002niment of a traditional orchestra known as Hsaing Waing. There are various kinds of Yein, including Thagyan Yein (water festival dance), Nat Kadaw Yein (a dance to pray to spirits), A Pyodaw Yein (ladies’ dance), and Simi Yein (candle light dance). Most group dances are performed by women, although some are for men.

Modernization and other internal and external influences have caused vernacular houses in the Asia- Pacific region to be replaced. Today, their traditional status has been taken over by houses constructed using newly introduced materials and styles, even in remote villages. Although a house, as a physical object, may be considered to be a tangible heritage, the vernacular house is a product that encompasses intangible components, including the knowledge, skills, and local traditions associated with their construction, use, and maintenance by the particular community. The conservation or protection of vernacular houses is, in other words, tantamount to safeguarding their rich culture rather than merely the preservation of static buildings. \n\nVernacular houses in the tropics of Southeast Asia and the Pacific islands are often built using native plants, and they require occasional rebuilding and regular maintenance. The knowledge and skills required for the construction of a vernacular house building are rarely documented. Instead, the expertise is generally stored in memory and in the activities that are undertaken by an individual, family, or community. This is transferred through practical experience down the generations and is only shared among the members of a community. Our initiative focuses on the reconstruction of vernacular houses in conjunction with local communities, creating opportunities to understand all the requisites of building these traditional structures by thoroughly recording the construction process. \n\nChanges that have occurred in individual values, the lifestyles of ethnic communities, and their surrounding environments have created a situation in which the resources that are necessary for the construction of vernacular houses are less easily available or no longer available. It is common for vernacular houses to be perceived as outdated, old-fashioned, and underdeveloped. A vernacular house can no longer be built and used in the same way that it was when it was the only choice of housing. We need to identify ways in which to sustain traditional house building practices and to utilize this knowledge by examining its potential and its meaning in the modern context. This paper introduces our approach to the reinstatement and reconstruction of vernacular houses and to the revival of related activities in conjunction with local communities in Fiji, Thailand, Vanuatu, and Vietnam and illustrates some of our findings. In the process, the study identifies what it takes to build and sustain vernacular housing.

Chak-ka-yer is a Thai word similar in meaning to tug-of-war in western countries. It is one of the oldest folk team games in Thailand. Thai people across the country know chak-ka-yer, and many may have had some direct and indirect experience with this game, either as participants or observ-ers. Chak-ka-yer benefits Thai society in several ways. People use chak-ka-yer for fun, pleasure, recreation, and relaxation from their routine work. Chak-ka-yer is played between teams, groups, or communities to test their physical strength. The game does not focus on competition, team preparation, contest regulations, and championship, but rather on unity, friendship, morale, and incentive of communities. Chak-ka-yer as a game is related to thoughts, beliefs, customs, traditions, rituals, and values of the people in different areas. Chak-ka-yer is a high-level game of development and doesn’t focus on systematic contests; it has specific agency to respond to and has the team seriously trained and practiced to win the championship. Chak-ka-yer as a sport is left unmentioned in this article since it has become an international sport.

"Before starting this project, it was necessary to agree upon some definitions and concepts. Without understanding these concepts, it might have become difficult to create a suitable structure for the fieldwork. With this in mind, at the beginning of the project, which is based on a theoretical framework, we discussed the concept of agriculture.\n\n“To what we call culture in pre-established way is nothing but agriculture,” says Dr. Saheb Khandare in his 2012 book Krushi Sanskruti (Indian Agriculture), written in the Marathi language. Elaborating on this statement, he says, “in prehistoric times the word ‘clan’ was derived from kus. Kus means tilling, in the "

Traditional games in Papua New Guinea, mainly played by children, were an integral part of society. The nature of those games can be categorized as games of skill, games of strength, water sports, and games for quieter mood.