Kathmandu Valley, the land of festivals, rituals, and celebrations all around the year, has its fair share during the spring as well. The festival of colors signifies the arrival spring and warm weather. It is celebrated on the full-moon day, which normally falls in the month of March depending on the lunar calendar. Also, several festivals and chariot processions follow afterwards and are specific to cities and towns within the valley. These festivals have continued since their inception, even when the devastating earthquake hit Kathmandu Valley in 2015.\n\nBut this year the global coronavirus pandemic threaten many festivals, which have been halted or celebrated with few participants. Holi, which used to be celebrated in huge groups were celebrated with just families and in smaller groups. The rituals associated with Holi, like raising and falling of chir—a long wooden pole with multicolor clothes hanging on it as umbrella were performed. This year Holi was celebrated on 9 March in Kathmandu Valley, and with threat of spreading Corona Virus, the government of Nepal issued notice not to have a mass gathering. So the festival of color was celebrated with just families and was not in a celebratory mode like in previous years.\n\nAfter that, most of the festival that followed were not held this year, limiting to just formal rituals. Pachare, one of the major festivals of Kathmandu, saw just family rituals and celebrations within families. The celebration with gatherings of different localities with the mother goddess in palanquins was halted. During the same time, the Nepal army used to hold a horseracing festival in Tudikhel (a large open space within Kathmandu), which also gave the festival name Ghode Jatra for the non-Newa community. This public event used to be attended by high-profile people of the country including the President and Prime Minister. This year just few days ahead of the event, the Nepal army canceled it.\n\nSimilarly, with the stress of the rapid spreading of the coronavirus all over the world, the other festivals are also being cancelled. The organizing committee of chariot procession of Seto Machindranath held a meeting and cancelled the yearly procession. Every year the festival chariot procession takes place in March or April for four days in Kathmandu with huge fanfare. This year it was supposed to take place from 30 March to 2 April.\n\nFollowing Kathmandu, the major festival of Bhaktapur “Biska Jatra,” which is celebrated for eight to nine days depending on lunar calendar was also cancelled this year. This year the festival was supposed to take place from 9 to 17 April, with the events like chariot procession, raising wooden pole called yosi, several other rituals, and so on. During this event, there used to be a mass gathering, people participating as well as spectators even from the neighboring cities. After meeting with the local government, municipalities, community leaders, and Guthi members, the decision was made not to continue the festival this year. Like in other places, the community decided to go ahead with just formal rituals.\n\nThe festivals in Nepal are not just for public gatherings, music, and dances but also for the extended family members to get together and strengthen the family ties. This is the first time that these major festivals were discontinued as people are advised to keep social distancing and in lockdown. The effect of Covid-19 also was seen in the small community rituals of Guthi. The social association used to have many community specific rituals in the springtime.\n\nPhoto : Chir which signifies the Holi festival in front of Gaddi Baithak in Kathmandu © Monalisa Maharjan

In March 2019 Singapore submitted its nomination to inscribe its hawker culture onto the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Hawker culture in Singapore comprises hawker centers (community dining rooms), hawkers, and hawker food. It is a living heritage shared by those who prepare hawker food and those who dine and mingle over hawker food in hawker centers.\n\nAs part of the Singapore government’s ongoing efforts to safeguard Singapore’s hawker culture for future generations, the National Heritage Board (NHB), the National Environment Agency (NEA), and the Federation of Merchants’ Associations, Singapore (FMAS) have partnered with Google to document Singapore’s beloved hawker centers on Google Maps to make them discoverable to anyone looking for quality and affordable hawker food.\n\nThrough this public–private partnership, the parties involved hope to bring Singapore’s hawker culture into the digital age and help hawkers in Singapore establish their presence online through Google Maps and Search. The joint project also hopes to attract more customers and drive footfall to Singapore’s hawker centers, enabling the rest of the world to learn more about Singapore’s hawker culture.\n\nThe project comprises a collection of 360-degree imagery of Singapore’s hawker centers using Google Maps’ Street View that allows visitors to explore each hawker center to capture more accurate information about individual hawker stalls, such as name, stall number, and photographs. In addition, each hawker stall will receive a separate pin on Google Maps, showing its exact location within the hawker center, thereby allowing both local and visiting fans of Singapore’s hawker food to find their favorite stalls more easily.\n\nAccording to Mr. Lim Gek Meng, Vice-President of FMAS and Chairman of the Chinatown Complex Hawkers’ Association: “Finding your way through a hawker center can be confusing, especially at bigger centers such as Chinatown Market. This project is beneficial to the hawker community as it will help customers locate hawker stalls with ease. Hawkers will also be able to personalize their online presence to reach out to more customers, at no cost and with little effort.”\n\nAs these hawker centers are located all over Singapore, from downtown to residential estates, a team of Google operators will travel to every hawker center and use the new Street View Trekker to capture the required imagery. Mounted on a wearable backpack, the new trekker comprises a state-of-the-art 360-degree camera system that captures and produces high-resolution panoramic images every two seconds.\n\nGoogle’s team of operators will collect indoor imagery of all 114 hawker centers in Singapore, including Chinatown Complex, Geylang Serai Market, Tekka Market, Maxwell Food Centre, and Golden Mile Food Centre. The collection of imagery will be carried out in phases, and it is expected to be completed and launched on Google Maps by early 2020.\n\nPhoto : An operator carrying a Google Street View Trekker ⓒ Google, Singapore

A Bonkar (refined Bon religion that doesn’t involve animal sacrificial offering) traditional rite, Yak-lai is performed in some villages in Ura and Tang Gewogs (blocks) who owns la-nor (highland cattle) esp. Yaks. Colloquially, Yak-lai means ‘yak deity’ and if translated in Dzongkha (national tongue) it is called Yak Lha. However, the ritual is not strictly practiced by the Yak owners but, those households who owns tha-nor (normal cattle) also propitiate the god for prosperity of their livestock. The rite specifically invokes the yak deity Lha Wodue Gongjan, who is considered one of the principal deities of Bon who is believed the ultimate source of any blessings possesses supreme ability to fulfill the desires of worldly beings. Residents of Bumthang who have highland cattle, or otherwise practice animal husbandry take part in the three-day Yak-lai ritual every year.

ICH is an integral part of the indigenous population of Fiji known as the iTaukei. Borne of a rich oral tradition that spanned migration from Southeast Asia into the Pacific from 3,500 B.C., the iTaukei people of Fiji share many similarities with their island neighbors of Melanesia and Polynesia. ICH has manifested itself in many elements—from oral traditions, social practices, knowledge of nature, traditional craftsmanship, and performing arts. These elements exist in a rich interplay of reciprocal social systems in which the pinnacle is the chief, the physical embodiment of the ancestral spirits. Practice of the various elements legitimizes and enforces the status quo in traditional iTaukei life.

The Beautiful Story-Grandma Program (storymama.kr in Korean) is a unique program that the Advanced Center for Korean Studies began in 2009. Through the program, elderly women are given training and sent to child education facilities near their homes to tell three-to five-year-olds stories based on Korean traditions and history.

Nepal, like most nations, has its own distinct cultural, ethnic, and bio-diverse makeup. The richness of Nepal’s centuries old art, crafts, and culture abounds the alleys and courtyards of Kathmandu. Arts and crafts have long been a part of Nepalese livelihoods and lifestyles. Today these arts and crafts have become precious commodities—souvenirs and antiquities for collectors. Still hundreds of thousands of people create masterpieces as part of their livelihood. Acknowledging the importance of arts and crafts in Nepal, many Fair Trade Organizations (FTOs) have been working to preserve and promote art, crafts, and culture as a means of sustainable livelihood for people practicing fair trade (FT).

Tugging rituals and games survived in Ukraine from different epochs, keeping a deep ethnological sense and didactic use. Through decades and centuries, tugging traditions, which later formed the basis of different sport competitions and educational exercises related to tugging, have been modified, reflecting changed environments and social demands. As a rule, they constituted an important part of rural street (open-air) life and entertainment as well as public festivals associated with calendar or religious holidays, like Kolodiy, Masliana, and Stritennia (Pancake Week, Shrovetide, and Candlemas Day, respec-tively) and Midsummer Day, Christmas, Easter holidays. A lot of popular customs from pre-Christian (pagan) times passed to the Christian holidays and have continued until now. Obviously, as a recognized researcher of folk life, V. Skurativsky, wrote, the ethnographic term “street” to mean the ancient traditional form of youth entertain-ment that originated from the places of young people’s meetings.

On 30 August 2019 at the National Intangible Heritage Center, Jeonju, Republic of Korea, ICHCAP held a special roundtable talk facilitated by Dr. Seong-Yong Park, Editor-in-Chief, to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the ICH Courier. Among the invited guests were Gaura Mancacaritadipura, Editorial Advisory Board Member; Boram Kim, Editor-in-Chief, UNESCO News for KNCU; Aigul Khalafova, Culture Specialist, UNESCO Almaty Office; and Phuttitarn Linina, UNESCO ICH Facilitator. Additional participants from ICHCAP included KEUM Gi Hyung, Director-General; Michael Peterson, Chief of Communications; Min Jung Kim, Programme Specialist. KEUM Gi Hyung opened the talk with his remarks.

This paper and the presentation highlight the value of the Yapese fish weirs and how they, and the associated intangible cultural heritage can be used to assist modern-day approaches to marine ecological \nconservation, in addition to keeping traditional sustainable fishing practices alive.\n\nYap is located 840 km south west of Guam and 1,850 km east-south\u0002east of Manila. It consists of four volcanic islands (referred to as Yap Proper), seven small coralline islands and about 130 atolls forming the \n‘Outer Islands’ that cover about 800 km in the north west Pacific Ocean, all of which forms Yap state—one of the four States of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). \n\nOn the reef flat adjacent to the volcanic islands, the Yapese developed a harmonious, sustainable system of fishing that incorporated spiritual, social, cultural and environmental connectivity and awareness. This is of particular importance to the inshore fishery, which is a sensitive region for fish breeding, and needs to be well conserved, maintained and not overfished. The Yapese employed a number of cultural practices (living heritage) related to fishing, and created a number of tangible cultural heritage, and together they form the Yapese maritime cultural landscape. This system employed a number of fish traps and weirs, with the tidal stone-walled fish weirs—aech—surviving to this day.\n\nYap has now four Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Yapese are aware that fishing is currently not implemented in a sustainable manner and are declaring ‘no catch zones’ in certain marine areas. Many of the studies associated with the need for and development of MPAs are largely science based, with little relevance and benefit given to traditional fishing (cultural practices and the material cultural). Traditional fishing practices using traditional ecological knowledge were carried out sustainably for hundreds of years and the incorporation of this knowledge into MPA management should not be overlooked.

We would like to address the issue of “Once cultural heritage of the community has suddenly become media news” There are a number of elements of intangible cultural heritage that have come to be thought of as problematic or 'bad customs' having a negative impact on contemporary social life. For example, the ritual of sacrificing animals as an offering to gods or spirits. The question is whether such things really should be understood as bad customs? Should we allow such practices to continue or either alter or abandon them? And who has the right to decide in such matters?

Laos is host to a diversity of cultures, traditions, and arts. While the handicraft heritage of the country, such as textile production, is widely promoted, documented, and commercialized, its rich musical traditions remain largely unknown and underestimated. The same could be said of its built heritage – much work and funding has gone into stabilizing or renovating architecture and buildings, particularly religious sites of national importance. Intangible cultural traditions, such as how to sing traditional songs, how to make instruments, and how to play certain instruments, are being left by the wayside. Due to its specific topography and the variety of ethnic groups inhabiting Laos, the country hosts an impressive diversity of musical styles. Singing is the most common form of musical expression in Laos. Traditional popular songs are called “khap” in the north and “lam” in the south. Traditional singing of Laos (khap-lam) is also used as symbol of ethnic identity, as each group has its own melodic model or musical style. While a rich knowledge exists about music, it is rarely explicitly verbalized, as most musical practices are implicitly learned through processes of listening/observation and imitation. Today, however, documenting and safeguarding this ancestral knowledge is urgent, as new media and changing social mores lead to changes in traditional mechanisms of transmission.

The main contents of this publication are reports from thirty-two nations collected by ICHCAP from 2009 to 2015 as part of its annual projects to collect information on intangible cultural heritage safeguarding in the Asia-Pacific region. We have also compiled information from other reports and conference materials collected by ICHCAP to present key data, such as national inventories and information on related organizations, in an easily accessible format.