Cultural heritage consists of any tangible or intangible object, group, or natural resource which has been inherited or created by a generation and is safeguarded to be transferred, in excellent condition, to future\ngenerations (after UNESCO, 2019). Tangible cultural heritage refers to monuments, groups of buildings or sites of outstanding universal value, whereas intangible cultural heritage is a practice, representation, expression, knowledge, or skill, as well as instruments, objects, artifacts, and cultural spaces that communities, groups, or even individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage (UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2019., UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, 2019). The 1972 World Heritage Convention of UNESCO defines the criteria of the natural or cultural sites to be considered for inscription on the World Heritage List (UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 1972). The Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage was drafted in 2003 for the protection and promotion of the aforementioned intangible cultural heritage elements, and such elements may be inscribed on the appropriate Intangible Cultural Heritage List (UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, 2003). The two types of cultural heritage, tangible and intangible, are not to be treated separately but in combination, since either one is influenced by and complementary to the other.

The Cambodian teanh prot (“pulling the rope”), which is generally rendered in English as “tug-of-war,” is one of the most important ritual games played nationwide during certain times of year, especially around the three-day New Year holiday in mid-April. Although the game can be played at any time for entertainment, it is ritually played in the afternoon on the last day of the New Year and/or in the afternoon of chlong chet, a rice-associated ceremony observed shortly after the New Year. The event takes place in an open space of the village or Buddhist monastery.

Since ancient times, Mongolians have been producing and consuming more than 3,000 types of foods and beverages. Mongolian culinary tradition can be classified into the following three categories:\n\nTsagaan idee ‘White food’ or Dairy products\nUlaan idee ‘Red food’ or Meat products\nNogoon idee ‘Green food’ or Vegetable products\n\nAmong these three, Mongols primarily consumed diverse forms of dairy and meat products more than the vegetable foods. This is relative to the living condition and ancient transhumant lifestyle of the Mongols.

Gardening is a popular branch of traditional agriculture in Tajikistan. The term bāgh (garden) among Tajiks has three meanings: a home garden inside one’s own yard; a walled garden alongside the yard; and a garden far from the home and yard, where people go during summers to temporarily live and work. In these gardens, people grow fruit-bearing and shady trees as well as flowers and other crops.

"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 "

Allington Ndlovu highlightes interventions by local communities on how they have deployed indigenous knowledge systems to treat COVID19 symptoms and also enhance food security in light of job losses and lockdowns.

Throughout the years, I have been researching Korean recreational activ-ities, and among them, the tug-of-war was definitely the most central theme. According to my research, the Korean tug-of-war has many different fea-tures following the different regional characteristics, but they also have similar patterns. Although it is possible to speculate that the diverse characteristics of each region’s tug-of-war is due to the area’s geo-ecological, sociocultural, and magi-co-religious factors and culture exchange, it is difficult to prove these factors in depth. Thus, this paper examines the diverse features present in the tug-of-war through studies completed up to now. Also I would like to add that the only intent for the tug-of-war studies was to compile and examine them in this report. Despite many methods in examining the diversity of tug-of-war, this paper sets a few standards to reveal the present features, and with these standards, the meaning of Korean tug-of-war can be understood.

According to the Mongolian astrological calendar, as well as in other Asian countries, this year is the Year of the Tiger. As well as a year, the third of the twelve animals of lunar astrology is also marked with the day of the tiger (the day of the conquest of the tiger), the month of the tiger (the first month of spring), and the tiger hours of the day (3.40 a.m. to 5.40 a.m.). Mongols teach that, “If you do not get up with tiger i.e., during the tiger hours, then the day will be late. If you do not study in young age, then growing up will be late.” The tiger is also one of the eight cardinal directions on the map of Mongolia, representing northeast. This corresponds with the octagonal shape of a yurt, on which homeowners place the appropriate symbols depending on the direction of each face.

The festival of Diwali in India is celebrated by different communities in different ways, performing different rituals. It is a festival of lights celebrated by Hindus, Jains, and Sikhs, and usually lasts for five days.\nThe Sindhi community in India celebrates Diwali for just three days. One of the distinctive features of their celebration is the worshipping of a haatdi. Haatdi is also worshipped by a few Gujarati communities.\n“Haatdi” comes from the word haat and symbolizes a shop. People worship it mainly to invoke the blessings of Lakshmi (the goddess of abundance and auspiciousness) for work or business, praying for their business to prosper. A haatdi is a colorful representation of a shop. There are some who believe it used to represent the male members of the family who were the breadwinners. The number of haatdis bought was equal to the number of male members in the family, with one being for the female child. Nowadays they are usually bought in pairs of two, four, six. After Diwali, the haatdi is immersed in water.\nThe making of clay haatdi begins on the day of Ganesh Chaturthi, which is regarded as auspicious and usually falls in August or September. The people of a particular community in Ahmedabad are involved in the making of haatdis, with the whole family taking part. They even travel out of Gujarat to states like Maharashtra to make and sell their wares. Haatdis are made and sold until Kaali Chaudas (the second day of the five-day festival of Diwali).\nA demonstration of the process of making a haatdi was given by Mr. Chaturbhai, Mr. Varshrambhai, Mr. Bharatbhai, and their families at their place in the lane opposite APS International School in Ahmedabad. Even I enjoyed trying my hand at making a haatdi during this experience organized by India Heritage Walks and led by Mr. Keyur Shah.

On identifying and researching the intangible cultural heritage of Ukraine together with local communities, local and regional cultural organizations, Development Centre “Democracy through Culture,” as an NGO accredited to UNESCO for ICH issues and engaged in ICH safeguarding, has found that music and singing traditions are inherent in all regions and localities of Ukraine as one of the most important national ICH manifestations. Among the different types of these arts (including one inscribed into the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding, Cossack Songs of Dnipropetrovsk Region) there is one common and popular elsewhere, reflecting the past, present, and provisional future of Ukrainian culture. \n\nWhat is referred to as music and singing art is related to bandura. A bandura (Ukrainian: бандура) is more than a traditional music instrument in Ukrainian culture—it represents the entire social and cultural complex combining such integral parts as bandura making, bandura \nplaying, and bandura singing, writing texts of special poetical forms (dumas), performing, leading a certain lifestyle of travelling performer or travelling philosopher. Bandurysts, musicians who play the bandura have had a profound impact on Ukrainian folk culture as bearers of special knowledge and skills, even as magicians and prophets.

Abstract: This paper discusses lion dances as an example of shared heritage. In the local communities of Japan, there are several thousand lion dance troupes. These types of performances, where the dancers don animal costumes, can be found in various locations across Asia. While the dances are similar in shape, they vary in meaning, religious background, music, style, etc. Such differences are a manifestation of diversity. As such, when considering shared heritage, it is important to recognize the aspect of diversity.\n\nJapan has never made a multinational nomination to the UNESCO’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH). The reason for this lies in Japan’s method of selecting candidate properties for nomination. That is, Japan abides by a unique policy of selecting candidate properties from among those designated as cultural properties by the national government. “Cultural properties” refer comprehensively to the system for safeguarding cultural heritage in Japan and can be designated not only by the national government but also by local administrative units such as prefectures and municipalities. However, only nationally designated cultural properties have so far been eligible for nomination as a UNESCO’s List of ICHs, and the national designation criteria include no requirement to consider international compatibility. The designation criteria of local governments include no such requirement, either.\n\nIn other words, as long as Japan’s criteria for selecting candidate properties for nomination to the UNESCO’s List of ICHs conform to the domestic criteria for selecting cultural properties, making a multinational nomination would continue to be extremely difficult. Under the present system, responding to proposals from other countries would also be difficult. Yet, I have hope. In 2021, the cultural properties system for ICH in Japan was slightly modified. In place of the conventional system of designation, a system of registration was adopted with respect to intangible cultural heritage to provide more flexibility in safeguarding a wider scope of properties than ever before. Such a new system might promote the awareness of the need to take a more international perspective. At the same time, views that Japan should strive to make multinational nominations are emerging within discussions about UNESCO’s List of ICHs. When considering such trends, the prospect of Japan making multinational nominations or responding to proposals from other countries may be realized in the future.\n\nThus, in this paper, I wish to discuss what types of multinational nominations would be possible, based on case examples of folk performing arts, my specialty area. It should firstly be noted, however, that there are two categories of performing arts in Japan, namely traditional performing arts and folk performing arts. Traditional performing arts are fundamentally performed in theaters by professional performers. There are also amateur performers of traditional performing arts, who generally study under a specific master. Folk performing arts, on the other hand, are fundamentally performed by amateur performers within a specific event held in a particular region. Most are linked to faith and have been inherited through festivals and annual events. In placing them under the domestic system for safeguarding cultural properties, traditional performing arts are judged by their artistic and historical value, and folk performing arts are evaluated mainly by their folkloric value (stipulated by law as performing arts that show transitions in lifestyles). A large number of folk performing arts exist in Japan. As of 2020, as many as 8443 properties, including festivals and annual events, have been nationally or locally designated for safeguarding as intangible folk cultural properties. When including properties that have not been designated, more than several tens of thousands of performing arts are thought to exist. These folk performing arts have emerged from diverse historical contexts and are further classified into a number of subcategories. Among these performing arts, I wish to focus on Lion Dances, or “Shishi-mai.” I must, however, confess that I am regrettably not well-versed in the intangible cultural heritage situation in East Asia as a whole. I, therefore, wish to apologize in advance that the case examples I present herein are not necessarily common to all countries in East Asia.

According to official information, Kyrgyzstan is the only country in Central Asia where water resources are almost completely generated on its own territory, which boasts various hydrological features and advantages. These significant water and hydropower resources (see www.water.gov.kg) are one of the main aspects of national wealth.