Angkor Park, spread over an area of 40,100 hectares, happily coexists with local settlements (112 villages scattered within the boundaries of the registered site and dating from before the inscription of the site as a World Heritage element in 1994) and a sizeable settlement outside—the town of Siem Reap, a mainly recent development south of Angkor. Siem Reap is the provincial capital with an international airport, over a hundred hotels and guesthouses, innumerable restaurants and cafes, and markets and shops, and this is to say nothing of administrative buildings.

Neolithic tombs prove that humans were living in Mongolian territory around 4000 BCE. A tomb with a man buried in a hole in a sitting position was discovered in Dornod Province and provides such evidence.

Khon is a Thai dance drama presenting a Ramayana epic. Each dancer wears a head mask to depict a particular character of the play. Ramayana is the war between Pra Ram (the exile prince of Ayothaya) and Totsakan (the demon king of Longka who abducted Sida, the wife of the prince). Pra Ram, with the help of the monkey troops led by Hanuman, wins the war and returns to Ayothaya with Sida. This lengthy play is divided into a number of episodes, each of which depicts a different battle scene. These episodes are of two types. First is the war play which comprises

Hat boi is a Vietnamese intangible traditional performing art that has taken shape and developed during Vietnam’s history and is still preserved. It is form of traditional opera which has a five-hundrend-year-old history. It contains features close to the cultures of many other countries in Asia.

Water, as we all know, makes life possible on Earth. Thus, the accessibility and availability of water sources have historically decided the rise and fall of civilizations around the world. \nScientific research has shown that the Kathmandu Valley once contained a great lake, and it only became habitable once the lake was drained. Buddhist narratives place the agency behind the draining with Manjushri, while later Hindu accounts place it with Krishna (Slusser, 1982). The fertile alluvial soil present in the valley adds to the argument of the valley once being a lake. In addition, there are many water sources in the valley, including rivers, small lakes, ponds, wetlands, wells, springs, and stone waterspouts.

Nuosu, a subgroup of the Yi ethnic minority residing in southwest China, has maintained a long yet continually evolving tradition of verbal dueling from generation to generation. It is called kenre in the local Yi language, which literally means “mouth movement.” The tradition has not only been recorded in historical documents, but continues as a living knowledge contest undertaken primarily for honor and identity and for enlightenment and entertainment throughout the mountainous villages in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, thereby imbuing audiences both young and old with a sense of cultural identity and strengthening dialogue, cooperation, and respect among Nuosu communities (belonging to three sub-dialect zones) and neighboring Yi areas.

According to newa, a Buddhist belief system, death is one of the ten major events in one’s lifetime. While death is the end of a life, it is also taken as a beginning of another life, a cycle that continues until the state of Nirvana is achieved. Hence, death rituals, apart from funerals and lamentations, include rituals carried out to prepare the deceased for the journey after death.

Kathmandu Valley is also known as the city of temples with stupas, shrines, and statues in every nook and corner of the historic centers. Festivals and rituals unfolding throughout the year make the place even more outstanding. It would be interesting to know how most of these monuments and festivals have survived for over hundreds of years.\n\nThe Newar people, or indigenous people loosely identified as those living in Kathmandu Valley, are accustomed to caste, locality, and the system of guthi. Guthi refers to social associations with objectives similar to a format of trusts that play an important role in safeguarding both tangible and intangible heritage. It is still a backbone for the continuity of most festivals, rituals, and traditional practices in Kathmandu Valley.\n\nIn Nepal, every household is a member of at least one guthi formed for a specific purpose, like taking care of temples, performing mask dances, playing musical instruments, lighting butter lamps, taking care of stupas or bridges, and many more. Among many types of guthi is si guthi or sana guthi, which means being in charge of the cremation ceremony. Another example is twa guthi or the responsibility of male family members to be serve a certain function for their caste—teaching traditional musical instruments and taking care of specific temples, rituals, and festivals are exemplary functions of twa guthi.\n\nOne of the important aspects of the guthi system is the land endowment for sustaining guthis. In ancient times, wherever the temples were built or whenever festivals were initiated, the land was endowed to guthi. From the revenue generated from the given land, guthis paid priests, masons, craftsmen, artists, and others. In Nepal, it was not only kings and royals who did such endowments but also regular people. There were several reasons for this. People donated land for various purposes, such as religious piety or to fulfill the obligation one’s social status affords; moreover, this was done to avoid the state confiscating the land in times of political unrest. Once it was endowed to the god, to revoke it would be considered a great sin. Due to these reasons, there were many guthis and sufficient funds to safeguard several hundred temples, festivals, and rituals.\n\nIn the early phases of Nepali history, land endowments were taken by the state and rulers for their personal use; eventually repossessed lands were used to construct public buildings. The nationalization of guthi lands was a major setback to the indigenous community. Many guthis disappeared due to lack of the funds and rapid modernization of Nepal. The guthi system is not taken seriously in formal heritage conservation practices. If timely measures are not taken, then this unique practice will not survive long.\n\nPhoto : The guthi belonging to farmer Kilagal community performing the mask dance called Devi Pyakha during the Yenya Punhi Festival © Monalisa Maharjan

Numerous ritual ceremonies are under the theme of rite de passage among the Balinese Hindu community. One of the most complicated and exotic is the ritual death ceremony known as ngaben or pelebon (cremation ceremony).