The burning of incense in the sacred shrines of Buddhist monasteries, temples, and also in the consecrated spaces that house the representations of the supreme spiritual beings is considered a kind of offering of sweet fragrances to the enlightened beings and also has the power to purify the impurities associated with us in any form that prevent us from realizing the innate Buddha nature and receiving the blessings. For this reason, incense is crucial in the performance of any type of ritual in the world of Buddhism. In general, burning herbs and making smoke offerings outdoors and burning incense in shrines have the same meaning and benefit; to purify defilements, pacify spirits, accumulate merit for oneself, and connect people to the spiritual world.\n\nThe production of incense is considered one of the religious crafts, as the product is used exclusively for religious purposes. There are two different types of incense: Ja-ju poe (herbal incense) with a yellowish texture and Zu-poe or Choe-jue poe (incense mixed with flesh and blood ingredients) with a brown color. Ja-ju incense is usually burned explicitly for the enlightened beings and when performing Drol-chog (ritual of Goddess Tara) and Rio-sang-chod (smoke offering at the summit of ridges and mountain to attract good fortunes), rituals associated to Nagas (subterrain sentient beings), while the other is offered to the guardian deities and guardian spirits during affirmation rituals.\n\nThe basic raw materials for both incenses are: Powder of Shug-pa (juniper), Tsen-den (weeping cypress), Balu (Rhododendron ciliatum), Sulu (Rhododendron setosum), Aru (Terminalia chebula), Baru (Terminalia bellirica), Manu (Inula racemosa Hook. f), Ruta (Saussurea lappa), Pang-poe (Valeriana officinalis) and water extracted from Zangdrug; (six valuable substances) Chu-gang (bamboo pitch), Gur-gum (saffron), Li-shi (clove), Ka-ko-la (cardamom), Za-ti (nutmeg), Sug-mel (cubeb) Ga-bur (camphor) and also Tsho (colours). When special ingredients such as Kar gsum; (three white substances) milk, curd and butter and an additional mixture of Ngar-gsum; (three sweet substances) brown sugar, molasses and honey are added to these mixed powders, the product becomes herbal incense and similarly, various ingredients of special animal meat, blood, La-tsi (musk), Gi-wang (elephant bile) and alcohols are added to make Zu-poe incense.\n\nMr. Lhundrup (80) learned the art of making incense sticks at the Government Incense Production Center in Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan, and worked for nearly 8 years. In 1918, after his retiremen, while some friends located their incense production more promisingly in the city, Lhundrup established the present incense production named Lhundrup Poezo-khang in his remote village of Urug in Chumey Gewog (block), Bumthang Dzongkhag (district), Bhutan. Currently, he supervises the production unit while his son Sangay Tenzin (50) takes the main role and his mother Uden (67) sometimes assists her son. Two other employees help them produce a plethora of incense sticks with five different types to meet consumer demand.\n\nProduction Process: Based on the license to produce incense sticks, the raw materials, especially dried junipers, are collected from the opposite foot of Yotong la (a mountain pass in the central region at 3425 meters above sea level) and the rest of the materials are purchased from the highlanders. After collecting the raw materials, they are chopped, dried in the sun and processed into fine powder with the help of an electric grinding machine. In the meantime, a helper prepares the extraction of water from the Six Valuable Substances. During mixing in the kneading machine, 80% of the raw material powder is carefully kneaded with the extracted medicinal water. After removal from the kneading machine, the dough-like incense is formed into a palm sized shape and placed into Tsir-shing (traditional wooden compressor) hole, creating a noodle like discharge while an employee places his or her body weight on the compressor liver. These noodle-like incense sticks are rolled between two wooden boards by the incense makers, cut evenly when the bottom wooden board is full, and dried in the sun. The incense sticks are tied into bundles using thread, dried again, and finally ready for making offering.\n\nphoto 1 : Finished product © Yeshi Lhendup\nphoto 2 : Raw materials being dried © Yeshi Lhendup\nphoto 3 : Drying right after the processe © Yeshi Lhendup\nphoto 4 : Incense being offered in the Local Shrine © Yeshi Lhendup\nphoto 5 : Raising of incense smoke © Yeshi Lhendup

On 4th December 2021, the locals of Patko locality in Patan were busy decorating temple of LaxmiNarayan and arranging materials for the rituals from early morning. This was not any ordinary Saturday or ritual. Many people have never seen this kind of event. On this day the original statue of LaxmiNarayan – an androgynous statue, was going to be reinstated in its temple after nearly forty years.\n\nThis statue was stolen in 1984 and was found in the Dallas Museum of Arts. With the help of the activists, diplomats, Nepal Heritage Recovery Campaign the return of this statue to Nepal and then back to the community was possible. Many statues and artifacts from the temples have been stolen from Nepal, which still continues till date. But this kind of getting back of the statue to where it belonged with this fanfare and media coverage was a first one. Even the stolen objects get back to the country then it was a normal procedure to keep that in the museum for safekeeping.\n\nWhen the statue of LaxmiNarayan was stolen, the custodians of the temple made a replica of it and stated to worship a new one. Many people didn’t even have the memory of the original ones. Some of then could not just understand why the jwelleries of the deity does not perfect fit. The original statue was returned on a palanquin with music from the Patan Museum to the temple. The custodians of the temple performed rituals to statue and welcomed back to its place. Then during the rituals the jewelries perfectly fit the real statue.\n\nFollowing the example of LaxmiNarayan statue, another statue of deity Padmapani Lokeshwor was returned to the Monastery in Naxal of Kathmandu. The heritage activist found the location of this statue that has been missing from the monastery for several years. This statue has been with the Chhauni Museum in Kathmandu.\n\nThe locals and heritage activists took back this statue to the Monastery in a carriage followed by traditional music and gurju ya paltan (traditional army band). The carriage was followed by the procession of people in traditional attire. On that monastery also the elaborate rituals were performed to welcome back the deity.\n\nIn 1980 from the stone fountain of Tanga Hiti in Patan, a statue of UmaMahesheshor.\n\nThis statue was returned back to Nepal by New York Metropolitan Museum on 2018 August. As many other stolen statues which were found and returned back were kept in the Museum, this one was with Chhauni Museum. This statue was also taken back to the place where it belonged on 7th February 2022. The locals went to bring back their deity with fanfare as in the other statues.\n\nHeritage in Nepal is a living heritage where people have everyday connection with temples, squares, platforms and waterspouts in form rituals, festivities, dances and music. When the statues or artifacts get stolen, they are not stealing the objects but also the rituals and sentiments associated with it. Finally, it seem the statues are slowly returning back to the place where it belonged in Nepal. The excitements and joy could be seen in the face of people when the statues were placed back the original place.\n\nWhen the communities are now able to take back their statues, so more statues will be going in future. So it has became urgent that the government prepare a proper guidelines on reinstalling of the statues and artifacts, as well as safety and integrity of objects.\n\nphoto 1 : Community members of the temple performing the rituals to welcome back in the stolen statue in the temple of LaxmiNarayan. © Monalisa Maharjan\nphoto 2 : Statue of UmaMaheshwor after installing it in Tanga Hiti. © Monalisa Maharjan\nphoto 3 : Locals worshipping the statue of LaxmiNarayan after reinstalling in its temple. © Monalisa Maharjan

When strolling the pedestrian zone around Hoàn Kiếm Lake in Hà Nội, one may be attracted by a man sitting behind a small wooden box filled with colorful figurines. With only a small bamboo stick in his hands, the man can create beautiful roses, lively dragons and legendary generals in their elaborate costumes. It takes only ten minutes for him to complete the creation of a figurine. This man is a tò he maker.\n\nTò he, as briefly described, are figurine toys popular in Hà Nội and some other provinces in the Red River Delta of Vietnam. Traditionally, the common figurines depicted flowers, animals, historical figures and characters in folk tales. Nowadays, a diversity of new figurines can be made, adapting from famous cartoon and movie characters whom children adore. They range from Doraemon, Sailor Moon to Elsa Princess.\n\nThe about-10-centimeter figurines seem to be simple at the first sight but what make them really stand out are the sophisticate craftsmanship and great passion of their makers. The first step of making tò he is to prepare the dough by pouring fresh water into a mixture of glutinous and regular rice powder. The dough then is dropped into the boiling water for about one hour. The final step of making the dough is to divide it into different portions and dye them with food colors. There are seven basic colors used in tò he figurines: green, pink, red, violet, yellow, white and black. The dough must be carefully prepared to ensure the edibleness of tò he, which is a unique characteristic of these folk toys.\n\nThe creation of tò he figurines requires another great amount of patience and skillfulness. Every small detail is kneaded by hand, and different colors are applied without never staining one another. Therefore, seeing a favorite character coming to his/her life on the hand of the tò he maker is like watching a magic trick for many children.\n\nWith several anecdotal evidence, the history of tò he is said to date back to the 17th century. Xuân La, a suburban village in Hà Nội, is the home of most active tò he craftsmen. Every day, tò he makers from Xuân La spread out to different corners of Hà Nội to sell their craftworks.\n\nIn the past, tò he figurines were only sold during Tết (Vietnamese New Year) and Trung Thu (Mid-Autumn Festival). Therefore, getting these figurine toys from their parents could bring immense joy for children who had waited for them for such a long time. These days, tò he can be found almost every day at several major parks and tourist attractions in Hà Nội, such as the walking streets around Hoàn Kiếm Lake, Văn Miếu (The Temple of Literature) and the Museum of Ethnology. Tò he craftsmen are also present at many cultural events in different parts of Vietnam.\n\nFor many people in today’s Vietnam, tò he can evoke their beautiful childhood memories. And for children, tò he can bring them into a colorful world of creativity and imagination. While tò he, as such, currently enjoys considerable vitality despite the invasion of children’s modern toys and games, more efforts are required to make in order to keep this folk art continuously alive and flourishing. Making new figurines that are closer to children’s daily life is one of the directions almost tò he makers have been following. In addition to that, tò he craftsmen and those who love tò he have organized several tò he making classes where children and adults can learn about the history of this folk art and get hands-on experience of tò he making.\n\nphoto 1 : Dragons and roses are two among the most common tò he figurines. ⓒ Nguyễn Phú Đức\nphoto 2 : A craftsman is kneading a rose-shaped tò he. ⓒ Nguyễn Phú Đức

Mother’s Day is a holiday in honor of the mothers, that is celebrated in different forms throughout the world. Nepalese Mother’s Day which is known as “Amako mukh herne din” which literally means to look upon a mother’s face in the Nepali language, is celebrated across the nation on the last day of the dark fortnight of April or early May.\n\nOn this auspicious day, regardless of age, all the sons and daughters prepare traditional sweets and gifts. Then they visit their mother and bow deeply to the mother’s toe to receive her blessing and offer her gifts and sweets. In consequence, the mother blesses them by touching their foreheads with her hand (bowing deep down to the toe is an ancient ritual that expresses honor and respect to the elders and love, good fortune, and blessings to the younger). On the other hand, married daughters dress in a colorful sari, wear different jewelry, and visit their mothers by carrying baskets full of delicious traditional foods, fruits, and sweets. All family members gather together, thank their mother, get a blessing from her, and spend quality time together.\n\nHowever, those who have already lost their mother go to Mata Tirtha (Mata means mother and Tirtha means pilgrimage), a sacred pond southwest of central Kathmandu to do ritual offerings for the departed soul of the mother.\n\nThe story behind Mata Tirtha.\n\n“Legends says that there was a boy who used to take his cows to graze nearby the pond. After the sudden death of his mother, he was depressed. On Mother’s Day, he went to the forest to pray at the edge of the pond in remembrance of his mother. As he offered gifts, his mother’s beloved face miraculously appeared in the water. He wanted her to go back home but it was impossible because she was dead. The dead mother agreed to appear in the pond every year, and the boy started visiting his mother on the same day every year.”\n\nTherefore, until today people with the hope to see their mother’s face in the pond go to Mata Tirtha. It is said, however, that a lady visiting the pond wished to see her mother’s face, and as soon as she saw her mother’s face, she jumped into the pond to join her and disappeared into the depths. Since that event, it is said that the dead people stopped being seen in the pond.\n\nBut, nevertheless, those whose mother is dead still go to the pond to take a holy bath, do sraddha (Hindu worship) and offer gifts nearby the temple to offer respect to the demised soul to rest in peace.\n\nSo, people across the country come to this pond, often traveling many hours they arrive at dawn, pray for the peace of their mother’s soul and take a bath in the pond which is considered a holy bath, and do sraddha. Every year on this day, a big religious fair takes place at Mata Tirtha. After the offerings and praying and holy bathing in the name of the deceased, people say that they feel the warmth of their mother’s blessing. So, after finishing all rituals they go to the fair and enjoy it.\n\nBut nowadays Mother’s Day celebration is being westernized. People instead of preparing traditional sweets, bake or buy a cake with “Happy Mother’s Day” on it and instead of eating at home, they eat out.\n\nIn spite of that, Mother’s Day is one of the most important traditions in Nepal. It is a special time for a family reunion and showing respect to the mother.\n\nphoto : Daughter is putting 'Tika' on mother's forehead to get blessing on Mother's Day . © Rashmi Maharjan

Once upon a time, a beautiful young woman wandered into a jungle carrying her little baby girl in search of food. She was very tired, so she made a soft bed from the petals of flowers and laid the baby on it. Then she left to search for fruits to satisfy her immense hunger. Two great birds who had no babies of their own found the little human baby in its nest of flowers and carried it away on their backs to their own nest. Their nest was very large; many strange birds lived together there in harmony. There was a parrot, a myna, a hen, a stork, a kingfisher, and a tailorbird in their nest.

For Cambodians, like many peoples in Asia, rice is indispensable and firmly attached to socio-religious life of the people. Besides being the principle daily staple, rice—either husked or unhusked, cooked or uncooked—is a necessary ritual material in every religious ceremony. Interestingly, rice is considered to be female in gender. By nurturing an individual person in the form of cooked rice, she is considered Preah Me (August Mother). In addition, rice is venerated in the form of a goddess called Neang Propei.1 She is worshipped for good harvest and prosperity. \nNeang Propei is no doubt a local adoption/adaptation of the Indian God of Wealth and Prosperity, Vaishravana. Such complex socio-religious aspects involved with rice demonstrate how important rice was and is in everyday life of rice-farming commu-nities, concerning how to obtain enough rice for each year. Besides various techniques and tools that were created, rituals and games are also performed to reassure suffi-ciency of rice. For Cambodian rice-farming communities, those rituals and games are associated with animistic beliefs or are animistic oriented. Examples of these include Loeng Neak Ta, Da Lean, and Chlong Chet.2.

The shrinking of the Aral Sea has been named “perhaps the biggest ecological disaster of our time,” one showing that “humans can destroy the planet” (Guterres, 2017), and “one of the planet’s most shocking disasters” (Ban, 2010). The shrinking has had significant negative consequences on all aspects of life in Central Asia, including the ecosystem, public health, and the economy. I have personally witnessed the dramatic changes in the region, and the tragic consequences it has had on the local community. Thus, my awareness of this ecological disaster and the suffering of the region’s people comes not solely from news outlets, articles, books, documentaries, and other related materials, but also from my personal experience of \nvisiting the site and talking with the local people.

The island nation of Sri Lanka was ravaged by a 26-year civil war (1983 to 2009) that was the result of ethnic tensions between the Buddhist Sinhalese majority and the Hindu Tamil minority. The conflict cost over 100,000 lives and displaced hundreds and thousands of civilians. On this ethic tension and conflict situation Aru Sri Art Theatre emerged with belief that tradition and culture are the tools to bridge the divide between estranged communities and usher in change in the society. They instill their creative energies into the heart of the repertory, producing ethnic harmony concerts and legendary dance dramas. The vision of the team is to develop theatre in such a way that traditional art forms can flourish alongside contemporary interpretations. The belief is that it is as imperative to carry age-old traditions into the new millennium as it is to provide a fertile ground for growth, change and harmony.

Azerbaijan is one of the oldest areas of human habitation, where people once lived in natural geological formations. In its territory, archaeologists have discovered caves where people lived as far back as the Paleolithic era. For centuries, architects accumulated knowledge and skills related to rational planning schemes and the constructional and compositional methods of building residential houses in the area. However, data on the development of residential houses in Azerbaijan have been available only since the eighteenth century. Although we have little evidence of the development of the residential house in Azerbaijan in earlier periods, there is little doubt that the houses of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that have survived to the present time contain many features developed earlier.

Helena Norberg-Hodge speaks about the importance of local community networks and is sure to highlight the dangers of the influx of global finance, markets, etc. as they undermine the local communities that are exploited in the process, removing their heritage and security and giving it to a global market, which degrades the value of the communities. She is sure that the future for economic wellbeing of communities is to remain local with some trade between and among local communities, a small scale endeavor that doesn’t include multibillion overlords calling the shots to determine what is needed around the world rather than what is needed locally.

The mountain terraces in the cordilleras of northern Luzon, Philippines, were included in the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list in 1995. Propitiously, there was no mention of the word rice in the citation of the inclusion. It well may be because, when the Spanish explorers went up the cordilleras in the 16th-17th centuries, they made mention of the existence of terracing. However, no mention of rice was made.

Bergendang is an arts and culture collection inherited by the Sarawak Malay community. It serves as a casual entertainment that educates, entertains, and criticizes the behavior of the community, by conveying messages through Pantun by Seh Gendang and Penandak .