Singapore’s Malay Heritage Centre (MHC) organizes Lintas Nusantara, an annual dance festival that serves as a platform for dance masters and troupes from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and other countries in the region to showcase their work and capabilities and to facilitate cultural exchanges among the countries involved.\n\nTo commemorate the tenth anniversary of the festival, MHC will be launching a publication entitled Lintas Nusantara: A Spectacle of Dance and Music in October 2021. The publication will provide a visual record of all the dances performed at the festival and include several essays that aim to provide a deeper understanding of the various dance forms as well as their origins, development, and evolution.\n\nIt will cover a total of twenty-three Malay dance forms performed in Singapore, different states in Malaysia, and different regions of Indonesia. These dance forms include Zapin Sungai Kallang from Singapore; Mak Yong and Tari Asyik from Malaysia; and Pajaga Makkunrai (Bugis), Tari Golek Menak (Yogyakarta) and Tari Gending Sriwijaya (Palembang) from Indonesia.\n\nAs part of the publication’s aim to foster more extensive research into dances from the Malay Archipelago, it will feature twenty-seven essays by academics and researchers from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, East Timor, and the Philippines. These essays will cover topics such as preserving dance and community traditions; spirituality in dance and movement; forging cultural and community identity through dance; cultural borrowings as expressed through music, costumes, and movements.\n\nLintas Nusantara: A Spectacle of Dance and Music will also include reflections regarding the importance of cultural exchanges in the growth and evolution of dance and music as well as the development of a dynamic Malay dance ecosystem from musicians Thow Xin Wei (Gamelan Singa Nglaras) and Fadhli Ramlee (aluNada Muzik) as well as an interview with Mr. Osman Abdul Hamid, a dance practitioner renowned for his artistic contributions to the Malay dance scene in Singapore since the late 1970s.\n\nThrough this publication, MHC hopes to provide an overview of the wide spectrum of Malay dance forms, contribute to existing research and documentation on Malay performing arts, and promote greater cross-cultural understanding and appreciation of the diverse dance forms from the Malay world.\n\nLintas Nusantara: A Spectacle of Dance and Music is a bilingual publication written in both English and Malay, and interested parties can send their inquiries to Jamal_Mohamad@nhb.gov.sg.\n\nPhoto 1 : Dancers from Guntur Mataram Dance Company (Jakarta) performing the Tari Golek Asmaradana Bawaraga. Photograph courtesy of Malay Heritage Centre\nPhoto 2 : Artist Seni Budaya (Singapore) performing the Tari Gending Sriwijaya with dancers from Universitas PGRI Palembang (Indonesia). Photograph courtesy of Malay Heritage Centre

Co-orgarnized by ICHCAP and Hue Monuments Conservation Centre (HMCC), this year’s Asia-Pacific ICH NGO Conference was held in Hue, Vietnam under the theme of ICH NGOs towards Sustainable Development of Communities.

In Myanmar, the ceremony of novitiation or rite of passage is important for Buddhists. Buddhist parents believe that this ceremony is a great merit for the samsara or circle of life. The festival is held in March and April during holidays for students.

Bhutan is considered one of the culturally and spiritually richest countries in the world. Culture and traditions being resultant of the evolution of human civilization, they have developed according to the socioeconomic needs and conditions of the Bhutanese people, as well as within the physical and environmental constraints and opportunities of the place or the region. But most importantly, their origin is deeply rooted in Buddhism.

Water puppetry is identified widely as an artistic form that has sprung from the characteristics of particular landscapes and the lives and shared stories of their communities. In the Red River Delta (RRD) in Vietnam, it is documented as having developed in the rice-growing area in the tenth/eleventh century (Dunning, 1996 2021; Gaboriault, 2009), with the first physical evidence of performance held in the Th\nầy Temple, Hà Tây Province, during the Late Lê (Ly) Dynasty (1428–1778). The inscription on the Sùng Thiên Diên Linh stone stele (tablet) of 1121 at the Doi San ̣Pagoda, Duy Tien District (around 50 kilometers from Hanoi), provides evidence of water puppetry based on stories that reflect local lives and livelihoods and mythical creatures such as the golden tortoise, fairies, and flocks of birds and animals singing and dancing (Hai, 2006). Water puppet performance is a collaboration between puppeteers, musicians, the audience, and, \nimportantly, the character of the staging and spatial context of the performance within water landscapes. Today, performances generally consist of a series of short vignettes based on stories of traditional delta life and livelihoods, commonly interspersed with folk tales and mythological characters.

The tug-of-war is one of the most well-known intangible cultural heritage elements that represent the Republic of Korea. Tug-of-war games were widely enjoyed by people across the country before the 1930s and 1940s. During the 1960s, the tug-of-war came under the protection of the Cultural Heritage Conservation Policy and has been appointed and is being managed by local and national governments. Locally, eight tug-of-war traditions have been inscribed on the national inventory list. Moreover, compared to other ICH element studies, of the element has been significantly researched.\n\nTug-of-war is a cultural heritage element of many East Asian nations, and these nations are preparing to nominate the element to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. In this context, the goal of this paper is to discover universal traits in tug-of-war traditions in East Asia. However, besides the Republic of Korea and Japan, there is insufficient research on tug-of-war traditions in the region, which limits the scope of this presentation. In case of China, despite the existence of various records on tug-of-war in literature, the tradition as it exists in China today seems to be more of a sports match than a ritual event. I would also like to mention that this paper is a draft based on document records, the Internet, and the academic symposium hosted by Gijisi Tug-of-War Conservation Institute.

Rupayan Sansthan was founded in 1960 by the renowned folklorist and ethnomusicologist writer and Padma Bhushan recipient Komal Kothari and his very close friend, Padmashree recipient Vijaydan Detha, an eminent Rajasthani writer. Their research encompassed folk songs, folk tales, folk beliefs, proverbs, folk ballads, folk epics, folk gods and goddesses, social practices, rituals, fairs and festivals, rural food, nomads and pastoral ways of life. Rupayan’s archive houses have one of the richest collections of folkloristic materials.

Capoeira , a Brazilian martial art (MA) expression, was in 2014 inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) of Humanity for its fundamental values and characteristics, transmitted from one generation to another (Vianna, 2016; UNESCO, 2020). The is a circle formed by capoeiristas, musicians, and the audience, in the center of which capoeira matches take place.

Mizhavu, the main percussion instrument of Kutiyattam has a history of more than 2000 years. Kutiyattam is a Sanskrit theatre embracing classical as well as folk traditions of Kerala. Kutiyattam was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. This ancient artform is an exquisite combination of acting, percussion, and gestures. The performers are Chakyars and Nangyars and its percussionists are Nambiars. Kutiyattam is based on four acting principles: angika, vachika, sathvika and aharya. \n\nBharathamuni music instruments are classified into four categories:\n1) Avanaddhavadya\n2) Tatvadhya\n3) Ghanvadhya\n4) Sushiravadhya

The Sundarbans, consisting of 10,200 km2 of mangrove forest across India and Bangladesh, is the world’s largest delta and mangrove ecosystem. Transected with rivers and creeks, the landscape is home to diverse and endangered flora and fauna, most famously the Royal Bengal Tiger. Because of its unique cosystem, the Sundarbans enjoy the status of a Biosphere Reserve and UNESCO World Heritage Site. The area is also home to millions of forest-dependent people. The colonial period witnessed large-scale deforestation of the mangroves and in-migration, starting from the late eighteenth century, driven by the desire for more farmlands to generate revenue, development of a port township in Canning, and other factors. There was also a substantial inflow of refugees during partition at the time of India’s independence.

The Ganges Delta that makes up almost 90 percent of present day Bangladesh is one of the most ancient human habitats in the world. The vast alluvial plain of Bangladesh is watered by the great rivers of the Padma, the Meghna, and the Jamuna. The land is so fertile that little diligence is required to produce crops, and blessed with monsoons from the Bay of Bengal, the climate is very pleasant. In a word, it is a land of abundance. That is why this land has beckoned people from the furthest corners of the world, thus becoming a crucible of diverse cultures. People of different castes and creeds have been living in this part of the world for thousands of years. Numerous heritage sites and colorful lifestyles of its people bear the testimony of the rich and varied culture of this land.

"Fiji perceives the 2003 Convention as an important tool to enhance the national pursuit to protect, promote, and revitalise traditional knowledge systems and intangible cultural heritage (ICH) of not only the indigenous iTaukei but also the many other ethnic groups that have made Fiji their home. It is these migratory ethnic cultures that are creating a challenge to the survival the indigenous culture, but at the same time, they are also a blessing in disguise because the influx of different cultures creates a multi-ethnic cultural society, one that is open to dialogue, national identity, and greater understanding, which then promotes pluralism in creativity and innovation. \nHowever, one of the most promising features of migratory cultures is that their dancers, spoken language, and forms of worship have to some extent become accustomed to the new environment that has engulfed their new social structure. And this is the most fascinating thing about ICH—it is evolving, so it is a form of living heritage. The migratory groups whilst practicing their heritage have also adopted elements of the local culture. The same also applies to the indigenous culture, which has adopted aspects of the migratory culture over time. For example, garlanding (veivakasalusalutaki) during traditional welcoming ceremonies and other events was not originally a part of iTaukei ICH, but through time, it has been adopted from other Pacific Island cultures, such as the Rotuman, Indo-Fijian, and Chinese cultures. So we are continually faced with questions and challenges as to that which the community perceives as their true ICH and that which is borrowed, and in respect of those that are a blend of both, where do they fit? Or to whom does it belong? What if the community collectively feels that it is not their own, what do we do? Do we still enter this into our national inventories? The contemporary ICH (art)—how are we to embrace it? These are issues we hope to explore further in the "