Pencak Silat is an intangible cultural heritage that allows a community to express its culture and, more importantly, is a vehicle that allows practitioners to manifest the best values passed to them by their teachers for the benefit of all in society. It is practiced in countries in Southeast Asia, including Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. However, not much research has been done on the history and culture of Pencak Silat in Singapore. The project entitled “Preserving Intangible Cultural Heritage: Documenting and Recording the History, Culture and Memory of Malay Martial Arts Groups in Singapore,” led by Dr. Mohamed Effendy from the Department of Southeast Asian Studies, National University of Singapore, and sponsored by the National Heritage Board of Singapore, is therefore a timely one. It aims to safeguard the history and culture of Malay martial groups of Singapore by documenting and recording their past and cultural activities. Thus, the project provides the inspiration and backdrop for this paper, which will describe how Pencak Silat connects communities in Singapore to their historical origins. The paper will also analyze how Pencak Silat has contributed to the social and cultural success of the Singapore Malay community today, and lastly, it will examine to what extent Pencak Silat values can be used to further enhance the development of a community.

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.

The scale of traditional herbal medicine knowledge in East Asia is enormous. One example that shows us this is the work of Seo Yu-gu (1764–1845), a Confucian scholar of the Joseon dynasty in the nineteenth century. He wrote Imwon-Kyungjeji, an encyclopedia compiling almost all the contemporary East Asian knowledge. This book was nicknamed Britannica of Joseon because it covered the overall knowledge fields of human life—agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, cooking, brewing, construction, civil engineering, crafts, calligraphy, music, commerce, and medicine. Surprisingly, about half of the entire work is about medicinal knowledge, occupying 1.2 million characters of the total 2.5 million characters. This means half of the traditional knowledge in East Asia is related to the treatment of diseases and maintaining human health.

All humans aspire to a healthy life, which is a fundamental right. The definition of health has varied from age to age. In the past, health vaguely meant the state of not having a disease or illness, but the 1946 Constitution of the World Health Organization defined health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” In broad terms, however, today health can also mean a state of an individual coping with his or her inner and outer environmental changes to maintain complete well-being at all levels. More broadly, health can mean the optimal state in which an individual can effectively play his or her social roles and responsibilities. The purpose of medicine, therefore, is for an individual to maintain a healthy condition. Currently there are two major branches of medicine in Korea: traditional Korean medicine (TKM) and Western medicine.

Lum, also called medicinal bathing, is an important part of Sowa Rigpa (Tibetan Medicine) with a long history. In Tibetan, “Lum” indicates the traditional knowledge and practices of bathing in natural hot springs, herbal water, or steam to adjust the balance of mind and body, to ensure health and treat illnesses. Lum medicinal bathing is popular among Tibetan people because of its wide indication, safety, and effectiveness.

“A man in Pamir, from birth to death, is accompa- nied by all sorts of family and everyday rites and customs. In many traditions, including the prepa- ration and use of food, traces of deep geographical and climatic isolation are clearly visible.The Pamir highlanders who lived in closeness with their nature had a great culture, rich in traditions, cults, customs which created humane framework of actions in relation to wildlife. Cultural values and practices re- lated to caring for nature at the same time supported the life of the mountain peoples. This culture has become the main priority for the effective,reasonable and rational use of wildlife resources.Such behavior not only contributed to the survival of the mountain population in the most severe climatic conditions, but also became the main factor in the conservation of wild fauna and flora.

The use of medicinal plants for healing diseases has been known to man ever since he was affected by diseases. When illnesses became frequent, ancient man started searching for drugs from the natural environment where he lived. Bark from trees, seeds, leaves, fruits and roots were all utilized for treating illnesses. We continue to use these remedies today, maybe in a more refined form (Petrovska, 2012).This knowledge from the past was transferred mainly through trial and error, and through the exchange of knowledge and experiences among diverse communities and regions mainly by means of oral communication. This exchange of knowledge continues even today, but with an incorporation of modern biomedicine into the traditional practices. This has led to Ayurveda,1Unani2 and Siddha3 emerging as integral parts of modern medicine, or through complementing the modern biomedicine in India.