Masks and mask dance exist through which they try to realize equality and be free from judgement, allowing you to express yourself as an equal in society regardless of class. The mask dance festival starts on the last Friday of September and lasts for ten days, and over a million people visit domestically and internationally. It has garnered attention from world leaders. Queen Elizabeth II of the UK, George H. Bush and George W. Bush of the USA, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, and other influential leaders have attended. The festival is about mixing modernity with tradition coming together, creating a mosaic of different colors and cultural significance. They use the mask dance festival as a collaborative tool that can bring various cultures together. The mask dance festival also plays a large role in transmitting the heritage to younger generations through various associations that function as a network.

In the past decades, the world has seen unprecedented migration of people from rural communities to urban centres. According to the UN, “the urban population of the world has grown rapidly from 751 million in 1950 to 4.2 billion in 2018.” Today, 55% of the world’s population is reported to live in urban areas, and this is expected to increase to 68% by 2050.1) Such migration is particularly intense in the less developed countries, which make the majority of global population, and the rate of urbanisation is highest in Asia.\nIn spite of its historic isolation and renown for conservation of its traditional way of life, Bhutan is no exception to the process of urbanisation. On the contrary, it stands out as a striking example of urban growth. Just over half a century ago, there was not a single town in Bhutan. The country was entirely made up of villages. Even Thimphu, the nation’s capital for nearly four centuries, was a valley of a few scattered villages and the dzong fortress, which housed the government and monastic headquarters. Over 99% of the built environment we see today in the growing metropolis of Thimphu was built after 1960s. The picture of Thimphu taken in 1963 shows the valley of open rice fields, which have today become a concrete jungle. The picture of south Thimphu taken at the turn of the century shows how fast the suburban areas of Thimphu have grown.

Two powerful earthquakes (7.8 magnitude on 25 April and 6.8 on 12 May) hit twenty to twenty-five districts of Nepal, bringing heavy losses and damaging 800 cultural heritage structures and collapsing 190. The devastation also directly affected intangible cultural heritage since many elements are associated directly with the damaged heritage sites. With many temples and monasteries damaged, the deities were shifted to temporary places for daily offering rituals and homage. Among seven monument zone World Heritage Sites, Hanumandhoka, Swayambhu, and Boudhanath Stupa were partially damaged, obstructing devotees’ daily rituals. Many problems have arisen due to the damage of cultural heritage structures in and outside Kathmandu Valley. Two case studies of Kathmandu Valley are presented here.

The question of how to apply integrated approach in ICH safeguarding is a fundamental issue in implementing the 2003 Convention. It also entails further questions not only for intangible heritage field, but also other relevant cultural heritage fields.\n\nThis session aims to find out the best method of integrated approaches from the viewpoint of ICH safeguarding within the framework of the 2003 Convention. Such aim will require a discussion of the intangible value of tangible heritage and an inquiry of the tangible elements of ICH by looking into various case studies of 'cultural spaces’.\n

People have lived on the small atolls that make up the Central Caroline Islands, now part of the Federated States of Micronesia, for over a thousand years. Micronesia, as it is commonly referred to, is made up of four mountainous states: Kosrae, Pohnpei, Chuuk, and Yap, with hundreds of small raised coral atolls. Yap is considered still to retain much of its cultural heri\u0002tage. Life on these remote, outlying islands could for some, especially those from more developed countries, prove lonely and isolating, if not downright difficult. For one thing, the typical size of these atolls is around 2.6 square kilometers (1 square mile) with an average population of 200. Being sur\u0002rounded by the vast Pacific, they appear on maps as nothing more than tiny dots in the deep blue ocean.

"Whether we call it clan, kin, family, tribe, or community, there are multiple ways of knowing and identifying ourselves in the Pacific. A few of these ways are captured here. This section explores how social relationships and their hierarchies within the Pacific islands are vital ways of understanding intangible cultural heritage. Social and spiritual rituals, religious ceremonies, and various other cultural practices reflect how Pacific islanders prioritize social cohesion as a pathway to sustainable prosperity, ensuring the transformation of skills, knowledge, and wisdom for survival. \nThe themes in this section are pivotal to ICH because relationships represent an important organizing principle of life among Pacific islanders and determine how intangible heritage can be safeguarded. Relationships are marked in ceremonial events and rituals such as the communal harvest of balolo in Fiji and other ceremonies such as the bel kol in PNG. Likewise, the omengat, the first-birth ceremony in Palau, brings unrelated clans and families together and is central to family ties and social cohesion. The essays on these and other topics collected in this section illustrate that Pacific islanders take care to mark and honor relationships important to them, as these relationships ensure family, clan, and tribal ties and help to achieve enhanced social cohesion and sustainability."

Pebaek was one of the important ritual procedures of a traditional wedding ceremony. The ritual was performed at the groom’s house after the bride finished the wedding ceremony at her house. Pebaek was to introduce herself properly to her new in-laws and, her rst greetings were to the inlaw parents and relatives.

Nagorik Uddyog (NU) was founded in 1995 by a group of nationally and internationally renowned Bangladeshi human rights activists and academics aiming to promote good gover-nance, access to justice, and the institutionalization of democracy at the local and national level. In the beginning, the organization worked on voter education programs and raised awareness among women that they could claim their rights from local government institutions and from the community. In this awareness-raising initiative, community cultural heritage properties like the Baul folk songs were used and earned immense popularity. Over a period of time, NU extended its activities across the country with specific focus on the rights of marginalized people, especially Dalit rights, land and human rights of Indigenous peoples, and access to justice for rural communities.

ICCN, Interurban Cooperation Network for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, is an international organization of local governments and cultural institutions which includes 31 states, 29 cities and 34 associations. Its main objective is the protection of the intangible cultural heritage around the world and the promotion of sustainable local development. Moreover, it also seeks to achieve cultural peace through mutual understanding and intercultural dialogue between the different populations that are part of it. Julio Nacher shared some good examples of cultural events that successfully held in pandemic situation.

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.

Nagorik Uddyog (NU) was founded in 1995 by a group of nationally and internationally renowned Bangladeshi human rights activists and academics aiming to promote good gover- nance, access to justice, and the institutionalization of democracy at the local and national level. In the beginning, the organization worked on voter education programs and raised awareness among women that they could claim their rights from local government institutions and from the community. In this awareness-raising initiative, community cultural heritage properties like the Baul folk songs were used and earned immense popularity. Over a period of time, NU extended its activities across the country with specific focus on the rights of marginalized people, especially Dalit rights, land and human rights of Indigenous peoples, and access to justice for rural communities.

Based on a common geographical environment, the people of East Asia share a similar sense of the seasons and have been sharing the seasonal festival traditions for many years, which to a certain degree has brought commonality to their experience of heritage. The seasonal festival traditions in East Asia have a localized form of expression and common features.2) They all attach importance to seasonal nodes such as the Mid-Autumn Festival, Half of July, April Eight, and the Twenty-four Solar Terms. They value family ethics in the practice of festivals and share Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist cultural traditions, with emphasis on “red-hot sociality.” As they collectively enjoy seasonal festivities, they continue creating arts-related activities around these festivals and transmitting their heritage values to the younger generation. East Asia's practices of seasonal festival traditions are both a manifestation of cultural diversity and cultural sharing. This presentation will discuss the sharing, sustaining, and collaborative safeguarding f East Asian Seasonal Festivals as ICH.