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.

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.

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 Andong region has many highly renowned historic and cultural sites, such as Hahoe Village, however, the major cultural attraction of the region is the Andong International Mask Dance Festival.

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 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.

In 1995, pangalay dance guru Ligaya Fernando-Amilbangsa stopped teaching. The lack of diligence among students of traditional dance had caused her to lose her enthusiasm. Hopeful dancers requesting lessons at first failed to convince her to change her mind. But in January 1999 she decided to teach again, having collected a long list of applicants in the intervening years. Thus began a weekly community dance workshop in her suburban home in Antipolo City, Mega Manila. For those who joined the weekly sessions, learning from a dance master was exhilarating, especially on the eve of a new millennium. In 2000 the excitement over pangalay and other traditional dances of the Sulu Archipelago inspired the motley group of dance students under teacher Ligaya to formally establish the AlunAlun Dance Circle (ADC), with their mentor as company artistic director. ADC is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving, conserving, and propagating pangalay, which, according to teacher Ligaya, has “the richest movement vocabulary among all Philippine dances, and the living link to the dance cultures in Asia.”

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.

The scope of intangible cultural heritage related to human well-being is large. Many cultural practices, if not the majority of them, were designed by communities, groups and individuals for well-being purposes, be it physical or mental. Such practices are also intended to ensure the con-tinuity of the society over time and to maintain social order. According to Napier, those practices related to human body and soul are embodied in cultural systems of value (Napier 2014) that overwhelm them. The representations of those two components of the human being, body and soul, are tightly linked in traditional cultures. Thus, many cultural practices were designed for the well-being of both of them. They also mix therapies intended to bring about the relief of each and/or both. \n

Southeast Asia boasts an astounding assemblage of traditional performing arts, varied in form, style or genre, time or period, and geographical source. Through the performing arts people assert ethnic identity, a dignifying and unifying force in a community. A performing art tradition conjures continuity; it is history. To lose such tradition is therefore to lose history. Dance, like other performing art traditions, is the expression of a people’s soul captured in motion. To safeguard such forms, they must be studied and documented, including the artistic material resources, oral traditions, beliefs, and practices embodied in them. These traditions are not museum pieces, but art forms that must be nurtured as artifacts that grow or transform as societies change.

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.

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.