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.

About 2,000 years ago, Korean people started using the sedge plant, according to the ancient record of Samguksagi (The Historical Record of Three Kingdoms), which refers to the use of the plant to make a palanquin curtain.

Thundukuna is a special mat woven from reeds indigenous to the marshlands of Maldives. The reed is locally known as hau. Mat weaving from hau dates back some two hundred years, and this long history is mostly associated with the southernmost atolls.

"BeezBistar Foundation (BBF), a community action-based non-governmental organization, was formed in 2009 by development workers and researchers. “BeezBistar” means prosperity in life and peaceful and joyful relations between human beings and all other life-forms. BBF works with local communities, especially farmers, weavers, fishers, adivashi, dalit, and other marginalized and socially vulnerable people for a prosperous and healthy life. Its guiding ethical principles are non-discrimination on the grounds of caste, race, class, and gender. BBF believes in people’s capacity to transform their existing situation of poverty and become pros- perous through a mediated process of interdependent, collective, and community support and actions. The notion of BEEZ is grounded in the local and indigenous culture of the peoples of Bangladesh, as well as advanced by science and life-affirming knowledge and technologies."

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.

Chak-ka-yer is a Thai word similar in meaning to tug-of-war in western countries. It is one of the oldest folk team games in Thailand. Thai people across the country know chak-ka-yer, and many may have had some direct and indirect experience with this game, either as participants or observ-ers. Chak-ka-yer benefits Thai society in several ways. People use chak-ka-yer for fun, pleasure, recreation, and relaxation from their routine work. Chak-ka-yer is played between teams, groups, or communities to test their physical strength. The game does not focus on competition, team preparation, contest regulations, and championship, but rather on unity, friendship, morale, and incentive of communities. Chak-ka-yer as a game is related to thoughts, beliefs, customs, traditions, rituals, and values of the people in different areas. Chak-ka-yer is a high-level game of development and doesn’t focus on systematic contests; it has specific agency to respond to and has the team seriously trained and practiced to win the championship. Chak-ka-yer as a sport is left unmentioned in this article since it has become an international sport.

Human has made great progress beyond the speed of biological evolution by using tools. First, human used stones and wood as tools for hunting and gathering, and then invented earth-baked earthenware such as bowls for food, appropriate to farming life. The defects of woodenware and earthenware, however, were obvious. It was not able to contain liquid due to their moisture absorbency, and easily damaged. Earthenware has evolved into glazed ceramic but it required a high-tech kiln with high temperature, accompanied by a technology for metal refining as a key prerequisite. In East Asia, moisture proof and insect proof techniques to coat objects were invented much earlier. That is lacquer technique.\nProduction process of lacquer is delicate and complicated such as handling lacquer sap at the risk of skin disease, creating hot and humid environment for hardening process, etc. Nevertheless, in East Asia, people have used lacquer technique in many regions from the Neolithic Age, knowing its merits earlier on. Lacquer was used for adhesive and surface protection of leather, earthenware, ceramics and metalware. In particular, it has been inextricably linked to wooden objects. Whereas in West Asia and Europe various varnishes mixed with dry oil and resin has been used, in East Asia lacquer was used as a basic varnish in common. That shows that lacquer is great material and technique to represent the commonality of Asian culture.1) This article aims to briefly look into the origin of lacquer technique in Northeast Asia and share the information on it and its current status of transmission.

Building a canoe for the palolo rise, an event that occurs twice in a year, is rarely described and documented in moving and still images. With accompanying text capturing knowledge shared by a Master Craftsman, Lesā Motusaga of Sa‘anapu village in Samoa, this paper provides insights into the Intangible Cultural Heritage associated with the building of a paopao, dugout canoe, for a rich fishing tradition. \nPalolo, a delicacy that rises pre-dawn from coral beds seven days after the full moon in October and November, is known as the caviar of the Pacific, an apt description given the high price people are willing to \npay for this rare seafood. Briefly, it is a seafood with significant socio-cultural value now enjoying high, if not inflated, economic value. \n\nThe natural environment is not a typical classroom but is, insofar as Intangible Cultural Heritage is concerned, an important setting where knowledge is transmitted, particularly knowledge of the environment and tapu or sa, the sacred laws or forbidden acts designed for its protection and conservation.

Around four thousand years ago, Austronesian-speaking people sailed from Taiwan into the greater Pacific. A thousand years later, they were the first people to land in Vanuatu and Tonga. Then these Austronesian voyagers mixed with Papuan populations in what is now Papua New Guinea, and those people later became the Polynesian voyagers. Evidence now suggests that the extent of Austronesian and Polynesian voyaging was greater than once thought, ranging from Madagascar to Brazil—over two-thirds around the globe. The seafaring vessels that the Austronesian voyagers created were the vehicles of the greatest human migration ever made.

The Yap State Historic Preservation Office (YSHPO), located in Yap State in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), operates under the Department of Youth and Civic Affairs of the Yap State Government and has a regular budget funded by the local government and the National Park Service (NPS) and the United States Department of the Interior (DOI). YSHPO also receives occasional funding assistance for projects, technical or capacity building, and training and workshops from esteemed regional and international organizations—such as UNESCO, ICHCAP, and CRIHAP—and various national governments, including those of Australia, France, United States, and the FSM. YSHPO also collaborates and networks with other regional organizations, universities, and other bodies. To name a few, they include the University of Oregon, the University of Guam, Queens College, La Trobe, and others by conducting field schools in Yap during academic breaks.

From 1990 to 2010, as an ethnologist devoted to the process of heritagemaking, I investigated Alpine communities and their strategies in facing a changing world. In an historical perspective, my eldwork has been oriented to making memories and the ways they worked as strategies of resistance in facing the many uncertainties of the future (Certeau 1990).

Established in 2000, The Loden Foundation is a registered civil society organization in Bhutan with the objectives of promoting education, cultural preservation, and entrepreneurship among the Bhutanese children and young adults; promoting education and learning at the preschool, school, and post-school stages, and thereby fostering an enlightened and educated society in Bhutan; promoting awareness of the education and the needs of local communities in relation to entrepreneurship, health education, practical skills and crafts, and literacy among remote villages and communities within Bhutan; preserving and promoting the cultures and tradi- tions of Bhutan; and undertaking, if need be, other charitable work that contributes toward the welfare of the public.