Of the fifty-four ethnic groups in Vietnam, the Kinh (also known as the Viet) people account for 85 percent of the entire population of Vietnam while the remaining 15 percent of the population is made up of the other fifty-three minorities. Within the group of minorities are the Nung people who have a population of around one million and reside in the northern mountainous provinces on the border with China.

Food plays an important role in spiritual rituals and worship for many faiths including Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism. The food offered to God is called prasada/prasadam, which means a gracious gift. Prasadam could be any o!ering, but typically an edible food is firrst o!ered to a deity in his or her name.

Like the Chinese dragon, the Indian elephant, and the Egyptian lion, the animal that symbolizes Korea is the tiger. As such, tigers constitute a ubiquitous motif throughout the traditional culture of Korea, the so-called “land of tigers.” The Korean Peninsula became known as such as it largely consists of mountainous regions that were once home to many tigers. The significance of tigers in Korea is evident in the fact they were used as mascots to represent Korea at sports tournaments, such as Hodori at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and Soohorang at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games; the tiger mascots helped to mark these momentous occasions that brought humankind together in friendship, sport, and culture. Creatures of well-developed and well-rounded physical proportions, tigers lurk slowly then pounce on their prey with striking swiftness. As symbols of outstanding wisdom, grandeur, and dignity, tigers were also known as lords, spirits, gods and heroes of the mountain.

The concept and practice of intangible cultural heritage development, collection, teaching, preservation and protection, and passing on the knowledge and skills from the older generations to the younger ones is not new to the Federated States of Micronesia and its peoples, commonly referred to as the FSM. The FSM being comprised of many small islands, some are volcanic while others are atolls or low-laying islands, has a total resident population of around 100,000 per the last population census survey conducted in 2010. Although the population number seems rather small compared to other moderate-sized places or countries such as South Korea and other Asian neighbors including other island states located in the Pacific Ocean, the diversity of its peoples extending from the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean to the west; between the Republic of Palau and the Republic of the Marshall Islands, based on their past historical migration and cultural formation or evolution have often times posed cultural and social cohesion challenges among these islands from the past to the modern days. Such cultural and, to certain extent, ethnical differences sometimes affect modern day socio-political administration of the islands in the FSM as its people, although have adopted and embraced the concept of nationalism, still view themselves as culturally different from each other. Each State in the FSM considers itself as unique and therefore slightly different from the other States in terms of its cultural heritage, history, practices and methods of passing on the traditional knowledge from the older generations to the younger ones. Because traditional methods of transferring such knowledge and skills differ from islands (State) to islands, there are still certain common elements or means used with such practices. All of which are to ensure proper transference of the resources to the proper and entitled individuals within the extended family systems or clans, and to ensure proper attention and care are afforded to the older generations (elders in the family or clan systems) by the younger ones. Knowledge and skills are considered in these islands as learned resources, meaning that such knowledge and skills can be utilized as means to ensure individual, family and clanship well-beings, survivability, and maintenance of social status or up-ward social mobility. In some instances and for good purposes, the assurance is tied with the maintenance of the traditional roles, responsibilities and authority of the families and the clans in their achieved or ascribed ranking or status of the cultural system and practices of the islands.

Konduk is a remote mountain village in Kyrgyzstan, located in the Alai-Kuu valley, not far from Kulun-Ata Nature Reserve in Osh Province. The reserve has a high level of biodiversity, being home to rare species of plants and animals. The population of the village is about 1,500. Several male villagers work in the reserve, and are well aware of the natural diversity of the reserve; they have generational practices, oral stories, and traditions to preserve the land they live. In 2020–21, an Aigine Cultural Research Center team investigated the traditional ecological knowledge of this community.

This fabulous story provides humanity with a strong moral for harmonious and peaceful living, which offers real food for thought in this era of modernization and competition in the world. The story is one of many enchanting Jakarta tales of Lord Buddha; it is not only highly revered in Bhutan but also included in school curricula to teach deep human values to future generations. The story begins in a dense forest in the land of Kashi, where once lived a partridge, a rabbit, a monkey, and an elephant who became incredibly close friends despite their different sizes and species. The friendship was made possible the fact that they shared the same feeling of love and kindness for each other. Every day they helped each other find food and wholeheartedly shared everything they found.

People around the world have a natural fondness for stories. Many cultures use storytelling as a way to pass on information, traditions, and knowledge to the younger generations. Most of these stories are transmitted via word of mouth. Kathmandu Valley is filled with many stories, which are told in homes, villages, and during rituals. Humans don’t always play a central role in these tales. Many of the animals in the stories are normal animals found in our environment, although some are mythical. Many of these animals are even given the status of deities and are worshipped by the people. The origin of the Kathmandu Valley itself has an interesting story. Thousands of years back when the valley was filled with water, making it a huge lake, a bodhisattva named Manjushree arrived from Tibet and saw a light in the middle of the lake emanating from a lotus. In order to get to the lotus, he used his sword to cut a gorge into one of the hills, which people believe is the southern hill named Chovar, thus allowing the water to drain out of the valley. The temple Swyambhu was built on the spot where the lotus came to rest.

A shaman, known as a jhankri or dhami in Nepal, is a part of a unique tradition that is based on spiritual belief. Nepalese society, with its deep-rooted religious faith in supernatural powers, still believes that miseries, illnesses, and bad luck are caused by evil powers and that these ill effects and consequences of evil can be removed or treated by evoking divine power. It is believed that a properly trained jhankri is gifted with the ability to gain intimate knowledge of supernatural beings—their whereabouts, desires, dislikes, and requirements—and drawing out their divine spirit to remove evil and thus cure the inflicted.

Sitting on an unwalled cement floor with a coconut frond roof (a recently imported trend in outdoor architecture), a group of about thirty people listened on while a man explained how over one hundred years ago his grandfather gave leaves of the plant they were just now talking about to his donkeys, for strength. This would help them carry their loads much more easily. The fact that it thundered for several seconds at the exact moment the man finished talking was taken as a natural sign of confirmation. Some agreed somewhat jokingly about the thunder; others were quite clear this was a confirmation and matter-of-factly went on with the rest of the conversation; still others wanted the rest of the group to at least reflect on such a relationship with nature a little longer before continuing.\nThis is one of the latest settings in which traditional medicine, espe-cially herbalism is being explored, safeguarded, revitalized, transformed and shared. The group is Bo salú ta den bo kurá (Your health is in your yard) and meets every third Sunday of the month in a space donated for the meetings those Sundays. Medicinal and nutritional qualities of local herbs are discussed, traditional healing wisdom shared, planting methods are shown, local natural products sold and networking happens among healers, agriculturalists, healthy living advocates, community activists, retirees, people from all walks of life. The place is Curacao, and although this kind of exchange is relatively new it is based both on traditional forms and on traditional wisdom, combined with the latest information from the internet, connections to international networks, and environmental science.

The Taumako voyaging arts include a wind-position based, systematic model of wayfinding, complex swell patterns not yet reported for other traditions, weather modification, and ancestral lights that signal the direction and distance of land. In this paper I observe that transmission of the ancient voyaging arts has promoted cultural fulfillment, and can result in greater resiliency and sustainability once a basic skill levels have been mastered and partnerships between islands have been re-established.

Water, as we all know, makes life possible on Earth. Thus, the accessibility and availability of water sources have historically decided the rise and fall of civilizations around the world. \nScientific research has shown that the Kathmandu Valley once contained a great lake, and it only became habitable once the lake was drained. Buddhist narratives place the agency behind the draining with Manjushri, while later Hindu accounts place it with Krishna (Slusser, 1982). The fertile alluvial soil present in the valley adds to the argument of the valley once being a lake. In addition, there are many water sources in the valley, including rivers, small lakes, ponds, wetlands, wells, springs, and stone waterspouts.

According to the Mongolian astrological calendar, as well as in other Asian countries, this year is the Year of the Tiger. As well as a year, the third of the twelve animals of lunar astrology is also marked with the day of the tiger (the day of the conquest of the tiger), the month of the tiger (the first month of spring), and the tiger hours of the day (3.40 a.m. to 5.40 a.m.). Mongols teach that, “If you do not get up with tiger i.e., during the tiger hours, then the day will be late. If you do not study in young age, then growing up will be late.” The tiger is also one of the eight cardinal directions on the map of Mongolia, representing northeast. This corresponds with the octagonal shape of a yurt, on which homeowners place the appropriate symbols depending on the direction of each face.