The Azerbaijani Carpet Makers Union (ACMU), founded in January 2010, is a voluntary self-governmental public association of citizens rallied to support Azerbaijani carpet weaving.The ACMU seeks to promote a revival of the powerful spiritual heritage of carpets, the national traditions of the Azerbaijani people, a consolidation of the creative potential of seen figures of society and culture, support for talented children and youth, and creative carpet dynasties. The purpose of the ACMU is also to convey objective information about the unique national culture, rich historical heritage, and diversity of the carpet art of Azerbaijan to the international community.

The punnuk is a tugging ritual of the village folk from three communities in Hungduan, Ifugao in Northern Luzon, Philippines. It is performed at the confluence of Hapao River and a tributary as the final ritual after the rice harvest. Its consummation brings to a close an agricultural cycle and signals the beginning of a new one. \n\nThe punnuk is a ritual of pomp and revelry. Garbed in their predominantly red-col-ored attire of the Tuwali ethno-linguistic subgroup, the participants negotiate the terraced fields in a single file amidst lush greens under the blue skies. The tempo builds up as the participants reach the riverbank, each group positioned opposite the other. The excitement is sustained through the final tugging match, and the sinewy brawn of the participants is highlighted by the river’s rushing water.

In December 2011, Rumah Angklung was founded by a group of young people who loved and cared about the Angklung (a traditional Indonesian musical instrument) and finally had the initiative to create a community. That community is now a serious foundation committed to preserving and developing Indonesian art and culture, especially related to angklung.

In introducing the background of building ichLinks as the Asia-Pacific ICH information sharing platform, its core values and objectives, implementation schemes, and expected effects are explained. ichLinks plans to serve as a common ground for all the participating Member States to connect with each other. ICHCAP plans to form a one-stop integrated online service platform and an expanded platform based on the participation of Member States by establishing an Executive Committee led by partner organizations from participating Member States for efficient platform operation. In addition, ICHCAP support will address differences and deficiencies resulting from different technological conditions among nations. These actions would help participating states and partner organizations voluntarily and actively using the platform and continue to create new value through multilateral information sharing, exchange, and cooperation. Information and content shared through ichLinks can be constantly recreated and reused as online and offline resources in areas, e.g. festivals, exhibitions, research, and tourism.

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.

One of the brightest folk festivities, is the Navruz spring holiday festival. Navruz, celebrated on 21 March symbolizes the universal date of birth, for when the departure of winter and arrival of spring was interpreted as the rebirth of nature. Its origin is connected to ancient astronomical observations which are based on solar and stellar motion as well as the motion of the moon. Ideas of peace, solidarity, prosperity, and mercifulness are reflected in each festive Navruz ritual.

Globalisation has its benefits. But it could also diminish our heritage in ways that we may not sometimes even be conscious of. Effective minimization of the negative impacts is possible with timely interventions. Sometimes it may be too late before significant elements of our culture are endangered or even disappear. It is this concern that led the world community to come together and adopt the international Convention by UNESCO in 2003 for Safeguarding Intangible Heritage. It is passé to say that globalisation has accelerated to a pace that we are challenged to keep up with it on many fronts. We are quite familiar with the social, economic and environmental issues. In addressing only these three pillars during the 2000-2015 MDG phase of the UN, we now have a lot of catching up to do. Culture as the fourth pillar of sustainable development, even if not detailed enough, is located in the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that will guide us between 2015 and 2030. We must endeavour to bring together the implementation of the 2003 Convention and higher education as part of the four-pillar paradigm. Several questions need to be addressed. \n \nCan higher educational institutions such as universities, specialised colleges add value to the UNESCO’s efforts in safeguarding intangible heritage in sustainable development? Can we find synergies between the strategic directions of higher educational institutions and the Overall Results Framework for the UNESCO 2003 Intangible Heritage Convention? In what ways can Regional, Sub- Regional, National and Local networking and knowledge sharing be empowering to safeguard intangible heritage and the rich cultural diversity of the Asia Pacific? Given that language itself is not covered by the Convention but included as a vehicle of the intangible heritage (Article 2.2.a), how best can we maximise on the linguistic diversity of the region promoted through higher educational institutions in minimising the hegemonic impacts of monolingualism that endangers so much of our intangible heritage? \n\nFirst and foremost, it must be underlined that UNESCO and a number of national and international agencies including NGOs have advocated strongly for the inclusion of culture as a separate SDG in the UN 2030 Agenda. None of the 17 SDGs focus exclusively on culture. However, the advocacy has created an inclusive discourse on culture that cuts across the SDGs. The resulting Agenda includes several explicit references to cultural aspects. The following SDG Targets are significant. They provide windows of opportunity to ensuring that we locate culture in the SDGs and in doing so promote the safeguarding of intangible heritage:

Recent years have witnessed an explosion in the use of words related to sustainability. Issues of interrelatedness and interdependence, the centrality of diversity to most healthy biological systems, and the expansion of detailed scientific thinking about conservation have all contributed to the increase in the use of ecological metaphors in a wide range of fields. Those of us laboring in the realms of culture have found useful language and compelling metaphors, including cultural sustainability. When conservation biology began to popularize the idea of sustainability in their efforts to sustain biodiversity, Jeff Todd Titon began to explicitly advocate for an ecological approach to musical sustainability in 2006.

The circle dance, where people dance in a rotating formation, has appeared in many cultures since ancient times. The form and structure of the circle dance reflect the aesthetic concepts of mysteriousness, the incessant generation of filling and emptying, eternal return, unity, and defense. While there are various kinds of circle dance forms in Korea, the grandest one, with more than 250 dancers, is the yeowonmu.

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.

In December 2011, Rumah Angklung was founded by a group of young people who loved and cared about the Angklung (a traditional Indonesian musical instrument) and finally had the initiative to create a community. That community is now a serious foundation committed to preserving and developing Indonesian art and culture, especially related to angklung.\nRumah Angklung has a responsibility to continue working and instill pride in people far and wide. “When Culture Becomes a Pride” includes the common threads, ideals, and dreams of Rumah Angklung to make Indonesian culture prestigious. Rumah Angklung could hopefully be a “home” for individuals, groups, or other angklung communities for gathering information, seeking solutions, and experiencing many other benefits of angklung. In these activities, the purpose of angklung preservation and development can be achieved.

Information is considered a safeguarding measure in the 2003 UNESCO Convention. The word ‘information’ is found several times in the text of the 2003 Convention. States Parties are required to provide information regarding programmes of inventory of ICH in their territories1. States Parties to the Convention are required to endeavour, by all appropriate means, to ‘ensure recognition of, respect for, and enhancement of the intangible cultural heritage in society, in particular through: …educational, awareness-raising and information programmes, aimed at the general public, in particular young people’.2 Educational, information, and awareness-raising programmes are herein identified as tools for ensuring the recognition of, respect for, and enhancement of ICH in society to be directed towards the general public, in particularly young people. That the younger generation be able to access information on ICH is essential to ensure ICH transmission for the ongoing safeguarding of ICH. This reference highlights the relation between information programmes and awareness-raising and educational programmes. Obviously awareness raising or educational programmes cannot be carried out without materials based on appropriate information on ICH.