2019 World Forum for Intangible Cultural Heritage

When we were young, we were told a lot of stories. Everyone hated the big, vicious, evil, and cunning animals. However, seen through grown-up eyes, there are no bad animals in the world. Animals personified in stories convey a message to the human world-that of peace and harmony. At a time when a message of peace is desperately needed, let’s enjoy some stories featuring various animals, from tigers to birds, rabbits, monkeys, and more.

ICHCAP published the book Living Heritage Series – Traditional Musical Instruments in collaboration with the ICH NGO Forum’s #HeritageAlive.\n\nProven from a long history, music shares thoughts and emotions among community members who play the instruments and enjoy it. This book was made with the contributions of fifteen writers from countries across the globe. The authors describe the current status of traditional music and provide insight on how to revitalize these traditions based on the 2003 Convention.

Thanks to food storage technology transmitted as a form of traditional knowledge, we can maintain healthy lives. Traditional knowledge of preserving food for a long time allows people to continue their lives even in harsh environments where food is scarce. Intangible cultural heritage as food storage technology has kept the food with the best taste. Let’s take a look at related stories of India, the Republic of Korea, Vietnam, and Kyrgyzstan together.

ICH Courier is the quarterly magazine on ICH in the Asia-Pacific region issued by ICHCAP since 2009. Every issue has its own theme under the title of the Windows to ICH, and the theme of the Vol 41 is 'Block Printing on Textiles.'

The 2019 Sub-Regional Meeting for Intangible Cultural Heritage Safeguarding in South Asia: ICH in Education: Towards Joint Collaboration for Promoting ICH in Formal and Non-Formal Education jointly organized by ICHCAP and UNESCO Dhaka Office, was held from 24 to 26 June 2019 in Dhaka, Bangladesh.\n\nThis report is composed of nineteen presentation papers delivered at the meeting by national representatives, NGOs, and UNESCO Offices in Bangkok and Dhaka. In addition, the outcome document of the meeting is also affixed to put it on record the adopted recommendations of the participants in moving forward together.

As part of the Cultural Partnership Initiative of 2017, ICHCAP invited ICH professionals from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, and Nepal. This publication is a collection of the research reports of 2017 CPI participants. The participants selected their own topic and conducted researches based on their various activities during their five-month stay in Korea.\n\n

ICHCAP published the book Living Heritage Series, Water: Interconnectivity between Intangible Cultural Heritage and Science in collaboration with the i-WSSM.\n\nThe subject of this publication is water. This book was made with contributions of nine authors with stories about ‘water management’ and ‘water and culture’ of the Asia Pacific region. The objective of the publication is to expand the boundary or interface of water centering on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 6, Clean Water and Sanitation.

This Promotional book is a result of researches done by researchers of the Research Institute of Culture and Information and it was published by finance assistance of the International Information and Networking Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region under auspices of UNESCO (ICHCAP). The Promotional book contains of elements of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Tajiks described in seven chapters with fresh and colorful illustrations.

Based on the ICHCAP Field Survey on Intangible Cultural Heritage Safeguarding Efforts in some Pacific countries (2009-2013), this summary provides a brief overview on the ICH situation in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, the Cook Islands, the Marshall Islands, Tonga, Palau, Vanuatu and Federated States of Micronesia. The summary focuses mainly on ICH safeguarding systems, safeguarding policies, and ICH inventories as well as on pending issues and the urgent safeguarding needs of these countries. Moreover, information on the main entities in charge of ICH safeguarding and opinions of each country on the issue of community involvement are provided. To give a quick overview these countries’ participation in ICH safeguarding at the international level, some additional information related to UNESCO is specified as well. Apart from the main topic, information on the situation of intellectual property related to ICH safeguarding in each country is included. This survey report offers a large sample of the diverse ICH situations in Pacific countries. Each country has a different background on the issue of intangible heritage. Although all countries participating in the survey are concerned with the threats facing their ICH, most of them haven’t defined ICH and haven’t established inventory national ICH list or inventory. However, each country expresses a high degree of motivation and encouragement for safeguarding ICH, sharing experiences, and participating in international cooperation efforts. Compared to some Asian countries, Pacific countries seem to be well aware of the emerging intellectual property issues related to ICH. This might be related to the internationally publicized infringement and violation of intellectual property rights by outsiders on the Pacific’s traditional knowledge, cultural expressions, and genetic resources . Moreover, these countries appear to collaborate closely with the World Intellectual Property Organization on various awareness-raising and capacity-building activities on protecting traditional culture in a broad sense. \n\nTo date, out of the eight Pacific countries participating in the survey, five countries (Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Cook Islands, Palau, and Vanuatu) are drafting laws on the protection of traditional knowledge and expressions of culture. Furthermore, in terms of technical terminology, the Pacific countries tend to use “traditional knowledge” and “expressions of culture” as equivalent terms to “intangible cultural heritage”. Pacific countries are also conducting cultural mapping projects, which is another common point that they share. Finally, the Pacific region has the highest rate of indigenous populations of any other region of the world and the highest rate of customary or traditional land ownership.\n\n- Ratified the ICH Convention in 2009; conducted survey in 2009.\n- As of May 2013, has no elements on the ICH Lists of UNESCO and no accredited NGOs.

For a very long time, the publication of a book on the intangible cultural heritage of Hà Nội has been a deeply held wish of all the researchers and staff of the Centre for Research and Promotion of Cultural Heritage (CCH), an affiliated organisation of the Association of Cultural Heritage of Viet Nam. The aim of this book is to identify and introduce the richness and great value of the living cultural heritage of Hà Nội, our capital city and a great centre of 1,000 years of civilisation in our country. Our volume is thus a means of documenting and memorialising the boundless merits of our ancestors, and of the many generations of the communities who have continually created and sustained an extraordinarily diverse array of cultural expressions, making Hà Nội a precious repository of ancient traditions and living creativity: a land rich in cultural values, and a source of pride to all Vietnamese citizens, and especially to all the people of Hà Nội.

Present Promotional book was developed by experts of Uzbekistan in line with provision of the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003). The Promotional book is the output of the joint cooperation project between National Commission of the Republic of Uzbekistan for UNESCO and ICHCAP under the title of “Publishing an ICH Promotional Book in Uzbekistan”.