Kyrgyzstan, a landlocked country the territory of which is more than 94 percent mountainous, is among the most attractive lands located at the heart of Asia on the ancient Silk Road trade routes. The cultural heritage of the Kyrgyz people has been greatly influenced by their nomadic history. Kyrgyz people occupy a unique cultural environment and have a rich ICH. The vitality of this cultural heritage is safeguarded and transmitted from generation to generation as collective memory, orally or through practice and expression.

The small sun-soaked village of Molela, located approximately fifteen to twenty kilometers from the city of Udaipur in Rajasthan, is home to a vibrant community of terracotta clay artists. Over the years, Molela has emerged as a focal point in the art of making attractive votive plaques or idols of gods, with terracotta. While the early creations were originally cast as standing idols of local deities and various forms of the Hindu god Vishnu, today these figures are often mounted on tiles or plaques and are hung from the walls of homes and temples. These votive figurines can be multicolored or can have a terracotta hue, as is represented in the various temples in Rajasthan and Gujarat.

Kalaripayat is considered one of the earlier martial art systems in Asia. Even though it had a larger geographic range at the time of its origin in South India, it is now restricted to the state of Kerala.Many terms are used in the literature to refer to Kalari including “Kalarippayattu,” “Kalaripayattu,” “Kalaripayat,” and so on. The term “Kalaripayat” will be used in this chapter. There are different theories regarding the origin of the word kalari. It is variously said to originate from the Sanskrit word khaloorika (“training ground”), the Tamil word kalam (“storage place for paddy”), or the Malayalam word kalari (“place where Kalaripayat is practiced”). Payatt or Payat may have originated from the Tamil word payil (“to become trained, accustomed, practice”) or the Malayalam words payiluka (“to learn, speak”), payttuka (“to exercise in arms, practice”), or payattu (“fencing exercise, a trick”). It may be noted that the original name of the martial style was “Payattu Kalari” and that the word “Kalaripayat” has only been used since the 20th century.

In the Magar community, there are many children’s games based on child psychology and connected to social norms and values. Some of these games are dramatization with the children taking on different roles. This structure means that there are no tools or materials needed to enjoy the games.

Strengthening the human capacity of creativity is at the basis of much of UNESCO’s work, which recognizes creativity as a multifaceted human resource that can inspire positive, transformative change for present and future generations. Creativity, embracing cultural expressions and the transformative power of innovation, is an integral part of human ingenuity and contributes to finding imaginative and appropriate responses to development challenges. Tapping into creative assets is a viable way of making globalization more human, now and in the future. Creativity is essential to promoting peace and sustainable development. For these reasons, UNESCO included ‘Fostering creativity and the diversity of cultural expressions’ in the list of strategic objectives of its current Medium-Term Strategy and attributed a central place to the safeguarding of intangible cultural in the program and action under this objective.

Phú Thọ - a midland province in northern Vietnam, is about 100 kilometres northwest of Hanoi where the sacred mountain Nghĩa Lĩnh also known as mountain Hùng exists. On Nghĩa Lĩnh mountain, there are Lower (Hạ), Middle (Trung) and Upper (Thượng) temples together with legends about 18 Hùng Kings of the Vietnamese people. Around Nghĩa Lĩnh mountain, there are hundreds of temples, communal houses and shrines located in villages and communes, which forms a religious space to worship Hùng Kings.

Laos has a rich diversity of cultures, lifestyles, and arts, many of which intersect. The country’s seventeen provinces stretch 1,162 kilometers from north to south, with 6.8 million inhabitants representing fifty officially recognized ethnic groups in four main language families. The majority Tai Lao people, from whom the country gets its name, make up about 53% of the population, with numerous ethnic minority groups comprising the rest.\nLaos is well known for its UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and the Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre (TAEC) is a cultural heritage social enterprise in the UNESCO World Heritage town of Luang Prabang. It is the only independent museum and resource center in Laos dedicated to the collection, preservation, and interpretation of the traditional arts and lifestyles of the country’s diverse ethnic groups.

The Cultural Research Foundation (CRF) was founded in 2002. Led by folklorists and anthropologists, the work of CRF regarding intangible cultural heritage can be categorized as\n\n- Researching and documenting ICH,\n- Sharing and promoting ICH through publications and events, and\n- Creating cultural heritage awareness, especially for pre-school and youth.\n\nCRF, accredited under the UNESCO ICH Convention in 2012, carries out this work under the sections of Culinary Culture, Toy, Crafts and Rituals Research Programs. CRF is also a member of the Izmir ICH Commission.

Pakistani culture is a living tradition practiced by most of its people. It includes both tangible and intangible cultural heritage.

The Tongan farming system is essentially an agro-forestry system of bush or grass fallow with cultivated coconut palms and other useful trees such as Bischovia javanica (used in the coloring and dying of tapa cloth), Santalum yasi (used in sandalwood perfume), Artocorpus altilis (breadfruit fruit trees) and Morinda citrifolia (used for medicinal purposes) creating a multi-story system for multiple cropping. The traditional staple crops of yams (Dioscorea spp), taro (Colocasia esculenta), sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) and cassava (Manihot esculenta) dominate agricultural production and household consumption. Tongans have evolved a highly productive complex farming system which exploits good soils and climate without fertilizer. Basically, the traditional Tongan farming system is one main cropping cycle but was highly modified by Tongan forefathers to suit individual preferences, food security, nutritional requirements, and sustainability and meet sociological obligations.

The Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre (SAC) is a public organization under the supervision of the Thai Ministry of Culture. Established in 1989, the Centre’s primary mission is to promote understanding among peoples through the study of human societies. SAC’s activities fall within three main program areas: documentation, research, and public education and outreach. Geographically, SAC’s program activities focus on Thailand and the Greater Mekong Sub-region, with the broad aim of fostering tolerance and cross-cultural awareness in the region through anthropological research and public education.

Historically, Malaysia (the Malay Peninsula) was known as the Golden Chersonese, and in the past, Malay populations lived in riverine and coastal settlements, which were some of the most important trading hubs in Southeast Asia. The Malay maritime empire was once a large kingdom, stretching from the coast of Vietnam and Cambodia to Southern Thailand, the Malay Peninsula, Singapore, Borneo, Sumatra, Riau, Sulawesi, and Southern Philippines. Across the Malay-speaking world, fabrics embellished with gold were for the rich and powerful, such as the ruler of the kingdom. Besides the golden fabric, songket, Malay embroideries were mostly used by nobility and royals. In the fifteenth century, the Melaka Sultanate instituted sumptuary laws governing the types of ornaments and colors for interior and soft furnishings, such as curtain fringes, bolster ends, cushions, prayer mats and other items. Across the Malay world, the numbers of dais, bolsters, and layers of siting mats, were associated with a certain hierarchy, varying across the regions.