Last year Croatia joined the world community in celebration of the tenth anniversary of the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage by holding an ICH conference and festival in Dubrovnik. In the last decade, numerous activities have taken place, but the basic question of how to continue promoting and protecting sensitive intangible assets remains.

The current topic of this conference is not very well studied in the Philippines. The word –shamanism- is regarded as an arbitrary umbrella-catch-all term for lack of something better because what it refers to in the Philippines is a far ranging set of practices, belief and value systems that are very specific. It is with some trepidation that these sets of practices, beliefs and value systems may not at all fit into the north-Asian concept of Shamanism, especially with reference to the structure and social organization. The latest local term used is –pagdidiwata – referring to the rituals invoking spiritual beings (diwata). The other terms used\nare bunung, baki, pagaanito, alisig, and many others depending on the culture of the some 80 different major ethno-linguistic groups in the country. Common to all is the belief in the existence of a spirit world to which the world of people should relate, through the medium of ritual specialists. There are differences, however, in the structure and social organization in the social behavior related to ethnic practice.

The life of the Bauls of Bangladesh revolves around body-centric ascetic practice termed sadhana. Bauls believe in the co-existence of every element of the endless Brahmanda, meaning universe in the human body. Thus, they make caring for the body their highest priority over anything else. They have created extensive verse about body-centric sadhana codes that they transmit through song. The verses or songs include descriptions of control over the consumption of daily necessaries, mainly food. And, they believe in the doctrine মানুষ যা খায়, সে তাই (a human is what he or she consumes). They also judge food as medicine, as the need to live a hale and hearty.

The South-Western Alps, across Italy and France are an area of long-lasting and significantly dense presence of diverse intangible cultural heritage expressions, resulting from the peculiar forms of relation and adaptation between the communities and the mountain ecosystems. But now, this area faced a number of challenges, Alessio Re & Giulia Avanza introduced the projects for building up resilience on the South-Western Alps territory.

- Children should not build a birdhouse in order to learn the Pythagorean Theorem.\n- Children should learn the Pythagorean Theorem in order to build a birdhouse.\n\nTouch. Feel the texture. Smell. Duplicate a shape, a pattern or a color. These are examples of what we call "action transmitted knowledge." A young lumberjack once stood quietly, observing the older man whose job it was to load the logs onto the long lumber sled and drive them to the mill. The older man had his own way of moving, he nearly danced with each log, lifting it, rolling it a little, using small motions to push it this way and that. Until quite suddenly everything was in place, ready to be transported on the sled. One day the young lumberjack saw that the older man had brought his five-year-old son with him. The boy walked behind his father, watching him and doing exactly what he did, easing a log, dancing with the load, mimicking each of his father's movements. At that moment, the young lumberjack realized that he was observing a transmission of knowledge from father to son.

In Buddhism, deities and gods are imagined as either male or female. They can appear either calm and peaceful or fierce and frantic. Generally, the more peaceful gods are the deities of harmony, aesthetics, kindness, diligence, and so on whereas the fierce ones are the guardians whose role is to threaten and daunt the demons.

Bhutan’s rich cultural heritage embraces different traditional musical instruments that have been created and developed over the years and used since the beginning of Bhutan’s origination. Consequently, in tandem the lingm (flute), pi-wang (fiddle), dra-nyen (guitar), and yang-chen (harp) popularly form elements of Bhutanese music among various indigenous instruments.

The Kazakh oral tradition is closely associated with the culture and lifestyle of nomadic civilisation. One of the main branches of the Great Silk Road is known to have led across Central Asia and Kazakhstan. The instrumental and oral traditions of numerous nomadic and settled nations were developing along the Great Silk Road in close interethnic contacts. In particular, many scientists and researchers note that different cultures and ethnic groups have common variations of tamboura-like instruments with silk strings and dulcimer-like instruments and traditional guttural singing.

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.

Discourse about intangible cultural heritage is anchored on the question of memory, which has become a topic of great interest today not only within academia but also in popular culture. America’s newfound taste for cupcakes and macaroni and cheese, for instance, is not so much about society’s gastronomic craving for these foods, as it is about society’s craving for history and the comfort of things past. In essence, it is about restorative nostalgia and the memories that these foods evoke and make possible through the imaginary. Our preoccupation with memory and remembering, in large part, is driven by our recognition of the fragility of memory, a fragility that is underscored by this age of mass displacement in which we live. As the Iranian American writer Roya Hakakian notes in her recent memoir, “When you have been a refugee, abandoned all your loves and belongings, your memories become your belongings.” In a world where over 80 million people are currently forcibly displaced, amounting to one person being forcibly dislodged from his or her home and lifeways approximately every two seconds, dislocation, uprooting, and rupture are as much a facet of our lived experience as are connectivity and interdependence. Exilic condition is an unfortunate but undeniable feature of modernity.\nEven within living memory, Asia has had her share of tumultuous histories. Colonization, conflict, war, and other calamities have engendered mass dispersal. Over 2 million Vietnamese, Cambodians and Laotians fled their homelands in the aftermath of war, revolution and genocide, and many more Southeast Asians continue to be displaced in varied contexts and conditions as we speak. The genocide in Cambodia left deep wounds and ravaging effects on the cultural memories of the nation that is now bifurcated between Asia and the diaspora. Even without the trauma of war and mass atrocities, globalization, modernization, and urbanization have progressively divested traditional knowledge of its merits, and peripheralized certain memories into oblivion.

Marriage in a Bhutanese context is a social event that encompasses several Buddhist rituals; it does not end simply with exchanging vows and rings and kissing the bride. The centuries-old traditions in Bhutanese marriage ceremonies are much richer and involved; however, despite this, these traditions have been disappearing over the years.

Banglanatak dot com is a social enterprise working with a mission to foster pro-poor growth using culture-based approaches. The Art for Life (AFL) initiative of the organization has led to socio-economic empowerment of 4500 folk artists in two eastern Indian states, West Bengal and Bihar. AFL aims at revitalizing traditional skills in arts and crafts by using these skills to augment livelihood opportunities and develop creative enterprise. The organization has worked with traditional folk singers, dancers, theater groups, painters, and artisans to revitalize their skills. Textual and audio-visual documentation aimed at safeguarding and promoting living heritage have also been undertaken.