Indigenously developed shamanism varies according to geographic location and anthropological characteristics. But all these variations share the belief that nature commands all life. So it can be said that shamanism of Myanmar originates from nature worship in which the spirits within nature govern life. Appeasing these spirits brings good to all living creatures; however, evil is cast upon those who disobey the laws of the spirits. Within the context of these beliefs, humans must soothe the spirits through rituals. However, since direct contact with deities and spirits is not possible for everyone, shamans emerged to act as agents who can communicate with the spiritual world through various rituals.

Pebaek was one of the important ritual procedures of a traditional wedding ceremony. The ritual was performed at the groom’s house after the bride finished the wedding ceremony at her house. Pebaek was to introduce herself properly to her new in-laws and, her rst greetings were to the inlaw parents and relatives.

This paper is based on two phases of my work focusing on South Asian context:\n\n(i) my experience of designing an integrated heritage management programme and running it for the past five years, in which Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) has been a core concept; and\n(ii) my personal interest in rethinking the overall idea of education in general, and refining professional education for the heritage sector in particular.\n\nBoth of the above aspects have emerged from my engagement and exposure to the overall heritage scenario in South Asian contexts, hence this paper is a reflection on ICH pedagogy at least for the South Asian context. The paper explores the idea of ‘contextual learning’ as a feasible pedagogy that could be adopted in ICH education at two levels: first is to create professionals for safeguarding of ICH, and the second is to integrate ICH as resources both in early (child) education as well as professional education in general.

This paper presents an overview of the current situation of intangible maritime cultural heritage among coastal residents and fishing cooperative association members who work and live in the Matsushima Bay region of Miyagi, Japan. \n\nThe Matsushima Bay has a rich history of peoples living around and accessing the sea’s resources since at least the Middle Jomon Period (4000 to 2500 BC). The Bay, named a quasi-national park and known as \none of the three most scenic places in Japan, was made famous by the poet Basho who visited the area in 1690.\n\nToday, however, the area suffers from high population density in the surrounding mainland, intense industry along the coast, demographic change in the coastal communities, and the impacts of the tsunami generated by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. \n\nWith these challenges, maritime ICH is at risk, and with it, communities and ways of life since, if ICH can help strengthen social cohesion and inclusion, the loss of ICH can weaken it. Social practices, rituals, and \nfestive events structure the lives of coastal communities, strengthening shared understandings of the local culture and environment. Two communities, maritime events, “Minato Matsuri” and “Hama O-bon”, \nwill be presented to highlight the importance of such activities.\n\nMaritime ICH also provides an opportunity for environmental sustainability and resilience. The paper thus also touches upon local concepts of “fisher-forests” and “sato-umi” and presents local examples of coastal community activities which, along with fishers’ local ecological knowledge, supports resilience and sustainability goals

This paper presents UNESCO’s approaches and activities under two functions: 1) the standard‐setting function, which is mostly carried out at headquarters level through intergovernmental committees and in close collaboration with Member States; and 2) the “laboratory of ideas” function, which is implemented at the national level by UNESCO field offices. Capacity building, at both the institutional and individual levels, is a major focus that is integrated throughout all our work.

The first thing I learned when I began my field work in the Province of Ifugao was that my time was not my own. Time belonged to the gods and spirits that would unexpectedly appear in dreams and give omens compelling the people to seek their mumbaki (ritual specialist) for guidance.

My initial research among Lach community in Lac Duong town, Lam Dong province, Vietnam started with my participation in a project entitled “Establishment of associated mechanisms for conservation of landscape biodiversity and cultural space in Lang Biang Biosphere Reserve, Vietnam,” headed by Southern Institute of Ecology (Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology) in 2016. The project was successful to some extent in documenting characteristics of cultural spaces of ethnic peoples in the region and the reality of these spaces’ conservation in close relationship with that of biodiversity. Noticeably, being a world heritage, gongs cultural space was recognized as one of the crucial elements constituting the entire cultural spaces and cultural identity of local ethnic groups in the region and thus recorded as being imperative for conservative strategies and actions. These preliminary conceptualizations attracted me as an anthropologist to explore further insights into the socio-economic and cultural life of the Lach in the context of their daily life from 2017 to 2018. \n\nAs the people have been taking more active parts in their national and international integration, their social and economic spaces get expanded, adjusted and re-created. So are their cultural spaces in general and gongs cultural space in specific. This paper is to explore local gongs clubs of the Lach in Lac Duong town and gongs culture restoration activities at the parish church of Langbiang to reveal the fact that gongs cultural spaces of the Lach are far from static, fixed and in need of reservation. Rather, they are dynamic, inclusive and on the process of continuous meaning making as the result of the people utilizing their agency in creating initiatives and mechanism to practice their culture and transfer it to next generations. It is implied that by ways of local participation and community based training, cultural heritage can be prolonged and perpetuated itself alive.

The Masion des Cultures du Monde (World Cultures Institute) The Maison des Cultures du Monde (“World Cultures Institute”), has been founded in 1982 in Paris by Chérif Khaznadar and Françoise Gründ with the support of the French ministry of Culture. Its goals, the promotion and the enhancement of world performing arts - as witnesses of human inventiveness, \n\n- as landmarks of a historical continuity - as factors of cultural diversity \n- as sources of inspiration and creative renewal. Its method: the on-stage presentation of musical, dramatic, choreographic and ritual expressions from all over the world and mostly unknown to the French public. Since the creation of the United Nations, a new vision emerged that international solidarity should be based on the knowledge of other cultures and on a “dialogue of cultures”. In France several initiatives were conducted such as : - the Theatre of Nations with the support of UNESCO\n- foreign cultural seasons such as the Year of India, the Year of China, the Year of Korea, the Year of Vietnam etc. \n- a Traditional Arts Festival which promoted world traditional arts in a spirit of open-mindedness, awareness raising, aesthetic pleasure and cultural enrichment.

Munmyo is a Confucian shrine in which various spiritual tablets of past Confucian scholars rest. In this shrine, thirty-nine spiritual tablets are enshrined that belong to Confucius, four disciples, sixteen Chinese Confucian scholars, and eighteen Korean Confucian scholars. Currently, the Munmyo shrine is in Sungkyunkwan, which was an institution of higher education during the Joseon dynasty and is now Sungkyunkwan University located in Seoul. Every February and August, according to the lunar calendar, commemorative rites are prepared and called Munmyo Jerye or Seokjeonje. Currently, Seokjeonje is listed as No. 85 on the Important Intangible Cultural Heritage List of Korea, designated in 1986.

Central Asia is a region that has served as the centre of social and economic, in particular cultural interrelations of East and West. The nations of this region have a rich cultural heritage and ancient traditions like any nation in the world. The nations of Central Asia - Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan – make up a unified cultural space, defined by great grassland steppes and famous mountains, nomadic culture and common history, relics and traditions. Throughout this region we find petroglyphs, keregsur, steles, ruins and other monuments attesting to the mingling of peoples in the Central Asian steppe since prehistory. The territory of our own nation, Mongolia, has indeed been the centre several nomadic empires at various stages in history, established by different peoples of Central Asia sharing a similar cultural origin – Hunnu, Khitan, Turks, Uighurs, Kyrgyz and Mongols.

Shamanism is a phenomenon found in most parts of the world. The essence of shamanism is people's nature to overcome their limited abilities by creating and leaning upon supernatural being. This is a trait not only found in Shamanism but also in most religions as well. However, Shamanism is usually considered as a mere folk belief rather than a nationally recognized religion. \n

The location of Indonesia is at the junction of the Australian, Eurasian, and Pacific tectonic plates. and Positioned on the ‘ring of fire’ with many active volcanoes as well as its high annual rainfall, Indonesia susceptible to natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, flooding, landslides, and mudslides.