The Beautiful Story-Grandma Program (storymama.kr in Korean) is a unique program that the Advanced Center for Korean Studies began in 2009. Through the program, elderly women are given training and sent to child education facilities near their homes to tell three-to five-year-olds stories based on Korean traditions and history.

Every year there is much ado about inscribing items on UNESCO’s Representative List. When the dust of that spectacle settles down, it is possible to discern what was distinctive and important in a meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee, in the long run and on the ground (everywhere). In 2015, in Windhoek (10.COM), it was, next to the breakthrough of the notion of stakeholders,1 glocal ethics.2 This took the form of, on the one hand, the twelve ethical principles (and the still unfulfilled promise to create a web platform with relevant tools) and, on the other hand a new chapter, of the Operational Directives that partially translated themes of the 2030 Agenda to intangible heritage safeguarding policy.

Lunar month festival of the Mongols or holiday celebration of the first day of “White Moon” or “White Month” symbolizes the departure of winter and welcoming the spring of the new year. This festival and its rituals and traditions are unique and naturally accorded with a specific lifestyle of Mongolian nomadic culture. Therefore, during this festival, there are no gatherings of masses on the street to participate in folk parades and street carnivals as in urban cities and villages.

he upheaval and extinction faced by traditional culture is a core issue in today’s world. It has brought us to the realization that we are living in an important transition period where the future of humanity will be determined. In particular, the advent of digital platforms has provided a communication channel to link people together; the importance of these platforms seems poised to become much greater. In this era, in which means of communication are facing remarkable qualitative changes, oral tradition is under considerable threat. In past eras where humankind created languages and memories to resolve all kinds of issues and share information, speech was a way to achieve totality. Through speech, people delivered their thoughts and opinions, created new things, and embraced differences to become one. As such, spoken language became an absolute means and solution to maximize the immense capacity of humankind. People discovered interests and meanings through conversations; they combined work and enjoyment by singing; they wore masks and gave movement-based performances accompanied by amusing anecdotes. By reciting and dedicating bonpuri, a ritual song to pray to deities and receive oracles, their creations became content passed down through oral culture.

My presentation is called ‘New Trends and Directions in the 2003 Convention’ although it is a bit hard to say which trends are new because this is really the first round of periodic reporting we are getting. So what I want to do is give you a summary of the information received by UNESCO following the start of the periodic reporting process. So they are obviously new directions because this is the first time. Some results are surprising and unanticipated, and others are to be expected.

Intangible cultural heritage presents an important form of living cultural heritage. It covers fundamental, yet extremely vulnerable aspects of living culture and tradition embodied in the spiritual life, traditional knowledge, skills, and practices of communities. It presents one of the most vivid and colourful forms in which the world’s cultural diversity is expressed and preserved.

Chonbuk National University established the Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage Studies in 2012. The Center started its initial mission for researches on ICH with collecting and inventorying ICH on the domestic level. The Center’s work has increasingly expanded to study various issues regarding safeguarding, policy-making and revitalization of ICH. On the basis of it, we were able to open an introductory course for graduate students starting in the fall of 2014. In the next semester, spring of 2015, we opened another seminar on “tangible and intangible cultural heritage.” As the next step, our university established the Department of Intangible Heritage and Information, opening its graduate program for ICH studies in March of 2016. \n\nInterdisciplinary Curriculum \nICH is a new field of academia in Korea. We have courses related to ICH such as folklore, anthropology, oral literature, and traditional arts. ICH area should cover diverse fields and subjects from everyday life to arts, from the secular to the sacred and from research to practice. We have specified in curriculum to clarify course descriptions and pedagogic principles in order to distinguish the ICH field. There are five fields of the subjects, such as ideology, methodology, management and policy making, education and policy. Each field consists of its corresponding sub-fields with which specific courses are offered. Our graduate program systematically arranges each level from introductory through intermediary up to advanced courses for graduate students.

This article contains a brief summary of the major traditional wrestling styles that have been preserved by local populations in Central Asia, namely Turkmen goresh; Tajik gushtingiri; Uzbek kurash; Kazakh kuresi, and Balban kurosh. Each of these sports are considered as traditional wrestling styles, recognized at national level, while some of them have gained popularity at international level. Promotion of such national sports provides an opportunity to share national values and highlight national identity through intangible cultural heritage (ICH).

Dibya Jyoti Borah, President of ARHI introduces the role of ARHI in safeguarding of ICH. Established in 2008, ARHI is collaboration of individuals belonging to the indigenous tribe, activist working for the cultural-educational rights of native people. It is a wider platform for all indigenous communities to discuss and reflect upon challenges and problems faced by indigenous communities as well as finding the best means to address those concerns. It is a grassroots organization comprising all small & big indigenous communities.

We would like to address the issue of “Once cultural heritage of the community has suddenly become media news” There are a number of elements of intangible cultural heritage that have come to be thought of as problematic or 'bad customs' having a negative impact on contemporary social life. For example, the ritual of sacrificing animals as an offering to gods or spirits. The question is whether such things really should be understood as bad customs? Should we allow such practices to continue or either alter or abandon them? And who has the right to decide in such matters?

ARHI is a collaboration of individuals belonging to the indigenous groups and activists working for the cultural and educational rights of indigenous people in Northeast India. Folk Culture Research Centre or FCRC–a unit of ARHI—works with a mission to protect the cultural and educational rights of the indigenous people and to preserve and promote the rich cultural heritage of the different ethnicities of Northeast India. Their range of current and future work plan include preservation through visual media, audio, video, documentary film on distinct indigenous cultures, publications of indigenous folk culture, organizing workshops and fellowship programs. FCRC works for safeguarding language, oral traditions, textile and traditional knowledge in medicine through documentation and skill transmission.

Afghanistan is a culturally rich and diverse country with an abundance of tangible and intangible heritage stretching back from over a millennium. The nation has suffered a lot during the long years of war and conflict and the generations of ancestors who depended on transferring their intangible cultural heritage skills and knowledge to descendants were severely affected and displaced during the years of war.\n