Azerbaijan is one of the oldest areas of human habitation, where people once lived in natural geological formations. In its territory, archaeologists have discovered caves where people lived as far back as the Paleolithic era. For centuries, architects accumulated knowledge and skills related to rational planning schemes and the constructional and compositional methods of building residential houses in the area. However, data on the development of residential houses in Azerbaijan have been available only since the eighteenth century. Although we have little evidence of the development of the residential house in Azerbaijan in earlier periods, there is little doubt that the houses of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that have survived to the present time contain many features developed earlier.

The Rom Dance is a prominent cultural heritage originating from Ambrym Island in the Vanuatu archipelago. Ole in the Ambrym vernacular language refers to dance performances in which participants wear a rom mask. The rom, which is the mask itself, is a simpler version of the Banks Islands’ tamate mask, but it looks more similar to South Malekula masks.

Intangible cultural heritage can be defined as living expressions inher-ited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants. This includes oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe or the knowledge, and traditional craft. Traditional medicine is related to all of these areas. While the 2003 Convention nomenclature includes heal-ing practices and healing knowledge rather than traditional medicine, for the purposes of this publication, we have opted to use traditional med-icine as an umbrella term to encompass not only healing practices and knowledge but also the associated rituals, products, and experiences of practitioners. Traditional medicine can easily be understood as practices concerning nature and the universe, but as the reader will explore in the following chapters, it also embraces traditional crafts, social practices, oral traditions and performing arts. For example, Emanuela Esposito and Vincento Capuano explain in their article how music can be used both as medical therapy and for our well-being.

The painting industry and paint products in Vietnam have a long tradition. The first vestiges of paint materials were unearthed hundreds of years before the Christian era. Since ancient times, plastic latex was extracted from bark for its stickiness, durability, and resistance to rain, sunshine, salt water, and high humidity. Therefore, Vietnamese people used it to plaster boats and paint on wooden furniture, rattan, and bamboo to increase aestheticism and durability. Previously, the Nguyen lords took plastic resin from forests in Quang Tri in Quang Ngai Province or Nam Dong district of Thua Thien Hue and later mainly from Phu Tho and Yen Bai provinces.