The rapid processes of globalization and mass culture have increased interest among the Kyrgyz people regarding traditional culture for the preservation of historical memory and ethno-cultural identity. In this, the role of UNESCO is remarkable, one which promotes the preservation, development, and dissemination of national culture as well as contributes to transmitting culture and ensures its continuity over time.

The Kazakh National University of the Arts the Research Institute, named after Korkyt Ata (KazNUA), was established to achieve the lofty goals in science and education development. The main objective of the institute is to study and promote traditional Kazakh art. Investigations into the spiritual heritage of the Kazakh people are conducted in folklore, literature, culture, and art. Since the institute’s main objective is to study the national culture, the employees search for artifacts and collect information related to folk art, in Kazakhstan and other countries.

The rich folklore of the Kyrgyz people is an important historical and cultural phenomenon developing over many centuries and spiritually and artistically valuable. As an inexhaustible source of people’s wisdom, it reflects the history, life and social, political and spiritual ideals of the people. The oral folklore is the basis of our unique cultural heritage. Due to the harsh conditions of the nomadic life, endless clashes with enemies and invaders, and long distances of migration, the Kyrgyz people have not preserved their spiritual culture in the stone monuments of architecture, papyrus or clay writings but have preserved it in their memory for more than two thousand years of history. Memory proved to be good enough for keeping millions of lines of epic songs and works, which have been passed from generation to generation and reached the present day.

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.

Language is a powerful aspect of intangible cultural heritage (ICH). Along with oral traditions and expressions, language is recognized as crucial vehicle for manifestation of ICH.1 It is the gateway to a people’s culture, value systems, and worldviews. Linguistic diversity is correlated with multifarious and unexhaustive dimensions of diversity, including biological, species and ecological diversity. Despite unrelenting colonial attempts at their annihilation, Indigenous Peoples occupy about 22 per cent of global land mass where they continue to exercise their rich traditions and stewardship of nature. With their global population of about 500 million, Indigenous Peoples constitute perhaps the greatest human demographic showcase of the world’s cultural diversity, unlike any other civilization. Indigenous Peoples have retained an untapped capacity to continue to contribute as inventors, re-inventors, speakers, and custodians of a significant portion of the world’s estimated 7000 languages. Revival of Indigenous languages is an acknowledged aspect of Indigenous resurgence.2 This contribution calls attention to the untapped potential of Indigenous languages and oral traditions as vital tools for mitigating current ecological crisis.

Throughout their history, the Kyrgyz people have lived nomadically, which then determined the direction of their cultural and spiritual life. This idea comes to life quite easily when examining the intricacies of Kyrgyz folk art and epic poetry, in particular. The main core of Kyrgyz epic poetry is Manas.

Our current climate change crisis, termed the Anthropocene, has been tied to the history of the colonial plantation, capitalism, empire, nuclear testing, and a globalization era of disposability and waste. All of these histories have impacted (tropical) islands to a far greater extent than their continental counterparts, because islands have often functioned as laboratories for colonial experimentation, from the plantation complex of the Caribbean to nuclear testing in the Pacific. The climate crisis alerts us to the peril of living beyond our limits, yet islanders have long had to negotiate ecological crisis as well as find innovative solutions of sustainability and resilience in bounded lands and with limited resources.

Co-orgarnized by ICHCAP and Hue Monuments Conservation Centre (HMCC), this year’s Asia-Pacific ICH NGO Conference was held in Hue, Vietnam under the theme of ICH NGOs towards Sustainable Development of Communities.

Co-orgarnized by ICHCAP and Hue Monuments Conservation Centre (HMCC), this year’s Asia-Pacific ICH NGO Conference was held in Hue, Vietnam under the theme of ICH NGOs towards Sustainable Development of Communities.

The people inhabiting the present territory of Uzbekistan have their rich folklore, like any other nation on the earth. Dastans are special among the genres of folklore epics in terms of volume and variety of the means of expression. Like other major genres of folk art, they arise on the basis of archaic folklore and ancient national history and incorporate both ancient cultural traditions and the memory of the formation of the people, their spiritual world and historical destinies, their civil, moral and aesthetic ideals. Dastan (in Persian داستان), means ‘story’. It is the epic folklore and literature of the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Dastans are either folklore or literary interpretations of heroic myths, legends and fairy stories.

Nuosu, a subgroup of the Yi ethnic minority residing in southwest China, has maintained a long yet continually evolving tradition of verbal dueling from generation to generation. It is called kenre in the local Yi language, which literally means “mouth movement.” The tradition has not only been recorded in historical documents, but continues as a living knowledge contest undertaken primarily for honor and identity and for enlightenment and entertainment throughout the mountainous villages in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, thereby imbuing audiences both young and old with a sense of cultural identity and strengthening dialogue, cooperation, and respect among Nuosu communities (belonging to three sub-dialect zones) and neighboring Yi areas.

The oral tradition of the Kyrgyz people is the basis of a unique intangible cultural heritage that reflects Kyrgyz cultural identity. Oral heritage, developed over centuries, depicts the history and culture of the Kyrgyz people. Their creativity has been proven to survive exclusively in an oral form for many generations. This oral tradition represents a unique layer of traditional knowledge, making it a valuable source of cultural and traditional values and evidence of the development of the sociopolitical history of the Kyrgyz people. Kyrgyz oral heritage takes a wide variety of forms, including songs, fairy tales, proverbs, and riddles. These can all be different in terms of content and structure. Depending on the genre, oral tradition can reflect history, legends, fairy tales, or lore, which can be important in educating younger generations about the value of peace, attitudes toward nature and people, and love for the motherland. Many traditional oral works portray the main characters as defenders of their native land, arousing a sense of pride, and also depict the rich nature of the Kyrgyz land, nourishing love for their home. Some elements of oral tradition such as songs and folktales tell the stories or the specificities and peculiarities of the everyday life of Kyrgyz people. Folktales also reflect the esthetic views of the Kyrgyz people and teach us to recognize beauty, rhythm, and skillful use of language.\n