ICH Courier is the quarterly magazine on ICH in the Asia-Pacific region issued by ICHCAP since 2009. Every issue has its own theme under the title of the Windows to ICH, and the theme of the Vol 12 is 'ICH AND SHAMAN HERITAGE'.

The two-year preliminary survey started in 2015 with the participation of the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Palau, Papua New Guinea, and Tonga. Each partner selected two or three local institutes with stored ICH recordings. Considering time and resources, we decided that each partner institutes would identify and include at least 300 data materials and information about their location, storage conditions, and contents.\n\nThanks to our partners’ efforts and cooperation, we now have better understanding of the available ICH materials. This report is based on the five submitted survey reports. It contains basic metadata of the target materials, types of recordings, current storage conditions, frequency of usage, and other information. While this report does not cover all dormant data in the Pacific, we hope it can serve as a first step in activating dormant ICH data.

The concept behind the book is to give the readers a taste of the rich diversity that can be found in traditional medicine practices and the experiences from a number of different perspectives, places and cultures. All the authors acknowledge that for well-being and treatment of illness, traditional medicine has an important complimentary role alongside modern medicine. It is hoped that this publication will contribute to the valuable sharing of experiences regarding the safeguarding of traditional practices, and the wider recognition of the role of traditional medicine in different contexts and cultures.

East Asian region is developed a rich of variety in the intangible heritage manifests, from oral traditions, performing arts, customs, and rituals to festivals, clothing, crafts, and food throughout the centuries. However, as with other counties in the Asia-Pacific region, which is a treasure house of ICH, traditional cultural heritage of East Asia was in a crisis of extinction due to shifts in industrial structures and the population outflow of younger generations to urban areas. In response, the Republic of Korea and Japan introduced the concept of intangible cultural heritage in policies related to safeguarding cultural heritage more than fifty years ago. Mongolia, with the support of its respective government, followed suit by establishing an institutional foundation for national ICH inventory making and ICH safeguarding after ratifying the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003). Moreover, in relation to ICH safeguarding activities, UNESCO Category 2 Centres, which support ICH safeguarding activities, have been simulataneously going through the establishment process in the Republic of Korea, China, and Japan. As a well-intentioned objective for the future activities, the three centres are making efforts to build a cooperative mechanism among themselves. Another effort made in the region is the establishment of the ICH safeguarding system in Mongolia. The government of Mongolia has drawn up a national ICH inventory and identified bearers as well. The countries in East Asia have been very active in safeguarding, and their participation at regional and international levels. Therefore, countries in the region need to build trust and collaborative relationships while safeguarding ICH at national, regional, and international levels.\n\n-Ratified the ICH Convention in 2006; conducted survey in 2009.\n-As of December 2014, has twelve ICH elements on the RL, five elements on the USL, and four accredited NGO.\n-In December 2012, submitted its periodic report on implementing the Convention on the status of elements inscribed on the RL to UNESCO.

Present Promotional book was developed by experts of Uzbekistan in line with provision of the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003). The Promotional book is the output of the joint cooperation project between National Commission of the Republic of Uzbekistan for UNESCO and ICHCAP under the title of “Publishing an ICH Promotional Book in Uzbekistan”.

The creation of this reference book, “The Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Mongols” sticks to the vision, principle and classifications of the UNESCO Convention of the ICH. This book consists of five chapters, each dealing with a domain of the ICH and explaining every episode. The national language and dialect, romantic oral literature, folk knowledge, wisdom and method, tangible art, delicately inventive and traditionally undying crafts, folk art, national toys and games, human feelings, decencies, solemn ceremonies and festivities of Mongolia are inexhaustibly rich sources and have subtle differences in nuance.

This Promotional book is a result of researches done by researchers of the Research Institute of Culture and Information and it was published by finance assistance of the International Information and Networking Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region under auspices of UNESCO (ICHCAP). The Promotional book contains of elements of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Tajiks described in seven chapters with fresh and colorful illustrations.

When we were young, we were told a lot of stories. Everyone hated the big, vicious, evil, and cunning animals. However, seen through grown-up eyes, there are no bad animals in the world. Animals personified in stories convey a message to the human world-that of peace and harmony. At a time when a message of peace is desperately needed, let’s enjoy some stories featuring various animals, from tigers to birds, rabbits, monkeys, and more.

This Book is the outcomes of the 2021 Expert Meeting for Building Network on Maritime ICH, which is held on 29 October 2021.\n\nThe expert meeting was co-organized by ICHCAP and SPC under the theme of Maritime Living Heritage: Coastal Communities in the Asia-Pacific Region and Their Traditional Food System.\nThis meeting consisted of two sessions with the different approaches to the costal communities and their traditional food system; ecocultural approach and socio-cultural approach. This book contains nine case studies of experts and scholars.

The book describes different elements of Bhutanese intangible culture under five chapters. Learning, studying, promoting and transmitting the Bhutanese culture, and its essence — the intangible cultural heritage — is a sublime obligation for each and every Bhutanese today. This book will not only serve as a basic manual for the study of the ICH of Bhutan for the future generations, but also inspire them to renew and share their awareness of (and engagement in) the research of our culture and traditions.

Traditional knowledge has been receiving more attention due to its recognized potential. However, for sometime, the word traditional was generally seen as synonymous to old or outdated. Toward the end of the twentieth century, the many problems facing modern society—including environmental degradation and dehumanization—got many people to question the limits of the so-called modern approach to the world. In post-modernist discourse, a central task has been to overcome the negative side of modernity in the fields of not only the arts and humanities but also social, natural, and applied sciences. And many are looking to traditional knowledge or intangible cultural heritage for alternatives. Re-examining, reinterpreting, and applying traditional knowledge in a contemporary context often leads to viable solutions.\n\nThe editors of this book have compiled informative articles on traditional knowledge from the Pacific that may provide solutions and ideas for problems facing modern society. To help create a clearer platform for conveying ideas about traditional wisdom, we have categorized the articles under five themes: Worldviews, Relationships and Social Cohesion, Harvest and Landscapes, Voyaging and Seascapes, and Art and Technology.