"Ambae Island, Vanuatu: Home to more than 11,000 people, the people indige- nous to the land. In April 2017, Ambae’s Manaro volcano, Mount Lombenben, rumbled continuously, spewing torrents of volcanic matter and gas from its crater, covering the majority of the island in thick layers of ash, hampering water sources, and destroying vegetable plots and gardens. The government of Vanuatu ordered a mandatory evacuation of the island and the people of Ambae were forced to relocate to neighboring islands— Pentecost, Maewo, and Espiritu Santo—leaving their homes, animals, and crops behind. The impact was devastating. Schooling was disturbed, livelihoods perished, and many people struggled with trauma and the challenges of integrating into new communities where they didn’t have strong connections or access to land and natu- ral resources."

The life of the Bauls of Bangladesh revolves around body-centric ascetic practice termed sadhana. Bauls believe in the co-existence of every element of the endless Brahmanda, meaning universe in the human body. Thus, they make caring for the body their highest priority over anything else. They have created extensive verse about body-centric sadhana codes that they transmit through song. The verses or songs include descriptions of control over the consumption of daily necessaries, mainly food. And, they believe in the doctrine মানুষ যা খায়, সে তাই (a human is what he or she consumes). They also judge food as medicine, as the need to live a hale and hearty.

One passageway can have different meanings due to the different mind-set of different persons. Likewise, a change in a viewpoint transforms an ordinary object into something symbolic. The reasoning is the same when a thing nothing more than a ‘movement’ lastly becomes a ‘flower’ and ‘significant’ once it is called by its name.

In June 2012, Samoa celebrated its fiftieth year of independence. It was the first Pacific island country to gain independence, and the Polynesians living in this small group of islands have been bequeathed with a rich and distinguished cultural heritage.

One can say without any overstatement that, during the several last years, the significance of one of UNESCO category 2 center, the International Information and Networking Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region under the auspices of UNESCO (ICHCAP), was essential in supporting the initiatives to safeguard the intangible cultural heritage in Tajikistan. It is known that, after the adoption of the UNESCO Convention on intangible cultural heritage safeguarding (2003), a wave of initiatives and efforts to safeguard intangible cultural heritage covered Central Asia, because there had been a process of self-recognition and changing opinions on spiritual heritage after the collapse of the USSR.

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.

With the arrival of the Kasato Maru at the port of Santos in 1908, a progressive process of Japanese immigration to Brazil began. Martial arts, an integral part of Japanese culture, were brought along with those first immigrants (Kobayashi, 2010). Brazil became the country with the largest number of Japanese immigrants, with São Paulo the biggest community of Japanese people outside Japan (Sociedade Brasileira de Cultura Japonesa, 1992).\n

Bongsan Talchum, or the Bongsan mask-dance drama, was originally transmitted in Giryang-ri, Dongseon-myeon, Bongsan-gun, Hwanghae Province in the northern part of Korean Peninsula. However, with the relocation of administrative bodies, including the district office to Sariwon in 1915, the mask-dance drama and its transmission activities were also transferred to the area. In South Korea, Bongsan Talchum had been transmitted since its restoration by performers who originated from the North, including Jin-ok Kim and Cheon-sik Min, and was designated as Important Intangible Cultural Property No. 17 in 1967. The office of the Bongsan Mask Dance-Drama Preservation Society is currently housed within the Training Center for Important Intangible Cultural Properties in Seoul.

There is no written history of the Maldives before its conversion to Islam 1153 AD. However, various archaeological and heritage sites bear evidence that the country has been inhabited for at least two thousand years (Mohamed, 2008). The 2019 published Cultural Heritage tentative list got 462 sites/buildings listed which are located all over the nation. The cultural heritage sites/buildings ranging from pre-islamic period (c.500BCE – 1153CE) to late modern period of British control (1835CE-1965) is included in this tentative list.

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.

"This paper considers some of the challenges around inventory making for intangible cultural heritage from a European perspective. It will outline the work that is currently being undertaken in Scotland to develop an online inventory using a wiki-based approach. Scotland as a devolved nation within the UK has its own cultural policies that embrace the concept of intangible cultural heritage (ICH); however, at a UK level, there appears to be resistance to the ratification of the 2003 UNESCO Convention on ICH. Scotland has taken an inclusive and participatory approach to the creation of an inventory that reflects the broad and open definition of ICH that has been adopted. This approach has brought some challenges as we begin to operationalize the identification and future safeguarding of ICH in Scotland. In managing the process, we are beginning to encounter some ethical questions. The digital inventory format of the wiki promotes grassroots community ownership, which means that data is user generated. Our challenges are around how this data should be moderated whilst adhering to the principles of a community approach, but also ensuring that we do not actively promote ICH that contravenes the basic human rights that the Convention is designed to uphold."

Current Status of University's Efforts for ICH Education and Its Safeguarding: A case on Japan