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.

The relationship between disasters and ICH might share some similarities with the relationship between disasters and cultural heritage with physical form. Natural disasters destroy tangible artifacts and monuments, strike at people, places, and communities related to ICH, and disrupt knowledge, skills, and technology. In this context, we need to prepare safeguards against the impact of disasters on both ICH and tangible heritages. Combining living heritage with people, places, and communities could also lead to an alternative way of thinking about how ICH might mitigate the impact of disasters. The role of culture in disaster mitigation and risk reduction is an idea resulting from recent disaster policies. The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) encourages strengthening communities’ capacity for managing disasters and risk reduction (Hyogo Framework) and advocates disaster risk reduction through integrated and inclusive economic, legal, structural, health, and cultural measures, among others (Sendai Framework). This article reviews recent scientific developments in cultural measures for disaster risk reduction and how ICH contributes to disaster mitigation, and identifies convincing arguments from case studies of the 3.11 disaster in Japan.

The Loden Foundation has identified ten ICH elements of Bhutan that are on the brink of disappearing as time passes. To preserve records of these cultural traditions and raise awareness of them among the people, the foundation aims to make documentaries about these elements with support from ICHCAP. \n

The shamanism of the Mongols, based on the beliefs that animals and all things in nature have souls, originates in the worship of Father-Sky and Mother-Earth. Worshiping these elements has roots from the traditions of nature worship that also involves worshiping the souls of ancestors and magical power of the spirits (ongon), revering respect to the mountain and water deities through divine practices, and executing remedies and verses (shivshleg). People believe that a male shaman (boo) and a female shaman (udgan) are capable of averting and warding off misfortune and evil and taming any enemy by foretelling the future causes communicating with the ninety-nine deities (tengris) that exist in the heavens and the spirits of earth and water.

This presentation basically focuses on two themes: (1) the meaning of loss and risk in the context of cultural dynamics and (2) the possible articulation between cultural safeguarding and social development projects. I argue that the loss or abandonment of ICH elements by cultural communities does not simply point out at the impoverishment of cultural repertories, but often makes manifest social conflicts and changes which may sometimes be desired by some social agents, yet seen as undesirable by others within the same social formation. Furthermore, I believe that the safeguarding of ICH, particularly endangered social practices and traditional knowledge, can be a crucial component of social development programmes, above all in relation to education, in raising family income, as well as in strengthening senses of identity and selfesteem of minority groups.

The 2019 Sub-Regional Meeting for Intangible Cultural Heritage Safeguarding in South Asia: ICH in Education: Towards Joint Collaboration for Promoting ICH in Formal and Non-Formal Education jointly organized by ICHCAP and UNESCO Dhaka Office, was held from 24 to 26 June 2019 in Dhaka, Bangladesh.\n\nThis report is composed of nineteen presentation papers delivered at the meeting by national representatives, NGOs, and UNESCO Offices in Bangkok and Dhaka. In addition, the outcome document of the meeting is also affixed to put it on record the adopted recommendations of the participants in moving forward together.

The Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) was set up to fulfil late Smt. Indira Gandhi’s (former Prime Minister of India) idea of restoring the integral quality of a human being, fragmented by his diverse roles in cities, classes, ethnic groups, religions, traditions, and nationalities, to reconcile one’s material and spiritual needs, and enable one to be at peace with oneself and with society. The center was visualized as encompassing the study and experience of all the arts—each form with its own integrity, yet within a dimension of mutual interdependence, interrelated with nature, social structure, and cosmology.

This Webinar Series begins with an assessment of the impacts of COVID-19 on intangible cultural heritage (ICH), considerably identifying the possible roles ICH might take in critical times. As the pandemic has been disrupting many forms of cultural practices, the effects of which worsen the vulnerability of the stewards of heritage, the first session intends to hold a discussion toward innovative solutions for ICH safeguarding and transmission during a time of global crisis and social unrest.

Laos is aware that culture is the foundation for a nation’s survival. At the same time, culture is considered a driving force and end target for social development. A Lao proverb says, ‘culture proves nationality, and behavior proves social standing (of someone), so to lose culture means to lose the nation (population)’. Based on this consciousness and belief, the Lao government generally considers cultural affairs as the basis for formulating policies and strategies to preserve, promote, and develop national culture. A recent and noticeable achievement by the Ministry of Information and Culture can be seen in the organization’s growing success in promoting and expanding ‘the cultural family model’ and ‘the cultural village model’ within communities nationwide.

Today, it is generally acknowledged that indigenous culture and knowledge around the world is under threat by globalization, rights infringement and violation, and other effects of modernization, including the general lack of respect for traditional culture and the individuals or communities through which that culture is manifested.

Bangladesh has been a place of religious harmony for centuries. The vast displays of cultural and religious properties on show here have been shaped over the last 5,000 years, following numerous political and social movements including those of the Pals (Buddhist), Sens (Hindu), Mughals (Muslim), and British (Christian), and have grown to become symbols of the country’s tangible and intangible heritage. Because of the presence of these varied political religious reigns, Bangladesh became home to famous tirthas or pilgrimage sites for different faith groups. Many notable monks, rishis (Hindu saints), bhikkhus (Buddhist saints), pirs, and darbeshes (Muslim preachers), and Christian priests were either born or passed away here.

Jeonju is the most popular city in Korea for its traditional culture. Jeonju is ranked number one in terms of the number of living human treasures, the cultural heritage index, and the traditional cultural and art performance index, indicating that traditional culture is more actively practiced and performed in the city than any other city in the country. Against this backdrop, the Korean government designated Jeonju a traditional cultural city, and traditional culture has been at the heart of the urban-development strategies of Jeonju. The city’s rich traditional culture dates far back in history.