The Beautiful Story-Grandma Program (storymama.kr in Korean) is a unique program that the Advanced Center for Korean Studies began in 2009. Through the program, elderly women are given training and sent to child education facilities near their homes to tell three-to five-year-olds stories based on Korean traditions and history.

Bhutan is a treasure trove of rich and unique tangible and intangible cultural heritage. Bhutan’s distinctive and often sacred cultures have been preserved and passed down through the generations. Today, the country is recognized for its unbroken and untainted immemorial cultural inheritance. One of the components of Bhutan’s varied intangible culture was royal court dances performed to entertain kings and their entourage at the palace.

Kazakhstan is characterized by ethnic, religious, and cultural diversity. However, the nation has not always had such a multiethnic composition. In the 1920s, Kazakhstan was a republic of the USSR and was mainly monoethnic. The Stalinist leadership aimed at eradicating social classes. To reach this goal, terror and intimidation were employed, targeting mostly members of the clergy, opposition leaders, intellectuals, artists, and former tsarist-government officials. Starting in 1934, political repression was particularly strong. Millions of Soviet citizens were exiled to the Urals, Siberia, and Kazakhstan. Opponents to the Bolsheviks from all over the USSR were held prisoner in concentration camps located in Kazakhstan.

Cambodian Living Arts’ (CLA) mission is to be a catalyst in a vibrant arts sector, inspiring new generations. Established in 1998, the organization’s original goal was to keep Cambodia’s endangered intangible heritage alive. As the context of Cambodia changed, and a new generation of artists began to emerge, CLA started offering scholarships, fellowships and professional development training, whilst creating job opportunities and encouraging cultural entrepreneurship. To support the transforming environment, CLA also engaged in cultural policy advocacy, supported the development of arts education in public schools and built new audiences for arts. CLA’s programs aim to give artists the resources and opportunities to start telling stories of contemporary Cambodia. Cambodian Living Arts believes that arts are at the heart of a vital society and supports cultural participation for all.

The circle dance, where people dance in a rotating formation, has appeared in many cultures since ancient times. The form and structure of the circle dance reflect the aesthetic concepts of mysteriousness, the incessant generation of filling and emptying, eternal return, unity, and defense. While there are various kinds of circle dance forms in Korea, the grandest one, with more than 250 dancers, is the yeowonmu.

Nagorik Uddyog (NU) was founded in 1995 by a group of nationally and internationally renowned Bangladeshi human rights activists and academics aiming to promote good gover-nance, access to justice, and the institutionalization of democracy at the local and national level. In the beginning, the organization worked on voter education programs and raised awareness among women that they could claim their rights from local government institutions and from the community. In this awareness-raising initiative, community cultural heritage properties like the Baul folk songs were used and earned immense popularity. Over a period of time, NU extended its activities across the country with specific focus on the rights of marginalized people, especially Dalit rights, land and human rights of Indigenous peoples, and access to justice for rural communities.

"Comprising more than 17,500 islands, 1,300 ethnici- ties, and over 500 vernacular languages, Indonesia is blessed with an incredibly diverse heritage, both nat- ural and cultural, tangible and intangible. However, this also poses a tremendous challenge, particularly when it comes to safeguarding and conserving such a colorful collection of heritage. Badan Pelestarian Pusaka Indonesia (BPPI, the Indonesian Heritage Trust) was founded to answer the challenges of safeguarding Indonesia’s diverse heritage. It is a nonprofit organization comprised of heritage practitioners and advocates who share the common goal of safeguarding the sustainability of Indonesia’s natural, cultural, as well as landscape."

What do sauna bathing, folk dance tikkuristi, rag rug weaving, picking mushrooms and snow games have in common? They are all part of living intangible cultural heritage, present in the everyday life and celebrations of the people in Finland. They are practised by people of all ages, in different corners of Finland. And yes, they are very much alive! \nAll of the Nordic countries have ratified the UNESCO Convention on the Safeguarding the Intangible Cultural Heritage. Web-based inventories have been created in all of them to make it possible for strong standing of grass-roots communities to create more awareness for their ICH and to dig deeper into safeguarding. This paper looks more closely on the example of Finland with its Wiki-Inventory for Living Heritage. As a good example of Nordic cooperation, the web platform Nordic Safeguarding Practices is introduced.

Traditional Indonesian batik was listed by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity on 2 October 2009. The unique and exquisite designs created by the artistic minds of citizens centuries ago, express their reverence to life and nature by painting cloth with symbols and characters bearing the philosophies of life.

Starting my report, I would like to emphasize that ethnic identity has always been represented by a wide range of elements beginning from the basic such as the ethnic self-consciousness. I deliberately abstain from academic style of delivering and specific terms and definitions, under- standing that nowadays the audience is widely represented not only by the professional ethnologists and anthropologists, but by the representatives of culture sector and general public as well.

Nagorik Uddyog (NU) was founded in 1995 by a group of nationally and internationally renowned Bangladeshi human rights activists and academics aiming to promote good gover- nance, access to justice, and the institutionalization of democracy at the local and national level. In the beginning, the organization worked on voter education programs and raised awareness among women that they could claim their rights from local government institutions and from the community. In this awareness-raising initiative, community cultural heritage properties like the Baul folk songs were used and earned immense popularity. Over a period of time, NU extended its activities across the country with specific focus on the rights of marginalized people, especially Dalit rights, land and human rights of Indigenous peoples, and access to justice for rural communities.

As of now, Bhutan is widely known in the world that stands out as a country in the world living traditions, rich traditions as well as daily unique practices by the people which evinces peculiarities of the Bhutanese culture. Thus, People of Bhutan not only take pride in its rich culture and traditional values which serves not only a national identity proving bondage within the people of the different communities in the country. Bhutanese culture gives identity that has protected and sustained independency between the two giant countries; Republic of China and India since time immemorial. Preservation of ICH has been one of the core objectives ever since the country had embraced the economic development plan in early 1960s.\n