After the Angkor was inscribed on the World Cultural Heritage List, it was necessary to establish working mechanisms to promote national and international collaboration.

The history of ships in the Japanese archipelago begins with rafts and logboats (hollowed boats), which developed into semi-built-up ships made by connecting planks to a hull, and further into built-up ships made solely of planks. Strong aspirations for larger ships and advancements in lumbering and shipbuilding techniques made it possible for this gradual development. However, it was in no way a linear development.

The paper presents the status of Shamanism practice, in terms of state policy, research status and challenges for the Shaman heritage in Bhutan. The paper is based on field research and policy analysis conducted by the National Library and Archive of Bhutan under a ICHCAP project grant. An overview of shamanism in different regions of Bhutan is presented with a region-wise categorization of Shamanism in Bhutan. This is followed by a brief overview of four shamanism practices prevalent in Bhutan, three in the southern region and one in the western region. The preliminary data show that the Shamanistic practices in Bhutan, as in other parts of the world, has been deeply rooted in religion and supernatural power. The paper also presents future plans and initiatives of the National Library and Archives Division for the documentation and preservation of Shaman heritage. In absence of any written state policy regarding the preservation and promotion of Shaman heritage, the study concludes by proposing some recommendations to the government and local stakeholders for the preservation and promotion of the practice.

Hills resembling a dragon tail, composed of arenaceous soft mud stretching for several miles, scarce but fresh and lush vegetation, springs with ice-cold water spouting from the heart of the earth, waves of the salty lake gently crashing against the shore, magnificent white clouds soaring up in the sky and the numerous pilgrims, lined up one by one, treading right upon the “dragon tail” and making their pilgrimage through the sacred site Manjyly-Ata.

Maldives Authentic Crafts Cooperative Society (MACCS) is a cooperative marketing handicrafts produced by communities living in the atolls. Based in the capital city of Malé, MACCS was founded by a group of women to assist and promote the development of local handicrafts. Registered in 2011, MACCS primarily facilitates market access for local products. It aims to support and educate communities to revive traditional handicraft forms. The cooperative works with home-based workers and procures finished crafts directly from them.

Within indigenous communities throughout the Philippines, traditional crafts continue to be practiced despite the limited market opportunities. Considering this situation, government and non-government institutions have taken responsibility and initiated an income assistance program while also exploring possibilities for expanding markets for these communities.

Traditional games in Papua New Guinea, mainly played by children, were an integral part of society. The nature of those games can be categorized as games of skill, games of strength, water sports, and games for quieter mood.

India is the repository of an astounding wealth of intangible heritage with distinctive qualities of its own. The variety of geophysical features of India reflects its cultural diversity, from the Himalayan peaks to the sea coast, river-fed plains, marshlands, and deserts, all of which has helped shape its intangible culture in consonance with nature. India is a pluralistic society that combines different religions, faiths, racial communities, languages, and cultures. It has a wide range of artistic activities, traditional knowledge systems, folklore, performing arts and festivals, with about eight hundred dialects, and more than twenty officially recognized languages, several faiths, various styles of art, architecture, literature, music, dance, and lifestyle patterns from the urban and rural to the tribal.

In China, inventory making is at the core of its legal system on intangible cultural heritage safeguarding today. China’s classification, application, and administration are very different to those in Korea and Japan.

There were once three traditional house- construction styles in Fiji. The first, rausina, was common in the hinterland tribes of mainland Vitilevu. Its prominent feature was its single-ridge pole that gave the roof a conical shape. The second, kubulolo, was common in the outer islands of the Lau group. Its prominent feature was its oval shape, which is a typical feature in Polynesian Tonga and Samoa, two islands renowned for their trade with the Lau islands. The third, which is the focus of this article, is called the vasemasema style, and it was known for its two main ridge posts and was commonly found around coast tribes and villages on the main islands of Vitilevu and Vanualevu.

The UNESCO 2003 Convention was adopted because of the need for safeguarding ICH and ensuring its safe transmission to future generations. While promotional activities allow increasing awareness about ICH among populations, formal and non-formal education ensures its sustainability as well as continuity. It is for this specific reason that the delivery of ICH-related knowledge and skills through formal and nonformal education plays one of the central roles in safeguarding efforts.

Turkmenistan is vast country with rich, diverse, and deeply rooted oral and traditional cultures determined in terms of their interconnected relationship among humans, nature, and animals. The majority of the intangible aspects of Turkmen culture, like most indigenous cultures, are mainly unrecorded. The available materials on ICH existed in print or as photo and audio fragments from several resources without any documentation and classification.