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 2005; conducted survey in 2009 and updated in 2016.\n- As of March 2018, has 7 ICH elements on the RL, 7 elements on the USL, and 1 accredited NGO.

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 9 is 'ICH AND CIRCLE DANCES.'

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 33 is 'Village Guardian Rituals and Communities.'

The Conference on exploring and safeguarding shared ICH in East Asia jointly organized by ICHCAP and the UNESCO Beijing Office and hosted by the Mongolian National Commission for UNESCO, was held on 10 September 2021.\n\nThis report is composed of eight case studies of East Asian Member States—namely China, Japan, Mongolia, and ROK.

In 2015, ICHCAP, IICAS, and the National Commission of the Republic of Uzbekistan for UNESCO co-organized an international symposium, gathering leading experts and scholars in the region, with the topic of ‘oral traditions and epics’ to uncover more profound issues on ICH in the region. As the nomadic tribes of Central Asia have always been migratory, oral traditions have been the core means of intergenerational transmission in their culture. Since ancestral cultural practices and wisdom have been transmitted across generations orally, it is crucial to discuss these issues for safeguarding living 142 heritage in Central Asia. This book is the collection of the papers from the symposium.

In November 2013, Jindo County hosted a symposium on shaman heritage and public events. Organized by ICHCAP and the World Ethnic Dance Institute with the support of the Cultural Heritage Administration of Korea, the participants from Northeast Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia explored measures through which shaman cultural heritage can be safeguarded with international cooperation. Diversity and Commonality of Shaman Heritage in Asia—Current Safeguarding Status and Challenges of Asian Shaman Heritage is a dual-language publication with the meeting’s discussion and presentation papers available in both English and Korean.

Based on the ICHCAP Field Survey on Intangible Cultural Heritage Safeguarding Efforts in some South-East Asian countries (2009-2012), this summary provides a brief overview on the ICH situation in Cambodia, Thailand, Viet Nam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Laos, and Myanmar . The summary focuses mainly on ICH safeguarding systems, safeguarding policies, and ICH inventories as well as on pending issues and the urgent safeguarding needs of these countries. Moreover, information on the main entities in charge of ICH safeguarding and opinions of each country on the issue of community involvement are provided. To give a quick overview these countries’ participation in ICH safeguarding at the international level, some additional information related to UNESCO is specified as well. Apart from the main topic, information on the situation of intellectual property related to ICH safeguarding in each country is included. This survey report offers a large sample of the diverse ICH situations in South-East Asian countries. Each country has a different background on the issue of intangible heritage. \n\nFor instance, Indonesia is the only country participating in the field survey that has a programme in the Register of Best Practices. Viet Nam developed ICH-related definitions in its Law on Cultural Heritage; whereas the Philippines has a strong legislative background and solid network of public structures protecting cultural heritage. Cambodia recognises the link between cultural heritage and development of national economy and runs relevant activities on promoting traditional culture while maximizing its economic benefits to the country. For Laos, training local artists rather than researchers in ICH safeguarding, including IPR, is deemed to be essential, as the artists are the important resources that master their arts. Among the South-East Asian participants, Thailand and Myanmar are the newest to approach ICH safeguarding. Although all countries are concerned about the threats ICH faces, most countries participating in the survey haven’t defined ICH and haven’t established national ICH lists. Meanwhile, drawing up an inventory of traditional cultural expressions in different forms—register, cultural map, or database—is a common activity in these countries. Moreover, each country expresses a high degree of motivation and encouragement for safeguarding ICH, sharing experiences, and promoting international cooperation.\n\n- Ratified the ICH Convention in 2006; conducted survey in 2009.\n- As of March 2018, has 3 ICH elements on the RL, 1 element on the USL, and no accredited NGOs.

Based on the ICHCAP Field Survey on Intangible Cultural Heritage Safeguarding Efforts in some South Asian countries (2010–2013), this summary provides a brief overview on the ICH situation in Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka . The summary focuses mainly on ICH safeguarding systems, safeguarding policies, and ICH inventories as well as on pending issues and the urgent safeguarding needs of these countries. Moreover, information on the main entities in charge of ICH safeguarding and opinions of each country on the issue of community involvement are provided. To give a quick overview these countries’ participation in ICH safeguarding at the international level, some additional information related to UNESCO is specified as well. Some information on the ICH safeguarding status of Pakistan is updated, based on Periodic Report No.00794/Pakistan on the implementation of the Convention and on the status of elements inscribed on the RL submitted to UNESCO on December 2012. \n\nThis survey report offers a large sample of the diverse ICH situations in South Asian countries. Each country has a different background on the issue of intangible heritage. Although all the participating countries are concerned about the threats facing ICH, most of the countries participating in the survey haven’t defined the ICH and haven’t established national ICH lists and/or ICH inventories.However, each country expresses a high degree of motivation and encouragement for safeguarding o ICH, sharing experiences, and cooperating internationally. A common point noticed among them is that they tend to pay more attention to traditional performing arts in comparison to other ICH domains. Apart from the main subject, information on the situation of intellectual property related to ICH safeguarding in each country is included. However, this issue is very briefly reflected, so it is necessary to go through the ICHCAP Field Survey on Intellectual Property Issues in the Process of ICH Information Building and Information Sharing (2011–2012) to obtain more comprehensive and concrete information on this topic.\n\n- Ratified the ICH Convention in 2005; conducted survey in 2013.\n- As of December 2014, has eleven elements on the RL and twenty-eight accredited NGOs.

The Booklet presents materials related to the National Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) of the Kyrgyz Republic. Publication introduces the intangible cultural heritage and directed at raising awareness about the ICH elements among the wider public, concerned specialists, national and international organizations working in the field of the intangible cultural heritage.

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.

Since the beginning of 1950s, the Institute of Language and Literature at the Academy of Sciences in Mongolia has initiated sending the survey teams, 1-3 times a year, for researching and gathering data on oral literature and local dialectics. The initiation of above activities has set the groundwork for official establishment of a new archive with written documents and magnetic audio tapes, utilization for research purposes and the maintenance. Along with sending the survey teams, individuals/bearers were invited to the Institute from the local areas and their repertoire were recorded on magnetic tapes.\n\nAs a result, a rich repertoire of the epics, folk tales, folk songs, benedictions, odes, riddles, proverbs and other main elements of Mongolian oral heritage in their local dialectics and characteristics were succeeded to be recorded and collected at once as never before. The language and dialects that have already lost their distinctiveness or absorbed into the central one, now already the extinct forms of oral literary expressions and heritage are remained and preserved on magnetic tapes. This fact is raising the historic and academic values more for those original forms which were preserved on the magnetic tapes.\n\nDue to the fact that the most of the magnetic tapes being kept at the Institute are more than 60 years old, the storage period of some of the tapes has already been expired. Also, the un-proper storage conditions have caused some tapes to get dried, clung to one another or fractured. Due to above reasons, the inevitable need has risen for restoration and digitization of these magnetic tapes as well as improvement of the storage conditions and environment. Accordingly, since 2008, some efforts have been made towards restoration and digitization of these superannuated magnetic tapes within the internal capability and capacity of the Institute. Although, due to the lack of capable human resources, finance and proper tools and technical equipment, these efforts to restore and digitalize faced several obstacles and have shown un-successive results.\n\nIn 2009, the authorities of the Institute have introduced to the Foundation for the Protection of Natural and Cultural Heritage their request to cooperate. Since, the organizations have started to collaborate on the possibilities to restore and digitalize the superannuated magnetic tapes. Accordingly, the Foundation for the Protection of Natural and Cultural Heritage proposed to ICHCAP to continue the Joint Project and take measures for restoration, digitization of the superannuated magnetic tapes, and distribution and dissemination among general public.

This publication of the guide book on intangible cultural heritage of the Philippines is the precious result of the enthusiastic efforts made by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) to reconfirm and restore the national treasure of the long protected traditional culture, which have been alienated and marginalized during the colonial period of many centuries. This guide book has been edited to understand holistically the entire aspects of living heritage, the five domains defined by the Convention, and emphasize the importance of the communities practicing and transmitting them.