Malaysia is a developing nation of Southeast Asia. A few of their famous slogans reflect the diversity of its present ethnic groups in terms of language, customs and traditions inherited from past generations, ‘One Malaysia‘ and ‘Malaysia Truly Asia‘. Malaysia’s cultural fusion is the result of immigration, trade and cultural exchanges over many centuries with Arab nations, China, and India, where the arrival of the first foreigners brought along with them their wealth as well as their cultural heritage and religion. Presently, these ethnic groups still maintain their cultural traditions, but managed to come together to develop Malaysia’s unique and contemporary diverse heritage.

Globalisation has its benefits. But it could also diminish our heritage in ways that we may not sometimes even be conscious of. Effective minimization of the negative impacts is possible with timely interventions. Sometimes it may be too late before significant elements of our culture are endangered or even disappear. It is this concern that led the world community to come together and adopt the international Convention by UNESCO in 2003 for Safeguarding Intangible Heritage. It is passé to say that globalisation has accelerated to a pace that we are challenged to keep up with it on many fronts. We are quite familiar with the social, economic and environmental issues. In addressing only these three pillars during the 2000-2015 MDG phase of the UN, we now have a lot of catching up to do. Culture as the fourth pillar of sustainable development, even if not detailed enough, is located in the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that will guide us between 2015 and 2030. We must endeavour to bring together the implementation of the 2003 Convention and higher education as part of the four-pillar paradigm. Several questions need to be addressed. \n \nCan higher educational institutions such as universities, specialised colleges add value to the UNESCO’s efforts in safeguarding intangible heritage in sustainable development? Can we find synergies between the strategic directions of higher educational institutions and the Overall Results Framework for the UNESCO 2003 Intangible Heritage Convention? In what ways can Regional, Sub- Regional, National and Local networking and knowledge sharing be empowering to safeguard intangible heritage and the rich cultural diversity of the Asia Pacific? Given that language itself is not covered by the Convention but included as a vehicle of the intangible heritage (Article 2.2.a), how best can we maximise on the linguistic diversity of the region promoted through higher educational institutions in minimising the hegemonic impacts of monolingualism that endangers so much of our intangible heritage? \n\nFirst and foremost, it must be underlined that UNESCO and a number of national and international agencies including NGOs have advocated strongly for the inclusion of culture as a separate SDG in the UN 2030 Agenda. None of the 17 SDGs focus exclusively on culture. However, the advocacy has created an inclusive discourse on culture that cuts across the SDGs. The resulting Agenda includes several explicit references to cultural aspects. The following SDG Targets are significant. They provide windows of opportunity to ensuring that we locate culture in the SDGs and in doing so promote the safeguarding of intangible heritage:

Gender equality is a core value of the international community, being one of the 17 sustainable development goals and crosscutting into 9 other goals such as zero hunger, health and nutrition, quality education and decent work. The 2003 Convention also stresses that heritage safeguarding and transmission activities shall be compatible with human rights and relevant policies shall be without discrimination, covering the concept of gender equality. More specifically, Chapter 6 of the Convention’s Operational Directives states, “States Parties shall endeavor to foster the contributions of intangible cultural heritage and its safeguarding to greater gender equality and to eliminating gender-based discrimination.”(UNESCO, 2016) A 2018 report from the UNESCO evaluation body mentioned the following in its review of nomination files. Firstly, majority of nomination files lacked explanation regarding gender roles and the participation of both genders in nomination and safeguarding. Second, the Convention does not expect equal participation by both genders, but rather hopes to understand the different ways the heritage is experienced by the respective genders, what the gender roles are, and whether they have equal rights with respect to safeguarding (UNESCO, 2018). Although gender is a topic of great interest internationally, there hasn’t been much discourse on the relationship between intangible heritage and gender. Thus, this presentation looks at the value of gender considerations in intangible heritage safeguarding.

Moderator to Participants: The participants commonly addressed intangible cultural heritage festivals’ influence and effects on local communities. Safeguarding local intangible cultural heritage is very important, and ICH festivals are key cultural events for celebrating world ICH and have had a positive effect on economic tourism as well as the social and cultural sectors of the governments hosting them. Today, for all speakers, why is community participation is important in safeguarding intangible cultural heritage? You answered that communities play an important role in production and safeguarding as well as the maintenance and recreation of the ICH. Then you also raised the question, how to strengthen the role of communities? You have answered that groups and individuals concerned should be encouraged to help them safeguard intangible cultural heritage. I would like to suggest a small question to all of you. Local community engagement is very important; however, to encourage local communities to engage in cultural heritage, there may be tasks and challenges, for example how to raise awareness of those issues and how to set priorities and draw attention. As far as the central government we need to consider how to get over dependency for financial support and how to build strategic relationships and partnerships with international institutions and communities. In sum, I am asking to facilitate local communities’ engagement in intangible cultural heritage. What would be the major challenges?

Bamseom, located between Yeoido-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu, and Seogang-dong, Mapo-gu, in Seoul, is a village that used to be known as being home to boatwrights. As well as a means to travel to other regions across rivers and seas and to freight large loads at a time, the ship also has important symbolic meanings in Korean traditional culture. As part of the process of developing Seoul, explosives were detonated on Bamseom on 13 February 1968, in anticipation of which the residents moved to the nearby Changcheon-dong neighborhood. Since the twentieth century, the development of railroads and automobiles, and the associated construction of roads and big bridges, reduced the effectiveness of water transportation. This migration from Bamseom and the decreased need for boats drove boatwrights into a crisis, as a result of which they eventually became housebuilders.

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.

The International Information and Networking Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region under the auspices of UNESCO (ICHCAP) is an international organization established under an agreement between UNESCO and the Korean government in 2011 for safeguarding ICH in the Asia-Pacific region. ICHCAP’s core functions are in information and networking, and the recently revised agreement articulates the Centre’s growing role in information sharing and networking in the region. The Program for Supporting Digitization Project of ICH-related Analogue Audiovisual Materials is one of our flagship projects.\n\n‘Information’ and ‘networking’ constitute the key functions of ICHCAP, and at the same time, they are the methodologies. That is, they contribute to our mission of safeguarding ICH through enhancing the visibility of the 2003 Convention, building a mechanism for sharing ICH information, and establishing a close-knit network that connects various actors at different levels.

The tradition of jewelry making in India began with the prehistoric factories of the Harappan civilization which produced metal and bead jewelry and has continued unbroken over five thousand years in the continuity of its form, technique, and symbolism. Some of the earliest excavations of bead and stone factories have uncovered evidence of sophisticated tools like burins, scrapers, cylindrical drills, and micro-drills used to drill holes in beads and etch designs on precious and semiprecious stones. These beads, along with sheet gold and gold wire twisted into intricate earrings, necklaces, bangles, waistbands, and more, represent the humble beginnings of the Indian jewelry tradition. Jewelry has since been used to demonstrate affection, status, power, and skill.

As the term “martial” having its origins in the name of Mars (the Roman god of war) suggests, martial arts are often conceived as synonymous with fighting. This prevalent misconception has been intensified by the ever-growing popularity of combat sports and mixed martial arts coupled with the media and entertainment industry. Despite the common perception of martial arts as mere fighting methods, they are in fact the epitome of intangible cultural heritage (ICH). Numerous martial traditions contain such non-martial elements as dances, rituals, and folk games.

The Ganges Delta that makes up almost 90 percent of present day Bangladesh is one of the most ancient human habitats in the world. The vast alluvial plain of Bangladesh is watered by the great rivers of the Padma, the Meghna, and the Jamuna. The land is so fertile that little diligence is required to produce crops, and blessed with monsoons from the Bay of Bengal, the climate is very pleasant. In a word, it is a land of abundance. That is why this land has beckoned people from the furthest corners of the world, thus becoming a crucible of diverse cultures. People of different castes and creeds have been living in this part of the world for thousands of years. Numerous heritage sites and colorful lifestyles of its people bear the testimony of the rich and varied culture of this land.

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.

In 2014, the Mongolian Law on the Protection of the Cultural Heritage was amended with 13 chapters and 61 articles. The main purposes and functions of this law is to regulate any relations associated with investigation, registration, research, classification, evaluation, conservation, protection, restoration, revitalization, transmission, ownership, usage, and promotion of cultural heritage. \n\nArticle 22. Registration of cultural heritage \n22.4 The information of intangible cultural heritage and its bearers shall be registered in the cultural heritage registration and information database\n24.1 The information of the cultural heritage registration and information database can be used by citizens and legal entities, with the permission of an authorized entity. It is prohibited to infringe the legitimately given interest of owner and possessor while using the information. \n24.2 The information of cultural heritage registered in the cultural heritage registration and information database can be used to make comprehensive promotional products for the public. \n\nArticle 34. Rights and duties of bearers of intangible cultural heritage \n34.2. Bearers of intangible cultural heritage shall have the following duties:\n34.2.1 to teach students and transmit intangible cultural heritage to the next generations\n34 2.2. to disseminate and promote intangible cultural heritage; \n34.2.3 to provide assistance to record information and conduct registration of intangible cultural heritage.\n\nArticle 39. Transmission of intangible cultural heritage \n39.1. The state central administrative organization in charge of cultural affairs and Governors of all levels shall be responsible to preserve, protect transmit, promote, and research intangible cultural heritage, and its bearers in association with ethnological