Nepal, like most nations, has its own distinct cultural, ethnic, and bio-diverse makeup. The richness of Nepal’s centuries old art, crafts, and culture abounds the alleys and courtyards of Kathmandu. Arts and crafts have long been a part of Nepalese livelihoods and lifestyles. Today these arts and crafts have become precious commodities—souvenirs and antiquities for collectors. Still hundreds of thousands of people create masterpieces as part of their livelihood. Acknowledging the importance of arts and crafts in Nepal, many Fair Trade Organizations (FTOs) have been working to preserve and promote art, crafts, and culture as a means of sustainable livelihood for people practicing fair trade (FT).

Bangladesh is a repository of hundreds of intangible cultural heritage elements that have been developed through various historical waves of different political and religious regimes over the last 5000 years.ICH education at the tertiary level has an important role to play in creating a pool of human resources for sustaining the value, meaning, and significance of these ICH elements. Until recent past, the importance of protection, promotion and safeguarding of various cultural heritage resources in Bangladesh has not received necessary attention from administration, academicians and researchers. Lack of policies and resources, and shortage of trained teaching staffs were the main reasons for not being able to introduce required courses at the tertiary level of education. Assessing the present status of heritage education at various tertiary institutions, this paper calls for immediate policy responses to strengthen the ICH education for developing a Sustainable Cultural Heritage Management Plan (SCHMP) through building capacities by mobilizing local resources in collaboration with various national and international organizations. Immediate and long-term heritage education policy-planning and interventions can encounter the challenges of protecting, promoting and safeguarding various ICH elements of the country. \n\nThus, the main objective of this paper is to examine the actual status of heritage studies at the tertiary level of education in Bangladesh through analyzing the contents of curriculums of some selected departments which are closely related to cultural heritage studies. As a supplement to this content analysis, a small number of randomly selected students and teachers have been interviewed to know their general understanding about the importance of ICH education in Bangladesh. \n

The Tao Foundation for Culture and Arts is a Philippine non-profit, non-governmental orga-nization based in Quezon City, National Capital Region, Luzon and in Agusan del Sur, Caraga Region, Northeastern Mindanao. Established in 1994, the Tao Foundation is led by an all-fe-male Board composed of Filipino scholars, artists, and Indigenous community leaders engaged in cultural regeneration initiatives in response to the five centuries of colonial and neocolonial histories and the need to help build strong cultural communities. The Tao Foundation’s mission is to (1) facilitate the exchange, transmission, and development of Philippine ICH/TCH; and to (2) contribute to the empowerment of culture bearers or those who possess ancestral practical and theoretical knowledges that have endured and transformed to remain relevant through colonial and neocolonial histories as a result of day-to-day and more large-scale acts of resistance.

Chak-ka-yer is a Thai word similar in meaning to tug-of-war in western countries. It is one of the oldest folk team games in Thailand. Thai people across the country know chak-ka-yer, and many may have had some direct and indirect experience with this game, either as participants or observ-ers. Chak-ka-yer benefits Thai society in several ways. People use chak-ka-yer for fun, pleasure, recreation, and relaxation from their routine work. Chak-ka-yer is played between teams, groups, or communities to test their physical strength. The game does not focus on competition, team preparation, contest regulations, and championship, but rather on unity, friendship, morale, and incentive of communities. Chak-ka-yer as a game is related to thoughts, beliefs, customs, traditions, rituals, and values of the people in different areas. Chak-ka-yer is a high-level game of development and doesn’t focus on systematic contests; it has specific agency to respond to and has the team seriously trained and practiced to win the championship. Chak-ka-yer as a sport is left unmentioned in this article since it has become an international sport.

Hawker culture in Singapore comprises hawker centers, hawkers, and hawker food. It is a living heritage shared by those who prepare hawker food and those who dine and mingle over hawker food in “community dining rooms” called hawker centers. It encompasses people from all walks of life, a wide range of affordable multicultural food, and common shared spaces. While similar food practices can be found in neighboring countries and internationally, they each have their respective historical contexts, cultural influences, and sociocultural functions.

“A man in Pamir, from birth to death, is accompa- nied by all sorts of family and everyday rites and customs. In many traditions, including the prepa- ration and use of food, traces of deep geographical and climatic isolation are clearly visible.The Pamir highlanders who lived in closeness with their nature had a great culture, rich in traditions, cults, customs which created humane framework of actions in relation to wildlife. Cultural values and practices re- lated to caring for nature at the same time supported the life of the mountain peoples. This culture has become the main priority for the effective,reasonable and rational use of wildlife resources.Such behavior not only contributed to the survival of the mountain population in the most severe climatic conditions, but also became the main factor in the conservation of wild fauna and flora.

Ghiasuddin Pir & Meeza Ubaid introduces the activities of THAAP, the only UNESCO accredited NGO under the Convention 2003 from Pakistan, initiated the process of community-based inventorying (CBI) of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) among the Kalasha community. THAAP, in collaboration with UNESCO, funded by the Embassy of Switzerland, has worked towards inclusive documentation processes of forty-five intangible cultural heritage from the five listed ICH domains. Furthermore, THAAP endeavored at cultural education activities in Kalasha.

Based on the accumulated experience over the course of fifteen years since the adoption of the 2003 Convention, Southeast Asia is well known for its diverse and abundant intangible heritage. Many states in this region have already initiated ICH safeguarding plans with active participation of communities.\nHowever, a number of Member States are still having difficulties employing community‐based safeguarding plan and programs. In implementing the 2003 Convention, much attention should be paid to build capacity to support and safeguard a wider range of ICH Stakeholders, including communities, group, and individuals.\nTherefore, this session will provide an opportunity to share experiences and discuss on the roles the community should exercise in safeguarding ICH. In this session, we will discuss the following questions: (1) Do ICH communities, groups, individuals, and practitioners fully recognise the spirit and significance of the 2003 Convention? (2) Are they subsequently assigned to embody appropriate roles?

To fully appreciate the theme of the Fifth Melanesian Festival of Arts and Culture—Celebrating Cultural Diversity—it is imperative that we question the meaning of cultural diversity.

From 1990 to 2010, as an ethnologist devoted to the process of heritagemaking, I investigated Alpine communities and their strategies in facing a changing world. In an historical perspective, my eldwork has been oriented to making memories and the ways they worked as strategies of resistance in facing the many uncertainties of the future (Certeau 1990).

"At the beginning of the workshop, I would like to introduce some of ICHCAP’s concerns and discuss our mission and tasks related to intangible cultural heritage. \n1) Introduction \nAs we are all aware, the Asia-Pacific region has very abundant and diverse cultural heritage. More than half of the world’s population, 3.5 billion people, is living in the forty-eight Member States, and they make up the diverse ethnic, traditional, religious, and cultural backgrounds that give the region such rich heritage. \nHowever, the cultural identities of Asia-Pacific people have been challenged by the long process of colonisation, westernisation, and modernisation, all of which have also changed ways of life and thinking as well as culture and value systems. Industrialisation, urbanisation, and globalisation have sped up socio-economic and cultural transformations through which many valuable customs, rituals, and norms of traditional communities, as well as a lot of their cultural heritage, have been forgotten and lost. Whereas tangible cultural heritage elements, such as towers, temples, and statues, have remained and will continue to exist as long as they are not destroyed in war or by environmental decay, the more precious intangible elements, which are created and transmitted through the spirit of humanity and human skill, have slowly disappeared, and in some countries and societies, not only has this intangible culture been discontinued but also even the slightest traces of the traditional culture have been completely lost. \nRegrettably, due to the aging of skilled practitioners and the lack of apprentices learning traditional skills, many excellent performing arts and crafts skills are in danger of vanishing. So in general, it would be fair to say that ICH in the Asia-Pacific region is very fragile and vulnerable to the rapid social transformation. \nThe sudden loss and disappearance of intangible heritage has negatively affected the moral and value systems of traditional societies and has damaged traditional "

Established in 2000, The Loden Foundation is a registered civil society organization in Bhutan with the objectives of promoting education, cultural preservation, and entrepreneurship among the Bhutanese children and young adults; promoting education and learning at the preschool, school, and post-school stages, and thereby fostering an enlightened and educated society in Bhutan; promoting awareness of the education and the needs of local communities in relation to entrepreneurship, health education, practical skills and crafts, and literacy among remote villages and communities within Bhutan; preserving and promoting the cultures and tradi- tions of Bhutan; and undertaking, if need be, other charitable work that contributes toward the welfare of the public.