#bhutan #bhutaneseculture #bhutantravel #유네스코아태무형유산센터 #unesco \n\nDey-zo is an art of manufacturing paper using an indigenous plant locally called Dey-shing (Daphne: ). The term Dey refers to Daphne and zo is an art therefore, when these two words combine, an art of Daphne i.e. making paper out of Daphne pant bark. Though there are more than 21 different types of Daphne species- for paper making purpose in Bhutan are of two types; Dey-kar, white Daphne and the other is Dey-na, black Daphne.\n\nThe white Daphne grows up to four or five metres in height and has pale green oval shaped leaves and greyish bark. Its flowers are yellow at the top so they look generally yellowish, though the stems are whitish in colour. They produce a pleasant odour. White Daphne grows in Bhutan from an altitude of 1,500 to 3,500 metres in huge groves on the edge of open meadows and forests. The black Daphne, on the other hand, grows from 500 to 3,000 metres above sea level. Unlike the white Daphne, it grows as individual plants, scattered along the forest floor. Though the colour of bark is greyish, the flowers are somewhat brownish. Papers made from black Daphne are considered to be the best for its long lasting and Thsar-sho paper specially manufactured by using bamboo mat frame are normally used for writing purpose.\n\nGenerally Dey-sho comes in two different types; Tshar-sho and Re-sho. Tshar-sho is made by using a special bamboo crafted mat frame while the latter is a produce from cloth frame though both the papers’ raw materials are either white or black Daphne plant bark. However, upon the demand, paper makers also makes blue or indigo paper (Sho-na or Thing-sho) using the tshar-sho making techniques for gold script writing.\n\nPerhaps, the paper making art must have been existed in the early centuries, even before the use of words and sentences, when pictures and symbols were used as a means of communication in Bhutan as the Padma chronicles mention that "the king ordered paper to be collected in the land of the Mon." This was when the Dharma King Trisong Detsen (755-804) of invited Guru Padmasambava to Tibet in the 8th century and introduced the Tantric teachings to that land. Having completed the construction of Samye Monastery, translation of Buddha's precepts and commentary texts that are written in Sanskrit were initiated into Tibetan language through Indian pandits and incarnate translators from Tibet, but there was not enough paper in Tibet. So the king imported huge amounts of paper from the southern country (Bhutan), which enabled Tibet to produce many volumes of the scriptures. This means that trade between Tibet and Bhutan was already active at that time. The so-called shog-tang (shog-ltang), a cargo size of 1000 sheets of Daphne paper, were transported to Tibet in large quantities for trade purposes. This means that very early in history, papermaking was passed down from generation to generation, from father to son, from son to son, and so on.\n\nGradually, as the demand for paper increased, the paper industry in the country expanded, especially in the 17th century when great changes took place in the country after the arrival of Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal (1594-1651). At that time, the demand for paper increased greatly at the central government, monastic community and monastery levels, leading to a nationwide expansion in the production and use of paper especially for printing purpose.\n\nPaper manufacturing units were instituted in Dzongs and employed five people either form the monastic body or from the lay citizens for papermaking. The raw materials such as daphne bark, ash, etc. were supplied by the residents of the respective dzongkhag as tax. The dzongkhag administrations then transported the paper cargoes to the central government and ensured proper remuneration. The skilled workers at the papermaking centers were also appointed from the villages and households in the district, who were exempt from other charges such as labor, fodder, firewood, and pounded rice. A load Shog-tang as mentioned above, was a bundle of 1000 sheets of paper. (Lam Kezang Chophel, 2021). Normally a single sheet of paper measures approximately 75x110 cm and colloquially it is called pheg-pang.\n\nAlthough, papermaking was once a thriving art until 1970 yet, due to the development progress in the country and introduction of imported papers such as books and note books has gradually affected in declining number of paper production centres in the country.\n\nFor more information\nhttps://www.ichlinks.com/archive/elements/elementsV.do?elementsUid=13874507459569673284

In the communities of Viqueque, particularly among the Tetun-Terik-speaking people, fai-akar—the production of sago flour from the akar palm—is not merely a method of food preparation; it is a cultural ceremony that blends labor, rhythm, and collective identity. At the heart of this tradition is the Tali-Bole dance, a dynamic performance woven seamlessly into the act of pounding sago, transforming a daily task into a vibrant expression of heritage.\n\nThe process of making fai-akar begins with harvesting the inner pith of the akar palm tree, which is then ground and washed to extract starch. This labor-intensive task is done in groups, mostly by women, using long wooden pestles to pound the fiber in large mortars. But what sets this practice apart is the way pounding becomes performance: the coordinated movement of the pestles rises and falls to the beat of chanting and drumming, and the Tali-Bole dance emerges from the rhythm of the work itself.\n\nDancers move in synchrony with the pounding, often stepping in and out of the work line, twirling or waving cloth, and responding to sung verses. The term tali-bole can be interpreted in various ways—some connect it to the image of “binding cords,” others to the swinging motion of the pestles themselves—but in all meanings, it emphasizes connection, unity, and the shared pulse of community labor.\n\nSongs sung during the pounding and dancing are passed down orally and are rich in metaphor and memory. One of the most well-known verses, Lakaleok, is sung toward the end of the session, signaling closure and expressing gratitude. These lyrics often tell stories of ancestors, landscapes, and social values, ensuring that cultural knowledge is preserved even in the most practical of activities.\n\nTraditionally, fai-akar and Tali-Bole were performed during rites of passage, funerals, house inaugurations, and communal feasts. Participation was seen not only as a contribution of labor but as an affirmation of cultural belonging. The rhythmic beat of the pestles and the voices of the singers created a space where work, ritual, and performance blended into one.\n\nAlthough the practice remains alive in some villages, it faces growing challenges. The availability of processed food, the decline of communal labor traditions, and the migration of youth to urban areas have all contributed to its reduced presence. Yet, in places where it continues, fai-akar and Tali-Bole are embraced as sources of pride, often featured at cultural festivals and heritage events to showcase the strength and creativity of traditional life.\n\nTo witness Tali-Bole is to see cultural memory in motion—where hands work, feet dance, and voices carry the wisdom of generations. In every stomp and song, the community reaffirms its bond with the land, its past, and one another.

Tebe-tebe is one of the most widely practiced and deeply cherished traditional dances in Timor-Leste. Rooted in communal identity and spiritual expression, it is performed during a wide range of ceremonies—rituals of healing and harvest, weddings, sacred house gatherings (uma lulik), and commemorative events that bring entire communities together.\n\nAt its core, tebe-tebe is a line or circle dance performed by groups of people—often with women and men linking arms or shoulders—who step and sway in unison to the beat of traditional instruments like the babadok (a hand-held drum). The movements are deliberately grounded and rhythmic, characterized by stomping feet, subtle sways, and communal gestures that convey strength, connection, and balance.\n\nThe dance is accompanied by chanted songs, usually performed in a call-and-response style. These songs are often rich in metaphor, addressing themes of unity, gratitude, remembrance, or negotiation with the spirit world. The lyrics, sung in Tetun or other local languages, carry encoded histories, ancestral teachings, and emotional expressions that elevate the dance beyond entertainment into the realm of cultural storytelling.\n\nTebe-tebe plays a vital role in moments of social and spiritual transition. It may be performed to welcome guests, to celebrate a marriage, to honor the dead, or to invoke protection and blessing during a harvest ceremony such as sau-batar. In each case, the dance serves to activate communal energy and connect the visible world with the ancestral realm.\n\nThe inclusive nature of the dance—performed by people of all ages and social backgrounds—reflects its egalitarian spirit. It is not restricted to professional dancers or experts; rather, it is meant to be shared, learned through observation and participation from a young age. In many villages, elders pass on the steps and songs during festivals and ceremonies, and school programs and cultural centers are increasingly incorporating tebe-tebe into youth education to ensure its survival.\n\nWhile variations exist across regions, the essence of tebe-tebe remains consistent: it is a dance of the people, by the people, and for the people. In its rhythm and repetition, the community finds both cohesion and catharsis—expressing sorrow, joy, solidarity, and reverence through a single, unified movement.\n\nToday, tebe-tebe continues to evolve. It is performed not only in rural rituals but also on national stages, international cultural events, and heritage festivals. And while some modern adaptations have emerged, the traditional forms are still held with deep respect, especially by elders who carry the memory of its ceremonial power.\n\nIn every echo of the babadok and every synchronized step of the dancers, tebe-tebe tells a timeless story—of a people connected to one another, to their ancestors, and to the living land they call home.

Throughout the Pacific, kava is synonymous as the elixir or drink of the gods. Known in various words ranging from kau, sakau, kava, ava and yaqona, the ritual commonality is similar. \nThis video revisits the sacred kava ritual from a retelling of the indigenous spirituality and worldview as far as yaqona, chiefs, mana, power and the people are involved. \n\nYaqona or kava is the best known traditional drink of the Fijians today. You cannot have a meeting or social gathering without it. For all gatherings where traditional customs are observed, one will see a yaqona ceremony. It is used to welcome visitors, install chiefs at initiations and at the completion of communal work; celebrations of births, marriages, at deaths and in almost all phases of life in villages. Not only it is consumed in social gatherings and traditional ceremonies, it has also been used in after-church gatherings by members to express customary respect and consideration for one another. \n\nIn pre Christian Era, the way yaqona was used was totally different. It was for chiefs only, as they represented the gods. The yaqona or wainivanua was presented to the chiefs in temples early in the morning before any work could begin. The yaqona represented all that belonged to the land. Once the chief accepted it by drinking it in the temple, everyone was free to touch and use everything in the land (vanua). When the ceremony was going on in the temple, total silence was observed all over the land. As the people went to work, the king and chiefs continued to sit around the yaqona bowl discussing the affairs of the vanua. \n\nThomson Basil wrote in his book "The Fijians. A study of the Decay of Custom." 1968, that yaqona serves as a catalyst for social activities and still continues to be so. \n....The chief's yaqona circle supplied the want of newspapers; the news and gossip of the day were related and discussed; the chief's advisers seized upon the convivial moment as the most favourable opportunity for making known their view; matters of high policy were often decided; the chief's will, gathered from a few careless words spoken at the yaqona ring, was carried from mouth to mouth throughout his dominions.

Nghệ An and Hà Tĩnh are two coastal provinces in the north - central part of Viet Nam. This region is known for its mixed terrain including moutain terrain, flat terrain, delta terrain and coast terrain. Its climate is hasrsh especially in summer, thusbarren land. However, the two riversnamely Lam and La contribute to the creation of ancient alluvial soil shelves that are favorable for wet rice cultivation. The region, therefore, has become a residential area for a long time.\nNghệ An and Hà Tĩnh were formerly known as Nghệ Tĩnh that is attached to the land forming a cultural subregion sharing a same local dialect (Nghệ accent), similar customs, beliefs, folklore, etc. Up to now, Nghệ Tĩnh people in villages and communes have created and preserved an abundant source of folk cultural heritage that is diverse and imbued with the identity of the land named “the Lam River - Red Mountain” where Ví and Giặm folk songs are popularly known.\n

The Vugalei Chiefdom is renowned for its iconic traditional basket known as Voco. Savu village is straddles the center of the chiefdom. Tributes of fish pass through Naimasimasi Village on its way to the village of Sote, Natuva and Nameka resting at Savu village along the way. Savu village provides the Voco basket before it is carried to Sote Village. The exchange from Sote Vilage is pork, which passes through Savu and carried to Naimasimasi Village. This is an age old expression of the warrior-chief relationship from these villages to the Ratu of Verata chief. The basket is woven from a kind of climbing pandanus known as wa me. \n

Cultural Space of Gong in Central Highlands covers all the fertility red soil in the territory of 5 provinces including Kông Tum, Gia Lai, Đắc Lắc, Đắc Nông, and Lâm Đồng. \nIt is the place where the Ba Na, the Gia Rai, the Ê Đê, the Xê Đăng, the Jẻ Triêng, the Mạ, the M’Nông, the Cơ Ho, the Brâu, the Rơ Măm,… have been residing for a long time. These ethnic groups live in small villages named pơ lây, buôn, bon and living mainly by agricultural cultivation, animal husbandry and benefitial resources of the nature.\n

Since the time of Shan Saw-bwas, TaungYoe nationals created and used this big gong. During the reign of Pway- Hla Sawbwa, some TaungYoe nationals were arrested for their action of protecting the gong from the motive of Sawbwa to confiscate it.\nIt was casted with the craft of bronze-casting. The gong was made of alloy of gold, silver and copper weighing 6.5kg of each metal. That gong is collectively owned by two TaungYoe villages of Kyay Twin Gone village and Hsan Thee village. It's a national heritage of TaungYoe nationals and has been preserving for 114 years. That's been still protecting by two brothers in rotation for six months each. It's struck by a knobbed beater on the central dome carrying by two men on the shoulders hanging with a rope on a pole.\n-25 inches of gong in diameter\n-5 inches of central dome in diameter\n-4 inches of knobbed beater in diameter

Jaggery (Htan Nyat) is very important sweet food stuff in Myanmar which is boiled the toddy palm sap(Htan Yee) so that can be made solid jaggery.It's colour ranges from yellow to brown.Toddy palm tree(Htan Pin) are growing especially in Rural Area of Central Dry Zone of Myanmar such as Mandalay Region, Magway Region and Sagaing Region.The jaggery production can be found as the traditional production in most villages from Kyauk Pa Daung, Myin Gyan, Taung Thar, We Laung, Ye Sa Gyo, Pa Kok Ku, Meik Ti La, Poppa, Bagan and Nyaung Oo township. Other growing areas of Toddy palm tree(Htan Pin) are Lower Myanmar such as Tha Nin Thar Yi Region, Ayeyarwady Region, Dawei, Yebyu, Thaton Districts.\nHere, I would like to express about a traditional jaggery production from Zee O village. Zee O village located in Myay Thin Twin Group,Nyaung Oo Township in Mandalay Region. It locates on the south of Old Bagan and about 25km from Nyaung Oo city. For their seasonal livelihood, they pratice traditional way of jaggery making process through their ancestors for long time ago. Among 200 households of Zee O village, 100 are doing jaggery production. We can see the jaggery production as traditional food for their economic life.\nAccording to the different region, collection time of the toddy palm sap(Htan Yee) is not same. In Zee O village, the sap from male toddy palm (Htan Pho) can only be collected from February to June and the sap from female toddy palm (Htan Ma) can only be collected from April to September. nTo collect sap from the toddy tree,the toddy palm climber uses special tools such as small ladder (Yin Swee) fixed to the upper part of a toddy tree and portable ladder (Yin Htaung) used in connection with the fixed ladder and etc. The work of collecting to sap starts early in the morning. The toddy climber climbs the toddy tree via special ladder attached to its trunk and brings down the pots that have filled with the toddy palm sap overnight, replacing them with empty pots at noon.\nFirst of all,heat the pots(Myu Oe) with dry the toddy palm leaves. Afer heating,the pot are roped.And then,poured the slaked lime into the pot. The one of the important things of the toddy climber is the knife(Dar Hnee) which is needed to sharp.\nSo,the toddy climber grinds the knife before his functions. The toddy climbers of Zee O village are distinct from other places of the toddy climbers. For testing knife is sharp, he cut his hairs himself. And then,he carries about ten pots(Myu Oe) with shoulder-yoke and the sharp knife attached to his waist and goes to the toddy palm trees.\nThere are two ways of collecting toddy juice(Htan Yee) depends on male and female toddy tree. A bit of wood(Ka Laing) is wedged into the top of the toddy palm tree to provide seating while he cuts the flower clusters. When the toddy-udders(Htan Nosh) of male tree become blossom, the climber has to clip the toddy-udders toddy-udders with wooden stick or pounding soften that can get much toddy sap. After that,the toddy climber tied nine or twelve toddy-udders cutting for sap into the pots.\nToddy farmer cut female toddy palm's stalks that have fruits for sap collection. He pounds the base of toddy palm's stalk with a small iron hammer (Zauk Khauk). Toddy farmer slice a little to each fruit to collect toddy sap.\nThe sap has to be filtered leaving behind the sediment of lime(Hton Yee Kyi) is put into a stainless steel boiling pan and boiled for about 45 minutes. According to the different region,the kilns for boiling toddy palm sap are different types.In Zee O village, the kilns are made by digging into the ground so that can work for five boiling pans at the same time. While the sap are boiling, the worker has to stir with flat wooden laddle continuously and also has to be added the seeds or powder of castor oil plant so that it cannot be split into the ground. The boiling and stirring has to be continued to get the suitable condition for moulding of toddy palm syrup was obtained. After that, toddy palm syrup was cooled to make granules by hands. Then,it is also dried for about 15 minutes and jaggery is obtained. nAfter that, export jaggery to the buying centre. The buying centre has to put out to dry with the sun. And then,prepare to trade other regions. Especially, Zee O village trade with Nyaung Oo township and Yangon region.\nThere are some animals to disturb the jaggery production such as mouses,squirrels,butterflies, bats,ants,crows and so on. They suck toddy sap,bite the pot's rope and fruit clusters,throw away faeces into the pot.\nJaggery is completely organic without any chemicals.It is used for Myanmar traditional food such as Mont-lone-yay-paw, Mont-lat-saung,Mont-kywe-thae,Thar-ku-yoo,Mont-lat-kout; etc.\nThere has many nutritional values of jaggery. They are protein, fat, carbonhydrate, energy, calcium, phosphorus, iron, mineral, carotine,vitamin and so on.In medical benefits, jaggery treats cold and cough,purified blood,relieves bone and joint pain,strengthens immunity etc.So,jaggery(Htan Nyat) is very useful for snack and traditional medicine.

Introduction\n\nIn Malaysia, there is a living traditional art where a storyteller develops the oral tradition, otherwise known as oral literature.\n\nOral tradition is the original source of Malay literature and translated into written literature. One of the practitioners of this oral tradition is known as 'Awang Batil'. Apart from specialised storytellers such as Awang Batil, there are other transmissions of oral literature throughout the country, especially in villages through folk stories or stories of elders that are collected, rewritten and made into collections for children to read.\n\n\nAwang Batil\n\nAwang Batil is a storyteller who provided entertainment and education to the people, especially to the villagers and local community. Awang Batil entertains and educates the community through many classic stories that he inherited. Through those stories, the community is entertained and educated.\n\nOnce upon a time, Awang Batil functioned as a story book, novel, radio, television, movie or video as it is now. He would travel from house to house, village to village, state to state including the state of Kedah, Penang and some areas in the Southern Region of Thailand, especially the Setol Region.

Phú Thọ - a midland province in northern Vietnam, is about 100 kilometres northwest of Hanoi where the sacred mountain Nghĩa Lĩnh also known as mountain Hùng exists. On Nghĩa Lĩnh mountain, there are Lower (Hạ), Middle (Trung) and Upper (Thượng) temples together with legends about 18 Hùng Kings of the Vietnamese people. Around Nghĩa Lĩnh mountain, there are hundreds of temples, communal houses and shrines located in villages and communes, which forms a religious space to worship Hùng Kings.

The traditional art of Chèo singing in Ninh Bình province has been known for a long time, associated with a legend of the origin of Chèo singing and its creator Lady Phạm Thị Trân. The traditional art of Chèo singing in Ninh Bình province has been widely practiced in villages/hamlets, communes/wards in 8 districts/cities. Clubs of folklore and Chèo singing in such communes as Yên Nhân, Yên Phong (Yên Mô district); Gia Trung, Liên Sơn (Gia Viễn district); Khánh Hồng, Khánh Cường, Khánh Nhạc, Khánh Trung, Yên Ninh town (Yên Khánh district) have paid much attention to safeguard and promote ancient Chèo tunes.