Angam (also known as angampora) is a top-level Sinhalese martial art. Included in the Sri Lankan national ICH list, the techniques of this indigenous combat performance rely on the strength of human body incorporating shots, punches, locks, jumps, and wrestling elements. Yoga, meditation, and magic are also fundamental parts of angam. Angam fighters require elevated physical strength and flexibility as well as mental strength to channel spiritual power. It improves practitioners’ personality, endurance, patience, and mental strength.\n\nLegends would tell that Sinhalese kings mastered angam and intensified their support to promote it. After the Kandyan monarchy, the last kingdom of Sri Lanka, angam was transmitted under two main generations, sudaliya and murawalliya.\n\nOlder than Sri Lanka’s written history, angam is highly endangered of disappearing as there are few practitioners left to transmit the art to future generations. Mr. Vageesha Bandara Wicramawansha is one such angam master. He and his team of roughly seventy angam masters performed at the Janakala Kendraya Premises, Battaramulla, Sri Lanka on 26 August 2017. The cultural show was organized by the ICH panel of the Art Council of Sri Lanka as a part of its monthly ICH performance program.\n\nPhoto : Angam Performance © Buddika Mahesh Kodikara

The mountain terraces in the cordilleras of northern Luzon, Philippines, were included in the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list in 1995. Propitiously, there was no mention of the word rice in the citation of the inclusion. It well may be because, when the Spanish explorers went up the cordilleras in the 16th-17th centuries, they made mention of the existence of terracing. However, no mention of rice was made.

Alisher Ikramov reviews information collected through a survey funded by ICHCAP. While his work primarily reviews ICH festivals, he is also able to gain insights into ways that networks can promote ICH along the Silk Roads. Looking at the importance of local communities and the popularity of such festivals locally, there is concern about a lack of a network to encourage larger tourist attendance. However, there are feelings that festivals do not authentically represent local traditions and products. Therefore, this could lead to an undesirable level of commoditization and as a result lower the quality of the event.

Mataginifale Women’s Group (MWG) was established in Avatele in the 1980s. Originally named Avatele Women’s Group, its members decided to change its name in the 1990s to better reflect the unique status of women. Mataginifale was a female warrior from Avatele born around 700 CE and was a great weaver that created local tapa cloth called hiapo.

Folkland, International Centre for Folklore and Culture is an institution that was first registered on December 20, 1989 under the Societies Registration Act of 1860, vide No. 406/89. Over the last 16 years, it has passed through various stages of growth, especially in the fields of performance, production, documentation, and research, besides the preservation of folk art and culture.Since its inception in 1989, Folkland has passed through various phases of growth into a cultural organization with a global presence. As stated above, Folkland has delved deep into the fields of stage performance, production, documentation, and research, besides the preservation of folk art and culture. It has strived hard and treads the untrodden path with a clear motto of preservation and inculcation of old folk and cultural values in our society. Folkland has a veritable collection of folk songs, folk art forms, riddles, fables, myths, etc. that are on the verge of extinction. This collection has been recorded and archived well for scholastic endeavors and posterity. As such, Folkland defines itself as follows

If there’s one thing that is sure in life, it is that death is inevitable. It happens to all regardless of gender, age, and socioeconomic status—even to the healthy and fit. In Fijian, the word for ‘sick’ is tauvi mate (tah-oo-vee mah-teh), which literally translates to ‘having contracted death.’ When death occurs, the universal Fijian word for funeral is somate (soh-mah-teh), with so meaning ‘gathering’ and mate as ‘death’ or ‘dead.’ Like other parts of the world, in this gathering, people come to offer and provide emotional, spiritual, physical, and even financial support towards the surviving family members in grieving and also in the farewelling of their loved one.

Haenyeo are women divers who presently live only in Korea and Japan where the women from Korea live on Jeju Island, representing the island’s traditional occupations for living. From the viewpoint of marine cultural historians, haenyeo has contributed to the active transmission of diving skills and ecological knowledge including the efficient use of the tide as well as to the establishment of unique haenyeo culture which covers diving suites, tools, folk songs, and shamanic rituals. Haenyeo culture is basically concerned with diving skills that enable women to gather marine products from deep in the sea without the support of any mechanical equipment, it is folk knowledge which has been accumulated through past haenyeo work experience, and the cultural phenomena derived from the sustainability of their livelihood through these means that keeps this heritage alive.

The tug-of-war is one of the most well-known intangible cultural heritage elements that represent the Republic of Korea. Tug-of-war games were widely enjoyed by people across the country before the 1930s and 1940s. During the 1960s, the tug-of-war came under the protection of the Cultural Heritage Conservation Policy and has been appointed and is being managed by local and national governments. Locally, eight tug-of-war traditions have been inscribed on the national inventory list. Moreover, compared to other ICH element studies, of the element has been significantly researched.\n\nTug-of-war is a cultural heritage element of many East Asian nations, and these nations are preparing to nominate the element to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. In this context, the goal of this paper is to discover universal traits in tug-of-war traditions in East Asia. However, besides the Republic of Korea and Japan, there is insufficient research on tug-of-war traditions in the region, which limits the scope of this presentation. In case of China, despite the existence of various records on tug-of-war in literature, the tradition as it exists in China today seems to be more of a sports match than a ritual event. I would also like to mention that this paper is a draft based on document records, the Internet, and the academic symposium hosted by Gijisi Tug-of-War Conservation Institute.

The Foundation for the Protection of Natural and Cultural Heritage is a UNESCO-accredited NGO located in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. It was established in 2000 with the objectives of protecting and safeguarding various natural and cultural heritage elements, including intangible heritage values, and carrying out various activities for researching, studying, and promoting natural and cultural heritage properties and ICH values.

Helena Norberg-Hodge speaks about the importance of local community networks and is sure to highlight the dangers of the influx of global finance, markets, etc. as they undermine the local communities that are exploited in the process, removing their heritage and security and giving it to a global market, which degrades the value of the communities. She is sure that the future for economic wellbeing of communities is to remain local with some trade between and among local communities, a small scale endeavor that doesn’t include multibillion overlords calling the shots to determine what is needed around the world rather than what is needed locally.

Old Polish sabre fencing fits within the limits of broadly understood Polish martial art, which in addition to sabre fencing includes fighting on war horses with a hussar lance, pickax (horseman’s pick), scythe, or Polish lance. The basis for the claim that Poland has its own sabre fencing pattern is the fact that it developed its own type of sabre pattern called the hussar sabre (Kwaśniewicz, 1988, p. 66) and the existence of Old Polish fencing with palcaty (short sticks) (Kwaśniewicz, 2017, p. 473)—an important element in the preparation of noblemen and courtiers for fencing with this weapon known as “cross art” (Jezierski, 1791, p. 213), and in the case of short sticks, “striking the clubs ( )” (Kitowicz, 1985, p. 113). This had its origins in the 16th century and its tradition was cultivated until 1939. It was resurrected as a Polish martial art in 1986 under the name Signum Polonicum, functioning as a contribution of Polish national heritage to the world family of national sports and martial arts.

The Kurava community migrated from Tamil Nadu and settled along the banks of the Nila River where they followed mat weaving traditions for many generations. Unfortunately, because of low financial returns and scarce raw materials, the community to lost interest in traditional weaving, leaving only one practitioner, Mr. U. Chami, who took the tradition forward for many years through the Killimangalam Weaving Cooperative Society. However, due to ill health at the age of 72, Chami left weaving behind. But before retiring, he taught traditional weaving skills to a non-native Kurava—Mrs. P. Prabhavathi. Today, Prabhavathi still holds Chami in high regard for his initiatives to train interested people, even those from outside the community. This willingness to train others laid foundation for the craft’s survival. For his efforts, Chami was recognized with the Master Craftsman Award by the Textile Ministry of India in 1992.