2019 World Forum for Intangible Cultural Heritage

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 35 is 'ICH and City Festivals.'

Thanks to food storage technology transmitted as a form of traditional knowledge, we can maintain healthy lives. Traditional knowledge of preserving food for a long time allows people to continue their lives even in harsh environments where food is scarce. Intangible cultural heritage as food storage technology has kept the food with the best taste. Let’s take a look at related stories of India, the Republic of Korea, Vietnam, and Kyrgyzstan together.

Based on the ICHCAP Field Survey on Intangible Cultural Heritage Safeguarding Efforts in some East and Central Asian countries from 2009 to 2012, this summary provides a brief overview on the ICH situation in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan . 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. This survey report offers a large sample of the diverse ICH situations in East Asian and Central Asian countries. Although each country has a different background on issue of intangible heritage, depending on its cultural, economic, and socio-political situation, the countries participating in the survey share a commonality: They are post-communist countries that were once under the Soviet system. Moreover, they share a traditional culture shaped by nomadic pastoralism that offers a variety of cultural similarities. For instance, they keep an ancient and rich tradition of epic singing, and they are highly concerned about this oral heritage as it is on the brink of disappearance. In this sense, they have much to exchange and share in regards to safeguarding ICH. The countries participating in the survey are concerned with the threats against their ICH, but most of these nations are in the early process of defining ICH and establishing independent national ICH lists. At the same time, each country expresses a high degree of motivation and encouragement for safeguarding ICH, sharing experiences, and participating in international cooperation programmes. Apart from the main subject, a brief glimpse is taken on the situation of intellectual property in ICH safeguarding in each country. Compared to the Southwest Asian countries that participated in the field survey, the East Asian and Central Asian countries provided little information on intellectual property issues, so it is recommended that ICHCAP undertake the Field Survey on Intellectual Property Issues in the Process of ICH Information Building and Information Sharing in some countries to see their status on this subject.\n\n- Ratified the ICH Convention in 2010; survey conducted in 2010 and updated in 2014.\n- As of March 2018, has 3 ICH elements on the RL and no accredited NGOs.

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 19 is 'TRADITIONAL MASK DANCES.'

On 12 and 13 November 2020, ICHCAP and the ICH NGO Forum virtually held the 2020 ICH NGO Conference entitled “ICH and Resilience in Crisis.”\n\nThe fifteen participants, including eleven selected presenters from ten countries around the world, discussed various cases and activities of each country applied under the Corona-era, and proposed solidarity for the resilience of ICH for a ‘New Normal.’\n*The English version applied from page 1 to 142.

ICHCAP published the book Living Heritage Series – Traditional Musical Instruments in collaboration with the ICH NGO Forum’s #HeritageAlive.\n\nProven from a long history, music shares thoughts and emotions among community members who play the instruments and enjoy it. This book was made with the contributions of fifteen writers from countries across the globe. The authors describe the current status of traditional music and provide insight on how to revitalize these traditions based on the 2003 Convention.

The two-year preliminary survey started in 2015 with the participation of the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Palau, Papua New Guinea, and Tonga. Each partner selected two or three local institutes with stored ICH recordings. Considering time and resources, we decided that each partner institutes would identify and include at least 300 data materials and information about their location, storage conditions, and contents.\n\nThanks to our partners’ efforts and cooperation, we now have better understanding of the available ICH materials. This report is based on the five submitted survey reports. It contains basic metadata of the target materials, types of recordings, current storage conditions, frequency of usage, and other information. While this report does not cover all dormant data in the Pacific, we hope it can serve as a first step in activating dormant ICH data.

"“Intangible Cultural Heritage NGO’s Strategy in Achieving Sustainable Development: Goal 2. Zero Hunger” is the 3rd outcome of ICHCAP’s Project PINA, or Project Promoting ICH Safeguarding Activities of NGOs in the Asia-Pacific Region.\n\nThis book is a collection of eight selected NGO activities on ICH that are vital to achieving food security from six countries namely, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Tajikistan, and Viet Nam. It provides an opportunity to look into community-based NGO activities and experience that greatly contribute to the promotion of local communities’ welfare by revitalizing and transmitting ICH. Significantly, their approach emphasizes the relationship between ICH and SDG 2: Zero Hunger through their projects on food security and improved nutrition, and sustainable agriculture.\n\nICHCAP hopes that local, regional, and global public awareness about NGOs and their ICH safeguarding activities in the Asia-Pacific region will be substantially raised by this book."

This book contains the presentation and discussion of the above international conference in the form of an online strategic meeting with Webinar, and the first chapter contains webinar presentations on the theme of Life, Environment and Intangible Heritage of Silk Road. In addition, Chapter 2 contains rich examples of the diversity of intangible cultural heritage festivals, and chapters 3 and 4 contain network construction methods and presentations on joint cooperation projects through networks, respectively. In addition, a summary of each presentation and discussion on each topic were included, along with recommendations to create the Silk Road Intangible Heritage Network for 2021.

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 East and Central Asian countries from 2009 to 2012, this summary provides a brief overview on the ICH situation in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan . 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. This survey report offers a large sample of the diverse ICH situations in East Asian and Central Asian countries. Although each country has a different background on issue of intangible heritage, depending on its cultural, economic, and socio-political situation, the countries participating in the survey share a commonality: They are post-communist countries that were once under the Soviet system. Moreover, they share a traditional culture shaped by nomadic pastoralism that offers a variety of cultural similarities. For instance, they keep an ancient and rich tradition of epic singing, and they are highly concerned about this oral heritage as it is on the brink of disappearance. In this sense, they have much to exchange and share in regards to safeguarding ICH. The countries participating in the survey are concerned with the threats against their ICH, but most of these nations are in the early process of defining ICH and establishing independent national ICH lists. At the same time, each country expresses a high degree of motivation and encouragement for safeguarding ICH, sharing experiences, and participating in international cooperation programmes. Apart from the main subject, a brief glimpse is taken on the situation of intellectual property in ICH safeguarding in each country. Compared to the Southwest Asian countries that participated in the field survey, the East Asian and Central Asian countries provided little information on intellectual property issues, so it is recommended that ICHCAP undertake the Field Survey on Intellectual Property Issues in the Process of ICH Information Building and Information Sharing in some countries to see their status on this subject.\n\n- Ratified the ICH Convention in 2010; conducted survey in 2010.\n- As of April 2013, has one ICH element on the RL and no accredited NGOs.