Bhutan is one of the world's smallest countries, but its cultural diversity and richness are remarkable. As a result, a considerable emphasis is placed on promoting and preserving its own culture. It is hoped that by safeguarding and nurturing Bhutan's living culture, the nation's sovereignty will be preserved. However, the Kingdom of Bhutan is undergoing tremendous transformation in the social, cultural, economic, and political spheres, resulting in unprecedented social confusion and stress. As a child, I liked photography and travel, and now I enjoy sharing stories via photographs. Our country, although rich in culture, is currently at a crossroads between modernisation and cultural preservation; with the improvement of living standards, it is difficult to see age-old practices and traditions being practiced. Everything from the way we travel to the food we eat, the language we speak, and the clothes we wear is changing and, in some cases, fading as time passes. These images serve as harsh reminders of how a country's intangible cultures and heritage are disappearing.

The picture above is of my family and me making Yamari (traditional typical Newari Bread) in Nepal 2019. It was midwinter, freezing cold morning. The majestic view of snowclad mountains seems refreshed after wakening up. Many trees were denuded of leaves and the lawn was covered in frost. I was wearing gloves and a woolen cap to escape from the cold, sitting in my yard drinking chiya (a traditional nepali tea) and enjoying the splendid morning view with my father. In the meanwhile, I heard my mother calling us to the kitchen. We went to the kitchen and saw my mother ready for making “Yamari”. She wanted us to give her our hands in making the “Yamari”. "Ya" means "to like'' and "mari" means "bread" in Newari language, which literally means “tasty bread”. Yamari is a steamed sweet bread made of rice flour (from the new harvest) dough, shaped like fig with ends like a fishtail and filled with chaku (a sweet made up of sugarcane, ghee, and nut, etc.) and sesame seeds. I was so excited because Yamari was one of my favorite foods which are eaten once a year, in the winter season only. I always wondered why it is made in winter only but not in other seasons. My mother explains, “Eating Yamari avoids the effects of cold winter. Our body gets weak in winter, so, to energize our body we eat chaku which is only made in winter”. However, nowadays it is becoming a popular snack and can be seen in city markets. My mother taught me how to make nice shaped Yamari. The closing part of it must be like the shape of the tail longer if possible because it is believed that the longer the tail is the longer the day will be, and night get shorter which means soon the winter will end. I followed my mother but failed several times. Some shaped round, some shaped semi triangle. After failing several times, I was able to make a beautiful Yamari (third picture). According to the Newari tradition, children including elders go to nearby houses door to door singing a special song and asking for Yamari on a full moon day known as the yamari full moon day. This event used to be real fun and memorable especially for children. However, today this tradition is gradually disappearing. Children and youngsters have no craze for Yamari like before. They are more interested in mobiles or computer games than in preserving their culture and tradition.

In the Thailand context, we are fully aware that the indigenous people have been looked down on for a very long time because of fallacious news and social media which represent only one side of the story. As a consequence, indigenous kids have been bullied in the school, only because they’re wearing their indigenous dresses. They are afraid to tell other people about who they really are. With this problem, we were inspired that “if we could use the beauty of their culture to communicate with people to solve this problem”. And if we do not want our generation to lose the chance to know about who they really are. By having these concepts in mind, we are trying to let people learn more about other cultures, music, language and local wisdom. We started to hear their songs and found that these songs can be used as a tool to share their untold stories. Just recently, we’re creating an online platform as a medium to share their music and stories. The objective of our work is not only about building public awareness, but we also aim to preserve the beauty of cultural diversity in order to let the audiences create value from the culture as to how they perceive it. What we offer on the platform is music, sound, and story while the indigenous musician earns more income.

This video depicts coconut-leaf sun-shade plaiting, which was demonstrated by Ms. Beverlyn Atu on Nusa Roviana, Western Province, Solomon Islands. This sun-shade is locally called "toropae valusa" ('fisherman's sun-shade') in the Roviana language, since it is mainly used for fishing.