The Rai communities of the eastern hills of Nepal celebrate the Siruwat festival during April and May, on the Nepali first full moon day of the year. Siruwat is celebrated to mark the season of plantation, also called dhule puja, which means worshiping the earth or soil. It is believed that the deities travel to the Himalayas after they are worshiped to avoid the summer. The festival is also called Ubhauli, referring to deities’ movement towards the upper hills/Himalayas. Every Rai household practices this ritual. Deities are offered eggs, alcohol, chicken, water, and freshly harvested rice. There is a belief that if people do not perform this ritual, they will get sick and go mad. Therefore, even people who live far away or are traveling make efforts to return to their village to perform this ritual.

He started his professional career in Ministry of Education, Science and Culture of Japan in 1977. He worked from 2001 to 2009 at UNESCO where he assumed various posts such as Director of the Division of Secondary, Technical and Vocational Education, and Director of the Division of Social Science, Research and Policy at the Headquarters. Back to Japan, he organised at Nagoya in 2014“UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development” as Advisor, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology. \n Mr Iwamoto took function of Director- General of IRCI in April 2016. He is also Visiting Professor of Chubu University and Lecturer of National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies.

The College of Language and Culture Studies (CLCS) is situated 16 kilometers south of Trongsa town, towards Kuenga Rabten Palace along the Trongsa-Zhemgang highway. Kuenga Rabten used to be the winter residence of the second King, Jigme Wangchuck.\n\nEarlier, the institute was popularly known as the Rigney Lobdra. It came into existence on the 4th day of the 6th month of the Male Iron Ox Year corresponding to the 16th of July 1961 at Wangdi Tse, in Thimphu. It was established under the auspices of the late third King Jigme Dorji Wangchuk. His Holiness the late Dilgo Khentse Rinpoche (1910-91), an accomplished and spiritual leader, was the first principal of the Lobdra (1961-63). The Lobdra started with a total of fifty students. Two months after its establishment, the Lobdra was relocated to Semtokha Dzong. It was housed inside the Dzong until the early eighties. Later the Dzong was taken over by Dratshang Lhentshog and the institute moved out of the Dzong. A separate site was created above the Dzong for the institute to function, and it has been operating in this location for the last two and half decades.\n\nInitially the institute started as a semi-monastic institute. It was only in 1989 that the original curriculum was revised for the first time to include several cultural subjects. The institute was upgraded to Rigzhung College in the same year. Forty-three female students were admitted for the first time, thus breaking the 27 year old tradition of admitting only males. The curriculum, however, remained largely influenced by the monastic system of education.\n\nIn 1997, the institute was formally upgraded to the Institute of Language and Culture Studies and implemented a new curriculum. The first batch of thirty-five ICSE passed students was admitted into the new programme. Of the 35 students, 9 were girls and 26 were boys.\n\n1999 was a landmark year in the history of clcs. The three-year bachelor’s program in ‘Language and Culture’ was introduced for the first time and a batch of nineteen students was admitted. It was, in fact, the first ever homegrown programme developed and executed in Bhutan without any external assistance.\n\nPrior to the establishment of the Royal University of Bhutan (RUB), clcs was under the Ministry of Education. Among the tertiary institutes of RUB, clcs was the first institute to be formally handed over to the RUB by the Ministry of Education on 28th April, 2004. A founding member of the Royal University of Bhutan, today clcs remains a premier institute.\n\nOver the years the institute has managed to maintain the momentum of academic progress. The institute, through the success of its graduates in different fields, has been able to create its own identity in the country. This distinction that clcs holds is reflected in the graduates that constantly feature in the top rankings of the RCSC common examination. The absorption rate of its graduates is currently 100% and the demand is increasing each year. The graduates of clcs have been faring well in their work place as well as in their lives.

The Cultural Heritage Association of Vietnam (CHAV) is a social and professional organization thatnbrings together organizations and individuals engaged in professional activities or passionate aboutncultural heritage, contributing to the protection and promotion of its values. Established throughnthe Decision No. 28/2004/QD-BNV by the Minister of Home Affairs on 23 April 2004, CHAV worksnacross the country under the administration and auspices of the Ministry of Culture andnInformation. Within its mandates regulated by law CHAV regularly establishes collaboration withnnational and international organizations and individuals. The initiative of establishing annassociation advocating for the preservation of monuments and museums dates back to the earlyn1990s when the Department of Conservation and Museology, currently the Department of CulturalnHeritage, first drafted the operative regulations of the association. Especially after the promulgationnof the Law on Cultural Heritage in many seminars and in the media, numerous researchers andnenthusiasts of national culture expressed their wish for prompt establishment of the association. Innearly 2004, the Mobilizing Committee for the establishment of CHAV was officially accredited by thenMinistry of Culture and Information (now the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism).

Bhutan became a member of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisations (UNESCO) on 13th April 1982. However, until 1 October 1986, Bhutan remained without a National Commission Secretariat. Sensing the need to establish a Secretariat as envisaged in the Charter, Bhutan National Commission for UNESCO (BNCU) was formed on 1st October 1986 under the command of His Majesty the fourth Druk Gyalpo King Jigme Singye Wangchuck.\n\nThe permanent Secretariat, Bhutan National Commission for UNESCO (Bhutan Natcom) is attached to the Ministry of Education with the vision "To promote UNESCO's ideals of peace, and contribute to improve quality of education". The Chairman, Secretary General and Executive Committee Members comprising of 7 officials were appointed by the government.

The “Fondazione Santagata for the Economics of Culture” was founded on April 13 2018, on initiative of the Silvia Santagata Research Centre (CSS-EBLA). The Foundation gathers all the know-how and experiences of CSS-EBLA and of the studies activities carried out by Walter Santagata, pioneering scholar of Culture Economics.\nThe Foundation’s main working areas are two: a first one linked to the models for the management of cultural heritage, with a specific reference to the economic dimension of development and to UNESCO related programs, and a second one linked to the production of culture and cultural innovation.\nFurthermore, the Foundation’s mission is to enable cooperative networking among culture and other sectors operators, to support the internationalization of Piedmontese and Italian economic and cultural operators, in order to generate positive socio-economic impacts.