Dr. Aijarkyn Kojobekova has been participating in a series of Training of Trainers on different aspects of ICH organized by the UNESCO in Central Asian region since 2016 which helped her to step forward in this field. Since then, she has been conducting a series of workshops on safeguarding ICH and implementing of the 2003 UNESCO Convention in Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan). \n\nIn 2018 she was actively involved in a regional research project on ICH in the TVET system and also coordinated the research project on ICH in TVET in Central Asia. In 2020 Dr. Aijarkyn Kojobekova worked on the national manual on safeguarding sacred sites, rituals and practices related to sacred sites in Kyrgyzstan. During the work, she has explored the challenges and opportunities local communities and individuals face in practicing worship on sacred sites and what safeguarding measures need to be taken by the communities themselves, local authorities and state bodies. \n\nShe has facilitated an online meeting and conducted face-to-face training on intangible cultural heritage (ICH) community-based inventorying along the Tian Shan Corridor of the Silk Roads in Kyrgyzstan. She has been also involved in research on the Inventory of ICH elements in Kyrgyzstan in the framework of the community-based inventorying along the Tian Shan Corridor of the Silk Roads in Kyrgyzstan within the framework of the EU/UNESCO Project: “Silk Road Heritage Corridors in Afghanistan, Central Asia, and Iran – International Dimension of the European Year of Cultural Heritage”. In 2022 she developed a manual for school teachers on ICH in Kyrgyzstan. \n\nDr. Aijarkyn Kojobekova has: \n- 10-year collaboration experience with different local and international organizations: Open Society Institute, UNDP, UNESCO, IFES, SaferWorld, IWPR, Soros-Kyrgyzstan Foundation, Aigine Cultural Research Center and others.\n- 15-year expertise in revealing the content of different types of reading materials by the means of critical discourse analysis, narrative analysis, in expert interviewing, working with massive of literature, processing collected data by MAXQDA programme, conceptualizing complicated processes and sociocultural phenomena.\n- 19-year teaching of social sciences (sociology, political science). Courses: Qualitative Social Research Methodology, Past in Present: Memory, Culture and Politics, Nation-building in Central Asia, Social Stratification.\n\nPublications: 5 manuals, 1 monograph in co-authorship, more than 70 articles (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Singapore, Russia, Turkey, USA)

Born in the Great Cold Mountains, Sichuan, Dr Qubumo Bamo originates from the Nuosu, a subgroup of the Yi people. She obtained her Ph. D. in Folkloristics at Beijing Normal University in 2003. She is Senior Fellow and Director of the Oral Traditions Research Center at the Institute of Ethnic Literature (IEL), Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). She also acts as Vice President of the China Folklore Society (CFS), an accredited NGO and a member of the Evaluation Body of the Committee. \n\nConcentrating on the links between the written and oral traditions of the Yi, she has conducted long-term targeted field study on various aspects of Bimo (ritualists) scripture culture and Yi oral narratives. She is the author of The Golden-Eagle Spirit and Poetic Soul: A Study of Archaic Poetics in the Yi's Scriptures (2000), Spirit Picture and Ghost Board: A Survey of Incantation Epos and Ritualized Paintings in Nuosu Yi Area (2004), and more than 130 articles. Her translation of Gregory Nagy’s Homeric Questions was published in 2008. Her newest book, entitled Verbal Dueling and Epic Performance, is in press, and is a revised edition of her dissertation, based on a targeted field study carried out in her hometown. She has recently been working as a principal expert on the National Key Project for Developing Metadata Standards for Documentation of China Ethnic Minority Oral Traditions. \n\nDr Bamo teaches courses on oral tradition, folkloristics, and ICH studies at University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (UCASS) for the PHD and MA graduate students. Topics of current research include epic tradition, oral poetics, ICH safeguarding and cultural policy. Her essays on ICH is in print (Beijing: Culture and Art Publishing House, 2021).\nSince 2004, she has been extensively engaged in the field of Intangible Cultural Heritage at local, national, and international levels, possessing competence and consulting expertise in policy-making, training design, lecture delivering, as well as programme evaluation for governmental organs, professional institutions, centers of communities, and universities. Since 2007, she has been active in the China Delegation to statutory meetings and events under the 2003 Convention. As one of the ICH Team (CFS4ICH) leaders in the China Folklore Society, she plays a central role in annual tasks.

The “Roza Otunbayeva Initiative” International Public Foundation is a non-profit, nongovernmental organization established in January 2012 with the aim of initiating and implementing programs and projects that can contribute to the social, political, and economic development of the country, as well as respect for the environment in the Kyrgyz Republic.\n\nThe founder of the Foundation Roza Otunbayeva, is a former President of the Kyrgyz Republic, member of the high-level group of advisers on mediation under the UN Secretary-General, member of the Club de Madrid, and member of the Governing Board of UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP).\n\nMain goals of the Foundation:\n•\tPromoting human development, expanding civic participation, strengthening civil society;\n•\tImplementation of educational, cultural, environmental, and charitable programs and projects;\n•\tSupporting initiatives for peacekeeping, expanding communication platforms on issues of international political, economic, and humanitarian cooperation.\n\nSince its establishment, the Foundation has initiated and implemented throughout the country, in cooperation with various partners, more than 30 projects. \n\nMuch attention is paid by the Foundation to supporting the level of accessibility of art, music, literature, and folk crafts, both for children and for the general public. Thus, the Foundation has published several books about ICH elements of Kyrgyzstan adopted for children e.g. Manas comic book based on the Manas epic, “To Visit My Friends!” which explores the diverse culture of ethnic groups in Kyrgyzstan, etc.\n\nOne of the well-known projects implemented by the Foundation is "Development Centers on Jailoo". Jailoo is a summer pasture. The purpose of the project is aimed at creatinig conditions for equal access for the vulnerable population – the children of cattle breeders to preschool education. The project also includes programs aimed to promote traditional knowledge and cultural and historical heritage of the Kyrgyz people, introducing children to culture through the study of traditional games, and the formation of knowledge and skills of young children on the bases of tolerant interaction with representatives of different ethnic groups and nationalities.\n

The Ladakh Arts and Media Organisation is a public charitable trust established to articulate annalternative vision for the arts and media in Ladakh. The organization set up the LAMO Centre in Leh,nthe main town of the region, to provide a space for the understanding and development of the arts.\nThe complex on which the Centre is located comprises two historical houses below the 17th centurynLechen Pelkhar (Leh Palace). The houses were restored by LAMO and converted to an arts spacenwith galleries, offices, a library and reading room, screening room, conference room, and open-airnperformance site. The Centre is designed to conduct outreach programs, lectures, film screenings,nresearch and documentation projects, workshops and exhibitions that showcase Ladakh’s materialnand visual culture, performing arts and literature.

Ariyapala & Sons’ passing through their fifth generation of carving traditional masks and dancing is a non-profit organization which works with the mask making community in Ambalagoda. Ambalangoda is a very popular cultural centre in the southern coastal region of Srilanka and is well known for traditional mask carving and mask dancing. It was named after ‘Ariyapala Wijesuriya Gurunnanse’, one of the greatest master craftsmen in Sri Lanka. The organisational building includes a well developed museum, a workshop and a well decorated product display shop with various types of traditional masks. The museum is designed to introduce into the richness of the mask tradition of Ambalangoda and to strengthen cultural heritage. This museum also has a small library containing all available anthropological literature on mask performances to serve as a centre for traditional arts & crafts and for research as well.

The National Institute of Folk & Traditional Heritage, popularly known as Lok Virsa, was established by the government of Pakistan in 1974 with a mandate to collect, document, preserve, and disseminate Pakistan’s tangible and intangible cultural heritage. Within three decades, Lok Virsa has grown from a fledgling endeavor, to creating a science of folklore into a developmental complex whose projects and activities span over the roots of the entire nation. nThe Research Centre of Lok Virsa encourages research in regional languages, folk literature, cultural history, arts, crafts and various aspects of folklore such as folk songs, seasonal songs, work songs, folk romances, folk tales, children games, legends, nursery rhymes, children tales, animal fables and legends attached to mountains, lakes, rivers, ruined castled, traditional festivals, superstitions and beliefs, customs and rituals, celebrations at birth, weddings and funerals among others.\nLok Virsa calls upon all master artisans, folk musicians, folk dancers and performers from the rural areas and remote regions of the country at the Artisans-at-work festival, popularly known as Lok Mela, each year. Over 100,000 eager participants come to visit this festival. Lok Virsa supports craftsmen and musicians by giving cash awards and proud recognition to them as living national treasures.