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.

The Tharu Cultural Museum and Research Center is founded on the idea of preservation and promotion of indigenous cultural heritage, particularly that of the Tharu as one of Nepal’s largest and most marginalized ethnic groups. The organization is working on the preservation of Tharu culture and arts and community development through museum collections. In addition, they are conducting research on Tharu tradition, literature, arts, legendary stories, songs, festivals, rituals, as well as their indigenous knowledge, technology, and skills.

The Nagorik Uddyog (NU), a leading human rights NGO, has been working for the protection of rights, dignity, and heritage of the Dalit and other excluded communities of Bangladesh since 1995. NUs activities includes the protection and safeguarding of languages, folk music, drama and dances, heritage dress and food, traditional knowledge, beliefs and rituals, traditional means of livelihoods, folktales and literature, arts, and festivals.

\nThe Finnish Folk Music Institute Is a Centre for the Research and Presentation of Finnish Folk Music and Dance. Its premises are in the Folk Art Centre at Kaustinen, Central Ostrobothnia. The extensive archive and reference library are accessible for any user. The material consists of audio and video recordings, photos, literature and a newspaper clipping collection of over 100 000 pieces.\nThe Folk Music Institute is also a significant publisher: the album collection features archive collections as well as contemporary folk music, and the range of books consists of sheet music and scientific publication from the field of folk music and tradition.\nFinnish Folk Music Institute supports Finnish folk music and folk dance communities in safeguarding their intangible cultural heritage by: documenting living folk music and dance traditions; publishing recordings, books and notes on Finnish folk music, educating children in folk music and ICH; educating academic folk music students, advancing research of folk music and dance; participating in organizing the biggest folk music and dance festival in Finland; networking nationally and internationally with other folk music and heritage organizations; and promoting the interests of folk music and ICH in national cultural politic.

The Center for Scientific and Cultural Activities Van Mieu - Quoc Tu Giam belongs to the Hanoi CitynDepartment of Culture, Sports and Tourism. The Center has the mission of managing, preserving,nand organizing activities related to the national monument Temple of Literature and thenVietnamese ancient system of competitive examinations.

The Bhabanagara Foundation aims at articulating age-old multidimensional language, literature, education procedure, and cultural performances locally and globally. Committed to revitalization of cultural origins, they conduct events and workshops for the safeguarding of Bengali intangible cultural heritage (ICH) such as Charya Songs. In addition to their Weekly Sadhusanga (discussion and performance on Wednesday afternoon) for the youth, scholars, and practitioners, they publish Bhābanagara: International Journal of Bengali Studies. The foundation has translated and published the Convention for the Safeguarding of the ICH. They hold an inventory of four thousand Bangladeshi living Folk Artists and Artisans.

The Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies (IPNGS) was established under the Cultural Development Act, passed by the Papua New Guinea House of Assembly on 14 October 1974. Papua New Guinea had become self-governing from Australia almost a year earlier, but independence was still about another year in the future. Today IPNGS is a national cultural institution under the National Cultural Commission Act. It moved to its present location towards the end of 1976. The distinctive welded sculptures on the outside walls and gates depict the Orokolo story of Aru Aru and his journey to the moon, as told by Sir Albert Maori Kiki.\nAlthough laws, governments, ministries, and even the location of the Institute have changed over the past four decades, the main focus has remained constant: the documentation, archiving, and promotion of Papua New Guinea cultures. Overseen by the Director, IPNGS is divided into departments for its present three main functions: Music (5 staff), Ethnology (3), Literature (1). There are also two staff in administration, and five casual workers. nResearch staff members under take research in villages and towns, or at festivals. Such research might be on specific topics, such as clan origin stories or the variety of dances performed at a particular festival, or more general survey work, such as documenting musical traditions in a particular village. While the primary focus is on traditional expressions, attention is also given to more recently developed expressions of culture, such as those performed in church or as part of widespread popular forms.\nThe Ethnology Department is responsible for documenting the many myths, legends, and other oral traditions found in the country. Publications have been produced in English as well as local languages, both to promote the maintenance of this important body of knowledge and to encourage vernacular literacy.\nFor many years, the Literature section was responsible for promoting creative writing, especially through the running of the annual National Literature Competition. Many submissions were made for categories such as novels, short stories, poetry, radio plays, essays, etc. The results appeared in our journals such as Gigibori, Bikmaus, and Sope, or as separate publications. We hope to revive the National Literature Competition in the near future.\nIPNGS Music Department has strived to develop its music archive to reflect all music-related research that has been done in the country. Although the collection can always be expanded, to a large extent this goal has been achieved.\nThe Music Archive presently contains about 12,000 hours of recordings on reels of tape, cassettes, discs, films, videos, CDs, and DVDs, with over 10,000 photos and 4,000 books, articles, and theses. These materials are a mixture of things collected by IPNGS staff, other researchers, commercially produced items, and historical recordings of PNG music from other archives around the world.\nAs with the other sections of the IPNGS, the Music Department has issued numerous publications. Presently, there is a series of cassette and disc recordings, a monograph series (Apwitihire), and a journal (Kulele). Our publications are widely used in the school system and have been well received overseas.\nIn total, IPNGS has produced about 250 publications, printed, audio, and films/videos. It has also played an important role in making materials published in languages such as German, Japanese, and local languages accessible through translations in to English or Tok Pisin.

Aliisher Navoi Institute of Language and Literature of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan was formed in 1934 based on the Philology Department of the Scientific Research Institute for Cultural Transformation (1931—1933). The institute achieved significant results in a study of Uzbek folklore (publishing heroic epics, folk tales, proverbs and sayings, etc.) and recently started developing a fifteen-volume History of Uzbek Literature and Folklore, which traces the evolution of Uzbek literature and folklore from ancient times to today.\nThe institute has its own journal named Ozbek Tili va Adabiyoti (Uzbek Language and Literature), which has been published six times per year since 1957. The authors of the journal articles represent leading linguists, literary critics, and folklore experts of Uzbekistan and foreign scholars.

The Institute of Language and Literature (ILL) at the Mongolian Academy of Sciences is a scientific organization that manages academic researches on philology, literature, and folklore in Mongolia. The ILL was founded as the Institute of Sutra and Script in 1921. The name subsequently institute changed to the Cabinet of Philology in 1930, to the Centre for the Study of Philology and Literature in 1957, and finally to the Institute of Language and Literature in 1961 when the Mongolian Academy of Sciences was established. nSince 1962, the ILL at the Mongolian Academy of Sciences has been implementing fieldwork on folk heritage and local dialects one to three times per year. Sometimes folk tellers and singers have been invited to make audio and video recordings. As a result of these activities, the ILL has built a treasury of audio recordings and manuscripts of Mongolian cultural heritage. For instance, this treasury contains tales, heroic epics, long and short songs, and wise and metaphoric words. Also our researchers have recorded ethnic legends and stories about rituals and customs and festivals. About 1100 hours of audio recordings have been preserved in this fund. We are also preserving 451 units of handwritten books and manuscripts.