Master Nurak Abdrakhmanov (1947-2014) remained in the memory of modern Kyrgyz as a great composer, performer, and master of making the instrument. He began searching for his komuz teaching system back in the Soviet period when he worked as a music teacher in Ak-Talaa Village in the Naryn region. He was not satisfied with the formal education programs used in the schools. Master Nurak learned early on that that the European twelve-note system did not cover the musical subtleties and possibilities of komuz, saying that the system reduces what is possible with komuz in thirty ways. Master Nurak believed that learning komuz in a traditional and cultural way helps with learning how to play komuz more quickly and easily.

Bhansar Village in the Tanahun District, 140 kilometers west of Kathmandu, is home to the Gandharba Community, a musician caste of Nepal. The community is made up of 26 Gandharba houses and 150 residents. Nepal has a few musician castes that use song and music as their hereditary occupation. The Gandharba’s uniqueness comes from their use of the sarangi, a four-string instrument played with a bow, and their broad repertoire of songs. For centuries, the Gandharba played the sarangi as a tradition and profession. As a consequence of relying on the instrument for their livelihood, they were able to preserve their culture, art, and heritage since ancient times. The Gandharba musicians traveled throughout the country playing their music, and through their music, they sang messages of the people and kings and about heroic deeds. The Gandharba musicians were messengers of the nation. In fact, in many ways they still are, as they are the only conveyors of news and messages from times long past.\nIn Bhansar, people have their own culture, rituals, traditions, and lifestyles, with the majority of adult men relying on making and selling sarangi. In addition to selling instrument to locals and foreigners, they also seek out opportunities to perform. The elder men still wander from place to place trying to make a living as well as spreading the news and stories of the past. Other men of the younger generation make a living by singing on highway buses to entertain the passengers. However, the most interesting aspect of this village community is the creative thought and work of the Gandharba women.

Dr. Jyldyz Doolbekova is an anthropologist, researcher, and consultant with a background in traditional ecological knowledge, place-based education, and local development to support and preserve the biocultural diversity and the well-being of mountain local communities in Kyrgyzstan. \n\nShe participated in the research within the project "Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) Contribution to SDGs - Community Education and Development" initiated and supported by International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in Asia-Pacific (IRCI, https://www.irci.jp/). The results of the study entitled "Visionary Local Communities in Promoting Intangible Cultural Heritage in Kyrgyzstan" (2020), and "The Evolving Role of Community Museums in Intangible Cultural Heritage Preservation: A Case Study from Kyrgyzstan" (2021) were presented at the International Symposium in Tokyo (online).\n\nShe has 15 years of experience with the Christensen Fund Central Asia Program (California, San Francisco) as a Special Advisor, Program Manager, and Regional Coordinator. Before joining The Christensen Fund, she was the University Projects Officer for the Aga Khan Humanities Project (AKHP), based at project headquarters in Dushanbe (Tajikistan), where she developed and implemented programs in conjunction with Central Asian universities to promote pluralism in ideas, cultures, and people through innovative humanities curricula rooted in traditional arts and knowledge. \n\nShe received a Ph.D. in anthropology, ethnology, and ethnography with a thesis on "Traditional ecological culture of the Kyrgyz (on the example of the Murghab Kyrgyz in the mid-19th and early 20th centuries)" at the Institute of Cultural Heritage of the National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic; received the equivalent of her MA from Kyrgyz National University Department of History and also earned a Master’s in International Relations from the International University of Kyrgyzstan. \n\n

Keneshbek Almakuchukov is a researcher at the National History Museum of the Kyrgyz Republic. He is a Doctor of Economics (economics of culture). The topic of his doctoral dissertation was dedicated to “Marketing management in the sphere of culture”.\nDr. Almakuchukov has published a total of 36 scientific papers, including 7 monographs, and 3 textbooks.\n\nHe is also the head of the Public Foundation "Central Asia - Arts Management" which implements projects to support and develop bio-cultural diversity in Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia. His Foundation is well know for the organization of annual International Jazz Festivals since 2006 in Bishkek, the capital city of Kyrgyzstan. In total, the foundation has organized about 17 International Jazz Festivals. \n\nIn 2021, Dr. Almakuchukov was in charge of the First Biennial (Forum) of Cultural Initiatives. The Biennale included an exhibition of the results of projects of 20 public organizations in the socio-cultural sphere, more than 20 creative events (master classes, performances, etc.), as well as a business program (panel sessions, open lectures, etc.).\n\nCurrently, he is engaged in museum activities and continues his research of cultural heritage-related topics. \n

Ms. Gulnara Ibragimova is the manager of the “International Education Center” at the Educational Complex “Ilim” a UNESCO Associated School. She is also the focal point for the UNESCO Associated Schools Network in Kyrgyzstan.\n\nEducational Complex “Ilim” was established in 1993 and has a long institutional history. Since 1995, it is part of the UNESCO Network of Associated Schools (ASPpnet). Currently, it coordinates the network activities in Kyrgyzstan among its 15 members. The Complex itself includes primary, secondary and high schools as well as kindergarten.\n\nThe school aims to ensure that students have a full conceptual understanding of the subjects they study and helps them to develop new skills that can be applied in real life. Since “Ilim” joined the ASPnet schools Network it also became a key promoter of UNESCO values in the country. It implements multidisciplinary projects related to intercultural learning, human rights, sustainable development, etc.\n\nGulnara is responsible for maintaining international communications, implementing supplementary education programs, and cultural exchanges, and developing academic mobility - attracting foreign teachers, with the aim of convergence educational standards, improving the quality of education as well as the organization and implementing of international cooperation projects with UNESCO. She is also responsible for maintaining contacts with the National Commission of the Kyrgyz Republic for UNESCO in the realization of joint activities and reporting.\n\nIn 2020-2021 she has supported a pilot project of UNESCO “Integrating the Living Heritage into Education in Asia and the Pacific Region” in Kyrgyzstan, by identifying schools for the project and monitoring their work progress. \n\nFrom 2013 to the present, she is also the director of the “Koldo Shop” Public Foundation, which work is aimed at supporting people from socially vulnerable segments of the population, and these are people with disabilities, single mothers, pensioners, and large families with financial difficulties. The Foundation created a trading and educational platform for artisans from this target audience. \n\n

Dr. Saifur Rashid is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh and has been a member of the faculty since 1993. He obtained his PhD in Anthropology in 2005 from Curtin University of Technology, Australia, and worked there as a Post-Doctoral Research and Teaching Fellow from 2006 to 2008. Dr. Rashid has been working with various UN agencies, Government organizations, national and international NGOs, and academic and research institutions of home and abroad for last 25 years. His areas of research interest include E-Governance, Heritage, Indigenous Knowledge, Natural Resources Management, Ethnicity, Migration and Visual Documentation. He has published several books and written many research articles in refereed scientific journals. His recently authored and co-authored books include ‘Connecting State and Citizens: Transformation Through e-Governance in Rural Bangladesh (2018)’, ‘Traditional Medicine: Sharing Experience from the Field (2017)’ and ‘Pains and Pleasure of Fieldwork’ (2016), Intangible Cultural Heritage in Urban Context (2020). He has made a number of documentaries on various ICH elements of Bangladesh for ICHCAP and Google Arts & Culture and awarded Distinction Prize for one of the documentaries made for ICHCAP, South Korea. Dr. Rashid is now working on two book projects: one on ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage of Bangladesh’ and another on ‘Anthropology and Heritage’. He is also working on another two book projects: one on ‘Migration, Fraudulence and Social Mediation’ and another on ‘The Told and Untold Stories of Bangladeshi Migrants in the Europe’. Professor Rashid is a member of the ICH National Expert Committee of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs of the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh and member of the executive committee of APHEN-ICH (Asia-Pacific Higher Education Network for Intangible Cultural Heritage) of ICHCAP. Professor Rashid visited more than 40 countries for attending meetings, seminars and conferences and gave lectures as key speaker and has been a Visiting Professor of Chonnam National University and Chonbuk National University, South Korea since 2015.

China Folklore Society (CFS) has 2,256 registered members across the country. In June 2012, the CFS was accredited and now provides advisory services to the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding ICH. In November of 2014, the CFS was appointed as member of Evaluation Body by the Committee.

The Asia Dance Culture Institute, under the Department of Ethnic Dance at Gyeongsang National University, staged a Korean traditional dance performance on November 11, 2019, which consisted of taepyeongmu (dance of great peace; Korean National Intangible Cultural Heritage No. 92), salpurichum (exorcism dance; Korean National Intangible Cultural Heritage No. 46), Dongnae hallyangchum (playboy dance of Dongnae; Busan Intangible Cultural Heritage No. 14) and Jindo bukchum (drum dance of Jindo; Jeollanam-do Intangible Cultural Heritage No. 18). The conceptual theme of the performance was to envisage the prestige of Korean traditional dance and facilitate its encounter with artificial intelligence (AI) robots in the coming era of the 4th Industrial Revolution.\nIt was regarded in dance circles as the first experimental performance of a traditional dance involving an AI robot in Korea. nSince its launch in 2007, the Asia Dance Culture Institute has identified, inherited and developed Asian dance, and furthermore, disseminated it widely in Korea and abroad with the aim to promote the greatness of Asian choreographed arts. It also endeavors to develop cultural contents for Asian dance through academic conferences and education projects. This year, we ventured to perform “Dialogue Between Dance and Robots” as a regular performance of the Asian Traditional Dance Company. Our time-honored dance that has been inherited from the distant past through the lasting accumulation of time is said to be a product into which the past and the present have been condensed and converged. The moment such traditional dance encounters engineering science, we can cautiously begin to anticipate the upcoming future. In the not-so-distant future, perhaps we will feel that AI and robots are our close companions in life, as opposed to simple tools, as we enter into the era of the fourth industrial revolution. It would not be an exaggeration to speculate that this work of collaboration between humans and robots on stage represents a new world that awaits us. The Asia Dance Culture Institute will continue its efforts to create new content that will be born from the convergence of intangible cultural heritage and artificial intelligence.

Karawitan Indonesia High School (SMKI) Yogyakarta or Kasihan State Vocational School 1 (Sekolah Menengah Kejuruan Nasional 1) Kasihan, Bantul, is a high-level vocational school focusing on art. The school, located on Jl. PG Madukismo, Bugisan, Kasihan, Bantul, Yogyakarta, was established in 1961 under the name Konservatori Tari (KONRI), which has a focus on dance conservation and development. The school then was changed into Karawitan Indonesia High School in 1976. In 1997 it became Kasihan State Vocational School 1. The proliferation of non-formal art education through many studios does not dampen the spirit of SMKI as the organizer of formal art education in the Yogyakarta Special Region.\nSMKI has several art majors as its learning focus—namely, a dance major, karawitan (traditional Javanese music); an art major, pedalangan (shadow puppet); an art major, and a theater art major. The education held by SMKI consists of theory and practice. Every first-grade student gets the education that other high schools give in general. The students then begins to deepen their practice during the second and third grade. The final examination of SMKI students consists of both the national exam, held by the Ministry of Education and Culture of Republic Indonesia, and the practicum examination conducted by the school. The practicum examination organized by SMKI begins with Industrial Practice (PI), where all students carry out fieldwork practice directly. After implementing the PI, the final grade students will have is their practical exam in the form of choreographic performances of artworks created and organized by all students, both as examinees and committee.

Hoi An Center for Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation is under the directnadministration of Hoi An City People’s Committee. The Center was founded by Quang NamnProvincial People’s Committee at the request of the Hoi An City Chairperson and the Director ofnQuang Nam Province Department of Home Affairs.\nThe Center is responsible for administratively managing, researching, preserving, and promotingnthe values of Hoi An cultural heritage. The Center also jointly manages the Cu Lao Cham – Hoi AnnWorld Biosphere Reserve.