Kusunda is one of the former hunter-gatherers of western Nepal. Currently, no single person of the tribe is living in the jungle. Due to lack of marriageable population, Kusunda started marrying people from the villages and gradually settled in villages. nGyani Maiya Sen, 92, is one of the last speakers of the Kusunda language. She is also the last surviving member of the tribe who until nine years of age lived with her parents in the jungle. Currently, Gyani Maiya lives with her grandchildren in a house in Lamahi, Dang. She often teaches Kusunda among children and enthusiasts. Gyani Maiya fears that the Kusunda language will be lost along with her.

The flint gun, a true witness of the skill and expertise of Mongol craftsmen, wittedness and sharpness of Mongol hunters, is a primary form of the practice of firearms used through XVI-XIX centuries. Parts comprising the flint gun include flint, breechblock, main barrel, ramrod and the accessories include gunpowder, bullets, and the wooden bucket to contain the accessories. The mechanism of the flint gun is based on shooting with bullet through ignition of gunpowder caused by the spark emitted from the flint.

The Eagle Festival, one of Mongolia's most popular tourism events, has been held since 2000 with the aim of reviving the Kazakh eagle hunting tradition, passing it on to future generations, promoting it to domestic and foreign tourists, and turning it into a tourism product. The tradition of eagle hunting is believed to have originated among Central Asian nomads 6,000 years ago and has survived to the present day, with Mongolia being the best-preserved country. Therefore, in order to promote this rich heritage around the world and increase the flow of tourists, the “Eagle Festival” is held twice a year, in the spring on March 4-5 in Ulaanbaatar and in the fall in Bayan-Ulgii aimag in the first 7 weeks of October. The event begins in the form of a competition, in which eagles adorn themselves with national costumes, place domesticated eagles on their arms, ride horses trained to hunt eagles and join the parade. The best national costumes, horses and eagle equipment are selected. There are competitions to test the eagle's ability to hunt. The relationship between the eagle and the eagle hunter is determined by whether the eagle is obedient or not. In some years, live animals are caught and tested for eagle hunting.\n\n

Kusunda is one of the former hunter-gatherers of western Nepal. Currently, no single person of the tribe is living in the jungle. Due to a lack of marriageable population, Kusunda started marrying people from the villages and gradually settled in villages. nGyani Maiya Sen 92 is one of the last speakers of the Kusunda language. She is also the last surviving member of the tribe who until nine years of age lived with her parents in the jungle. Currently, Gyani Maiya lives with her grandchildren in a house in Lamahi, Dang. She often teaches Kusunda among children and enthusiasts. Gyani Maiya fears that the Kusunda language will be lost along with her.

Kusunda is one of the former hunter-gatherers of western Nepal. Currently, no single person of the tribe is living in the jungle. Due to lack of marriageable population, Kusunda started marrying people from the villages and gradually settled in villages. \n\nGyani Maiya Sen, 92, is one of the last speakers of the Kusunda language. She is also the last surviving member of the tribe who until nine years of age lived with her parents in the jungle. Currently, Gyani Maiya lives with her grandchildren in a house in Lamahi, Dang. She often teaches Kusunda among children and enthusiasts. Gyani Maiya fears that the Kusunda language will be lost along with her.

Tales are an important genre of the oral prose literature of the Mongolians. Tales typically begin with the phrase “Once upon a time, in such-and-such a place, in such-and-such a country.” Mongolian tales are symbolic. The most frequent ending is “and they lived happily ever after.” The legends are a popular genre of oral prose literature. The real-life legends are always complementary expressions of historical events within folk literature. Historical facts are usually adorned with fanciful magic and metaphoric devices to later become historical legends. Among the restored and digitised data, the tales take up the most recording hours. Within the framework of the project, over two hundred hours of tales and almost fourteen hours of legends were restored and digitised.

Storytelling is an oral expression that recalls phenomenal events that occurred in society or human lives. The stories, which are expressed artistically, have a certain level of interest and are unique. The storyteller is an individual who has seen that special event or has heard of the events from other person who knows the event very well. Besides storytelling, this category includes materials of local dialects, folk talks of traditional rituals and customs, and the remembrances. The category of storytelling covers over fifty hours of recordings.

Benedictions\n\nMongolian well-wishing is a powerful expression of the miraculous capacity of words. It is one of the genres of Mongolian oral poetry that uses melodies. Briefly, benedictions (well-wishing) propitiate people’s future happiness and well-being through skilfully composed and recited poems. There are thousands of benedictions on various subjects. For instance there are benedictions recited while beating the sweat cloth of a saddle, while distilling milk vodka, while celebrating a birth, and while cutting an infant’s hair for the first time. Besides ancient benedictions, many contemporary benedictions are being kept at the ILL. These include benedictions for a new ger, weddings, a child’s first haircut, endowment practices, mare-milking ceremonies, foal-branding ceremonies, the People’s Revolution, and others for the military.

Folk Short Songs\n\nMongolian folk songs are divided in three different categories, such as long songs, short songs and the authors’ songs. Folk songs are shorter than other forms of expressions with average durations of one to five minutes, but there is a high volume of them. Thus, restoring, categorising, and digitising folk songs were the most time-consuming tasks compared to others. Within the framework of the project, just under forty-eight hours of songs were restored and digitised.

Sounds that Run in the Vast Grasslands of Mongolia_Oral Traditions and Performing Arts in Mongolia\n\nSince the early 1950s, the Institute of Language and Literature at the Academy of Science (ILL) has been sending survey teams one to three times a year to research and gather data on oral literature and local dialectics. These activities set the groundwork for officially establishing a new archive with written documents and magnetic audio tapes that could be used for research purposes and be maintained. Preserved on magnetic tapes are languages and dialects that have gone extinct, have lost their distinctiveness, or have been adsorbed into other languages or dialects.\n\nHowever, most of the magnetic tapes being kept at the ILL are more than sixty years old, and the expiration date on many tapes has already lapsed. Also, improper storage conditions have caused some tapes to dry out, cling to one another, or fracture. For these reason, it would be hard to transmit to the next generation. Accordingly, since 2008, efforts have been made towards restoring and digitizing superannuated magnetic tapes within the internal capability and capacity of the ILL. The lack of training, finance, and proper tools and technical equipment has, nevertheless, created several obstacles and the digitizing results have not been very successful.\n\nAt this crucial state, the ILL introduced a cooperative request to the Foundation for the Protection of Natural and Cultural Heritage (FPNCH), and the FPNCH proposed that ICHCAP continue the joint project and take measures for restoring and digitizing superannuated magnetic tapes and distributing and disseminating the data among the general public. According to the above decision, the FPNCH and ICHCAP implemented the Joint Cooperation Project of Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage by Using Information Technology from October 2011 to April 2012.\n\nAs the first stage of the project, the Expert Meeting for Safeguarding ICH by Using Information Technology was held in the Republic of Korea to exchange information with experts for digitizing and restoring the analogue data. The experts of Mongolian National Public Radio, the ILL, and the FPNCH started the project after sharing restoration and digitization knowledge with the Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) of Korea, the National Archives of Korea, and the Korea Film Council.\n\nAs the main outcome of the project, a total of 715 hours of superannuated magnetic tapes including epics, folk tales, tales accompanied by the morin khuur, traditional arts, khuumei, chor, long and short folksongs, and traditional customs were restored, digitized, and categorized. Among them, 128 audio clips were selected and reproduced in a ten-CD collection called Sounds from the Mongolian Grasslands. The collection also includes a twenty-page handbook in English or Korean. Through this project, the general public’s, involved organizations’, and domestic and international experts’ awareness about Mongolian ICH increased, and the archive and music contents of regional ICH were strengthened.

The early history of the Nagas is shrouded in obscurity and many theories abound of their origin  and  migration.  How  and  when  they  came  to  settle  in  the  north‐eastern  region  of India is an unsettled question. \nSeveral  traditions  exist  within  the  multi‐ethnic  Naga  communities  on  their  origins. \nAccording to the oral traditions passed down through songs, folklore and word of mouth the Ao emerged from six stones at Long‐terok, which exists to this day near Chungliyimti, the first legendry settlement of the Ao. ‘Long’ meaning stone and ‘Terok’ six, refers to the six stones from which emerged three pairs of male and female progenitors whom the Ao claim  to  be  their  ancestors.  The  Ao  is  distinguished  with  two  phratries  –Chongli  and Mongsen. The Chongli claim  that the  three males and  females who emerged at Longtrok were Tongpok and his sister Lendina, Longpok with his sister Yongmenala and Longjakrep with  his  sister  Elongshe.  They  were  the  first  human  beings  who  emerged  at  Longtrok. \nEach  male  member  along  with  his  sister  formed  the  three  phratries  of  the  Chongli. \nTongpok founded the Imsong‐Pongen clan, Longpok the Longkumer clan and Longjakrep with  his  sister  founded  the  Jamir  clan  respectively.  The  three  siblings  intermarried  and through  these  marriages,  the  Ao  clans  came  into  existence  and  a  well‐  knitted  clan exogamy marriage evolved that is followed to this day. 

ICH Courier is the quarterly magazine on ICH in the Asia-Pacific region issued by ICHCAP since 2009. Every issue has its own theme under the title of the Windows to ICH, and the theme of the Vol 33 is 'Village Guardian Rituals and Communities.'