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.

Yohor, a singing round dance of the Buryat ethnic group in Mongolia, the Buryat Republic of the Russian Federation, and the People’s Republic of China (Shineheen Buryats), is a complex synchronized expression of poetry, melody, and movement. Yohor is performed in the traditional manner with vocal singing and the modern way with playback music. Elders generally opt for the traditional way and have rich repertoire on Yohor songs. They say that the old way of singing is very important in the traditional way of dancing Yohor and that song can also affect the way of dancing.\nthe Yohor dance reflects a cultural uniqueness and a unity of Buryat people in three countries. Separated because of a long history and complicated political situations, Buryat people’s culture, tradition, and language changed. The Buryat language, an official dialect of Mongolian, has already been included in the category of severely endangered languages by the 2010 UNESCO Interactive Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger. With this language loss, the number of elders who know the song narratives and old Yohor song repertoire are decreasing, and this brings the Yohor dance under the risk of disappearance as its complexity of song and movements but also of language. The annual and biennial cultural festivals, such as Altargana, Yohor, Night Yohor, and Global Yohor, show how Buryats have been trying to revive the traditional culture and art for long time. Even though, the collective memory and living experience of Buryat people is under the risk of disappearance due to rapid modernization and globalization with language loss.

Aitys is a contest centred on improvised oral poetry spoken or sung to the accompaniment of traditional musical instruments – the Kazakh dombra. Two performers (akyns) compete with one other to improvise verses on topical themes in a battle of wits that alternates between humorous ripostes and penetrating philosophical reflections. During the competition, the performers sit opposite one another improvising a dialogue on topics chosen by the audience. The winner is the performer considered to have demonstrated the best musical skills, rhythm, originality, resourcefulness, wisdom and wit. The most meaningful and witty expressions often become popular sayings. The element is practiced on a variety of occasions, ranging from local festivities to nationwide events, where practitioners often use the contest to raise important social issues. Although it was traditionally performed only by men, many women now participate in Aitys and use the contest to express women’s aspirations and viewpoints.

The ICH festivals in the Kyrgyz Republic are a great way to safeguard the cultural heritage. Kyrgyzstan has a rich ICH and embraces all ICH domains including the oral traditions andexpressions, performing arts, social practices, rituals and festive event, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe, and traditional craftsmanship. Festivals feature various ICH domains such as arts and crafts, cuisine, folklore, felt, hunting with birds, horse games, etc. For instance, the festivals Kyrgyz Shyrdagy and the Oimo International Festival are held with the aim of safeguarding and popularizing traditional knowledge and skills of handicrafts, for safeguarding and promoting traditional games, various birds of prey festivals are held, such as Salbuurun and Kok Boru. Moreover, festivals are dedicated to safeguarding oral traditions, such as Aitysh, the art of improvisation as well as many other festivals reflecting traditional cuisine, folklore, etc.

On 12 and 13 November 2020, ICHCAP and the ICH NGO Forum virtually held the 2020 ICH NGO Conference entitled “ICH and Resilience in Crisis.” The fifteen participants, including eleven selected presenters from ten countries around the world, discussed various cases and activities of each country applied under the Corona-era, and proposed solidarity for the resilience of ICH for a ‘New Normal.’\n\nSession 1: In the Vortex: COVID-19 Era, Roles of NGOs to Safeguard ICH\n\nSpecial Lecture 1: 'Resilience System Analysis' by Roberto Martinez Yllescas, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Mexico\n1. 'Uncovering the veil of immaterial cultural heritage towards and autonomous management of well-being as well as cultural and territorial preservation' by Carolina Bermúdez, Fundación Etnollano\n2. 'Holistic Development Model of Community-Based Intangible Cultural Heritage of Yuen Long District in Hong Kong of China' by Kai-kwong Choi, Life Encouraging Fund \n3. 'Indigenous Knowledge System as a vector in combating COVID-19' by Allington Ndlovu, Amagugu International Heritage Centre\n4. 'Enlivening Dyeing Tradition and ICH: The initiative of ARHI in North East of India' by Dibya Jyoti Borah, President, ARHI\n\nSession 2: Homo Ludens vs. Home Ludens: Changed Features COVID-19 Brought\n\n1. 'The Popular Reaction to COVID-19 from the Intangible Cultural Heritage among Member Cities of the ICCN' by Julio Nacher, ICCN Secretariat, Algemesi, Spain\n2. 'Innovation for Arts and Cultural Education Amid a Pandemic' by Jeff M. Poulin, Creative Generation\n3. 'Promoting Heritage Education through Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Kalasha Valleys of Pakistan' by Ghiasuddin Pir & Meeza Ubaid, THAAP\n4. 'Shifting to Online Activities: Digital Divide among the NGOs and ICH Communities in Korea' by Hanhee Hahm CICS\n\nSession 3: Consilience: Prototype vs. Archetype for Educational Source\n\nSpecial Lecture 2: 'Geographical imbalance: the challenge of getting a more balanced representation of accredited non-governmental organizations under the 2003 Convention' by Matti Hakamäki, Finnish Folk Music Institute\n1. 'Crafting a Post Covid-19 World: Building Greater Resilience in the Crafts Sector through Strengthening Ties with its Community’s Cultural System' by Joseph Lo, World Crafts Council International\n2. 'Arts and Influence: Untangling Corporate Engagement in the Cultural Sector' by Nicholas Pozek, Asian Legal Programs, Columbia University\n3. 'ICH in the South-Western Alps: Empowering Communities through Youth Education on Nature and Cultural Practices' by Alessio Re & Giulia Avanza, Santagata Foundation for the Economy of Culture\n\n

ICH Video Production in the Asia-Pacific Region : Central Asia\n\nRapid urbanization and westernization are changing the environments in which intangible cultural heritage is rooted. The importance of documentation that traces the effect of social changes on intangible cultural heritage is being emphasized as a safeguarding measure. Quality video documentation is an important resource that enables the conservation and transmission of existing intangible cultural heritage and raises its visibility.\n\nVideo documentation is the best medium to record intangible cultural heritage in the most lifelike manner, using the latest technologies. It is also an effective tool for communicating with the public. However, conditions for video production in the Asia-Pacific remain poor, requiring extensive support for quality video documentation.\n\nICHCAP has been working to build the safeguarding capabilities of Member States and raise the visibility of intangible cultural heritage in the Asia-Pacific by supporting the true-to-life documentation of intangible cultural heritage as this heritage is practiced and cooperating with experts, communities, and NGOs in related fields.\n\nSince 2010, ICHCAP has hosted annual Central Asian sub-regional network meetings with Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Mongolia to support the ICH safeguarding activities of Central Asia. Through their collaboration, ICHCAP has supported projects involving collecting ICH information, producing ICH websites, and constructing ICH video archives.\n\nAt the Sixth Central Asia Sub-regional Network Meeting in Jeonju in 2015, ICHCAP, four Central Asian countries, and Mongolia adopted a second three-year cooperation project plan on producing ICH videos to enhance the visibility of ICH in Central Asia.\n\nICHCAP developed guidelines and training programs for the project and invited video and ICH experts from the participating countries, and held a workshop in November 2015. After the workshop, focal points for the project were designated in each country, and each focal point organization formed an expert meeting and a video production team to produce ICH videos.\n\nInterim reports were submitted to ICHCAP in February 2016, and the first preview screening was held in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, during the Seventh Central Asia Sub-regional Network Meeting in May 2016. Since then, each country has carried out the project according to the project plan. ICHCAP met with each country between October 2016 to February 2017 to check on the project progress.\n\nAfter the final preview screening during the Eighth Central Asia Sub-regional Network Meeting in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, in 2017, final editing process took place in each country, and fifty ICH videos were completed by October 2017.\n\nAll photos introduced on this page along with fifty ICH videos are from the exhibition 'Living Heritage: Wisdom of Life' held in the Republic of Kyrgyzstan and the Republic of Korea. Designed for introducing various ICH in the five countries, this exhibition shows photos on representative twenty elements in each country collected during the process of on-site survey and documentation for ICH Video Production Project in Central Asia by experts participated in the ICH video production project.\n\nICHCAP will continue its ICH documentation projects in the Asia-Pacific region for the next ten years by expanding the scope from Central Asia and Mongolia to Southeast Asia, Southwest Asia, and the Pacific.\n\n\nPartners\nMongolian National Commission for UNESCO • National Commission of the Kyrgyz Republic for UNESCO • National Commission of the Republic of Kazakhstan for UNESCO and ISESCO • National Commission of the Republic of Uzbekistan for UNESCO • National Commission of the Republic of Tajikistan for UNESCO • Foundation for the Protection of Natural and Cultural Heritage Mongolia • National Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage under the National Commission of the Republic of Kazakhstan for UNESCO and ISESCO • School of Fine Art and Technical Design named after Abylkhan Kasteyev • State Institute of Arts and Culture of Uzbekistan • Tajik film • Tajikistan Research Institute of Culture Information • Korea Educational Broadcasting System • Asia Culture Center\n\nSupporters\nUNESCO Almaty and Tashkent Cluster Offices • Cultural Heritage Administration • Panasonic Korea • Turkish Airlines

This composition belongs to the Sắp melody system of Chèo art. Sắp compositions are often short. If they are sung quickly, they create a boisterous and jubilant atmosphere. If they are sung slowly, they create slightly melancholy atmosphere.

This is a special melody of Chèo art only for the singer, playing the role of the character Xúy Vân, who pretended to be crazy, in the play “Kim Nham”. The role of Xúy Vân is called nữ pha; she deserved to be both complained about and pittied. Kim Nham, her husband, abandoned her when he passed an examination. When she felt lonely, she was seduced by Trần Phương. She pretended to be mad so she could divorce her husband and live with Trần Phương. Nevertheless, she was abandoned again. Falling into despair, she did became crazy. “Xúy Vân giả dại” is a famous excerpt of Chèo art, which is more popular than the whole play.

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 genre Ru tends to perform within the familial environment, with a hypnotising nature that tends to be use to lull children.\n\nThe genre Hò originated from the working environment. The Southern part of Vietnam, where the waters are a vital element for the workers to sing on these flowing streams. Back then, the genre of hò đường thuỷ (singing on waterways) was rather popular. From traditional performing environment, hò eventually separated into different genres- hò trên cạn (hò on land) and hò dưới nước (hò on water). Based on the carrying content, reflected themes, hò continue to evolve into various genres to adapt with different forms and narratives (hò thơ, hò văn, hò tuồng, etc.) \n\nThe genre Lý is a common performance genre across all three regions of the country, although it could be the most popular in the Southern region. Pétrus Ky, a renowned Vietnamese scholar, once mentioned the saying “Southern region has lý, Huế region has hò, Northern region has thơ.” (Nam lý Huế hò Bắc thơ) as it points out how lý is a specialty of the Southern locals. In reality, lý not only has its mainstream popularity but also achieved a high level of craft and essence in traditional culture and professional life of the Southern region.\n\nThis project is sponsored by the British Council under the program Heritage of Future Past- A 2018 project which aims to conserve and cultivate the archive of Vietnamese music and film, especially focusing on the untapped values of these mediums that are under the threat of being forgotten. You can learn more about the Heritage of Future Past program via this link: https://www.britishcouncil.vn/cac-chuong-trinh/nghe-thuat/di-san-ket-noi.\n\nResearch by Mr. Le Hai Dang\nTranslated by Ms. Ha Hoang Minh Trang

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 11 is 'ICH AND WEAVING WITH BARK AND PLANTS'.

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 18 is 'TRADITIONAL FERMENTED FOOD'.