Indonesia, made up of tens of thousands of island and several hundred distinct ethnic groups, is home to various forms of intangible cultural heritage (ICH). Nonetheless, in this age of rapid political, social, and economic change, cultural heritage is at risk of being lost forever. Considering this, there have been several projects geared toward safeguarding Indonesian ICH. In 1976, there was an ambitious project undertaken to compile a complete inventory of ICH throughout the many islands. However, this project and its many successors experienced several problems, making it impossible to conduct a comprehensive ICH inventory. The two main reasons for why these projects did not come to fruition were, firstly, the distinct lack of community and individual involvement and, secondly, the ambitious scope of the project exceeding the technological capacity of the times.