Art Council of Mongolia, Culture Naadam Project

Save The Ifugao Terraces Movement

Save The Ifugao Terraces Movement

A kind of traditional team game played in the fields.

▶ Play 3. A Pact for Peace A Journey to Kalinga\nThis episode was first aired on Filipino television on April 18, 1996. This episode has been modified from its original format.\n\nAn animal was offered in the context of the Kalinga cultural ritual.\nHistorically, the Kalinga is a mixed group (Calinga, Kalingga, Kalina’), but it is now considered as a more or less homogenous group in the province of Kalinga. Subgroups of the Kalinga may also be found in the adjoining provinces of Apayao, Abra, Ilocos Sur, and Cagayan. There is a small group of people in the province of Ifugao also called Kalinga but who are not related to the central Kalinga population. The core area of the group is in the drainage areas of the Chico River and its tributaries in northern Cordillera. One of the ways in which this culture has been subgrouped is as follows: Balbalan (northern), Lubuagan (southern), and Maducayan (eastern). Another suggested subgrouping is: (1) Giad’an Balbalasang, (2) Sumadel, (3) Lubuagan, (4) Nabayugan, (5) Ablig Saligsig, (6) Kalagua, and (7) Mangali Lubo. In addition, there is a little-known highly mobile group in the Kalakad-Tupac area in east Tanudan.\n\nThe members form a mixed group of people thought to be descendants of migrants into the area from the Cagayan Valley to the east and the province of Abra to the west. There is a marked difference between the northern and southern populations due to the introduction of wet rice terracing in the south from Bontoc. An eastern grouping caused by eographic circumscription is also recognized. The society is organized into endogamous groups stemming from budong (peace pact) alliances. Because of their dress and personal ornamentations, the Kalinga have been dubbed the “Peacocks of the North.” Two distinctive features are the octagonal house in southern Kalinga, and the peace pacts that they enter into to preserve relationships between neighboring groups. Settlement areas are denser in the south.\n\nAgriculture is also carried on in terraces, though on a smaller scale than the Ifugao and Bontoc, and field preparation is done with the use of draft animals. Rice is the principal crop. Swidden crops include beans, sweet potato, corn, sugar cane, and taro. Coffee is a popular cash crop. The Kalinga are also known for their pottery, baskets, and metal craft.\n\nAlthough in the past, peace pacts had been common among the numerous ethno-linguistic groups, the budong of the Kalinga has caught the country’s imagination. Warring groups enter peace-enhancing arrangements through an elaborate procedure and the holders of each party keep token symbols from the other holders. These symbols ensure that the communities adhere to the terms of the pagta, the rules dictated by the pact.

The name Zhana Ngacham comes from the zhana (black hats) worn by the dancers and the use of the ngachung (small drum) during the Cham performance. It is another form of Zhana Cham (black hat dance). Usually, the dance is performed mainly by monks in dzongs (fortresses), monasteries and temples during Tshechu (annual mask dance festival) and also during Drubchen (large ritual ceremonies). However, sometimes the dancers are replaced by lay people if there are no monastic facilities in the community. The dance falls under the category of Tsun cham (monastic mask dance performances). \n\nThe dancers wear a long brocade robe called phoegho with long and wide sleeve ends, a dorji gong (a crossed vajra collar) over the shoulder, and two phoe-cho or phoe-tog, a horn-like tool attached to either side of the hips that helps the robe turn smoothly and elegantly as the dancers twirl. The distinctive feature of the Black Hat dance is the black, spherical hat with decorations in the shape of a human skull and peacock quill, and Thro-pang, an angry face wrapped around the front of the abdomen. \n\nZhana Ngacham is usually performed by 21 dancers under the direction of Cham-pon (dance leader) and Cham-jug (deputy leader). In the seventeenth century, Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal (1594-1651) is revered for giving more importance to the performance of such dances and including them in the curricula of the central monastery under the title Gar-thig-yang-sum (mask dances, proportions mandala drawing and ritual intonation) to establish them in the field of cultural heritage in Bhutan.

A competencies framework for cultural heritage management in Asia and the Pacific has been recently developed by the UNESCO Regional Office (Bangkok) with the help of many partners and contributors. While it is acknowledged that some people will be knowledge bearers themselves, and others will have highly specialized disciplinary knowledge and skills in ICH, it also sets out the ICH competency expected at other ‘levels’ of work in heritage management. Alongside this work, an important network of Universities and other Higher Education institutions in the region involved specifically in ICH was formed in 2018, recognizing that the University sector has a role to play in fostering ICH competencies. Surveys by ICHCAP and other institutions has demonstrated that higher education teaching and learning in ICH is provided in diverse programs across the region, and should be strengthened. And in 2020, our thinking about strategies to enhance ICH teaching in the region has been greatly affected by the many impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this context, Kristal Buckley shares her experience on education in the field of intangible cultural heritage focusing on heritage education with digital literacy responding to pandemic.\n\nKRISTAL BUCKLEY AM is a Lecturer in Cultural Heritage at Deakin University (Melbourne, Australia). She has professional qualifications in archaeology, anthropology and public policy, and has worked in private practice, government, teaching and research. Her work has a focus on World Heritage, naturecultures, and urban landscapes. Ms. Buckley served as an international Vice-President of ICOMOS from 2005-2014, and works as an ICOMOS World Heritage Advisor.

UNESCO organized, in collaboration with ICHCAP an intersectoral online expert meeting on ‘Education-related indicators in the Overall results framework (ORF) for the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage and their relationship with SDG 4. This online meeting held in three sessions in December 2020, generated important knowledge on the interface between living heritage and education, identified examples to illustrate the relationship, and provided advice for future monitoring and reporting in these related fields.\nThe public webinar aims to raise awareness for the benefits and challenges of monitoring living heritage in education by sharing the results of the above-mentioned intersectoral expert meeting. It will include a brief presentation on the education-related indicators of the ORF and how they can inform the monitoring system of SDG 4. Speakers will be invited to share their experiences and discuss the benefits of this intersectoral monitoring to inspire relevant stakeholders from the education and culture fields to undertake their own initiatives in this innovative intersectoral field. \n\nThe children's Museum in Cairo: Educational activities and partnerships with schools to strengthen the safeguarding or intangible cultural heritage by Ms. Fatma Mostafa, museum specialist (Egypt)

ICHCAP has been implementing the project called teaching with ICH in schools in cooperation with the UNESCO Bangkok Office and APCEIU to help future generations grow as participants in the safeguarding of living heritage.\n\nAs part of the project, the UNESCO Bangkok Office has produced an animation series to see how various stakeholders such as teachers, students, parents, and communities, can integrate ICH into school subjects.\n\nThere are six animations in the series, and each episode presents a variety of approaches to teaching with ICH in schools.\n\nEpisode 1. What is teaching with living heritage in schools?\nEpisode 2. Why is it important to teach with intangible cultural heritage?\nEpisode 3. I’m a teacher. How can I integrate living heritage elements in my lessons?\nEpisode 4. I’m a parent/community member. How can I help our school organize teaching with living heritage?\nEpisode 5. I’m a school manager. How can I help teachers organize teaching with living heritage?\nEpisode 6. I’m a student. What can I do to keep my heritage alive?\n\nEach episode provides clear and easy-to-understand answers to the questions above. In addition, it can be seen that education presents ICH as a key medium for connecting knowledge and life beyond functioning as knowledge transfer.\n\nEducation in our society aims to help students grow as active and independent agents of future society. And we should be aware that it will be difficult not only to achieve the essential educational goals but also to achieve the quality education requested by the international community if the public education content is not connected to the students’ lives.\n\nAn ICH that exists as a way of life will be able to propose new content in the education field. Teachers may be more interested in class content with new teaching methods, and students may find what they have learned in their lives. As future generations become interested in their community, the community will naturally become sustainable. At the same time, students also can naturally become the main agents of ICH safeguarding.\n\nThe animation series emphasizes that teaching with ICH in schools is the link between education and life so that the education can be led to a part of students’ lives, not to remain a memory of the one-day experience.\nThe animation series services now in English and is available on UNESCO’s YouTube channel. It will also be serviced in five other languages, including Korean, Thai, Nepalese, Cambodian and Russian soon.

Intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is transnational in nature. It is necessary to spread the perception that ICH transcends geographical spaces and national borders, creating dynamic relations, connectedness, and continuity, which is why it is a timeless bearer of cultural diversity, the foundation of the heritage of humanity. However, as the modern structure of nation-state determines the boundaries of culture with national borders, forming the concept of “culture within the country”, subsequently led to the perception that the ownership of culture belongs to the state.\n\nThe concept of exclusive ownership of culture is often controversial in the UNESCO listing process, particularly in instances where cultural heritage and cultural domains have been shared for a long time by two or more nation-states. Such conflicts lead to excessive competition for nomination, overshadowing UNESCO’s fundamental purpose of contributing to peace and security in the world by promoting collaboration among nations, as well as the very spirit of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage that promotes international cooperation and assistance in the safeguarding of ICH as a matter of general interest to humanity.\n\nConsequently, UNESCO encourages multinational inscriptions of shared intangible cultural heritage to promote regional cooperation and international safeguarding activities, preventing conflicts among countries and coping with already existing ones. By emphasizing joint nominations of shared ICH, UNESCO revised its implementation guidelines three times to deal with conflicts between countries due to the cultural property rights. In addition, States Parties are encouraged to develop networks among relevant communities, experts, professional centres, and research institutes, particularly with regard to their ICH, to cooperate at the sub-regional and regional levels.\n\nAt the 13th Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage held in the Republic of Mauritius in November 2018, Traditional Korean Wrestling was inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity as the first joint designation by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Republic of Korea. This milestone in the life of the Convention demonstrates that ICH contributes to the peace-building, reconciliation, mutual understanding, and solidarity among peoples. Indeed, only when acknowledging that shared cultural values are empowering characteristics of ICH, the true perspective of the unifying agent of the cultural diversity can be achieved, and that it is the cornerstone of reaching peace among nations.\n\nCountries in the Asia Pacific region are deeply connected by a long history of interactions, exchanges, flows of people, goods, and ideas that have shaped shared values, practices, and traditions. Having a balanced view, advocating for cultural diversity, and recognizing the commonalities among individuals, communities, and countries as a strength are virtuous tenets in the present time.\n\nIn this regard, APHEN-ICH Secretariat, ICHCAP, and UNESCO Bangkok Office are inviting the APHEN-ICH member institutes and public to this seminar under the theme of Diversity and Distinctiveness: Looking into the Shared ICH in the Asia-Pacific, to re-assess that while fragile, intangible cultural heritage is an important factor in maintaining cultural diversity, connecting bounds, and enhancing international dialogue and peace.

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

ICHCAP, in collaboration with UNESCO Bangkok Office, held the Intangible Cultural Heritage Webinar Series from June to August 2020 with a total of four sessions. The 23 speakers from 18 countries met with the public to grapple with alternative practices and emergent modes of delivery in various areas such as heritage education in the universities, networking amongst educational institutions for ICH safeguarding, development of ICH curricula in times of crisis, as well as inter-regional cooperation for cross-cultural instruction and learning.\n\nWhile the entire world is struggling with the impacts of the COVID-19, the ICH sector also has been hit hard by numerous public health measures such as the cancellation of major festivals and events, temporary shutdown of museums, and places of cultural activities, as well as the indefinite halting of formal and informal heritage transmission activities. How can ICH safeguarding and transmission thrive in the midst of an unprecedented pandemic, and what role can higher education institutions play to ensure the viability of living heritage in our times? ICHCAP organized this webinar series to answer these urgent questions that we all face today.\n\nIn the last session of the series on 12 August 2020, education experts from Uganda, Fiji, and Belgium were invited to discuss the development of ICH-related education modules and curricula; different contexts were discussed to show a multidimensional picture of how heritage education curriculum is drafted and implemented.\n\nPresentation1 Inter-regional Field Experiences on Curriculum Development for ICH Safeguarding: Experience from Uganda by Emily Drani, Executive Director, Cross Cultural Foundation of Uganda\nPresentation2 Strengthening Heritage Management Capacity in the Pacific Islands by Dr. Frances C. Koya Vaka’uta, Director, Oceania Centre for Arts, Culture and Pacific Studies, The University of the South Pacific\nPresentation3 From the Blue Book to a Blue Ocean Strategy in Higher Education by Dr. Marc Jacobs, Professor, University of Antwerp

Đing buốt is an aerophonic instruments. It is a vertical flute with reed. The flute has four pressing holes on the body and one blowing hole before the reed. From the hole before the reed to the first pressing hole on the body is a distance of one span. Đing buốt is for only the male and performed solo or to accompany singing. It can be used to play musical pieces with fast tempo and flexibly play finger techniques such as tongue, vibrating, trill, etc. Đing buốt can be played everywhere, in the field, on the road, or in love-exchanges. However, there are also strict taboos on the repertoire; for example the piece “Crying wife” is never performed on weekdays.

Hey lady, who's cutting weed alone\nLet me join you with the cutting so we can form a couple\nAre you still cutting or not\nThen let me cut with you and we can become spouse\nLady that cuts weed on the field\nLady that cuts the thread of fate\nA broken thread doesn't mean much anymore

Barsāti means “rain song.” This genre is associated with the monsoon and often expresses longing for an absent husband. It was sung to ease the labor of transplanting rice. Bent over in cold muddy water, women passed the time chorusing such songs. Here, the woman confides in her husband’s sister of a pain in her side, and a Vaid healer is brought from Mandi. However, her yearning is so intense that she feels she will die without her Ranjha(“true love”), referring to the tragic Punjabi folk epic of Heer Ranjha. The lead singer here is Urmila Rana. This song was recorded in the field. The sound of splashing water and other sounds from the field provide an authentic context. Recorded and collected by Kirin Narayan

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.

CD3_SUFI TRADITIONS OF NORTH INDIA\n\nQawwali is a musical genre that shares general traits with the light classical music of North India and Pakistan but distinguishes itself by its religious function. The term Qawwali applies both to the musical genre and to the occasion of its performance, the devotional assembly of Islamic mysticism - or Sufism - in India and Pakistan. The practice of Qawwali extends throughout Muslim centers of the Indian subcontinent, but its roots are North Indian. Qawwali music is performed by qawwals, professional musicians who perform in groups led by one or two solo singers. Qawwals present mystical poetry in Persian, Hindi, and Urdu, alternating solo and group passages characterized by repetition and improvisation. Handclapping and drumming on the barrel-shaped dholak accompany the singers, and a small portable harmonium played by the lead singer highlights the song’s melody. Amir Khusro Dehlavi of the Chishti order of Sufis is credited with fusing the Persian, Arabic, Turkish, and Indian musical traditions in the late-thirteenth century in India to create Qawwali as it is known today. The word Sama is often still used in Central Asia and Turkey to refer to forms very similar to Qawwali, while in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, the formal name used for a session of Qawwali is Mehfil-e-Sama.\n\nQawwali is performed at the dargah, the shrines of Sufi saints, as well as in Sufi mehfils, which are commissioned performances. The structure and order of the songs vary in both these contexts. As will be seen, in many forms of Qawwali, an object of love, such as a god or a husband or wife, is portrayed and worshipped. Qawwali was popularized by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, a Pakistani performer. And it has started to enter mainstream popular music thanks to the recent public interest in Sufi music. It is thus no longer purely devotional. There are many silsilas (orders) of Sufism and hence many forms of Qawwali. The recordings in this album are mainly of the Chishtiya silsila – the followers of the Sufi Saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti. Nizamuddin Auliya, also a Sufi saint, was his follower. The texts were written by Amir Khusrau and contain many references to these saints. This Qawwali party consists of seven or eight members. The group joins as a chorus and claps to add percussion. These recordings were made at Sufi shrines in the late 1970s by Regula Qureshi, one of the most famous scholars of this genre. Since they were recorded in a crowded area on the field, the tracks have disturbances and ambient noise. However, as recordings from an actual authentic context, they carry a lot of value.

EPICS 1\n\nThere were more than fifty epics performed by renowned epic tellers, including S. Choisuren, B. Avirmed, Sh. Buyan, M. Yadmaa, G. Khainzan, Ts. Zodov, G. Od, T. Purev, R. Lkhagva, Ch. Khartsaga, Dugersuren, Kh. Zambal, R. Duvchinsambuu, D. Bat-Ulzii, E. Namilan, B. Gombojav, B. Gurragchaa, and U. Bataa that cover over 136 hours of the restored and digitised recordings.

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.

In 2015, ICHCAP with the National Commission of the Republic of Uzbekistan for UNESCO and the Fine Arts Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan released the CD collection Melodies from Uzbekistan as part of its cooperation project to restore and digitize analogue resources on ICH.\n\nThis selection of audio resources are aged audio recordings stored at the Fine Arts Institute of the Academy of Sciences that have been restored and converted into a format suitable for storage and playback in media used today. The audio tracks in the collection consist of folk music recorded from field research conducted in Uzbekistan and border regions from the 1950s to the 1980s as well as studio recordings made from the 1930s to the 1970s. The eight CDs contain Uzbek songs related to work, animal rearing, rituals, and other important parts of day-to-day life in the region; instrumental music featuring various traditional Uzbek musical instruments, such as the dutor and g'ajir nay; and important Islamic oral traditions, such as maqoms and dostons.\n\nAlthough the traditional music of Central Asia may be unfamiliar to listeners from other parts of the world, the CDs come with information booklets in Uzbek, English, and Korean to provide an engaging experience for people from outside the region.\nThe selection represents the diverse and rich musical traditions of Uzbekistan and will be invaluable resources in the field of ICH education and promotion.

This book introduces the tug-of-war traditions of Korea and the three Southeast Asian countries mentioned as well as the tugging traditions passed down in Japan, Thailand, and Ukraine. The book presents studies showing various conditions and perceptions of tug-of-war in each country. So, it will be valuable research material for those interested in tug-of-war.

Pacific ICH has been modified through contact with the outside world, most notably by the adoption of Christianity, through colonization and by the progressive integration into a cash economy. Recently, because of the effects of globalization and natural disasters, Pacific ICH has been in urgent need of attention and safeguarding, lest it be lost forever.\n\nThis is why Pacific island countries have been redoubling their efforts to implement a range of ICH safeguarding measures. Each Pacific island country has its unique ICH and faces varying challenges according to the socioeconomic circumstances specific to each island. However, by sharing information and experiences while employing safeguarding measures, each Pacific island country can learn about and support one another.\n\nICHCAP and the UNESCO Office for the Pacific co-published this brochure to share information and raise awareness about the importance of safeguarding ICH.

Universities are essential vectors to build a skilled workforce to implement and support ICH safeguarding activities in a sustainable and locally-appropriate manner. Whilst there has been an increase in post-graduate heritage education in the Asia-Pacific Region in the past decade, few programmes focus on ICH.\n\nThis survey generates an understanding of current activities and needs of tertiary education actors in the Asia-Pacific Region. It also explores the feasibility of establishing a network of universities to deepen reflection on ICH in the academic world.

When we were young, we were told a lot of stories. Everyone hated the big, vicious, evil, and cunning animals. However, seen through grown-up eyes, there are no bad animals in the world. Animals personified in stories convey a message to the human world-that of peace and harmony. At a time when a message of peace is desperately needed, let’s enjoy some stories featuring various animals, from tigers to birds, rabbits, monkeys, and more.