The Yakan is one of the major ethnolinguistic groups of the Philippines. Among the Yakan of Basilan in Mindanao, Philippines, instrumental music is given much importance. For instance, the kwintangan, an instrument of five to seven bossed gongs laid in a row, are used for courtship and celebrations.

While the circle is a quantifiable and concrete geometrical shape, the abstract idea of the circle has many different meanings, interpretations, and symbolic significance in Indian philosophical systems. These ideas have also culminated in varied manifestations of the concept into intangible cultural heritage. Garba is a ritual dance form where the knowledge and belief systems regarding the circle find choreographic expression. It is a social-community dance performed primarily by women in the Gujarat region in India. Performed during the nine-day Hindu festival of Navrātrī, the dance is primarily a celebration of feminine energy and an offering to the feminine divinity. It is also performed during the celebration of Sivaratri and weddings and in certain pregnancy rites.

The Rom Dance is a prominent cultural heritage originating from Ambrym Island in the Vanuatu archipelago. Ole in the Ambrym vernacular language refers to dance performances in which participants wear a rom mask. The rom, which is the mask itself, is a simpler version of the Banks Islands’ tamate mask, but it looks more similar to South Malekula masks.

When it comes to the preservation of intangible cultural heritage (ICH), threats that lead to the loss of the viability of one or another element of ICH are latently implied. From a social anthropological point of view, this is a question of the interaction between tradition and innovation: do new technologies always negatively affect traditional art? How does modern everyday life affect the sustainability of a traditional view of the world that underlies the identity of each element of ICH?\n

The lion dance is a performance art known throughout East Asia, in which practitioners wear lion masks. It is thought that the lion dance was introduced in Japan as a religious play together with Buddhism in the seventh century. The dance tells the story of a lion with magical powers that played a role in expelling evil from the path on which the spirits travel. Today, it is a much-loved performance used to celebrate auspicious occasions, to bring peace, happiness, health, and long life. It is also commonly performed in New Year celebra\u0002tions and festivals. Several entertaining performance groups traveled around performing the lion dance during the Edo period, which gave momentum to the spread of the dance all over the country. The dance is light and has strong recre\u0002ational characteristics including acrobatic elements.

Afrikan combat arts and sciences are the very oldest in the world as Afrikan people are the first human beings in the world. According to Hamblin, “the oldest discovered cemetery in the Nile Valley at Jebel Sahaba in Nubia (northern Sudan)—broadly dated to roughly 12,000– 9000—provides the earliest evidence of tribal warfare, for roughly half of the 59 skeletons at site 117 had flint projectile points among the bones, probably indicating death in battle; some had evidence of multiple healed wounds, perhaps indicating repeated fighting” (2006, p. 32). This site has since been more accurately dated to between 13,140 and 14,340 years ago (Graham, 2016). At another massacre site at Nataruk in contemporary Kenya were found a mixture of people killed with blunt instruments, sharp pointed weapons, projectiles, and so on. According to Lahr , “Ten of the twelve articulated skeletons found at Nataruk show evidence of having died violently at the edge of a lagoon, into which some of the bodies fell. The remains from Nataruk are unique, preserved by the particular conditions of the lagoon with no evidence of deliberate burial” (2016, p. 2). Researchers at Nataruk also found:

- Children should not build a birdhouse in order to learn the Pythagorean Theorem.\n- Children should learn the Pythagorean Theorem in order to build a birdhouse.\n\nTouch. Feel the texture. Smell. Duplicate a shape, a pattern or a color. These are examples of what we call "action transmitted knowledge." A young lumberjack once stood quietly, observing the older man whose job it was to load the logs onto the long lumber sled and drive them to the mill. The older man had his own way of moving, he nearly danced with each log, lifting it, rolling it a little, using small motions to push it this way and that. Until quite suddenly everything was in place, ready to be transported on the sled. One day the young lumberjack saw that the older man had brought his five-year-old son with him. The boy walked behind his father, watching him and doing exactly what he did, easing a log, dancing with the load, mimicking each of his father's movements. At that moment, the young lumberjack realized that he was observing a transmission of knowledge from father to son.

The relationship between disasters and ICH might share some similarities with the relationship between disasters and cultural heritage with physical form. Natural disasters destroy tangible artifacts and monuments, strike at people, places, and communities related to ICH, and disrupt knowledge, skills, and technology. In this context, we need to prepare safeguards against the impact of disasters on both ICH and tangible heritages. Combining living heritage with people, places, and communities could also lead to an alternative way of thinking about how ICH might mitigate the impact of disasters. The role of culture in disaster mitigation and risk reduction is an idea resulting from recent disaster policies. The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) encourages strengthening communities’ capacity for managing disasters and risk reduction (Hyogo Framework) and advocates disaster risk reduction through integrated and inclusive economic, legal, structural, health, and cultural measures, among others (Sendai Framework). This article reviews recent scientific developments in cultural measures for disaster risk reduction and how ICH contributes to disaster mitigation, and identifies convincing arguments from case studies of the 3.11 disaster in Japan.

Vayali was established in 2004 with the intention of preserving the folklore and folk art of the indigenous communities residing along the banks of river Nila. Originating in Annamalai Hills, river Nila or Bharatapuzha has a strong cultural influence on the south Malabar region. The river has witnessed many historical events and there are numerous rituals, folk tales and myths related to the river. Vayali team members wanted to learn the traditional knowledge system in and around the river Nila, and pass on the knowledge to the next generations.

The island nation of Sri Lanka was ravaged by a 26-year civil war (1983 to 2009) that was the result of ethnic tensions between the Buddhist Sinhalese majority and the Hindu Tamil minority. The conflict cost over 100,000 lives and displaced hundreds and thousands of civilians. On this ethic tension and conflict situation Aru Sri Art Theatre emerged with belief that tradition and culture are the tools to bridge the divide between estranged communities and usher in change in the society. They instill their creative energies into the heart of the repertory, producing ethnic harmony concerts and legendary dance dramas. The vision of the team is to develop theatre in such a way that traditional art forms can flourish alongside contemporary interpretations. The belief is that it is as imperative to carry age-old traditions into the new millennium as it is to provide a fertile ground for growth, change and harmony.

Nestled in the Himalayas between India and China, Bhutan is considered the only independent Mahayana Buddhist country in the world today. The rich and vibrant local customs, habits and traditions, crafts, and artistic sensibilities, derived from Buddhist teachings and practices, give Bhutan a distinctive identity of its own. Bhutan has conscientiously safeguarded these rich religious and cultural traditions, both tangible and intangible, as being one of the pillars of realizing the developmental philosophy of ‘Gross National Happiness.’

The epic Manas occupies a central place in the spiritual culture of the Kyrgyz people as a consolidating factor of the ethnos and basis for self-identity. The significance of the epic in the treasury of human heritage was recognised by the world community in 1995. The resolution ‘On celebration of the 1000th anniversary of the Kyrgyz National Epos Manas was adopted at the 49th session of the UN General Assembly carried out by UNESCO and UNDP. The 1000th anniversary of the epic ‘Manas’ was celebrated on the international level with the participation of more than 60 countries. A number of exhibitions, festivals, and conferences dedicated to the epic ‘Manas’ were held in Turkey, China, USA, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Belarus and other countries. The inclusion of Manas on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2013 was the next important step in the recognition of the Epos as World Heritage.