Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) - Intangible Cultural Heritage Division 
in collaboration with INTACH Uttarakhand Chapter and UNESCO Category 2 Centre on World Natural Heritage Management and Training for Asia and the Pacific Region, Wildlife Institute of India (29^th - 30^th November, 2017)

The Himalayan region in India, broadly comprising of the states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, the hill region of West Bengal, and Arunachal Pradesh, is a unique landscape dotted with communities possessing a wealth of intangible heritage. This is reflected in numerous languages, indigenous knowledge systems including medicinal knowledge, food ways, arts, crafts and performative traditions. Several major religions and sacred shrines have influenced the movements of populations and impacted cultural flows in the area. For hundreds of years, the beliefs and practices of ethnographically complex groups have informed the region’s way of life, and contributed to the evolution of distinct cultural identities. The region is also high in biodiversity and has a very rich natural heritage which is inseparably entwined with local cultures.

Due to the mainly agrarian nature of this region, its climatic conditions and tough topography, and lack of income opportunities locally, migration is on the rise, putting at risk many old traditions. Under gravest threat are the oral traditions of several communities, which incorporate invaluable local knowledge and creative output. This loss is also underpinned by the loss of languages, thus impacting the composite culture of this region.           

The Intangible Cultural Heritage Division, INTACH in collaboration with the INTACH Uttarakhand Chapter and the UNESCO Category 2 Centre on World Natural Heritage Management and Training for Asia and the Pacific Region at Wildlife Institute of India is organising a National Conference on the intangible culture of the Himalayan region, with an aim to deliberate with community members, professionals, scholars, researchers and other cultural and natural heritage specialists on the idea of social and cultural identity, related oral traditions and to explore how this meets the challenge of an ever changing contextual environment.