I note that "The tenth session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage will take place in the Country Club and Resort of Windhoek in Namibia from 30 November to 4 December 2015."
Herewith the list of 35 Nominations for this year. As far as I can see only that for the Spanish Riding school in Vienna is directly connected to a WHS site but many of the others should be of interest to "world travellers"
http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/en/10b-representative-list-00779
It is interesting to note the rather different composition of the countries nominating "Intangible Heritage" compared with those nominating tangible WHS - looking at the inscribed list, the "old favourites" are still there of course (particularly France and Spain) but this year's Nomination list contains a noticeably larger %age of countries less frequently involved in WHS - e.g from Central Asia, the Caucasus, Africa and Latin America.
One nomination I particularly noted was that for Kimchi making by the DPRK!! Now, the Republic of Korea (I.e S Korea) got Kimjang ("The making and sharing of Kimchi") inscribed in 2013 - apparently this rather upset N Korea who regard their Kimchi as just as good and important. Indeed, as is their wont - even better no doubt!! But of course they couldn't share a nomination with S Korea, so, this year, we have a separate nomination for "Red" Kimchi (the there must be potential for lots of puns about the ruling family!). I had a look through the set of photos to see if there was one of Kim Jong Un telling everyone how to make Kimchi. Unfortunately those putting together the nomination documents missed that opportunity, but they have included a photo of a lesser "cadre" telling his minions what to do and them all assiduously writing down his pearls of wisdom! Anyone who has visited DPRK will recognise the scenario!
Although the session agenda looks very similar to that of a WHC the Nomination format is rather different from those for Tangible Heritage and totally lacks the "competitive" and "comparative" aspects - which perhaps is no bad thing - but includes a section on "Human rights"! There is no external "Evaluating body" as per ICOMOS/IUCN but one which has been created for the purpose ("The Evaluation Body is composed of twelve members appointed by the Committee: six experts qualified in the various fields of the intangible cultural heritage representatives of States Parties non-Members of the Committee and six accredited non-governmental organizations, taking into consideration equitable geographical representation and various domains of intangible cultural heritage") Here are its recommendations - Kommunist Kimchi gets through! The referral rate is quite high however - 19 recommended, 15 referred, 1 rejected ("at this time")
http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/doc/src/ITH-15-10.COM-10.b_EN.doc


I note that the web site also includes a list of the 2016 nominations currently being processed
http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/en/files-2016-under-process-00774

Oh, I like it when I can excuse meals out for being part of my further understanding of World Heritage, and if it is listed twice then I will just have to order double the amount of Kimchi next time around.


I see that next year there is a nomination for the beer culture of Belgium, just to say that after extensive research I commend it to the House.

I'm not up on Balian culture, but is there any link between the proposed dancing rituals and the Tri Hita Karana concept that underpins the subak inscription?

Funny - I had looked for that also. But a search in the Bali Subak nomination file for "dancing" etc and in that of the Dancing rituals for "subak" etc didn't come up with a "connection" that I could see.
Doesn't mean there isn't one of course! According to Wiki "Tri Hita Karana" covers "the "three causes of well-being" or "three reasons for prosperity." The three causes referred to in the principle are:
Harmony among people
Harmony with nature or environment
Harmony with God"
So there could/should certainly be some sort of a link. I found this about dancing at Ubud which makes a link between the Philosophy (which some other sites show is being used as the underpinning for political policies in Bali) and "dancing" but doesn't specifically link to the traditional dances mentioned in the Intangible Nomination or to the locations mentioned in the WHS nomination which is very "water oriented" and doesn't, as far as I can see, cover the town of Ubud (now no doubt a large and rather touristy town and very different from when I visited in in 1979!)
www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/10/19/performance-art-kicks-ubud-festival.html

Here is my suggestion for the list of intangible heritage, my "Top 50 Missing". Any other ideas?

BARBECUE
BARN RAISING
BERKUTCHI
BIERE
BOOMERANG
BOUZKACHI
CARNAVAL DE RIO
CARNAVAL DE VENISE
CIGARE
CIRQUE
COMPOSTELLE
CONTORSION
CORNEMUSE
CORRIDA
CUISINE CHINOISE
DIDGERIDOO
FONDUE
FRITE
GUIGNOL
HAGGIS
HAKA
HAMMAM
IGLOO
JADE
JAZZ
KILT
KOLAM
KUMARI
KUNG FU
MASSAGE
MATRIOCHKA
OKTOBERFEST
PALIO DE SIENNE
PECHE AU CORMORAN
PERLE
PIZZA
PORCELAINE DE JINGDEZHEN
POW WOW
RAMADAN
RICKSHAW
PUB
SALSA
SUMO
TATOUAGE
TIPI
TOTEM
TURBAN
TURQUOISE
YODEL
YOGA

I hadn't realised this before, but United Kingdom and Russia are the only European countries which have NOT signed this Convention. An interesting example of UK "exceptionalism"!? (Oh - and San Marino also is missing
But it goes further - other non acceding countries include - USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. i.e the main countries of the "white" Anglosphere.
178 countries have "acceded" to some level or another (Ratification, Acceptance and Approval). Other non acceding countries include a number whose non-presence could well be due to bureaucratic inertia/incompetence/other problems as much as to governmental policy - e.g Angola, Somalia, Libya, Guyana, Liberia, Sierra Leone plus possibly more surprisingly South Africa.
What is it then which makes the Anglosphere so unwilling to to accede to this Convention? The non presence of USA/Canada precedes their current Anti-UNESCO policies so that can't be a factor. There is an on line petition to try to get the UK government to sign but this has (only??) reached 10k signatures. See - https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/the-uk-government-ratifies-the-unesco-convention-on-intangible-cultural-heritage
It appears that there are "concerns" about defining Intangible heritage - and how to exclude "practices" which might be thought to be "unacceptable" see Wiki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_for_the_Safeguarding_of_the_Intangible_Cultural_Heritage#Criticism
This article from 2006 about Australia's policy "blames" the then government for tagging on to US policy on the matter - https://www.abc.net.au/news/2006-07-04/aborigines-missing-out-on-millions-in-cultural/1793104

Does anyone know more about why these countries have not acceded ???
PS - here is full list of the 17 non joiners as of early 2019 - Canada, Israel, San Marino, United Kingdom, United States of America, Russian Federation, Guyana, Australia, Maldives, New Zealand, Niue, Angola, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Libya

For info.
Some documents indicating reasons why some countries have concerns about the Convention and the way in which UNESCO is implementing "support for" Intangible Cultural Heritage
a. New Zealand - https://ich.unesco.org/doc/src/00324-EN.pdf
b. Canada - https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/ethno/2014-v36-n1-2-ethno02680/1037600ar/
c. USA (See para 72 onwards) - https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/ethno/2014-v36-n1-2-ethno02680/1037612ar/
d. Australia - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/306256667_Playing_the_devil's_advocate_protecting_intangible_cultural_heritage_and_the_infringement_of_human_rights
e. South Africa - https://www.maropeng.co.za/uploads/files/National_Policy_on_South_African_Living_Heritage__ICH.pdf
f. United Kingdom - https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Lords/2017-03-27/HL6360

The list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding inscribed this year is now announced:

- Buklog, thanksgiving ritual system of the Subanen - Philippines
- Rituals and practices associated with Kit Mikayi shrine - Kenya
- Sega tambour Chagos - Mauritius
- Seperu folkdance and associated practices - Botswana

https://ich.unesco.org/en/lists

The list for 2019 now seems to be complete (the session ended at Dec 14). The whole list is at the link provided above.
There may be a few WHS connections hiding in there. At least the Ommegang of Brussels goes via the Grand Place, Brussels. And Alpinism must be linkable as well. I'll scout for more.

P.S.: see updated connection

For information, Aalst carnival is removed from the list: https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/aalst-carnival-00402

2020 Session for the Intangible Heritage has started and is also webcasted:
https://ich.unesco.org/en/15com