Indonesia · Woodworking / Musical Instrument Making
Pembuatan Angklung
The Angklung is the traditional Sundanese bamboo musical instrument — a set of tuned bamboo tubes mounted in a frame, producing a specific pitch when shaken. Each Angklung produces one note; a full musical piece requires an ensemble of players, each holding one Angklung. UNESCO inscribed Angklung in 2010. The instrument-making tradition — selecting, cutting, splitting, and tuning bamboo tubes to exact pitches — is a craft of considerable technical precision. Like Gamelan (CRAFT-0140) and Kolintang (CRAFT-0186), Angklung tuning is done entirely by ear: material is removed from the bamboo tube to raise pitch until the correct note is achieved. Saung Angklung Udjo in Bandung is the primary center for both performance and instrument-making education, and holds the largest collection of master Angklung makers.
Risk level: Endangered · Inscribed on UNESCO Representative List, 2010
Noken is the knotted fiber net bag of the Papuan highlands — inscribed by UNESCO in 2012 as an Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.
Sentani bark cloth painting is the decorative and ritual art tradition of the Sentani people of Lake Sentani, near Jayapura in Papua.
The Kamoro people of the Mimika district coastal lowlands — neighbors and cultural relatives of the Asmat — produce a distinct woodcarving tradition centered on the wemawe (ancestor spirit pole) and the karapao (feast board).
Sago palm (Metroxylon sagu) is the foundation of life in lowland Papua — simultaneously the primary food source (sago starch), the primary building material (leaf for thatching, trunk for flooring), and the source of a range of craft…
The Kora-Kora is the traditional multi-oared war and ceremonial canoe of the Maluku (Moluccas) archipelago — historically the primary naval vessel of the Maluku Sultanates and the instrument of the spice trade wars that shaped global…
Dayak woodcarving encompasses a range of ritual and domestic carving traditions across the Dayak peoples of Kalimantan, but the most distinctive and most endangered is the Sapundu — the carved human-figure post used in the Tiwah ceremony…
Gong making in Sabah, centered on Kampung Sumangkap near Kudat, where about 30 makers produce gongs from iron, brass and copper — including kulintangan, canang and other ensemble gongs — as well as small souvenir gongs.
The sompoton is the mouth organ of Sabah, played by Kadazan-Dusun and Murut communities.
The making of the morin khuur — the two-stringed, horse-head-carved bowed fiddle considered Mongolia's national instrument and, since 2003, recognized by UNESCO as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
The Sámi drum (goavddis) making tradition — the construction of the traditional Sámi drum that was the central ritual object of the noaidi (Sámi shaman) practice, confiscated and destroyed during Norwegian Christianisation (17th–18th…
The carving of tam tam — towering wooden slit-gong drums documented as among the largest freestanding musical instruments on Earth, and explicitly identified in contemporary Vanuatu craft-tourism literature as the country's most iconic…
The Hardingfele (Hardanger fiddle) making tradition — the construction of Norway's national instrument, an eight-string fiddle (four playing strings plus four resonating understrings) that produces the characteristic Norwegian…