In spite of its difficulty, the study of orally transmitted traditions, such as sung epics, provides fascinating insight into a society’s culture. On the island of Palawan and among the Buryats living in the forests of Siberia, epics mostly dealt with the quest for marriage partners, acts of heroism and the overcoming of conflicts which led to social harmony and cohesion. In both these cultures, which were based on hunting and the exchange of goods, the epics were sung by shaman-bards.

A Persian miniature is a small painting on paper, whether a book illustration or a separate work of art intended to be kept in an album of such works called a muraqqa. The techniques are broadly comparable to the Western and Byzantine traditions of miniatures in illuminated manuscripts.

Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan , Tajikistan, and countries which historically came under Persian influence. The Persian language is classified as a continuation of Middle Persian, the official religious and literary language of Sassanid Iran, itself a continuation of Old Persian, the language of the Persian Empire in the Achaemenid era.

The International Institute for Central Asian Studies (IICAS) was established in August 1995 in Samarkand (Uzbekistan) as a direct outcome of the UNESCO Silk Roads Expeditions.

Institute of the Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences was founded as the  Asiatic  Museum  of  the  Russian Academy of Sciences on 11 November 1818.  Later on June 2007, the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences ordered to reorganize the Saint Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies into the independent Institute of Oriental Manuscripts.

The Kazakh Research Institute of Culture (KRIC) was founded in Almaty city (than the capital of Kazakhstan) in 1934. It was one of the first research institutions of Kazakhstan designed to conduct studies on cultural issues, and in the field of archeology and arts in the country.

Director General of the Institute is Andrey Khazbulatov, Ph.D.

The National Gugak(*) Center’s Museum of Gugak is Korea’s only Gugak-specialized museum that displays various Gugak archives and instruments and offers the experience of learning the flow of the thousand-year-old Gugak style at a glance. Opened in 1995, the Center’s Museum of Gugak has served as an active Gugak educational center with its permanent exhibitions and special exhibitions with in-depth topics.

In 1996, The Gyeongju World Culture Expo Foundation was established in ancient capital of Korea ‘Gyeongju’ where splendid Korean civilization had flourished throughout 5,000 years, and the historical exchanges through the Silk Road took place.

The Shahid Beheshti University of Tehran, Iran has established the Iranian Research Center on the Silk Roads. The Center is a scientific and academic institution, and a unique academic research center in Iran to focus on the Silk Roads.