All traditions
2,237 traditions so far, best known first. 12,423 more are on the list to be written. Filter by region, kind and meal.
RegionSouth AsiaSoutheast AsiaEast AsiaCentral Asia and the CaucasusMiddle EastNorth AfricaSub-Saharan AfricaEuropeNorth AmericaLatin America and the CaribbeanOceania
🇵🇬 Papua New Guinea and 5 moreShell money
Traditional currency made from cowries, ground clam beads, and carved sea shellsCraft
🇳🇿 New ZealandWaka
Traditional Māori canoes used for fishing, transport, and ceremony, built from single logs or stitched planks.Craft
🇵🇬 Maprik, Papua New GuineaHaus Tambaran
A sacred house of the Sepik peoples, used for ancestor worship and male initiationSpiritual
🇳🇿 New ZealandKoru
A spiral from the silver fern, central to Māori carving, painting and tattooCraft
🇦🇺 AustraliaBark painting
Ochre pictures on flattened tree bark, an Aboriginal art form of northern AustraliaCraft
🇳🇿 New ZealandTivaevaetīvaevae
A traditional Polynesian art of artistic quilting made by women for gifts and ceremonies.Craft
🇹🇴 Tonga and 1 moreTaʻovala
A waist mat worn in Tonga for weddings, funerals and formal daysDress
🇻🇺 VanuatuSand drawingsandroing
One unbroken line drawn in sand with a finger, used to tell stories in VanuatuCraft
🇦🇺 AustraliaBoat building
The craft of constructing watercraft from timber, metal and modern composite materialsCraft
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Taʻovala: James Foster, CC BY-SA 2.5, source
- Bark painting: Unknown artist, Public domain, source
- Haus Tambaran: Sylt-Tinto, CC0, source
- Koru: Jon Radoff, CC BY 2.5, source
- Sand drawing: PhillipC, CC BY 2.0, source
- Tivaevae: John Colles Burland, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Shell money: Niccolò Gualtieri, Public domain, source
- Waka: W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Boat building: Kevin Saff, CC BY-SA 2.0, source