Museum Day was celebrated with the performance of dance-drama presented by local villagers and a seminar on the ‘Museum of Santal Culture: Its future and the possibilities of attracting mainstream visitors’.
Our new exhibition is named Hapram Dander which means “Ancestors’ Abode”. It was inaugurated on 9 December 2019 when Ghosaldanga Bishnubati Adibasi Trust celebrates Museum Day.
The museum now has an exhibition of photographs depicting Santal life hundred years ago, thanks to a gift received from Prof. Oivind Fuglerud of the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo (Norway).
Other items on display are Dhodra banams, sculptures and pre-historic stones collected from the adjacent sites of Santiniketan, and the stones donated by Prof. Ranjana Roy and Prof. Debasis Mondal, Department of Anthropology, University of Calcutta.
Participants
The chief guest of the inaugural programme was Dr. Mita Chakraborty, former curator of the Indian Museum. Other special guests were Prof. Sushanta Dattagupta, former Vice-chancellor of Visva-Bharati University, Prof. Sharmishtha Dattagupta; Dr. Debasis Mondal, Calcutta University; Dr. Dhoneswar Majhi, Head, Department of Santali, Visva-Bharati; Prof. Sudipto Mukherjee, Kalyani University and Mr. Sunder Manoj Hembrom, Santali writer, Bandel; Mopiya Majumdar and Sumanto Sarkar, Urotaar theatre group, Kolkata.
Report by Dr. Boro Baski (email 9 July 2020)
Photos courtesy © Sudipto Mukhopadhaya
Dr. Boro Baski works for the community-based organisation Ghosaldanga Adibasi Seva Sangha in West Bengal. The NGO is supported by the German NGO Freundeskreis Ghosaldanga und Bishnubati. He was the first person from his village to go to college as well as the first to earn a PhD (in social work) at Viswa-Bharati. This university was founded by Rabindranath Tagore to foster integrated rural development with respect for cultural diversity. The cooperation he inspired helps local communities to improve agriculture, economical and environmental conditions locally, besides facilitating education and health care based on modern science.
He authored Santali translations of Rabindranath Tagore’s Vidyasagar-Charit and Raktakarabi (Red Oleanders), published by the Asiatic Society & Sahitya Akademi in 2020.
Other posts contributed by Boro Baski >>
Ghosaldanga Bishnubati Adibasi Trust
Registration under Trust Registration Act 1982
P.O. Sattore, Dist. Birbhum
West Bengal-731 236
India
For inquiries on Santal cultural and educational programs, please contact:
Mob. 094323 57160 or borobaski@gmail.com
Related posts
- Audio | Santali Traditional and Fusion Songs: Ghosaldanga Bishnubati Adibasi Trust
- Childhood and children
- Democracy
- Education and literacy
- eBook | Free catalogue: Banam: One of the ancient musical instruments of the Santals
- eBook | Free catalogue: Museum of Santal Culture (Bishnubati) – West Bengal
- eBook | “Santals Celebrate the Seasons”: Creativity fostered by Ashadullapur Gramin Silpa & Sastha Bidhan Kendra – West Bengal
- eJournal | Writing and teaching Santali in different alphabets: A success story calling for a stronger sense of self-confidence
- Homes and utensils
- Indigenous knowledge systems
- Multi-lingual education
- Museum of Santal Culture Bishnubati
- Santal democratic organisations, customs, history and creation traditions (book tip)
- Santali language | eBook | A Santali-English dictionary – Archive.org
- Santal music
- Santal mission
- Santali translations of Rabindranath Tagore’s “Vidyasagar-Charit” and “Raktakarabi”
- The Santals by Boro Baski
- Seasons and festivals
- Teaching Santal children by Boro Baski
- Traditional music instruments of the Santals at the Museum of Santal Culture
- Video | Roots and Branches: The Lifeworld of an Enlightened Villager in West Bengal
- Video | Santali video album “Ale Ato” (Our Village, Part 1 of 2) – West Bengal
- Video & eLearning | “Cadence and Counterpoint: Documenting Santal Musical Traditions” – A virtual exhibition on Google Cultural Institute
- Women
To locate the Museum of Santal Culture in Bishnubati village (near Santiniketan) on the map seen below, open by clicking on the left button: