ICH Manual

A UK TRUST Project on preparing an ICH Documentation Manual was undertaken by Nerupama Y. Modwel, Director, ICH, Division and Surajit Sarkar, Video/Documentary filmmaker. Tangible culture is represented by works of art and historic sites and monuments. Intangible culture is its counterpart and includes song, music, dance, drama skills and other cultural material that can be recorded but cannot be touched, experienced, or interacted with without a practitioner of a particular element of... Read More

Documentation of the Oral Narratives of the Paharia tribe, Odisha

The division undertook a pilot project on collecting and documenting the oral narratives of the extremely marginalized Paharia tribe of Naupada, Odisha, with the help of the Folklore Foundation, Bhubaneshwar. Dr. Mahendra Mishra was in charge of leading this collection... Read More

Medieval Kannada Recipe Book

Culinary traditions are an inherent component of Intangible Heritage. An interesting Kannada recipe book from the medieval period was published by the Division. Led by Sh. N.P. Bhat, Convener Dharwad Chapter the book which was originally written in verse by the King Mangaras III of Kallahalli (under the great rule of the Hoysala dynasty) was translated into English. It has a collection of vegetation recipes which have been a part of cooking in addition of Kannada from the medieval past and can... Read More

Ancient Lepcha Manuscripts

The Lepchas are known for their strong sense of commitment and pride towards their language and their rich indigenous culture, which they are struggling hard to preserve. The ICH Division entered into collaboration with the Indigenous Lepcha Tribal Association to get the Lepcha manuscripts translated into English. Three manuscripts were taken up for translation- Nyaodik Nyaosaong Mun, Zaor Boongthing and the Origin of Chyee, the Lepcha’s Fermented Beer; Chhyoten Munlaom- a Lepcha manuscript... Read More

Documentation of Chhau Dance

A joint quantitative survey by INTACH and Observer Research Foundation (Mumbai) was conducted in Seraikela (Jharkhand) and Purulia (West Bengal). The survey looked at the status of Chhau dance in the wake of it being included in the UNESCO ‘representative list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity’ and dwelt upon strategies to improve the preservation of this art form, after extensive interviews with the practitioners of the dance form. This research was included in the later... Read More