ICH Publications

Documenting India’s Intangible Cultural Heritage

This manual by Nerupama Y. Modwel, Principal Director, ICH Division of INTACH, and Surajit Sarkar, Video/Documentary filmmaker, is meant as a handbook on documentation. It presents guidelines that INTACH and other ICH collectors have developed for the collection of oral history, folklore, and cultural expressions from community members. The publication encourages individuals and institutions to celebrate, disseminate, and advance the intangible cultural heritage of traditional communities, and record potentially endangered knowledge systems.

Year of publication: 2013.

Fifth Pupul Jayakar Memorial Lecture: New perspectives on our cultural pasts

This volume contains the Fifth Pupul Jayakar Memorial Lecture, ‘New Perspective on Our cultural Pasts,’ by Michel Danino. Danino has lived in India for the last thirty-five years and has been a lifelong student of Indian civilization, culture, and history.

Year of publication: 2013

Lepcha Manuscripts: Nyaolik Nyaosaong Mun, Zaor Boongthing aun Chyee saa Aaeet Sung

This volume deals with Lepcha people, inhabitants of the North-Eastern region of India, having a distinct cultural identity and unique language, through the translation of the Lepcha manuscripts ‘Naamtho Naamthaar’ into English. The text is a treatise on the creation of the supernatural priest and priestess of Lepcha tradition, the Nyaolik Nyaosaong and Zaor Boongthing, and also deals with the origin of Chyee,  the sacred fermented beer of the Lepchas, which adds a new dimension to our knowledge of Lepcha society and culture. The project of three volumes was undertaken with The Indigenous Lepcha Tribal Association.

Year of publication: 2012

Lepcha Manuscripts:Chhyoten Munlaom

The text, Chhyoten Munlaon, is dedicated to the prayers and prophecies of the Lepcha people, and shows the path to be followed in order to obtain peace and happiness. It is a book that has ‘both fallen from heaven and come out from the midst of rocks and stones’, along with the remedies for a better future.

Year of publication: 2012

Lepcha Manuscripts: Kumya Kumsyee Chhyo

The text, Kumya Kumsyee Chhyo, is a short lesson on morality and ethics, inextricably linked with the larger cultural identity of the Lepchas. It discusses the characteristic qualities of the Lepchas and the essential elements required to achieve worthwhile knowledge within the Lepcha scheme of things.

Year of publication: 2012