culture
ICH Exhibition 5
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NEWS
Basanta Panchami: Arrival of Spring
Sister teaching younger brother to write on the wall within the premise of temple. © Monalisa Maharjan
On 16 February 2021, Hindu Buddhist population of Nepal celebrated Basanta Panchami also known as Shree Panchami or Sarashwoti Puja. This day marks the arrival of spring that could be seen with blooming peach trees and other flowers in the neighborhood. This day falls on the fifth day of shukla pakshya (waxing moon phase) of the Nepali month of Magha. So literally basanta panchami means spring on the fifth day of waxing moon.
On this day, the special event is organized in an ancient palace—Hanumandhoka Durbar Square of Kathmandu known as Basanta Shrawan. According executive director of the Hanumandhoka Museum, Mr. Sandeep Khanal, this event has continued since the Malla period (1100 to 1769 CE). At that time and until the monarchy was abolished in 2008, the king used to attend the ceremony. Even though in the Malla period, the ceremony was not known as Basanta Shrawan, but the inscriptions mention about worshipping the god Kamadeva.
Wall of deity full of writings of kids during the worshiping. © Monalisa Maharjan
The president of Nepal as a head of state attends this ceremony accompanied by the prime minister and other VIPs. The ceremony welcomes the spring, the second stanza of book Geet Govinda is recited. From this recitation this ceremony is named Basanata Shrawan. Along with Geet Govinda, Byachali raag is also recited. Priest performs the special worshiping on the auspicious time set by the panchanga samiti (group of astrologers who sets time and date for the auspicious occasions of major events). Normally the auspicious times are in morning and this year the auspicious time was set on 10:17 am. A group of musicians also play sitar in this event.
It is also celebrated as Saraswati Pooja, worshiping the goddess of knowledge, music, art, speech, wisdom, and learning. On this day, early morning parents are seen with the kids learning to write on the walls of temple of Goddess Sarashwoti with chalk. This is the symbolic meaning for asking blessing from Goddess Sarashwoti to read and write. On this day many parents start initiating teaching alphabets to the kids. Schools around the country also organize events to worship goddess with various other entertainment programs.
Buddhist in Nepal believes Maha Manjushree arrived to Kathmandu from Lasha on this day. Manjushree is associated with the legends of formation of Kathmandu Valley. Manjushree came to worship the light in the lotus blooming at the center of lake. He could not reach there so, cut the hill (which is now believed to be chovar) with his sword and let water out of the lake. After the drainage of water settlement in the valley stated. Manjushree is one of the Bodhisattva that symbolizes wisdom and worshiped on this day. So along with the Sarashwori Temple, the temples of Manjushree are crowded as well.
So, this day is considered auspicious. For the start of new ventures, building houses or getting married according to the Nepali culture, people check the auspicious date with the astrologers. This day Of Basanta Panchami is considered to be so auspicious that people don’t need to consult for an auspicious date. Therefore, on this day we can see many marriages taking place and people starting new houses or constructing new houses.
As in other many festivals and rituals, this day is also an example of syncretism of Hinduism and Buddhism in Kathmandu Valley.
03/12/2021
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NEWS
The 1st ichLinks Executive Committee Meeting
The 1st ichLinks Executive Committee Meeting was held on June 29, 2021, online. Representatives of the current partner organizations from five countries (Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam) and future partners from four countries (Bhutan, Cambodia, Fiji, and Singapore) were present.
During this 1st meeting, the Committee discussed draft Project Guidelines and the Operational Rules of ichLinks Executive Committee, elected the first Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson, and shared the progress reports on the status of the first ichLinks supported projects of Mongolia, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, and Vietnam. The Committee also discussed the provisional agenda for the 2nd Committee meeting as well as the working-level meeting.
Mr. Rustam Muzafarov (Deputy Chairman, National Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Kazakhstan) and Mr. Bui Hoai Son (Director, Vietnam National Institute of Culture and Arts Studies) were elected as the first Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson respectively. Their term of office is one year, which is until June 28, 2022.
ICHCAP will additionally collect opinions from partner organizations on the Project Guidelines and Operational Rules of the Executive Committee and will discuss them at the 2nd Committee meeting at the end of this year. In addition, by holding a working-level meeting in August, ICHCAP plans to conduct technical training and provide manuals to partner organizations so they can directly upload their ICH data to the ichLinks platform.
The current ICH data of partner organizations uploaded to date can be found in the archives of the ichLinks.
06/30/2021
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NEWS
Festival for Building Resilience
Shola craft at Surul © Banglanatak dot com
This year, 2021, is the Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development. banglanatak dot com, headquartered in Kolkata and specializing in culture and development, was supported by the British Council to hold the Ripples Festival—Reveling in the Rarh (https://ripplesfestival.com/) between 15 and 17 January 2021. The Ripples Festival promoted an interesting model of integrating heritage and place-making and develop responsible tourism where the local communities are positively impacted. Santiniketan at Bolpur, embodying the first Asian Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s vision of universalism and heritage sensitive development, is a popular tourist destination. The Ripples Festival created opportunities for people to interact directly with the folk artists and craftspersons living in the villages in and around Bolpur. It offered a rich experience of art, craft, beautiful landscape of river and red soil, along with exchanges of perspectives and ideas for building a resilient and creative future. Baul songs are inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of Heritage of Humanity. They propound the philosophy of searching within and universal brotherhood to attain the divine. In the festival, the Bauls of Bolpur, Ilambazar and Joydev Kenduli, performed and shared their philosophy. Women held workshops and exhibitions on making Kantha embroidery—a quilting tradition of recycling old clothes and beatifying embroidery with simple run stitches. Craftspersons who make intricate crafts from the spongy white stem of the Shola plant held workshops. A theater festival, Tribute to Shakespeare, explored telling the timeless stories using traditional folk drama forms.
Raibenshe performance in About Caliban © Banglanatak dot com
The festival also reached out to art lovers through online components. The rural artists enjoyed their first opportunity of sharing their art form and village on a global platform. Videos and live interactions provided a unique experience to people connecting online. The webinars were held on the themes of Heritage and Festivals, Heritage and Creative Economy, and Heritage Resilience. The speakers were from India and the UK with extensive experience in theater, music, craft, and art as well as multicultural collaboration and exchange. They included Simon Broughton, Chief Editor of the prestigious Songlines magazine; designer, Amber Khokar; artist-entrepreneur, Ali Pretty; Dr. Joseph Lo with extensive experience in the world of craft; theater exponent, Parnab Mukherjee; founder of Tapantar, Kallol Bhattacharya, along with Dr. Debanjan Chakrabati and Jonathan Kennedy from the British Council. The webinars have helped in creating global awareness on the art forms and gathering international perspectives on key needs for building resilient creative economy. Different speakers stressed the need to look at festivals and heritage as integral components to fostering inclusive and sustainable development. The festival highlighted the importance of cultural collaboration and exchange for rejuvenating art forms and creating new markets and audiences. It empowered rural artists with new digital skills and highlighted technology’s power in bringing the world closer with online participants.
Ripples Festival video: https://youtu.be/CGdfuuAgYNI
03/12/2021
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NEWS
New and Forthcoming Cultures and Traditions in eHRAF World Cultures & Archaeology (2020-2021)
Relational database table © Shutterstock/Yurich
A popular annual request from our members is for information about how we are growing our culture collections in our eHRAF databases. Below is a brief summary of what cultures and traditions we have added or updated in the past year, followed by a preview of what we will be working on analyzing throughout 2021 to include in eHRAF World Cultures and eHRAF Archaeology.
Please note that the collections added to World Cultures are part of the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample (SCCS), which was created by George Peter Murdock and Douglas R. White in 1969. The SCCS consists of 186 anthropologically described societies chosen by the sample’s creators to be representative of the world’s cultures. The sample tried to minimize cultural relatedness, so only one society was chosen from a given culture area. Each society is pinpointed in time and space. Researchers coding variables for this sample are expected to adhere to the specified time and place focus. With these additions, eHRAF World Cultures currently has about 97% of the SCCS societies in the database. We are planning to add the remaining SCCS societies to eHRAF World Cultures soon.
Source: https://hraf.yale.edu/new-and-forthcoming-cultures-and-traditions-in-ehraf-world-cultures-archaeology-2020-2021/?fbclid=IwAR0NEzUGXcEyyDpmBJOZP8p1gq6IwSkwgf56gbTmhqwoJHfgoZM6IAKjTGY
03/12/2021
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NEWS
Tales of Heritage and Well-being. The Digital Appointment at the University of Catania from 11 to 13 February 2021
CHAIN Logo
The first meeting organized by the newborn CHAIN—Cultural Heritage Interdisciplinary Academic Network, founded by professors and PhD students in Sciences of Cultural Heritage and Production at the University of Catania, will consist of three days of meetings and debates, in Italian and English, entirely online.
Culture and COVID-19: changes and impacts on human relations and socio-cultural mechanisms in times of Pandemic.
The conference is free of charge. To participate in the conference sessions, simply register on the website: https://www.chain-conference.com
CATANIA, 31 JANUARY 2021. During the three days of the Well-Being and Cultural Heritage conference, more than fifty scholars, professors, experts and practitioners from all over the world (Austria, China, Germany, Greece, Italy, United Kingdom, Russia, Spain and the United States) will animate an interdisciplinary dialogue to reflect on traditions, places and communities; to narrate the role and identity of tangible and intangible heritage in the digital age; to highlight the performative value of cultural institutions (e.g. archives, libraries, archaeological sites, etc.) and the expressive and cathartic power of arts and culture; to recognize, value and manage the different impacts (social, health, economic, etc.) of the cultural sector and its management systems for achieving conscious, inclusive and sustainable development goals (SDGs 2030).
The macro-themes of the conference (Memory, Perception and Research-Actions) will be introduced by: Christian Greco, director of the Egyptian Museum in Turin, with a focus on memory and material culture (11 February); historian and media theorist Peppino Ortoleva who will speak on the individual, environmental and media appropriation of cultural heritage (12 February); and Pier Luigi Sacco, professor of cultural economics at IULM University, who will contribute to reflect on the foundations of culture as a sociobiological element of welfare (13 February).
The conference theme has been picked out months before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has allowed a rediscovery and affirmation of heritage and culture as virtuous and fundamental elements for maintaining strong human relations in times of social distancing. Evidence shows, for example, that cultural participation has contributed to the psychological well-being of communities, reducing isolation.
The CHAIN network—supported by a board of professors Maria Rosa De Luca, Pietro Militello, Anna Mignosa, Stefania Rimini and Romilda Rizzo—envisages the exchange of ideas and projects between universities, research centers, businesses, associations, bodies and professionals in the cultural sector. Meetings, conferences and workshops will be organized over the next few years. “We are currently working on the final preparations for the first ambitious step of this project,” have declared the young members of the CHAIN Team—Thea Messina, Stefano Russo, Giuseppe Sanfratello and Giovanna Santaera—“and we hope that the growing collaboration and involvement of operators and experts from all over the world will give continuity over time to the initiative, which, like heritage, inherits perspectives from the past and assigns us the task to work on the heritage to be passed on to the future generations.”
Additional information is available at https://www.chain-conference.com/
03/12/2021