Kerala - Kozhikode   

KIRTADS museum to be reopened on Monday

KOZHIKODE: The renovated ethnological museum on the Kerala Institute for Research, Training and Development of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (KIRTADS) campus here will be opened on Monday.

Electricity and Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes Welfare Minister A.K. Balan will inaugurate it, M. Sasikumar, Director, KIRTADS, told presspersons here on Saturday.

Mayor M. Bhaskaran will switch on the camera to mark the inauguration of filming of documentaries on primitive tribes. KIRTADS is the film producer.

The institute’s web site will be launched on the occasion. P.M.A. Salam, MLA, will preside over the inauguration.

The museum, established in 1973, was shifted to a more spacious building in 2000.

The renovated museum will permanently display more than 2,200 artefacts, photographs, models of huts, ornaments and household articles of tribal people.

The renovation, carried out by Nirmithi Kendra at a cost of Rs.19.3 lakh, makes the arrangements at the museum more modern, scientific and attractive.

The models of huts of tribes, such as Cholanaikkan, Kurumbar and Kadar, are on display. Mr. Sasikumar said the museum would be useful to school students and the public to know more about the tribal people of Kerala.

The three-storey building has the ‘Kalluala’ of the Cholanaikkan tribe on the ground floor.

Artificial trees recreating the Nilambur forest ambience and huts and equipment of the Kadar and Paniya tribes are also on this floor.

The huts and lifestyles of tribes such as Vettakuruman, Irulan, Kurumbar and Muthuvan in Wayanad and Idukki districts and Attappady in Palakkad district can be seen on the first floor.

A sacred grove is the main attraction of the second floor. Theyyam and ‘Devapura’ of the Mavilars are displayed there, along with ornaments of tribal people, their musical instruments and paintings and statues of tribal people from other States.

The documentary films will be an attempt to record the tribal culture.

Digital documentation of tribal culture in audiotapes is also being done.

The Kerala State Film Development Corporation has been entrusted with the making of the films.

The life and culture of Kadar, Koragar, Kattunaikkar, Cholanaikkar and Kurumbar tribes will be filmed in the first phase, at a cost of Rs.20 lakh, Mr. Sasikumar said.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Humour contest on October 22
KIRTADS museum to be reopened on Monday
Consortium planned at district veterinary hospital
Stage events of Sahodaya Kalotsav begin
Chamber seeks electrification of Shoranur-Mangalore line
135 doctors to be deployed in Makkah
Cost of litigation too high: Minister
Dalit leader seeks second land reforms in the State
Sankaranarayanan to release film
In Kozhikode Today

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu