The ‘Sacred Grove festival’ concluded today at Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya. On the last of the Sacred Grove Festival traditional cultural activities were carried out at ‘Umang Lai’ the sacred grove of Manipur in the premises of Manav Sangrahalaya.
Earlier, a workshop was organized for all the experts of sacred groves from all over the country. The experts were divided in three sub-groups- first Oran (Rajasthan & Maharashtra), second Umang Lai (Manipur, West Bengal) and third Sarna (Odisha, Jharkhand & Chhattisgarh). The experts of various sacred groves shared their experiences and discussed the hazards they face. The expert committee of Mr. Himanshu Mishra (Senior Scientist, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Mumbai), Mr M.V. Nair and Prof K.C. Malhotra provided them solution. On this occasion, Shri Lakshman Singh (former MP) and experts working in the field of environment conservation, asked for assistance from Manav Sangrahalaya for establishing sacred groves in their region and requested to mount exhibition on Sacred Groves, Mr. Sudhir Shrivastava (Programme Coordinator) agreed to mount the exhibition after permission from the Director. After that, ritualistic activities of Manipur, West Bengal, Jharkhand & Chhattisgarh was carried out.
Sarna is the term used to refer to sacred groves in the Chotanagpur plateau (Jharkhand) and Chhattisgarh. Sarna is the religious centre of the community within the village ecosystem, where the village deity resides. The experts from Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh carried out ritualistic activities at ‘Sarna’ in Tribal Habitat Exhibition of Manav Sangrahalaya. After the rituals the artists performed traditional dance dedicated to the village deity.
The experts from West Bengal performed rituals at Rajbanshi sacred grove present in Tribal Habitat exhibition of IGRMS. The Rajbanshis are from Vaishnav community and worships Lord Krishna. They have great respect for Bamboo, as the flute of Lord Krishna is also made-up of bamboo, that’s why the Rajbanshi sacred groves have bamboo trees. After the rituals the expert sang Bowl folk songs, explaining the importance of bamboo in human life.
In the cultural performances in Umang Lai sacred groves of Manipur, the impact of life with dangers is visible in their dances. Artist from Manipur performed Lai-Haraoba, Shim lam and Thang-Ta dances.
Date: February 9, 2015