ME AND MUSEUM

* Banita Behera IGRMS, BHOPAL T he remarkable scanty cloth 'Ringa' of Bonda tribe of Odisha is other wise known as 'Nadik'. The Bonda women look exceptional when they are in their traditional wear Ringa . The Bonda with very few population is one of the most primitive tribal group found in Malkangiri and  undivided Koraput districts of Odisha.The long inhabitation of this tribe make this region as Bonda country and the hillock present in this region is known as Bonda hill. The inclination towards their own culture stand them as a most primitive tribe in India . The community gained it's name from 'Bondi Mahadevi'. The clustered settlement pattern and beautiful head touching mud-plastered houses beautifully thatched with Pir grass reflect the nature loving characteristic of the Bondas.With the extraordinary culture of  age gap marriage custom, the beauty of beads together with Ringa wear the women of this  community now beco...

                                                       Photographs: IGRMS, Bhopal Longpi village lies at 40 kms north of Ukhrul town in Ukhrul District, Manipur. The village is inhabited by aroung 6000 Tangkhul tribe and their main occupation is agriculture and pottery. Longpi is the only village in the whole of Ukhrul District which produces  blackware earthen pots. These pots are unique in quality and style also. Fine powder of local stone containing mineral Local sandy clay Mixture of crushed sandy clay and mineral stone in a ration of 2:1 Longpi pots, as it is popularly known in Manipur and elsewhere has been widely used in the region since time immemorial. Longpi pots are prepared...

H andy clay used for making the traditional pottery of Manipur is known as Leimarombi Chaphu Leibak. This peculiar type of clay is available only in Thongjao area in the Thoubal District of Manipur. Although, there are places where clay is available for making the pottery in other parts of the state, they are mostly mixed with minerals which is not suitable for making the unique kind of handmade Leimaram Pottery. If the pot is made with more portions of ferrus and mineral content, it is not durable and often breaks before or after firing. The best quality of clay popularly known as the handy-clay is collected after digging 5 feet deep in the ground. In most of the cases, appropriate quality of these kinds of clay could only be collected from two or three layers when it reaches the level of handy and loam clay. The collected clays are exposed to the sunlight for about a week so that impurities and other foreign contents get oxidised. After this process, it is mixed with water ...

- By Shrikant Gupta Gharat is a traditional mill used for grinding cereals and grains for day-to-day domestic consumption. This typical form of mill is found in the mountainous and rugged terrain of Himalayan region especially in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. Natural sources of water available in these undulating hilly terrain that are flowing turbulently through out the years are used for operating the mills. The simple devices used in running the mill are locally manufactured by the folk and rural people who are inhabiting in this region. Installation of these kinds of traditional mills are mostly found to the site where perienial source of water is available. These running streams carrying large volume of water is managed to pass through a canal locally constructed at an elevated point from where water can be dropped with desirable amount of force. From this elevated point, a long wooden canal is mounted in an inclined position ...