 | | PICTURE SPEAK | |  | | PRESERVING HERITAGE: Artisans working on a traditional Rajasthani house in the museum | | Houses of Rabari pastoral community of Rajasthan; cottages of fishermen from coastal villages of Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala; dwellings of Warli tribals in Maharashtra, Bhil and Agariya tribes of Madhya Pradesh and the Ghotul tribe of Chhattisgarh. No, you don’t have to go on a country-wide tour to see such a range of typical, traditional homes. The Museum of Mankind, on a green hillside in Bhopal, has a matchless exhibit of carefully relocated tribal and folk houses from all corners of the country. At present a collection of 50 units, it brings together the habitat of India’s tribal communities, that number nearly 425. Relocating entire communities and archeological heritage facing destruction due to dam and industrial projects is an established practice. But the authenticity of a community’s cultural space can get diluted when its location and context is changed. So, the Museum of Mankind seeks to preserve and record the diversity of India’s folk architecture. Ever since the project began in 1979, the museum has tried to infuse life and meaning into the bricks, mortar and wooden structures. The entrance to the museum is marked with a traditional Uttarakhand Gate, while a snake boat from Kerala forms the exit. The housing units on display are not replicas, but originals, whose parts were first labelled, then carefully dismantled and subsequently shipped to Bhopal. Some of the other popular units are the Chakhesang Naga house, a fisherman’s village and the traditional houses in the Narmada region. While relocating the units, unique features of each housing design have been adhered to. For instance, if a house in a particular community faces east, the unit in the exhibit would too face the same direction. For such details, services of local tribal artisans were used. Most of the museum’s exhibits were bought from their owners or communities. Work on an ongoing project—a 300-year-old Paliwal style haveli of the Maheshwari business community from Jaisalmer in Rajasthan—is almost complete and will be open to visitors in a month’s time. The museum has become a one-stop-shop for architecture students, who otherwise would have to travel across India to study a range of traditional homes “The idea is to bring together a display that can enhance our understanding of India’s diversity,” explains chief curator Dr A.K. Tiwari. The Ministry of Culture, got the administrative control of the museum, for the project from the HRD ministry’s culture department.
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