Assam project on revival of culture begins
Manoj Anand
The Asian Age
April 27, 1999
Title: Assam project on revival of culture begins
Author: Manoj Anand
Publication: The Asian Age
Date: April 27, 1999
Assam, a land nestled in myths, mysteries and legends is fast losing
its old traditions and practices. In order to combat this, the Assam
tourism department embarked upon an ambitious project to organise the
Rongali Utsav here on Wednesday to popularise the region's old
cultural heritage.
Besides traditional dances and songs, the department has organised a
unique demonstration of traditional sports like Dhulia Circus, Dhop
Khel, Haigudu and Oily bamboo climbing to make the festival
attractive.
However, it was not so easy to hold these traditional sports. In fact,
the state government realised that sports that were popular till the
last decade in Assam are on the verge of extinction because of lack of
any promotional steps.
The organiser of the traditional sports for the utsav, Mr Swapnil
Baruah said, "Till recently, sports like Dhulia Circus, Dhop Khel were
very popular in rural Assam but this time we could not find a player
of these traditional sports. Subsequently, we have identified a few
persons who can play the sport." He also pointed out that these sports
were still alive in some remote parts of the state.
Alarmed by the trend, tourism minister Jagdish Bhuyan said "We are
planning to plead for the inclusion of this festival in the tourism
ministry's national calendar. We are contemplating some measures to
promote such sports by organising such festivals and extending some
financial benefits." The state government is attaching a lot of
importance to this utsav because it is also the last Rongali festival
of this rnillennium.
The Rongali Utsav will be held regularly at the newly-built Srimanta
Sankedev Kalakhetra here and we shall try to reflect the cultural
ethos of the Northeast," he said.
He further disclosed that his team faced a similar problem in
organising the food festival for the Utsav as most of the Manipuris
living in nearby areas expressed their inability to cook their
traditional food.
"We sent a team of officials to identify the villagers who can cook
traditional Manipuri food which will be another attraction of the
Utsav besides other ethnic foods," he said.
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