Manasi Bandyopadhyay ( Chakrabarti )
This is a museum that depicts the concern of a high educated man for his tribe .
This is a private museum which was established in 2000 AD by Sher Sing Pungtey, fondly called Massab, a former history professor in a Government College at Munsyari, who is also the curator here . It showcases the history, culture, tradition and lifestyle of Bhutia people living in Kumaun and Garhwal divisions of Uttarakhand.
This museum houses his own fifteen years' collections of Bhutia artifacts
Being a Bhutia himself from Milan village , he is concerned about his place and neighbours and has written numerous books on Uttarakhand's history .
And '' Devatatma Nagadhiraja Himalayas'' occupies his mind. He has traveled a lot , explored many things, and loves the Himalayan tribal people once resided in Garhwal and Kumaun.
These people, the Bhutias, he says, lived in the upper Himalayan valleys of Uttarakhand and were engaged in Indo-Tibetan trade. “There was
no money involved; it ran on a barter system. The trade bonded the Bhotiya and
Tibetan communities into a family,” observes Dr. Pangtey.
They became jobless after 1962 as the trade stopped and became poor . Later, they were recognized as Scheduled Tribe and were offered educational benefits and jobs in Service Industry through quota.
Days went on. After getting jobs, more and more Bhutias started to live in their workplaces i.e. in big cities like Delhi, Dehradun, Haldwani, Agra and so on with their families and never came back to their villages. In those empty villages, only a few people stay who collect medicinal herbs.
Bhutias ,living in those cities, gradually became detached from their culture and society. They neither speak their mother tongue, nor wear their traditional dresses . Even their food habits became different. So, he thought of building a museum where the lost culture of this tribe would be preserved.
From early eighties of the twentieth century, he noticed that Bhutia people were rejecting their traditional items -- bowls,
kettles, saucers, spoons, dispensers, cooking pots, vanity boxes made of Shangar tree wood ; wooden and brass
hookahs, wine bottles and bags made of yak skin -- because of steel and plastic substitutes. In 1985, eleven years before his retirement , he went every house to collect those materials and kept in his own control.
From then he has been nurturing a dream of showcasing these in a museum. His dream came true in 2000 AD. He registered it as a Society and occasionally receives grants and fund from the Cultural Department.
We saw the
unique Tibetan brick teapot, pens made from
mud, dried Himalayan flowers and herbs including the famous aphrodisiac keeda
jadi, jewellery made of bear's nails, salty tea, traditional dresses, wooden tubs to wash clothes, handmade soaps and brushes, Buddhist stone carvings, and
long, rounded drums in which wine was fermented, distilled and preserved.
Some models are there describing the tribe's ancient occupations.
Various types of conch shells and stones are being displayed.
Stuffed.
These ornate, wooden doors and windows were also brought from high altitude villages. Many of the old houses fell apart , Time covered them with bushes and shrubs.
Currency notes of some countries.
There is a sales counter inside the museum . I bought large photos of Choukhamba , Trishul and Kedarnath Peaks and two books written by Dr. Pungtey on Kailash and Manas Sarovar.
After coming out I was thinking how deeply and passionately Dr. Pungtey love his native people !
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