Another
beautiful morning in Shillong. We have some more sight seeing to do
before Lunch, after which we start our return journey back to Assam.
Historically speaking, Christian missionaries have been active in the
entire Northeast area of India from early days of British Raj or even
earlier. Meghalaya was no exception. Christian organizations,besides
their religious activities, have been also carrying out philanthropic
and cultural activities in this state. “Don Bosco Centre for
Indigenous cultures” is one such organization set up in Meghalaya.
This centre has established a state of the art museum in Shillong,
which can aptly be called as pride of Shillong. This museum, totally
dedicated to tribal cultures of Northeast India, occupies 5 floors of
a building specially built for it and leaving aside some superfluous
galleries such as “food gallery” it still has as many as 15
individual display galleries that interest me and in addition there
is a skywalk on the terrace.
Before
we start, I have a look again at some of the beautiful flowers
blooming in the hotel porch area. I can not avoid the temptation of
clicking photographs of some of them today, which I had avoided so
far. We start after some delay and finally are on our way to see the
Don Bosco museum. The museum entrance is from a large court yard
bound by several large buildings except for on one side, where the
approach road has been constructed. The entrance gate to the museum,
located in one corner, looks quite deceptive as it appears to be that
of a chapel. The entrance gate leads to a long curving passage with
several garishly painted fiberglass statues, placed in recesses
created on both sides of the passage. The museum brochure says that
these 22 statues, descriptive of tribal and other people of
northeastern states, welcome the visitor and calls the area as
Alcoves gallery. At the end of this passage, there is a restaurant
specializing north-eastern food, a reception cum sales counter.
We are
welcomed here by an asst. curator of the museum, who explains the
theme of the museum; to highlight all facets of the culture of
north-eastern states such as geography, people, weather, crops,
dances, history, arts and crafts and finally traditional technology.
As I
mentioned earlier, the museum occupies five floors, two in basement
and three above ground. Fortunately there is an elevator to give some
relief to our tired feat. Here is a listing of some of the
galleries, which I like .
Pre-
history gallery describing the pre-history of tribal world and its
significance to south-east Asia.
Land
and people's gallery that introduces topographical richnes of region
Fishing
and hunting gallery displaying number of creative tools used for
fishing,hunting and gathering used by tribal people.
Traditional
Technology gallery that looks at the economic life of the people of
this region
Crops
and agriculture gallery.
Basketry
weaving gallery
Musical
Instruments gallery
Costume
and ornaments gallery- One of the most popular and favoured
galleries.
Weapons
gallery
After
spending couple of hours at the museum, we all collect at the
auditorium on the top floor, where we see a film about people from
north east. A door on the side of this auditorium leads me to an open
terrace on top of the building. A well designed stainless steel caged
walkway, called as skywalk by the museum, takes me round the terrace,
offering fabulous views of the beautiful city of Shillong.
After
the visit is over, we all return to the hotel for a quick lunch and
checkout. As our car flotilla moves out, my mind is filled with
sadness for having to leave this beautiful city, but the car driver
tells me that we have yet to visit Shillong's most popular tourist
spot, “Bara Pani.”
“Bara
Pani”or Umiam Lake is a huge water reservoir, located in the
rolling Khasi hills, about 15 km to the North of Shillong. It got
created when the Umiam river was dammed in the early 1960s. The lake
is so huge that the principal catchment area of the lake and dam is
spread over 220 square km. Our cars stop near a visitor's spot. I get
out of the car. Spread ahead of me, is a vast blue sheet of water
with little islands with a few trees, in between. Because of the
natural greenery that has grown around, it has developed into a
stunningly picturesque and pristine sight that comforts the eye and
is simply unforgettable. The lake provides many recreational
facilities such as boating. Reluctantly, I move back to the car as we
have a long way to go today.
In no
time, we are back on that terrible Meghalaya-Assam road or Highway
number 6 to Jorbet. On the entire stretch of about 70 Km, I see
excavators moving around with their big shovels, people breaking
stones and operating road making machines. Maybe 3 years down the
line this road would become a beauty of a road, but today it is a
world of sand, gravel, boulders and too much of all pervading dust.
Only
by around 3 PM we finally end the ordeal and torture of this road, as
we cross into Jorbet and join the beautiful 4 lane highway NH 27 that
joins Guwahati with Nagaon in the east. We decide to have a cup of
tea at a roadside dhaba and somewhat freshened, are back on the road.
It's already dark when we cross Nagaon and shortly enter one of
India's most famous forests “Kaziranga.”
The
resort, located towards the west part of this jungle, is quite
spacious and rooms are comfortable. After the chilly weather of
Shillong, warm jungle weather provides a sudden change, but there are
ceiling fans, which appear to be adequate for now. It has been a long
day and tomorrow is a day of rest for us with no serious sight seeing
planned. We all relax, have dinner and get into our beds. The eerie
jungle silence engulfs me like dense fog, before sleep finally comes
over.
14th
November 2014
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