Chess pieces from Mohenjodaro made of terracotta, a Tibetan stirrup, dashavatar cards from Bengal, playing cards from Rajasthan made of leather, and toys made of terracotta will be on display at the Indian Museum during the World Heritage Week starting April 19, in connection with World Heritage Day, which falls on April 18.
The theme for this year as decided by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) is, ‘The Heritage of Sport’.
“The chief purpose of celebrating World Heritage Week is to increase awareness and to encourage the people about the preservation and safety of the cultural heritage and monuments of the country,” said Sayan Bhattacharya, education officer of the Indian Museum.
“Made with materials like bones, snail-skins, marbles and terracotta, these pieces tell us the history of prosperity of a country, which is embedded in the success story of sports and entertainment,” said Tanuja Ghosh, senior guide lecturer of Zoology at the museum.
The stirrup, brought down from Tibet, is made of iron, ingrained with gold damacine (works from Damascus) work whereas the chess pieces made of stone and terracotta, are from the Indus Valley civilization. The dashavatar playing cards made of cloth and paper are from West Bengal.
Now-a-days, cricket having almost gobbled up every other sport, regional sporting traditions are being lost. “Games like pittu, danguli (gilli danda), daria bantha which were very famous while we grew up, have hardly been even heard of by today’s generations,” said Jayanta Sengupta, director of Indian Museum.
On this occasion, a lecture-cum demonstration will also be organised by the museum authorities, where “Visitors will get to know how these regional games were once played,” said Sengupta.
The exhibition will kick off on 18 April through an internal lighting ceremony. “As the museum remains closed on Mondays, the exhibition will be open to the public only from Tuesday and continue till 30 April,” said education officer Bhattacharya.
Present only in the history pages, these artefacts are being brought out from Indian Museum’s reserved collection, and have been selected from the Art, Anthropology and Archaeology section of the museum.
World Heritage Day is globally celebrated every year on 18 April to raise public awareness about the diverse cultural heritage of mankind; about the efforts that are required to protect and conserve it; and to draw attention to its vulnerability.
source: http://www.thestatesman.com / The Statesman / Home> Bengal / by Shreyosi Chakraborty, SNS / Kolkata – April 17th, 2016