Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (TIPA)

I wrote to The Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts in Dharamshala. I was suggested that they would be able to assist me on this project and that they have a museum of the traditional clothes of Tibet.

The Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (TIPA) is the premiere exile institute entrusted with the responsibility of preserving and promoting Tibet’s unique tradition of performing arts. The Communist Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1959 forced His Holiness the Dalai Lama and some 80,000 Tibetans to flee india. After the occupation, the Chinese authorities attacked every aspect of Tibetan culture and civilization.

On His arrival in India, His Holiness the Dalai Lama felt the need to take immediate steps to preserve the traditional performing arts before it was lost forever. Thus, TIPA was established in August 1959, four months after His arrival in India.

TIPA is a vibrant and creative institute, based in Dharamsala, north India. The institute has 112 members, including artistes, instructors, administrative staff and craftsmen, all of whom live on the institute’s premises. The members work with a clear sense of direction towards the preservation of our ancient culture.

Look forward to hearing back from them.

Meeting with Prof. Amit Sinha & Prof. Shekhar Chatterjee

Today post lunch we had a meeting with Prof. Shilpa Das in the Paldi campus which got cancelled for some reason. 

Instead we met two of our faculties - Amit & Shekhar who guided us further on the project.

Towards the end of our meeting we were allotted our project mentor & guide. To make it simple we picked up chits. Luckily I and Hiten both have the same guide - Prof. Amit Sinha.

Prof. Amit Sinha 

Destination finalised : Bir & Dharamshala - Himachal Pradesh

A bit more research and discussion with Adi & and our ADM super senior - Adhishri, we have decided to go to Himachal - Bir & Dharamshala to be precise. Bir is a tiny little village located in the west of Himachal Pradesh. It homes several monasteries and Stupas.

I have identified a Tibetan tribe called Khampa located in the Tibetan colony in Bir. 

A woman from Kham region in Tibet dressed in traditional costume

Now that I have finalized the destination & identified the tribe, my next step is to make contact with them touch with them.

Craft Documentation Orientation with Prof. Aditi Ranjan

I was waiting for this day! Today we had orientation of this project with Professor Aditi Ranjan for which we had to go to the NID, Paldi Campus in Ahmedabad by the morning 9.30 am bus.

A crazy start of the day it has been! 

Owing to the 3rd semester jury I have next week, I & Pari were working through the night and slept at about 6.30 in the morning. We both had to go to Paldi campus by the 9.30am bus so we decided to wake up by 8.30-8.45am. Both of us dint realise when our alarms went off and we woke up at 9.25am screaming - OHHHH S**T!!! Within 7 minutes we both were ready and we ran to the bus! Luckily the bus was a bit delayed :)

Hunger pangs - Ohh yeah we were super hungry as we did not get a chance to go to the mess or Khopcha (our canteen) for breakfast as we would have missed the bus if we would have!

We arrived Paldi campus with Prof. Shekhar Chatterjee & Prof. Amit Sinha to meet Prof.  Aditi Ranjan. She took us through the whole process and gave us some brilliant insights on how to go about it! Here are a few snapshots of some notes from the session.

Most important learnings from this session have been the following:

1. We have to stop objectifying what we see in design.
2. Do not get entrenched with the technique. That is not the only or most important thing to study.
3. Study the whole value chain. Eg. Study right from how the crop is grown to finally how the product is made.

Unrest in North-East

Owing to unrest in North-East I have decided not to travel NE!

Now there is an unrest in my mind! I really really wanted to go NE :(

Connecting with Rittika Mittal of MORA (for North East)

I tried connecting with Rittika Mittal, the founder designer of MORA today. 

Rittika Mittal (Right)

Rittika works with weavers in tiny villages hidden in the the North-East and creates beautiful handloom textiles. She works to revive & preserve these lovely textiles that are dying. I love her work and what she is doing. I am hopeful she will have some information for me :)

Deciding the destination | Option 2 : Somewhere in the North-East

This project is on my mind simply because I cant wait to do it. Despite of my jury being round the corner and too many pending projects I am spending a lot of time researching about this project. 

Today I went out for an early dinner with Lakshya, Amit Gautam and few other friends to A-one restaurant at Nanak Di Roti, just across the street. I was discussing about my craft documentation project with them and Amit suggesed me to go to Sikkim.  Not bad I thought.

I started to search about the Sherpas, Lepchas & Bhuttias - these are some communities residing in Sikkim. I am told that Lepcha is a very shy community and I might have difficulties in documenting them. I can consider documenting Bhuttias. They have interesting costumes too.

                                                    

While we were discussing this, Lakshya & Amit told me about a very good tattoo artist in Sikkim who did the tattoo for Amit. I have been thinking about doing my first tattoo for a while now. If I go to Sikkim, I could also get my tattoo done!!! Yeahhh..... Sikkim suddenly started sounding interesting :) Lets see how this goes! 

Inki pinki ponki between Sikkim and Ladakh it is now....?!?!?!?! 

A week down the line I will need to have a clear idea inorder to be able to submit the synopsis to my guide/mentor. The clock is ticking!