Don Bosco Museum, Shillong

Don Bosco Centre for Indigenous Culture

Since their inception museums around the world have been regarded as cultural centres that preserve, promote and interpret the cultural heritage of a community, region, state or a country as a whole. They are often regarded as repositories of various cultural artefacts that play a crucial role in highlighting the rich tangible as well as intangible cultural properties associated with them. Museums of cultural significance which are created to safeguard the cultural diversity of a region and promote them have been crucial at present due to the growing global industrialization and commercialization that have acted as catalyst for continuous disintegration of indigenous arts and crafts production and effecting the traditional knowledge system in larger perspective. These museums serving as bodies working towards collecting, conserving and exhibiting the various cultural artefacts that significantly reflect the cultural history associated with them are thus highly valued in today’s time.  A museum of such cultural importance showcasing the various indigenous cultural entities is the Don Bosco Museum situated at Mawlai, Shillong in the state of Meghalaya, that lies in the North-east corner of India.

 

The Don Bosco Museum project was pioneered by Fr. (Dr.) Sebestian Kartempral with the foundation stone for Don Bosco Centre for Indigenous Culture (DBCIC) being laid on 27^th June 1994. The civil work of the centre was completed by the end of 2000 with various artefacts being collected from different sites and regions with the plan for galleries executed under the able guidance of Fr. (Dr.) Puthenpurakal Joseph, (Director of DBCIC from January 2001 to May 2017). The museum has been officially inaugurated by Mrs. Sonia Gandhi in the year 2010. With the vision to see a Northeast India enriched with the cultural heritage of all its tribes, the DBCIC have ever since been functioning not only as a museum but more like a heritage research centre for safekeeping of the indigenous cultural resources, promoting them through a process of knowledge- sharing events such as workshops, seminars publications, guided tours etc, conducted on a daily basis with a professional workforce that are ever ready to guide their visitors for better understanding of each and every exhibit being displayed in the museum galleries.

The museum building is in the shape of a hexagon and seven storey tall which spirals and tapers on the top to form a flame conveying the message of cultural communion for a better society. A set of 22 alcoves with effigies dressed in traditional indigenous attires representing the various tribes of Northeast India stand to warmly greet each visitor at the very entrance of the museum. Touch screen at the end of the gallery provide information on each of them engaging the visitors at the outset of their journey into the museum. The welcoming staff of the museum, guides the visitors towards the 1^st gallery located at the base from where one must chronologically begin looking into the galleries for better understanding. Starting from the gallery for Community Information Centre representing all the tribes and sub-tribes of  Northeast region the visitors gradually move upwards and take into the essence of the Northeast regions, its communities and their cultures through the various brilliantly themed galleries such as the basketry gallery, musical instruments gallery, weapons gallery, costumes and ornaments gallery, housing patterns gallery, etc, that helps provides a clear image to the visitors in order to comprehend the meaning behind setting up this museum and carry forward with their journey in understanding more about each tribe while they gradually travel upwards to the seventh floor, where at the end of their engaging and tiresome journey are awarded with the best view of the Queen city Shillong in the form of a spiralling skywalk incorporated on the roof of the building.

        The collection and exhibits of the museum along with various models and illustrations provided in each gallery shows the profound curation of the museum that has significantly made DBCIC an epitome centre for cultural dissemination with hundreds and thousands of tourists paying their visit to the museum every month while carrying with them at least one small souvenir from the museum shop as a reminiscent of the rich cultural heritage of the Northeast India.