Monks, Traders and Travellers

The exhibition focuses on trade and the movement of people, goods and ideas in the Himalaya. Photographs and text on Indian travellers and pilgrims; and western explorers by Deb Mukharji; text and photographs by Chhaya Bhattacharya Haesner on the interactions between Kashmir, Ladakh and Khotan; artifacts, objects of trade from the collection of Kargil Museum; salt traders of Kumaon by Manju Kak; and trading families of Kalimpong by Vidura Jang Bahadur

 

Inauguration on Thursday 18 December 2014 at 18:30

 

As part of this exhibition, the following programmes will be organised in the Art Gallery

 

TALK: 23 DECEMBER 2014 AT 18:30

Intimate Artistic Links Between the Art of Ladakh and Central Asia with Special Reference to Alchi and Khotan Respectively

Illustrated lecture by Dr. Chhaya Bhattacharya Haesner, expert on Central Asian Art and Tagore National Fellowship Awardee, National Museum 

 

FILM AND TALK: 26 DECEMBER 2014 AT 18:30

They Who Walked Mountains (34 min; 2002; dvd; English & with subtitles)

Directed by Manju Kak who will introduce the film

 

For centuries the Bhotias traded with Tibet using routes that cut through the western and eastern passes of the Himalayas; snaking through the valleys of the fast flowing Gori river, across the treacherous Untadhura and Kingri Bingri passes at 19, 000 feet high. In 1962, these passes were closed following the Indo-Chinese war – trade came to an end and with it a centuries old culture that had bonded the Tibetan and Bhotia communities in familial friendships. This film captures some of those memories of the legendary traders

 

Munshi Aziz Bhat Museum of Central Asian and Kargil Trade Artifacts

Speaker: Shri Muzammil Hussain Munshi, Director – Outreach, Resource and Design of the museum