ITANAGAR, Nov 30: German scholar, Dr Gerhard Heller said that the traditional and unique way of honouring the dead in the Idu Mishmi tribe seems to be slowly vanishing.
Dr Heller was sharing his experience of doing research work on the Idu Mishmi priest of Arunachal Pradesh way back in the year 2002 with Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein and officials at the Directorate of Research on Thursday.
Heller informed that he has 100 hours of documentation on the performance of death ritual of the Idu Mishmi tribe and now he is working to translate the tribal dialect into English.
Of the opinion that the traditional and unique way of honouring the dead by the priest through different rituals of the tribal people of state seems to be slowly vanishing, he said that the need of the hour is to preserve and safeguard the rituals and interest of the priest through audio-visual documentation and translating the language of the priest.
Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein lauded the initiatives of the directorate in taking the responsibility of promoting and preserving the rich cultural and natural heritage of the state, and also suggested officers to come up with efforts towards preserving the rich, cultural heritage of the state through audio-visual documentation.
The DCM also announced that he is going to hold a review meeting of his budget announcement with all the departments of the state during the month of December.
Earlier Director Batem Pertin highlighted the achievements of the department to the DCM and informed that the directorate is always working to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the state which are considered to be of outstanding value to the humanity.
Later, the DCM released a book titled “State Museum: A Treasure House of Arunachal Pradesh Cultural Heritage”, authored by Dr Susanta Kumar Ghosh, who is the present Deputy Director (Museum & Archives) of Directorate of Research.
The Director also presented a book titled, “Gazetteer of India Arunachal Pradesh Lohit District”, written by S Dutta Choudhury during the year 1978 to Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein.
