Photo exhibition at the Sengden Lower Secondary School, Dophuchen Gewog from 9-10th December, 2011
The main objectives of this event were: documentation of cultural traditions and generating awareness and appreciation for cultural diversity. Beside the photo exhibition the program included presentations and discussions by the Lhop`s and Rai`s communities highlighting their cultural heritage. The first day was for the students of the school and the second day was for general public.
The Preparations: The preparations for the exhibition started on 7th December, 2011 with a meeting held with the principal and teachers of Sengden School. The representative of the project explained the importance of the photography in documenting culture and the photo activity was an important exercise to raise awareness on local cultural diversity. Later in the day, the teachers and students were divided into different groups and different topics related to culture were assigned to them. Students were asked to write about the history of their village and folk stories. They were also given pictures of their traditional houses and were made to describe the houses and how they were built. Sixteen resource persons from Lotokuchu and Lumbay villages, including the heritage committee members were invited to the school for interaction with the students on their respective culture and traditions. The resource persons exchanged knowledge on the various topics which included their way of life, different types of plants, rituals, songs and dances, folk stories, handicraft making and construction of traditional houses.
The Exhibition: After the short speeches by student, Mr. Markus Wild, the guests from the NIE, Samtse on the objective of the exhibition, the Sengdhen lama opened the exhibition. More than 400 students, teaching staff of the school, lecturers from NIE Samtse, the people of the area and the Sengdhen lama participated in the exhibition, that displayed photographs taken by the Non-formal learners of Lotokuchu and Lumbey, Rai and Lhop traditional bamboo handicrafts. Songs and dances from the Lhops and Rai community were also staged.
Feedback: The students said that it was good occasion to participate in such an exhibition. However the teachers were of the opinion that the photographs were all taken by the NFE students and students from Sengten school missed the opportunity for hands on training. They would have been much happy if the exhibition had photo taken by the students. The people who attended the photograph exhibition said that it was good opportunity for them to see the exhibition on their culture and tradition. In particular, they said that the LCD project made them aware of their unique local culture and tradition and was a source of great encouragement to preserve them.
They said that the photographs of their village culture and the way of life should be compiled into an album and kept in the culture centre for future viewing. The people of Lotokuchu reminded the project, that the photos of animal sacrifice, relating to their local rituals should not be openly displayed or disseminated in any form of media including the websites that may be hosted by the project or the photographers.
Mr. Markus Wild, photographer was assisted by Mr. Dawa Gyelpo community coordinator of Kengkhar, Mongar, Mr. Phurba Wangchuk community coordinator of Ngangla, Zhemgang, Ms. Pema Zangmo community coordinator of Lotokuchu, Samtse and Ms. Kesang Choden Project Assistant for the preparation of the exhibition.
