Dakshina Chitra, The Magnificent Integrated Area in Chennai


Dakshina Chitra
ICT for Rural Development Course visited Dakshina Chitra to see India's culture from different perspectives. Located in East Coast Road, Mutukadu, Chennai, Dakshina Chitra is a Museum Village where we can learn cultures, art activities and tools that had been existing long time ago and some replica of houses that are commonly habituated by people in the southern part of India. Those consist of Kerala's state house, Tamilnadu’s and Karnataka's state house. Dakshina Chitra Museum is an integrated place to see the cultures of the diverse people of India with emphasis on Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

It takes more than one hour to reach this magnificent-integrated museum. We were warmly welcomed when arriving and felt the truly Indian atmosphere when entering the museum area. We stepped for the first time on the ground area and saw the gate. The receptionist officer was giving the excellent service to us. She gave us a brochure and let us explored more about the place after paying for the ticket.



The first thing that we did was entering the replica of the Tamil Nadu houses. The door was short so that we had to lower our head to enter the house. It means that as human beings we should realize that we have to keep respecting the Gods, fellow human beings and the hosts. Tamil Nadu has many cultures to explore, plenty of ancient objects to be known and various religions. Tamil Nadu also was known by its History of Tamil Script. It indicated the evolution of the Tamil language since 2000 years ago.

Kerala was the second house that we visited. We found three Hindu houses in this replica house. Those are Hindu House of Thiruvananthapuram District which this small middle class house from South Kerala belonged to an agricultural Hindu family of Nairs, a matrilineal Hindu community. Mankavu and Kozhikode district, these two-storey house of literate stone and timber century 1880 are representative of many turn of the century middle-class homes throughout Central and Northern Kerala. Kerala house also figure out the Granary and Syrian Christian House which each of them represents its culture.

The next stepped was in Karnataka of House Replica. We found Muslim Shopkeeper’s House, Aldur, Chikmagalur district. The house was a 1914’s house which displayed the heritage and lifestyle of South-Indian Muslims in Chennai, India.

Teken by Raju

Last but not least we stepped in the replica of Andhra Pradesh of house. The houses such Ikkat Weaver’s house, Chuttilu, Cattleshed and Granary house are displayed in this area. Ikkat Weaver’s House is adapted from the local agricultural style. This house was constructed by the carpenters of Koyalagudem. While Chuttilu House, Castleshed and Granary style were built to prevent them from the cyclone-prone coast of Andhra Pradesh. During the cyclone storms, the wind is dispersed around the house’s round form. In floods the peaked roof will float.

These are other activities that we can find at Dakshina Chitra like Pottery, ceramics, pounding paddy, pot painting, paper mask, mehendi, puppet making and many Indian typical activities.

We are glad to see those things, that I used to think of India's culture are only about dancing, singing and making a lot of movies, but I now realize that India is rich of the cultures that indicate its slogan "Incredible India". India deserves it. I thank to our kind course coordinator Dr. K. S. Giridaran for the schedule to bring us to this magnificent place and Mr. Erlango for your guidance during our field trip. We look forward to visiting the other great places.




Tamil Script




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Tiga Spot Camping Seru di Sembalun

Masjid Jami Saleh Hambali Perkuat Keislaman di Bengkel

Serpihan Surga Itu Bernama Gili Layar