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Get fresh with this museum
A one-man mission, Goa Chitra Museum houses live specimen too
Mayabhushan, Panaji
Surely, if you are holidaying in Goa, a museum visit cannot feature on
your ‘to do’ list. But Orhan Pamuk’s did have it.
There must be something about the Goa Chitra Museum, a unique
ethnographic museum located in the coastal village of Benaulim, about 40
km from the State capital, if the Nobel prize-winning author — who is on
a prolonged sojourn in Goa with his Booker-winning friend Kiran Desai —
decided to drop by for a visit last month.
Rated as the topmost contemporary museum by the Archaeological Survey of
India (ASI), the museum contains over 4,000 artefacts indigenous to Goa.
These are part of curator Victor Hugo Gomes’ collection, collected
singlehandedly over the last two decades.
Some of the most incredulous materials here include an ancient
kerosene-fired refrigerator, an automatic wooden seed drill
traditionally used by farmers in Goa centuries ago and even several
species of freshwater fish, now nearly extinct.
“These 13 species are some of the 60 species of fish once abundant in
Goan freshwater lakes. Most have since vanished since the (State)
Government introduced Tilapia, a carnivorous family of freshwater fish,”
Gomes told The Pioneer. “This is not just a collection of items, but an
attempt to document the life as lived by our ancestors,” he explained.
A testament to the curator’s words is the ‘organic farm’ where crops are
grown using traditional techniques. In addition, each of the implements
has been named and what it has been used for, documented in detail. The
museum also houses ploughs once used for 17 different varieties of soil
found in the State and visually documents the 17 different stages of
operations, from preparing the soil to harvesting of rice.
The museum has been built using traditional materials like wood, stone,
doors, windows, pillars and railing, which have been salvaged from more
than 300 traditional houses that were being demolished. The collection —
spread over 1.17 lakh sq m — did not come easy.
“Behind each item, I have a personal story of how I collected it. I have
spent days living amidst Goa’s tribals, speaking to village elders,
capturing and documenting the ethnicity and rituals associated with
every item,” the curator explained.
Incidentally, Gomes’ tryst with museology has its roots in Lucknow,
where he spent time as a painter.
“While there, I got a chance to accompany a researcher from MS
University, who was researching on lifestyles and arts of tribals in
North India. My interaction with tribals opened my eyes to the hard work
and skill that went into creating their implements and their
understanding of materials,” Gomes said.
Gomes, an alumnus of the Maharaja Sayajirao University in Baroda, has in
the past set up the Museum of Christian Art at the Patriarchal Seminary
of Rachol (currently housed at Basilica of Bom Jesus in Old Goa).
While the Goa Chitra Museum has triggered considerable interest amongst
the connoisseurs of art, the State Government has been predictably
apathetic. “I have repeatedly requested the Director of Art and Culture
to visit the museum, but he has not yet paid us a visit,” Gomes stated.
“I want this place to not be one where people come, look and go back. I
hope it becomes an institution, where scholars come to write books, and
researchers to study. I want students to come here to learn and children
to admire the works of their forefathers,” he added.
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First published in The Pioneer, New Delhi, April 5, 2010
Goanet A-C-E!
Arts ~ Culture ~ Entertainment
