SHILLONG, March 9: In a continued bid to bring Kongthong to the centre stage, Rajya Sabha member Prof Rakesh Sinha, who has formally adopted Kongthong village in East Khasi Hills, today raised questions in the Rajya Sabha about this village. The question raised was whether Government of India is aware that there is a unique tradition of communicating by whistling in any part of India? Having asked the question, Sinha further stated that Kongthong in Meghalaya is one such unique village and in view of its uniqueness, he wanted to know what steps have been taken to preserve and strengthen this unique cultural tradition.
Sinha also wanted to know if the Government will send a proposal to UNESCO to recognise Kongthong as an Intangible Cultural Heritage like Coscov in Turkey which is also a whistling village and has been adopted by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage.
The Rajya Sabha member also queried if the Government would take steps to provide amenities to people of Kongthong to improve their standard of life and whether Government would survey this whistling tradition and open up a museum in Meghalaya?
Responding to the above queries, Union Minister of State for Culture and Tourism, Prahlad Singh Patel said that the Government through the Centre for Cultural Resources and Training (CCRT) had financed the making of a documentary film My name is Eeooow.
The 52-minute film in English directed by Oinam Doren covers various cultural aspects of Kongthong village in Meghalaya and was released during the 42nd National Cultural Festival titled “Ek Bharat -Shrestha Bharat” held at Imphal in August 2019.
The minister also informed that as per the latest guidelines the UNESCO accepts only one nomination from member states every two years. The next nomination from India is Durga Puja for consideration in 2021 cycle of UNESCO’s ICH list of Humanity. The minister also informed that at present there was no plan under consideration for opening of a museum.
Interestingly the documentary film My name is Eeooow was shown only at the Raj Bhavan in Shillong to a select audience, for reasons best known to the filmmaker.