Tribal museum The Museum of Tribal Heritage at Bhopal was commissioned by the Government of Madhya Pradesh in 2004. The Museum is designed to create a built fabric which the tribal communities could identify with, extend, and evolve, to represent themselves and express their own ideas and way of life with ease and spontaneity. While the architecture of the Museum is inspired by tribal rhythms, geometries, materials, forms, aesthetics and spatial consciousness, these very qualities are now acting as points of inspiration for the display materials being created by tribal artisans, supported by anthropologists, sociologists and social workers.
Location: Madhya Pradesh Tribal Museum Shyamala Hills, Bhopal 462002, Madhya Pradesh, INDIA. Phone: +91 755 2661948, 2661640 Email:
[email protected],
[email protected].
Structure:
Built on a site of seven acres, the galleries are raised above the ground on columns, forming a continuous, multileveled veranda, following the contours of the sloping, rocky terrain. The structure is built of steel tubes, castellated girders, and steel rods fabricated into intricate trusses. Steel seemed to be a natural choice in the land & location of ancient Iron Age & Bronze Age civilizations, and the contemporary truck body building industry. The roofs are made of half-round tiles, galvalume sheets and concrete with a topping of grass and groundcover.
i beam steel tubes
Circulation: After entering person has 2 choices whether to go to the museum display or to the warehouse. After entering the main museum circulation path has been defined to make visitors go to through the same passage and experience the whole museum. A separate passage way has been defined for the peoples with the office related work. Special care has been taken for the movement of the physically challenged visitors.
A central area for seating for the fatigue. Central area was created around the small manmade lake with ducks. Making the view quite relaxing.
Requirements of tribal museum: 1. Parking 3. Reception 5. Administration Open air theatre
2. Service entry 4. Shop 6.
7. Exhibition area
8. Washrooms
9. Water facility
10. Open air courtyard
Materials of
building:
Walls were made up of local stone left exposed. Other walls were made up of brick plastered with crushed stone on the outside and mud plaster on the inside. The roofs are made of half-round tiles, galvalume sheets and concrete with a topping of grass and groundcover. The plant material is composed of largely local forest species. The landscape is designed to collect and store rain water, to be used for both cooling and irrigating the green roof, and gardens.
Display:
Best thing about the tribal museum, Bhopal was its way of displaying tribes and different cultures. People can actually touch the sculptures. They can feel the material. All the sculptures and other show casing things were created by the tribal people themselves using the basic and old techniques. As there were no rare things in displays, so there was no requirement of the conservation lab. Instead of conservation lab there was a warehouse made for the restoration of the displays and the sculptures. Large and bigger halls provide the Sufficient space to display big things and yet making the Circulation easy The gallery has been divided into 4 parts: Gallery 1:- The gallery showcases cultural diversity of the state. The gallery has been arranged so that all-encompassing culture of Madhya Pradesh emerges before visitors automatically. A huge tree is shown in the midst of map of Madhya Pradesh. Below the map, geographical presence of all major tribal clans of Madhya Pradesh has been displayed through significant symbols. Gallery 2:- Tribal lifestyle has been displayed in this gallery. Here a huge food grain container has been re-constructed. Information about diverse aspects of tribal life has been given through ultramodern methods. Changes witnessed in tribal dwellings during last 5 to 7 decades have also been displayed.
Gallery 3:- This is aesthetics gallery where tribal cosmetics have been displayed apart from phases of tribal life, rituals, festive songs pertaining to festivals and auspicious occasions etc. There is a marriage canopy in the midst of the gallery. Effort has been made to personify events pertaining to seasons and agriculture, ballets, attires and elegance. Gallery 4:- This gallery has been presented like a Dev Lok. It has been decorated with twinkling stars and constellations. Apart from deities of state’s Gods and Goddesses, Lingo Dev ki Gudi and Madiya Kham etc. of Bastar have also been displayed in it. Other exhibits include Malwi Mata ki Gudi, Sheetla Mata ka Sthan, Ghotul, Karmaseni tree and a street in which potter, waterman, blacksmith, gold smith’s houses and tools have been displayed.
