What is culture? It is a way of life, rich with symbols and meaning.
I do not have adequate words to express the many layers of myth, legend, and beliefs that are in this Sarpam Thullal video. This is actually a 3-part video series. Please see it. Look at the number of people involved in it. Look at all the elements. Music, art, craft, religion, food, ecology, environment, people, clothing, all the richness of the land....everything is embodied in this video.
If Sarpam Thullal ends, all of this culture will die. The communities who depend on it for survival will lose a way of life. The musicians will stop singing. The artisans will stop making these crafts. The beautiful sarapakkalams will stop being drawn.
This post is not really about Sarpam Thullal. It is about culture and change. I fear that we are already losing much that is unique about our land. Under our very noses, a whole way of life is being lost through the relentless urbanisation of India. And it's not a slow, gradual change. It is abrupt change, in the space of a single generation.
I agree that change is inevitable. That some of the ways of our forefathers are no longer feasible. But we have much that is good. How do we save this?
I do not have adequate words to express the many layers of myth, legend, and beliefs that are in this Sarpam Thullal video. This is actually a 3-part video series. Please see it. Look at the number of people involved in it. Look at all the elements. Music, art, craft, religion, food, ecology, environment, people, clothing, all the richness of the land....everything is embodied in this video.
If Sarpam Thullal ends, all of this culture will die. The communities who depend on it for survival will lose a way of life. The musicians will stop singing. The artisans will stop making these crafts. The beautiful sarapakkalams will stop being drawn.
This post is not really about Sarpam Thullal. It is about culture and change. I fear that we are already losing much that is unique about our land. Under our very noses, a whole way of life is being lost through the relentless urbanisation of India. And it's not a slow, gradual change. It is abrupt change, in the space of a single generation.
I agree that change is inevitable. That some of the ways of our forefathers are no longer feasible. But we have much that is good. How do we save this?
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