There is no denying that our age-old cultures are slowly disappearing. While the blame is on globalization and modernization, a Civil Society Organization is doing what it can to preserve dying cultures using resources made available by the same globalization and modernization. The Loden Foundation has documented ten intangible cultures like superstitions, songs and oral traditions of Bhutan that are on the brink of disappearance.
Yak Lha is one of the ten documentaries the Loden Culture Team published. The Yaklha ceremony is an annual propitiation (appeasing) to the yak and cattle gods conducted in the Ura Valley. It is believed to be a pre-Buddhist ritual of seasonal offerings to the gods that includes a sang purification that uses an archaic liturgy from the Bön religion. It is observed as a social event among livestock-owning households based in higher elevations. The documentary revolves around Maem Damchoela who is one of the few remaining yak herders.
The Loden Foundation made the documentaries in collaboration with the International Information and Networking Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific region or ichcap.
“Because of modernization and globalization, it’s going to be in very fragile stages. So, we have to define national policies and safeguard intangible cultural heritage. And also, in the case of Bhutan, you have so much of a rich cultural heritage. But I heard that the young generations are not interested in the old traditional cultures especially the older traditions which are only hosted by the old generations so it is very fragile,” said Gyuri BAK, the Director of the Office of information and Research at ichcap.
Similarly, there are many such intangible cultures in the country that are on the verge of disappearing. According to the officials of the Loden Foundation, understanding cultures help understand the differences. And if these cultures are not recorded and archived, differences will prevail causing disharmony.
Kinley Dem
Edited by Sonam
