Digital museum on ancient cultures of the world

Digital museum on ancient cultures of the world

Dr. Jagadindra Raychoudhury

A museum is a non-profit, permanent institution that acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits tangible and intangible heritage for education, study, and enjoyment. It also sets an example of serving a society and works as a centre for preserving artifacts- spanning art, history and science- to connect the public with cultural, natural and scientific history.

The world’s most prominent museums, often noted for their immense, priceless collections and high visitor numbers, include the Louvre in Paris, the British museums. Other top-tier global institutions include the Metropolitan Museum of Arts in New York, the state Hermitage in St. Petersburg and the National Museum of China in Beijing.

I once visited the Singapore museum and got an audio guide or airdope with my entry ticket. It explained the background of each portrait, and I could hear it clearly. As time progresses and with the advent of modern technology, the concept of preserving any artifact is gaining traction in digital form. Recently, I visited the International centre for cultural studies in New Delhi which was designed in digital mode museum on ancient cultures of the world.

  The digital museum of International Centre For Cultural Studies (ICCS) is a unique place where one can explore the ancient wisdom, traditions and living heritage of communities across the world. This museum is exclusively designed as a centre for learning through which one can explore, experience, and deepen the concept of understanding of humanity’s journey. Since this museum is in digital mode, the audio-visual medium is used to provide a glimpse of the ancient tradition of the world.

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This museum has four parts:

1. Bharat and the Globe: This part provides us the cultural similarities of the ancient world communities and the Bharat. Bharat shares profound cultural, spiritual, historical ties with the world, particularly Southeast Asia, through the spread of Hinduism and Buddhism. The other similarities include the influence of the Ramayana and Mahabharata in Indonesia and Thailand. It shared the values of family and tradition with Japan and similar vibrant festivals like Holi and Songkran in Thailand. 
2. Ancient cultures of the world: It showcases a glimpse of ancient traditions and six types of information about them such as, Houses, Dresses, Dances, Deities, Festivals and Rituals.
3. Buddha Traditions in the world: This part gives us the information about the past and present of Buddha Dharma across the globe. Buddhism is the world’s fourth-largest religion, with over 320-500 million followers (4.1% of the global population) practicing traditions based on the teaching of Gautam Buddha. Buddhism was originated in the 5^th century BCE in India, it spread throughout Asia, developing three main branches – Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana –focused on attaining enlightenment (nirvana) and ending suffering.
4. About the ICCS : This part gives information about the ICCS, the activities, its conferences and publications etc. It’s a global forum for practitioner and scholars of ancient tradition and cultures; it was founded in Nagpur, Bharat in 1999 to a global movement in all continents of our mother earth. It is to be noted that this centre provides a platform to interact, exchange views which has a knowledgeable pursuit, explore similarities and learn from one another while actively organizing events and academic initiatives. ICCS is deeply committed to research and revitalization of the world’s ancient traditions and cultures.

The museum is rich in world’s cultures and spiritual knowledge which encompasses in various avenues related to culture and its philosophy and treasury of wisdom. If we categorize the entire collection of the museum, then it follows likewise:

World’s Ancient cultures: Here it displays the traditions of civilizations such as the Maya, Aztec, Inca, Yoruba, Zulu,Yezdi, Romuva, Maori, pribumi, Shinto and many more. Each culture opens a window into its unique worldview and way of life.

Deities, Festivals, and Rituals,: It gives us the concept of gods and goddesses worshipped in different parts of the world, their festivals of joy, colourful rituals, sacred dances and music. It has another initiative of connectivity to express with nature, ancestors and the divine.

Homes, Dresses and Daily life: It is another step to understand some other cultures such as the process of building houses for shelter, the clothes they wore and the symbols they used for it. It is also very interesting to understand how the art, design, and utility blended in their day to day living.

Spiritual knowledge and philosophy: There are many traditions where spiritual knowledge and philosophy exist. If we look upon the Earth as Mother then it called as Bhoomi Mata, Pachamama, and Gaia etc. They respect nature’s feminine and masculine forces. There were some concept such as rebirth, karma, reincarnation, omnipresence of God and honouring elders formed the backbone of their spiritual life.

Community Living and values: It is a very important section of the museum in which it highlights the culture of togetherness, belonging, respect for ancestors and sustainability. Ceremonies were not just rituals but gateways to expressing higher spiritual realities.

AI Hologram ‘Vishwa’ : It displays how to engage our intelligent hologram guide Vishwa and take us through the journey of ancient traditions interactively. The museum briefly touches on Indian traditions along with this focuses more on the diverse ancient cultures of the rest of the world.

            The digital museum on ancient cultures of the world is a unique place for work out and upliftment of wisdom from the root level to the modern state. If anyone visits the museum, he/she could gather knowledge digitally and the centre organized seminar, symposium and talks time to time to enrich the assembled audience.

In one of the seminars, where a renowned American scholar Mrs. Naira Mkrtchyan expressed that the essence of American rituals and their deep rooted connections with nature, particularly mountains, rivers, fire (Agni), the sundial (Mihir, the Sun God) and traditional festivals. In her speech she also asserted that the similarity between American rituals and Indian festivals such as Holi and Lohri.

Once Indonesian delegations visited the museum and they emphasized that their major ancient traditions and their role in fostering peace and harmony, is very much similar with Indic-Indonesian cultural continuities. To conclude the piece of writing, it is to be mentioned that the digitally designed museum is very much effective in present perspective and confirm that at least culturally somehow we are connected globally. 

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