Kumaoni Library and Traditional Heritage Centre

Uttarakhand’s first Kumaoni library and cultural heritage centre: Kumaon’s language, crafts, Hill Jatra masks, folk instruments, Aipan, farming tools, seeds and costumes under one roof at Manas College, Pithoragarh. A vision of Chairman Dr. Ashok Kumar Pant.

Every hill village holds knowledge that no book has written down: how to read the weather, which herbs heal, how terraced fields are built, how a stone-and-slate house stands for a hundred years, the songs of Harela, the words of jagar and the patterns of Aipan. Much of it lives only in the memories of our elders, and a little more of it slips away every year.

The Kumaoni Library and Cultural Heritage Centre at Manas College is the first centre of its kind in Uttarakhand. Under one roof it brings together books and magazines in Kumaoni, folk instruments, costumes and jewellery, Hill Jatra masks, farming tools, preserved hill seeds, household vessels and objects of faith. It is not a closed museum: it is the living classroom of a college, where students learn, elders teach, and families from village after village bring their heritage to share.

The centre gathers this knowledge in one place, keeps it safe and makes it a living part of education, so that the next generation is proud of its roots and builds its future on them.

What you will find

• A library of Kumaon: Books, poetry, epics, dictionaries and magazines in Kumaoni.
• Costumes, Aipan and Hill Jatra masks: The dress, jewellery and art of Kumaon and the Raji community.
• Folk instruments: Turri, ransingh, dhol and nagara.
• Farming, seeds and food: Traditional tools, a model Kumaoni house and jars of preserved hill grains.
• Household life and faith: Copper and brass vessels, ritual objects, temple models and the doli.
• A home for the community: Open to students, researchers, schools and families.

A vision of Dr. Ashok Kumar Pant

The centre is the vision and initiative of Dr. Ashok Kumar Pant, Chairman of Manas Group of Institutions, Pithoragarh, and is run by the Department of Traditional Knowledge Development at Manas College. It opens on Uttarakhand Foundation Day.