Delhi: A Living Heritage Exhibition Reviews

New Delhi: A Living Heritage exhibition has been since October 2010, and are hoping that becomes a permanent exhibition. If that happens, I recommend it as one of the best ways to learn the history of Delhi, in a fascinating way.

To coincide with the celebration of the Delhi Commonwealth Games 2010 in October 2010, the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) India went to the National Fund for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) to organize a exhibition showing the cultural and natural heritage of Delhi. The exhibition, which took many months of design, planning and implementation, is that I kept hearing a lot about when you are creating, as my sister does volunteer work for INTACH and that much writing (among other jobs) for this exhibition. She had not been too happy with the exposure, because many of the decisions taken had no voice and vote within that resulted in an exhibition that was not as good as it could have been.

But, as I am very interested in the history of New Delhi, and was, after all, my sister, who had helped create the show, my husband and I went to take a look at Delhi: a living heritage and very pleasantly surprised . The exhibition runs through the main exhibition hall of the IGNCA, and have entered our names in the Guest Book at the entrance (the only formality required), we went in.

New Delhi: A Living Heritage exhibition is divided into two main sections: Natural Heritage and Cultural Heritage. The Natural Heritage section is the lesser of the two, and is seen mainly as maps, charts and diagrams-Delhi as a natural entity, its geography, topography, bodies of water, flora and fauna, a diorama etcHay amateur with wildlife in New Delhi (or what had once been the wildlife of Delhi, many of them have already disappeared). There are some beautiful pictures of birds Delhi (after Nairobi, New Delhi is the capital of the country with the world's most diverse avifauna). There are photos of flowering trees of Delhi, and animals that can still be seen in some of the greenest areas of the city. The photos are attractive, and to some extent education, maps and graphics are boring reams of data (lists of names of the trees of Delhi comparative readings of electro-conductivity of the Yamuna river?)

Cultural Heritage Section, and I am speaking without prejudice, is much, much better, because it takes into account that not everybody who visits the exhibition will be an expert or a scholar who would be able to make sense of data bombastic. There are sections on the history of New Delhi, how the city evolved, who ruled in the sequence of dynasties which, what were your major accomplishments, what monuments were built (and that of those still open to visitors), and so on. Timeline is a long and interesting, not only in New Delhi in the footsteps of history, but compared to what was happening in the world at about the same time: for example, the impressive Qutb Minar, one of the three sites in New Delhi World Heritage, and had long been built when Beijing was founded. Or that New Amsterdam (now known as New York) was founded after the city of Shahjahanabad with its Red Fort and Jama Masjid today between Delhi's major tourist attractions had been built.

Delhi's political history is discussed in about a dozen groups, beyond that, the panels to explain other aspects of life in New Delhi through the ages: history, food, gardens, markets and so on. There are panels that explain the art and architecture of Delhi, with special emphasis on Islamic styles, as the medieval structures (especially the tombs and mosques) are so common in this city. There are panels depicting the pastimes of the people: board games, music, dance, etc. Other panels showcase embroidery industries Delhi, as the perfume that produced RTI (Attar), and zardozi workers, either gold and silver thread.

The best thing is that all these panels are written and designed in a way that is appropriate for the average person: all in a simple, easy to understand style that avoids too many technical terms that can confuse all but the expert. And the panels are lavishly adorned with old photographs fabulous images of Delhi 1800 and 1900, contemporary photos of Delhi (including many photos of the historic monuments of Delhi), and dozens of beautiful medieval paintings, from the National Museum British Library, the Chester Beatty Library, and elsewhere, representing everything from antelope to hunt for the wedding of a prince.

There are some models of size dioramas of the traditional natural scenes from New Delhi: medieval highborn ladies sitting on the terrace of a mansion; qawwals (singers) at the shrine of Sufi saint Nizamuddin Auliya, Attar shop, a grocery store ; a candy store of the seller, etc. There are also 'scale' miniature models of some of the main historical monuments of Delhi, as the Red Fort, the Jama Masjid, Qutb Minar, Parliament, and others. And there are stations with touch screen audio-visual presentations on various aspects of cultural and natural heritage of New Delhi.

If you are interested at all in history, make it a point to include this statement in his itinerary, which is well designed and well written and a must for anyone interested in understanding the Delhi and its past. The exhibition is open to visitors from Monday to Sunday from 10 am to 6 pm. No fees are applicable. By the way, if you are looking for free cultural events, the IGNCA is a good place to visit: the center houses a large number of exhibitions of this type throughout the year and stage performances, particularly of indigenous traditional performing arts, most do not charge entry fees.