Maralui Karalimei Swijoikang (MKS) conducts cultural exploration tour
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, November 30 2012: With an objective to carry forward the message of urgency in preserving Maram folk songs, Maralui Karalimei Swijoikang (MKS) conducted a three days outreach programme in selected villages across Maram area.

Elements of age old culture of the community were recorded and documented during the programme.

The recorded materials would be later digitised, archived and preserved to educate the younger generation on the cultural elements, said a press release.

Saying that the trace of following animism before the advent of Christianity has not been wiped out totally till today, the press release said that a baita (oven) was documented from the steep hillock of Willong.

Different types of age-old monoliths were also found from unexplored parts of the village, it added.

The highest monolith is 13'4" in length with the biggest one is 9'9" in breath and the thickest one is 2'7".The distances between each of them ranges from 1'9" to 5'9" .

A flight of stone steps leads down to the large oval in which it is the custom of the unmarried men to perform ceremonial dances, handing and encircle and wrestling matches at the annual festival for the dead, Rakakki, the press release added.

Expressing concern over the sipping of modern culture into the minds of the young gerenation, the press release said that assembling of boys, girls, men and women in hordes for cultural functions has now become a passe.

Children used to sit and gather around their grandfathers and grandmothers in the past to listen the melodious and interesting folk songs, which in a way educated the children on culture and tradition of Maram community, the press release reminded.

It said, at a time when language had no written forms, people in different generations taught the younger ones to act, live and work through songs.

These songs kept the memories of ancestors, brave warriors and legends alive in people's mind.

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