The project aims to discover and promote India’s “Intangible Cultural Heritages”.
February 1, 2023
It is a project that perhaps more than others encompasses the spirit of the traveling motorcyclist and of those who experience the motorbike also with attention to the territories and cultures it crosses: it is called ‘The Great Himalayan Exploration‘ and see partner theUNESCO e Royal Enfield.
The tasks and areas of UNESCO do not end exclusively with the protection of the “physical” and tangible cultural heritage: places and monuments are an expression of cultures and traditions that deserve to be handed down and not dispersed but the same is also true for all those customs, uses, customs, arts, rites and languages (but we are sure we have forgotten something) that can constitute a immaterial heritageand of the populations and no less deserving of being safeguarded and removed from theerosion that modernity often imposes. UNESCO has until today recognized as Intangible Heritage 677 items in 140 countries around the world.
The partnership between Royal Enfield and Unesco deals – limited to India – precisely with this, with encouraging the documentation, conservation and promotion of the intangible cultural heritage of India, starting with the territories of the Himalayas.
How? In the way that we like best: traveling by motorcycle through territories that may need their intangible cultural heritage not to be dispersed. Researchers-motorcyclists will carry out trips (the project has already started with a visit to Pattachitra Gram, the village of the painters of scrolls and subsequently Meghalaya, Assam and Ziro in Arunachal Pradesh) within which will document the practices of intangible cultural heritage of India with the aim of creating a digital archive of the information they will collect, with Royal Enfield’s future goal of collaborate with 100 communities throughout the Himalayas under the perspective of a sustainable future.
“As part of our social mission, Royal Enfield aims to partner with 100 Himalayan communities to build resilience and drive lasting change. We also intend to catalyze a global movement of 1 million bikers who can actively cooperate with us in our endeavor. Through this unique partnership with UNESCO, we are connecting our riding community with Himalayan communities in an effort to actively identify and preserve their living heritage,” commented Bidisha DeyExecutive Director della Eicher Group Foundation.
The territory involved in these activities is gigantic, also for this reason Royal Enfield requires the collaboration of those who want to get behind the wheel of their Royal Enfield and participate in the project: on the Indian company’s website there is a platform for motorcyclists who wish to participate in the upcoming trips and “get a chance to work from the mountains, for the mountains” and maybe get inspired by the video presentation of the initiative that you can find on the Royal Enfield YouTube channel.
