Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya organised another chapter of its popular series, Museum Popular lecture on Tuesday at Rock Art Centre Conference Hall.
Renowned architect from Shillong, Aiban S Makhroh, spoke on ‘Constancy and Change: A study on traditional and colonial built forms of the Khasis’.
The lecture was chaired by Prof Manjusha Misra (School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal). In his welcome address, Director, IGRMS, Prof Sarit Kumar Chaudhuri presented the introduction of Prof Manjusha Misra and Makhroh and introduced Khasi tribe in brief.
He said, “Makhroh is one of those rare contemporary architects, who have acute sense of sociological and anthropological aspects.” In her chairing lecture, Prof Mishra praised IGRMS for its continuous research work in the field of Vernacular architecture and its presentation in the form of open air exhibitions. Students learn here the social and environmental changes required and its answers in vernacular architecture.
Makhroh in his lecture gave detailed information of the Khasi tribe’s architecture through a comparative study of the traditional and present form.
He said in Khasis the houses were oval shaped and rooms were not divided with a central hall. But presently the houses are in rectangular in shape with rooms divided by walls. The kitchen or the stove was considered to be the most sacred place in the house, where they put pictures of deities and their ancestors. He described the village gate, boundary wall, main entrances of house and other aspects of the vernacular and contemporary architecture in detail.
According to Khasi Mythology, the permanent home of everyone is with god and human life is just a period or phase. Hence they treat house as a rest house, which is evident in their architecture.