Mohanam purpose and vision

Mohanam Cultural Center began in 2001 under the Auroville Village Action Trust in a rural village, which is located in the Kaluveli/Auroville Bioregion in coastal Tamil Nadu, South India . The community center, established in one of the last traditional houses of the village, is offering creative arts classes on the weekends for school going children. It has a crèche/kindergarten, evening tuition, and is actively uncovering remnants of original performing and craft skills in the local villages surrounding the International Community Project of Auroville. The purpose of these activities is to keep alive this intangible heritage through youthful interest, classes, studies and special programs.

The aim of Mohanam is to provide the young generation of the villages with an opportunity for extracurricular activities, which help them to find identity and connection to their own original culture, which faces tremendous change in the globalization process.

Promotion of diversity

The center has identified some of the last living exponents, elders and resource people of the communities in performing and martial arts, festival customs and crafts. The idea is to document their skills and techniques and expose selected youth to workshops and classes of the ancient practices of five chosen genres: Kummi, Kollattam, Tapattam, Silambam and Koothu.

This will raise communal awareness and revitalize the endangered, intangible heritage through offering the young generation opportunities to learn and get established in these hardly practiced performing skills, which are still in high demand at traditional festivals and with international visitors. The Tamil Heritage Festival will draw necessary government and international attention and provide a large-scale dissemination of the project work.

Contact: mohanam@auroville.org.in