For experience designers and creators, a living interpretive conservatory is a wonderland. For us it is probably at the top of the list of 26 innovations designed and built to bring alive a magical part of Coorg. Our place making and place branding adventure in Coorg (Kodagu), was around India's only luxury rainforest retreat. Click the link below to read about the twenty six.
The living conservatory design and build started at the museum and spilt over into the 180 acres rainforest and beyond.
Curating a storied land and its people
A living museum as the storytelling anchor
The idea of a living, interpretive museum is to help travellers understand the destination with local eyes. And also experience what is being narrated around it.
Why a museum? Well, what could have been a better alternative? What could be more experiential for travellers and visitors looking at the ultimate insider experience?
Known for its wet and wild Ghats, remarkable communities at Coorg co-live with nature's finest. Given its location and its rather shy countenance, Coorg has been a much later discovery for inbound travellers. It had always been a preferred hop-skip-jump micro-destination for residents of Bangalore. A well kept secret that gets much of its understated profile from the conscious pursuit of moderated tourism and protection of natural resources.
A first of its kind
And of course the sheer innovation was about building the first of its kind living museum of Coorg as a tribute to its amazing people and culture.
Coorg, the land of the Kodavas is a mystical region. And loaded with folktales, stories and experiences that sum up a dramatic land and its people. Travellers refer to it often as the Scotland of India. This unique region of India guards its legends like it does with its biosphere and plantations. The origin of the Kodavas has many versions with some tracing them to the Indo-Scythians and many tracing them to Indo-Greek origins and settlements during the time of Alexander.
It would have been a travesty to have travellers come all the way to Coorg and depart without getting a feel and experience of its unique culture, rituals, customs and stories around life, beliefs, food, livery, warfare, traditions and community.
The fact that this luxury rainforest address is a good 45-60 minutes from the town and motorable civilization, it makes it necessary to immerse visitors with everything local and worth discoverable. The fact that we eventually helped the destination draw international tourists from as far as Japan, Australia and Europe, in hindsight made this living-museum experience and the rest of the 25 innovations a natural fit. To truly immerse in Kodagu.
THIS living museum was woven around FIVE DEFINING FEATURES
A conservatory
Native stories need a native home, where one gets to touch and feel and smell the local culture. The premise for the build was to keep it rustic, natural, airy and navigation friendly.
How the conservatory premise was won, and carefully restored into a rustic sanctuary for vivid tales is an episode filled with its own share of intrigue and plots. Maybe a corporate classroom session :)
Official chroniclers
Several warm conversations each of which was like a class in history, led to Dr. Belliappa stepping in as the lead chronicler for the museum narrative. Writers and content experts were roped in to research and add nuances of storytelling.
Dr. Belliappa is probably the most authoritative historian on Coorg. And that is evident from such wondrous titles authored by him like Victoria Gowramma, the Lost Princess of Coorg.
Guardians and keepers
An unexpected connection (and that again was an epiphany - in fact this museum conservatory was full of them) led us to a quiet and shy dentist, who has been practising in Virajpet for decades. What brought toothy smiles to our faces were his passionate birdwatching side. Meet Dr. Narsimhan. Over many meetings we got to know about his deep abiding love for his homeland and its unique habitat.
Do you know that the gentle soul he is, he sends out individually hand-painted wildlife message cards every year to mark the wildlife week. He has created 69000 hand painted cards over more than 30 years.
In one of his notes issued to mark the wildlife week, Dr Narasimhan said: “Man has considered himself as having the capacity for thought and a high degree of reasoning when compared to all other life-forms on this Earth. But greed has overtaken all his virtues. Let us join hands to make our only Earth, a place where all elements of life can live in health, happiness and harmony.”
This living museum had many guardian keepers who we met, were introduced to and who we brought in with their perspectives to help us create experiences. Arun Achappa remains one of our favorites, a living encyclopedia on holistic wellness, horticulture, complementary medicine healing and Yoga. And of course Pramod Ranjan, Easo Johnson, Parvathy M, Abhishek.
There are many tales and anecdotes that would fill volumes. We spoke to prominent families from Coorg who were settled around the world. We met many proud sons and daughters of this amazing land - estate owners, historians, landowners, sportspeople, citizen leaders, local business owners, artists, craftsmen, horticulturists, architects, naturalists and more - the list goes on.
A place is first its people. And we wanted to grasp every bit, every secret of this misty land.
Artifacts & design that stayed true and local
The story behind how we collected and curated the artifacts is an adventure in itself. From forays deep into the traditional homes in Madikeri and beyond, to passionate donations by proud patrons of the culture, and a timely encounter with a metal merchant made it all possible. Each artifact, each piece smells of authenticity. The place was designed to be earthy and airy. After all what is Coorg if not rustic charm.
Living experiences that were custom designed and imagined from scratch
Col. Raconteur
As a visitor to the living museum, you have the singular and utmost privilege of being given a first person narrative (about all that Coorg is, was and what it means to be a Kodava, the mystical rituals, the martial history and the best of local cuisine) from a veteran retired Colonel. He is an institution in himself. We always felt that for the museum and conservatory to be a living experience, one had to have the most amazing host. And we found that with our dear Colonel.
The Colonel at the conservatory stands ram-rod straight and talks even straighter. A G.I. Joe handshake and a booming "I am Colonel PC Muthanna" greet you as you enter the premises.
Sitting with the Colonel makes you lose track of time as he recounts his war time adventures, spitfire roasts, the nuances of the proud Kodava community, the legends around the sacred Devarakadu groves and oh yeah his wife's cute chidings. She wants him to spend more time at home and he doesn't believe in the word retirement :).
The Colonel is a force of nature and the living museum experience is incomplete without his vivid commentary. And if you are lucky and the Colonel is in a good mood, he might just make good on a spitfire-roast date.
Layers and layers of rich content that was created
The living museum is a social address that has no bounds of physicality. We imagined this conservatory to bear stories, legends, rituals, experiences, bird calls, interactive sessions and of course content adventures that were created to wrap it up neatly.
One of the more prominent ones being the collaboration that we conceived and led between Sony Music, the two time Grammy winners Deep Forest and maestro Rahul Sharma. This led to the Deep India album tour that culminated with Deep Forest and Eric playing live at the Taj Madikeri.
The signature track Viva Madikeri went on to become a iTunes chart topper.
The other content layers dwelt on the farm to table food experience, the earthcraft residential programs and photo-treks. We had two very interesting adventures that remained incomplete - one being the Grandma's hearth and the other the Coffee University. Maybe it is destined for another time.
The Deep Forest Grammy experience that lent voice to a rainforest
COORG, Quietly ferocious about its privacy
Kodagu(Coorg) is the district. Madikeri(Mercara) is the taluk and the headquarters of Kodagu. Madikeri is a hill town framed by the Western Ghats mountain range, it’s known for the Raja’s Seat, a rather simple monument overlooking forests and rice paddies. In the center, the 17th-century Madikeri Fort features 2 stone elephants at the entrance. Nearby, the domed Omkareshwar Temple is dedicated to the Hindu deity Shiva. To the northwest, cascading Abbey Falls is surrounded by spice plantations. A good 45 minutes away lies a quiet Eden that we were helping bring alive.
Fantastic tales of Coorg
How can one tell a short story for a long destination? By trying and failing gloriously. While here our attempt is to give you a montage perspective of the living museum we helped design and build, no efforts will do justice to what went behind the scenes to bring these 26 innovations up.
Place making and genuine place brand development blends 3 critical things. Culture, communities and experiences. It is at the centre of this triad that outstanding place brands are designed and made.
We started with the local. And got bowled over.
Genuine, authentic place storytelling and experiences start and linger with the local. After all it is for the hyper local that one travels for through rivers, streams, mountains, valleys and what nots. It is to momentarily live another life, another version that travellers seek places and communities. So when in Coorg do as the Kodavas too.
Guns and proses
Kodavas are a warrior clan. Their history is one of bravery, valour and skills. Their preferred accompaniments during battle were swords (odi kathi) and daggers (the quintessential peeche kathi). The gun however has an exalted status in Kodava culture. The gun is fired when a child is born , during the Puttari harvest festival celebration and as sign of respect when someone in the family passes away. The festival of Keil Murtha is dedicated to the worship of guns.
The kodavas had guns in their arsenal about 200 years ago. The special privilege to own firearms without license was granted to the Kodavas by the then Chief Commissioner of Kodagu , Mark Cubbon who put forth the rule that the disarming Act of 1861 was not applicable to the people of Coorg. This practice continued post Independence when the Union Govt. passed a notification to the effect in 1963. It exempts “every person of the Coorg race and every Jamma land tenure holder in Coorg” from the Indian Arms Act.
regally attired
The traditional dress of the Kodavas, is the resplendent Kupya Chale worn during family celebrations and festivities. The traditional attire consists of Kupya, Chale, Mande tuni, Peeche kathi and Odi kathi.
The unique way that women drape the saree in Coorg traces itself to mythology and a popular story of Kaveri and Agastya. This draping style evolved to help Kodava women lead an active life — climbing the hilly slopes of the Western Ghats and trees on a daily basis. Traditionally, paired with a full sleeved blouse, this style has pleats at the back. The end of the sari is brought below the left shoulder, and secured over the right shoulder in a firm knot. Today, the red and gold silk Kanjeevaram is worn in the Kodava style by brides during the wedding ceremony.
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THE TIGER WEDDING
“Nari Mangala” (Nari for Tiger and Mangala for Wedding), is a unique custom for the Kodavas. This custom of the past was during Tiger hunts. The first brave person who would dare to touch the tail of the felled Tiger (to figure out if it's still alive) was wedded to the soul of the animal.
This feat fetched a reward from the Rajah - a silver bangle. The Tiger's carcass was splinted to a wooden frame for the wedding. The gentleman would also be henceforth permitted to wear the Gala Mishi or his moustache in the grand twirled fashion like the Rajah.
During the ceremony, each member of the household followed by his friends, steps up to the groom, sprinkles a handful of rice from a brass vessel on his head, offers a sip of milk to drink and drops a silver coin on his lap. This money goes towards the expenses for a grand dinner, for the community. A traditional Kodava dance around the tiger concludes the ritual.
About Lokall
Lokall is a collective of professionals, experts and practitioners of place making & place branding. Lokall seeks to help enterprises, tourism bodies, planners, developers and governments make places more desirable, more memorable for people i.e. residents, visitors and investors.
With experience design, tourism innovations, product development, storytelling and destination marketing, it helps your place grow what it calls as place capital. The team has helped create award winning destination brands for global markets & audiences.
As a collective it has partners who are extremely diverse in their expertise, skills, adventures and yet share one single passion. A passion to create and develop place brands. Our hands on experience in building destination brands across global markets, creating unique experiences & products on ground and engaging diverse, local communities in imaginative ways, makes us see places in a whole new way.