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At the beginning of 2005 Rolf Killius spent two months in the Kutch District of the Indian state of Gujarat. On behalf of the Grassi Museum Leipzig in Germany, he conducted research on the construction of a traditional roundhouse a Bhunga made of clay and reed, to be constructed for the museum's new permanent exhibition. The Bhunga building, along with its farmyard, is intended to reflect the cultural, social, and religious as well as the complicated ecological conditions in which its inhabitants live. Kutch shares a long border with Pakistan. Thus, over the centuries various sections of the population have mixed as people migrated to and from the area. With the support of many local aides and the co-organiser Aarif Khatri, Rolf succeeded in engaging five Meghwar crafts people (2 women and 3 men) from the village of Hodka. In the summer of 2005 these people built a traditional Bhunga farm house and a roofed kitchen, along with complete interior and exterior decoration inside the ethnographic museum Leipzig. |
