Under the popular museum series ‘Exhibit of the Month’ of Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya, a traditional object is displayed in the appearance for a month. The exhibit for the month of November, 2019 - “Soi Plong - A Jacket for Female” from Tinsukia, Assam is on display in the indoor exhibition building – Veethi Sankul.

The 'exhibit of the month' has been inaugurated by Prof Sarit Kumar Chaudhuri (Director, IGRMS). Dilip Singh (Joint Director, IGRMS), and renowned people present on this occasion. This exhibit of the month has been curetted by Shrikant Gupta (Museum Associate).

On this occasion, Shrikant Gupta told that, the present single object exhibition is a decorated female jacket worn by the female members of the tribe as their prestigious festive garment. It also tries to explore the socio-cultural and religious significance of the garment and how it becomes blended and diffused with the local culture.

Traditionally prepared from black velvet cloth, this full-sleeved jacket is worn by the adult female groups as an ethnic garment during festivals and marriage ceremonies. Apart from the black grown velvet cloth as an important material; the white metal buckles and pendants are called significantly used as decorative element. Traditionally, silver metal was used for such kind of decoration but in the past few decades it is now replaced by a composite white metal called SOI that comes from China and Myanmar. Now days SOI metal cups are found easily available in the local market. The use of buckles and pendants in the cloth is also reported to have signified the wealthiness and economic status of an individual or a family.

Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), New Delhi in collaboration with IGRMS, Bhopal organising a three day national Artist’s Workshop at Bhimbetka from November 20 to 22, 2019 as part of the Centenary Celebrations of Padmashree Vishnu Shreedhar Wakankar, who is a great archaeologist and renowned artist too.