Tribal museum

The Museum of Tribal Heritage at Bhopal was commissioned by the

Government of Madhya Pradesh in 2004. The Museum is designed
to create a built fabric which the tribal communities could identify
with, extend, and evolve, to represent themselves and express their
own ideas and way of life with ease and spontaneity. While the
architecture of the Museum is inspired by tribal rhythms, geometries,
materials, forms, aesthetics and spatial consciousness,
these very qualities are now acting as points of inspiration for the
display materials being created by tribal artisans, supported by
anthropologists, sociologists and social workers.

Location:
Madhya Pradesh Tribal Museum
Shyamala Hills, Bhopal 462002, Madhya Pradesh, INDIA.
Phone: +91 755 2661948, 2661640
Email: contact@mptribalmuseum.com,
mplokkala@rediffmail.com.
Structure:
Built on a site of seven acres, the galleries are raised above the ground on columns,
forming a continuous, multileveled veranda, following the contours of the sloping,
rocky terrain.
The structure is built of steel tubes, castellated girders, and steel rods
fabricated into intricate trusses.
Steel seemed to be a natural choice in the land & location of ancient Iron Age
& Bronze Age civilizations, and the contemporary truck body building
industry.
The roofs are made of half-round tiles, galvalume sheets and concrete with a
topping of grass and groundcover.

i beam

steel tubes
Circulation:
After entering person has 2 choices
whether to go to the museum display or
to the warehouse.
After entering the main museum
circulation path has been defined to
make visitors go to through the same
passage and experience the whole
museum.
A separate passage way has been
defined for the peoples with the office
related work.
Special care has been taken for the
movement of the physically challenged
visitors.
A central area for seating for the
fatigue.
Central area was created around
the small manmade lake with
ducks. Making the view quite
relaxing.

Requirements of tribal
museum:
 1. Parking 2. Service entry
3. Reception 4. Shop
5. Administration 6. Open air theatre
7. Exhibition area 8. Washrooms
9. Water facility 10. Open air courtyard

Materials of building:

Walls were made up of local stone left exposed.

Other walls were made up of brick plastered
with crushed stone on the outside and mud plaster on the inside.
The roofs are made of half-round tiles, galvalume sheets and
concrete with a topping of grass and groundcover.
The plant material is composed of largely local forest species.
The landscape is designed to collect and store rain water,
to be used for both cooling and irrigating the green roof, and gardens.

Display:
Best thing about the tribal museum, Bhopal was its way of
displaying tribes and different cultures. People can actually
touch the sculptures. They can feel the material. All the
sculptures and other show casing things were created by the
tribal people themselves using the basic and old techniques.
As there were no rare things in displays, so there was no
requirement of the conservation lab. Instead of conservation lab
there was a warehouse made for the restoration of the displays
and the sculptures. Large and bigger halls provide the
Sufficient space to display big things and yet making the
Circulation easy
The gallery has been divided into 4 parts:
Gallery 1:- The gallery showcases cultural diversity of the state. The gallery has been arranged so that all-encompassing culture of
Madhya Pradesh emerges before visitors automatically. A huge
tree is shown in the midst of map of Madhya Pradesh. Below
the map, geographical presence of all major tribal clans of
Madhya Pradesh has been displayed through significant
symbols.
Gallery 2:- Tribal lifestyle has been displayed in this gallery. Here a huge food grain
container has been re-constructed. Information about diverse aspects of tribal life has
been given through ultramodern methods. Changes witnessed in tribal dwellings
during last 5 to 7 decades have also been displayed.

Gallery 3:- This is aesthetics gallery where tribal cosmetics have been displayed apart
from phases of tribal life, rituals, festive songs pertaining to festivals and auspicious
occasions etc. There is a marriage canopy in the midst of the gallery. Effort has been
made to personify events pertaining to seasons and agriculture, ballets, attires and
elegance.

Gallery 4:- This gallery has been presented like a Dev Lok. It has been decorated with
twinkling stars and constellations. Apart from deities of state’s Gods and Goddesses,
Lingo Dev ki Gudi and Madiya Kham etc. of Bastar have also been displayed in it.
Other exhibits include Malwi Mata ki Gudi, Sheetla Mata ka Sthan, Ghotul,
Karmaseni tree and a street in which potter, waterman, blacksmith, gold smith’s
houses and tools have been displayed.