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| Road Trip! The conference participants go on a road trip to the Jingobhai caves |
A recurring theme of these workshops is a ‘cultural outing’.
Last time, when we were hosted by the Indira Gandhi National Tribal University,
we took a day out to visit the famous pilgrim town of Amarkantak, MP. Luckily
for us, fifty kilometres away from the Kumaram Bheem complex in Utnoor – just
across the border with Maharashtra – is an isolated site deep in the hills that
holds special significance for the Gond people.
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| The entrance to the Jingobhai caves |
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| Visiting a holy place in the forest |
The Jingobhai caves lie in the cliffs on the banks of a
meandering river deep in the jungle near a village called Karimera. There is no
temple there – or, at least, not a recognisable mandir – instead, the holy
place is the natural forest and the rock formations. Jingo is one of the Gond
gods. According to some versions of the Gond mythology, Jingo was the protector
or the Gond forefathers. The other major god is Lingo, who taught the Gonds
their culture and language.
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| Carvings and flags that represent the Gond gods |
It's not all fun and games (and prayer) though, after everybody returned to the conference center we all stayed up late into the night working on the dictionary. As things stand now, we are well on our way towards our target of 800 more words, bringing the final total up to around 2200 - a great strt for the standardized dicitonary.
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