Travelling Monks is a section dedicated to travellers – who are interested in exploring, experiencing, understanding and participating in art forms & destinations, cultural practices within India. Backed by our community of researchers and practitioners, we hope to offer to discerning travellers, a deep insight into the art practice & an experience which will be truly enriching and fulfilling.
Travelling Monks makes you participate in history, art & culture of a place & allows a deeper understanding of places & practices.
The chief guide/ mentor of Travelling Monks is Pranajit Bose.
Pranajit is a Regional Tour Guide [ ID:RLG/RD(E)/2014/0001 ] of Incredible India, Ministry of Tourism and Culture. He has worked as a tour guide Groups and Free Individual Travellers of Audley, Overseas Adventure Travel US ( Grand Circle Corporation), Explorer UK, Abercrombie & Kent, Cox & Kings, Thomas Cook and a number of other well known inbound tour companies. He has conducted tours for many prominent travellers which includes Mr. Chris Broad & Mrs Rosemary Broad ( parents of English cricketer Stuart Broad ) during T20 World Cup 2016 in Kolkata and a number of other VVIP guests. He has also worked as a tour guide for pandal-hopping of resident US Consul General and other officials in Kolkata during Navaratri Durga Puja 2016 /2017.
He is deeply engaged in arts & culture activities, is a quiz master and also teaches travel & tourism at various well known educational and vocational institutions.
More on Travelling Monks
Travelling Monks is an initiative in sustainable tourism. The intangible heritage of any place is in a state of flux negotiating with the current realities and hence forming new cultures. For most time, the awareness & knowledge about the rituals, practices and its shifting significance is not inadequate or non existent in the community and hence hidden to the outsider. Many a times the traveller feels like a stranger who is consuming and taking some voyeuristic delight from his travel experiences, and forming mis-understanding about the place or culture, which in turn produces and incorrect or imperfect world-view. On the other hand a participative and knowledge based critical approach could open up a whole new world to the traveller, hence making his experience more meaningful and unique.
Hence Travelling Monks aims to use tourism and a mode of unearthing, promoting, preserving, documenting the intangible cultural heritage in communities. This in turn hopefully will lead to a process of positive dialogue within the community about the import and significance of their organic culture, rather being culturally conditioned by a tourism industry constantly culturally conditioning them as a consumer product. The communities interaction with guests, who are more informed about the place and culture will help to forge a meaningful dialogue & open up opportunities for development and growth in a sustainable manner.
So make the most from your travel, quench your curiosity and enrich your life with specially designed residency packages by Traveling Monks .
Travelling Monks has been conducting residencies in India for arts, culture, history, encompassing a wide range of forms including theatre, storytelling, music, visual arts, architecture, festivals, philosophy, cuisine, etc.
Few examples of what you can do are as follows :
– collaborate with local artists to develop your own performances, music, films, etc. We will also help you put together the performance at sites most suitable to your the contexts.
– work on community projects which uses arts & culture for social development and skill development. This may includes things like farming, working in slums areas, working with local and traditional artisans, craftsmen, etc.
– develop deep and authentic insights into local history , arts, culture, philosophies, etc. Learn new skills as you go along.
– understand conflicts and issues through guided tours and lectures by subject matter experts.
If you’re visiting India, with the intent of
- Artistic Collaboration like theatrical production, film production, visual arts projects, performance arts projects
- Culture Education or experiences
- Insights in local history
- Understanding the contemporary social, economic or political situations
We can organize an experience for yourself based on your requirements
We have a resource pool of
- Artists from all spheres, Traditional, Folk and contemporary
- Access to knowledge mentors and guides
- Sites suited to your contexts
- Customized stay packages
- Technical Capabilities
What We offer
- A completely safe and authentic experience, where you get access to the best resources.
- Stay at spaces which are customized to your needs and budgets.
- Assurance of long term collaborations and projects.
If you’re interested kindly get in touch with us at the following coordinates :
Email : sudipta@culturemonks.in
Phone/Whatsapp : +91 8697919308
Culture Monks 