Goa should focus beyond its beaches, project cultural, hinterland and heritage tourism

PANAJI: An innovative tech project – the Goemcho Goenkar project, which is archiving the culture, traditions and heritage of Goan life, spanning from the 1500 to the present, over 4 centuries, is underway as part of the Goa-Mumbai Heritage Forum effort.

There is so much to talk about Goan culture and heritage and we must focus on hinterland tourism, because that is far more richer than merely the sand and beaches, explains says Flynn Remedios, curator of the project.

The coastal state of Goa, one of India’s prime international tourist destinations, is known for its beaches, places of worship, springs, lagoons, forests, grooves, music and moreover its warm and hospitable people in the coastal zones.

The heritage and culture of Goa is influenced by several dynasties, rulers and the last of which being the Portuguese who conquered Goa in 1510, eventually ruling it for nearly 400 years.

Influenced by the Portuguese rule and Latin culture, Goa presents a somewhat different representation of the country to foreign visitors.

Major tourist attractions include the famous Kadamba-era temple located at Tambdisurla, the Basilica of Bom Jesus at Velha Goa or Old Goa, and the Safa Masjid in Ponda, among several others that consist the rich repository of Goan culture and heritage.

Most Goan youth who have lived abroad or in cities like Mumbai and Bangalore since birth have no idea of the age-old culture of Goa and how weddings or family functions were celebrated 3-4 decades ago.

The Goa-Mumbai Heritage Forum aims to create mass awareness via social media and free digital platforms which can be accessed anywhere in the world, about its rich and varied past, traditional food, clothing, existence and goemkarponn or the Goan way of life, says Remedios, who conceived the project in January this year.

We will curate multimedia content of how Goa looked 20 to 40 years ago. Its shacks, old houses, taverns, small village industry and all. With rampant development, roads, highways, bridges, new buildings, etc., the past glory of this state – particularly the coastal zones, whose topography and look is changing every 5 years, may be long forgotten, at least for those Goans who are forced to reside out of Goa for economic reasons.

It’s very imperative that a “free to access” digital library or multimedia encyclopedia of our villages, bridges, places of worship and everything that makes Goa what it is, is preserved digitally for the future.

We will feature hundreds, if not thousands of videos and millions of photographs of every part of Goa, coastal regions and interior villages alike, and interviews with prominent personalities, cultural and youth icons in this mammoth digital archive, Remedios explains.

Each constituency, village and cultural zone will be covered in depth and individually, so if you want to know how your forefathers cooked food in Panchwadi, Shiroda 50 years ago with images and videos, or how Goan youth played football in Navelim, 70 years earlier, or how artisans made the traditional kunbi fabric in the tribal villages of Goa, Goemcho Goenkar and Goa Mumbai Heritage Forum will have that for you in a digital 4D format, accessible from anywhere on the planet.