Published Paper Details:

The present study deals with the archaeological significance of traditional custodianship of indigenous cultural heritage that found among the Meitei ethnic community of Manipur. The Meitei has been possessed rich indigenous cultural heritage that handed down from past generations to present generations. Such indigenous cultural heritage of the Meitei of Manipur comprises many colourful festivals, vibrant customs, wonderful architecture, delicious cuisines, enchanting music, colourful costumes, exciting dance forms and much more. A number of festivals performed almost in all the lunar months of a calendrical year depict their rich cultural heritage demonstrated by their beautiful rhythms of music, dance and songs. The most colourful and important ritualistic festival of Meitei is Lai-Haraoba which means rejoicing of the deities ( Lai = deity and Haraoba = to make merry ) . The Lai-Haraoba can be broadly divided into four types such as Kanglei Haraoba, Kakching Haraoba, Moirang Haraoba and Chakpa Haraoba. The termChakpa means earlier inhabiting people of Manipur. The Chakpa people belong to the major ethnic group the Meitei of Manipur.The villages which have been inhabited by the Chakpa group of people known as Chakpa villages. The Chakpa villages of Manipur are Phayeng, Andro, Koutruk, Sekmai, Khurkhul, Tairenpokpi and Chairen. The Lai-Haraoba performs in these Chakpa villages known as Chakpa Haraoba . Phayeng represents a Chakpa village out of the many Chakpa villages of Manipur. The Lai-Haraoba which has been performed in this Chakpa village Phayeng known as Chakpa Phayeng Haraoba. The present study is mainly focus on the Chakpa Phayeng Haraoba of the Meitei of Manipur. It aims to find out the ideational and/ or symbolic aspects of the Meitei traditional custodianship of indigenous cultural resource within the perspective of cultural resource management ( CRM ) in order to identify their archaeological significance.