Video on Aruchal’s Kro-Cheykor festival wins tourism film award

Kolkata/Itagar, Feb 5: A community-based video that captures the intriguing Kro-Cheykor festival of Aruchal Pradesh’s Sherdukpen tribe has bagged the honour for the best tourism film in the state’s tourism awards. The 14-minute video encapsulates the fest celebrated by the Sherdukpen community in Shergaon village in the state’s West Kameng district nestled within thick forests. The documentation is an effort of Genesis 4, a group of youth under 30 who represent different parts of northeast India.

They were trained in the first video documentation batch of Green Hub, a youth and community-based video documentation centre for recording the environment, wildlife and people’s biodiversity in northeast India. The film is a mesmerising record of the rituals and customs that show how Buddhist religious texts were brought from Lhasa and installed in the village.

The Aruchal Tourism Awards also recognised Tawang for the ‘Best Tourist Destition’ of the year (2016-2017), while Pappu Passa Valley bagged the award for the ‘Emerging Destition’ of the year. Ace mountaineer Anshu Jamsenpa was chosen as the ‘State Tourism Icon’ of the year. Tawang Festival won the award for ‘Best Cultural Tourism Festival’, while the awards for ‘Best Tourism Festival (Music)’ and ‘Best Tourism Festival (Adventure)’ went to the Ziro Festival of Music (ZFM) and the Orange Festival of Music & Adventure. Tom Meitei was honoured as the ‘Best Tourism Photographer’ at the award ceremony held recently in Itagar. (IANS)