Tourism Potential in DIWALI, RAMLEELA, and PHAGWA

[draja]

In Trinidad & Tobago.

I got an e-mail today from someone regarding the title above.

Excerpts from his e-mail are as follows...

"Interested parties should look into an old position paper which I believe was developed by Winston Ganessingh, then an adviser to the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Port of Spain, somewhere in the early eighties.

I remember Winston telling me that the Chamber had come to the conclusion that TT was barking up the wrong tree in tourism by trying to compete with other Caribbean countries with sun, sea and sand, and Carnival/calypso/steelband.

TT just couldn't compete with places like Barbados, Jamaica etc in the sun/sea/sand category, as our beaches, and tourist facilities were way poorer. Carnival related culture was too short and seasonal for year round tourism, because visitors who arrived before or after Carnival could hardly find any mas, calypso or steelband to appreciate.

So the Chamber suggested to government that TT focus on what attractions it had that other countries near to the North American/European tourist centres did not share.

And the big one they found was ... the Indian community in Trinidad and its "exotic" cultural content. Nowhere else in the Western hemisphere or around Europe could you find an authentic Indian settlement, complete with ethnic food, cultural customs, food, temples and mosques, that was so easily accessible. Transport to Trinidad was easy, the people spoke English, the Indian areas were quite safe, and it was good tourist value for the money.

The Chamber advised that a tourist route be developed that would take the white tourists straight to the country to see a temple and a mosque, visit a cane farming area, get a ride on a buffalo, touch the appetite with some doubles, roti, fresh coconut water, drop in by a Ramayana yagna, a satsangh or a Hindu wedding, get a pundit to read their patra, dress up like a cane cutter family for pictures, take part in any of the current cultural religious events like Divali, Eid, Krishna Janamasthami, Phagwa, Ramleela, etc etc.

The Chamber concluded that there was vast tourism potential there, and very little work to make it happen, and suggested the government consider the idea. The PNM government of course thought the idea was garbage and discarded it forthwith. This tourism plan would focus on Indians, and would put money in the hands of Indians, so it was NO GOOD. RIP.

I believe the other tourism idea brought up by the Chamber was the ecological tourism potential. TT has fabulous flora and fauna concentrated in a tiny island, all of it very accessible to fussy gringo tourists. Venezuela to the south had the same flora and fauna, but spread out widely over huge areas of jungle and not good for tourists. They thought that what we now call eco tourists could do well in Trinidad, and made broad hints to the government.

I understand the PNM government thought it was crap and more crap, for the same reason as the above suggestion. This would mean sending the tourists to Indian areas in the country and the tourist dollars in the ****** man hand. Not into Port of Spain and Maracas.

Time to review the plan? I say yea."

Although our "Carnival Season" is considered an attraction for tourists and T&T is not dependent on tourist dollars, do you think this is worth pursuing.

BTW, a meeting is being scheduled for Saturday September 11th 2010 from 9am to 3pm at Gaston Courts, Chaguanas for anyone interested.

[Sly1]

Here is an up dated version ...............Yup! It is a good idea to diversify!

Diwali Ramleela Phagwa Tourism Council (DRPTC)

and the Tourism Development Company Limited (TDC) of T&T


www.tdc.co.tt www.gotrinidadandtobago.com
invite you to a workshop on
Exploring & Developing the TOURISM POTENTIAL in DIWALI, RAMLEELA, and PHAGWA

Saturday September 11th 2010 from 9am to 3pm.
Gaston Courts, Lange Park, Chaguanas.

This is the first ever workshop and seminar that focuses on the tourism potential of three main Hindu festivals: DIWALI, RAMLEELA, and PHAGWA, and is co-sponsored by the Tourism Development Company of Trinidad and Tobago.

The workshop will be opened by the Mayor of Chaguanas, His Worship Orlando Nagessar; Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Arts and Multiculturalism Honourable Nela Khan M.P. will address the participants; also present at the opening ceremony will be the Honourable Minister of Tourism, Dr. Rupert Griffith M.P., and the Tourism Development Company Ltd.

As the nation moves away from almost total dependence on the energy sector, we need to develop other areas in the economy. Culture and religious festivals are huge revenue earners in many countries in the world; we believe that there is great potential in local and foreign tourism in these and other national festivals.

The main OBJECTIVES of this Seminar/Workshop are to explore the potential of local and foreign Tourism in Ramleela, Diwali, and Phagwa festivals, and to implement measures to nurture and develop this potential, with a PILOT PROJECT in 2010, and a FULL-SCALE PROJECT in 2011. Participants will create a Draft Policy Document that will be presented to the Ministry of Tourism, the Tourism Development Corporation, and the Ministry of Arts and Multiculturalism. DRPTC will also lobby and advocate for implementation of this plan.

DRPTC is a facilitating and advocacy organization composed of members from the Caribbean Hindus and Global Organization of Hindus Facebook groups, Caribbean Hindus Network, and GOPIO Trinidad and Tobago.

[Sly1]

double post?

[guyguy]

I can just see it now; non-Hindus from around the world flocking to Trinidad to witness a play and pelt each other with colouring and watch people house lit up with deyas. Yea! Right! Choooppsss ... dotishness par excellence. What else? Watch people dig up pitch one day and go back to the lake the next day to see it miraculously filled up?

Look here PP government, like it or not, the only worthwhile festival that'll draw enough tourists is Carnival. So organize that properly, ban music trucks, insist on steelbands only, and calypso, soca and chutney as the only music played on the airwaves and forget about wasting money on those other festivals.

The only other tourist attraction would be eco-tourism. T&T has plenty of ecological stuff that can be developed inexpensively that'll draw enough "tree people" to make a few dollars.

[snowbird]

Until T&T understands the 'mindset' of a tourist and by this I mean 'The Westerner' the will continue to come up with these cockamamie ideas.....

like I have said before..... 'most tourist' (and yes, I know there are a handful of bird people.... and eco people).... most tourist come to the Caribbean for three things..... SUN, SAND AND SURF.... and they are attracted to places who can offer this ....at a good price.... and offer them quality (yes, they will bypass one destination to travel if it has a good reputation).... AND SAFETY

All of these other things are nice to know that they there... and we may....or may not take advantage of them.

Here is a website that is very popular with Caribbean travellers.... http://www.debbiescaribbeanresortreviews.com/

everything you could ever want to know on Caribbean travel.... and then some...... but take a look what the focus is lol

we (my family and friends) generally post our reviews on this site after a vacation

[mivs]

[QUOTE=guyguy;252985 forget about wasting money on those other festivals..[/QUOTE]

Guy Diwali,Ramleela and Phagwa maybe not be ah big tourist attraction, I take pride in celebrating these festivals

[guyguy]

Guy Diwali,Ramleela and Phagwa maybe not be ah big tourist attraction, I take pride in celebrating these festivalsmivs,
Growing up in the bush, I celebrated all the festivals. We looked forward to them. I helped my nanny make dozens of deyas, ghee, wicks from cotton, fix up the house - all the usual things that were done in preparation for the festivals. I helped to make Abeer and would mix in the stain from fig trees too.

There is pride in celebrating them and I don't mean to denigrate their celebrations. However, as a money-making tourist attraction, they will not attract the tourist dollar.

[mivs]

All these festivals is ah made up of our Trinbago culture. I read somewhere in another tread there was discussion of culture, with the execption of Carnival, I wonder how many folks does celebrate all these festivals? or knows what the signifiance is?, an jess as carnival is promoted on the airwaves so to all the other festivals are promoted on the airwaves but on a smaller scale.

[draja]

First portion of e-mail correspondence today:



Diwali Ramleela Phagwa Tourism Council (DRPTC)

and the Tourism Development Company Limited (TDC) of T&T

http://www.tdc.co.tt/images/logo.gif



www.tdc.co.tt (http://www.tdc.co.tt/) www.gotrinidadandtobago.com (http://www.gotrinidadandtobago.com/)




WORKSHOP:: Exploring & Developing the TOURISM POTENTIAL in
DIWALI, RAMLEELA, and PHAGWA

Saturday September 11th 2010 from 9am to 3pm
Gaston Courts, Chaguanas.


INTRODUCTORY SESSION
Facilitator: Deosaran Bisnath, Vice-President Caribbean Region, GOPIO International; President of the Diwali Ramleela Phagwa Tourism Council (DRPTC)
and Moderator of Facebook Caribbean Hindus, Facebook Global Organization of Hindus, and Caribbean Hindus Network YAHOO groups.
~~~~~~~
His Worship the Mayor of Chaguanas, Orlando Nagessar; theHonourable Nela Khan, Member of Parliament and Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Arts and Multiculturalism; Senator the Honourable Lyndira Oudit, Acting President of the Senate and Deputy Political Leader of the United National Congress; Ruben Niranjan, President of GOPIO Trinidad & Tobago; Distinguished Guests,Ladies and Gentlemen.

Thank you for attending this workshop, and special thanks to the Tourism Development Company of Trinidad and Tobago for co-sponsoring this event.

Before getting into the workshop discussions let us have a brief introduction on Ramleela, with a few words from two famous sons of our nation - Sir Vidya Naipaul, Nobel Literature Laureate 2001 and Derek Walcott, Nobel Literature Laureate 1992. They write of Ramleela, but these thoughts can be applied to all Hindu festivals.

“On November 25, 2005, UNESCO proclaimed Ramlila one of the 43 new masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritages of Humanity. This performance dates back to the times of Tulsi Das who authored the Ramcharitmanas, a variation of Valmiki’s Ramayana (told c. 300 BCE. The Ramlila sacred performance tradition came to the Caribbean when Indian peasants were recruited by the colonial British government to work, as indentured workers, on the sugarcane plantations that were abandoned by the freed African slaves.
In 2004, Raviji, cultural innovator and spiritual head of the Hindu Prachar Kendra, decided to experiment with Ramlila and the children of Longdenville village, where the last Ramlila was performed in 1972 at Wanderers Ground. He focused on making the children and youths the interpreters, script writers and main performers in the Ramlila with help from the elders. Raviji gave the name Baal Ramdilla to this version of the Ramlila.”
Courtesy Pandita Dr. Indrani Rampersad, a Senior Research Fellow at UTT, and a leading expert on Ramleela, not only in the Caribbean, but internationally:
---

I consider Raviji to be the leading expert on Ramleela in the Caribbean and the Western Hemisphere. Beside Trinidad, Raviji is also involved in bringing back Ramleela to Guyana and is working on important projects there. He as also worked on Ramleela projects in CARIFESTA.
----

From V S NAIPAUL, Literary Occasions --
"One of the first big public things I was taken to was the Ramlila, the pageant-play based on the Ramayana, the epic about the banishment and later triumph of Rama, the Hindu hero-divinity. It was done in an open field in the middle of sugar-cane, on the edge of our small country town [NAIPAUL is talking about Felicity, he lived in the LION HOUSE, in Main Road, Chaguanas.] The male performers were barebacked and some carried long bows; they walked in a slow, stylised, rythmic way, on their toes, and with high quivering steps; when they made an exit (I am going now by very old memory) they walked down a ramp that had been dug in the earth. The pageant ended with the burning of the effigy of the demon king of Lanka. This burning was one of the things people had come for; and the effigy, roughly made, with tar paper on a bamboo frame, had been standing in the open field all the time, as a promise of the conflagration. [This is how Rameela was done in the 1940s and 50s, even in my time as a schoolboy in Felicity].

------ The Ramayana was the more approachable of our two epics, and it lived among us the way epics lived. It had a strong and fast and rich narrative and, even with the divine machinery, the matter was very human. The characters and their motives could always be discussed; the epic was like a moral education for us all. Everyone around me would have known the story at least in outline; some people knew some of the actual verses, I didn't have to be taught it; the story of Rama's unjust banishment to the dangerous forest was like something I had always known.

It lay below the writing I was to get to know later in the city [ST JAMES in the House of Mr Biswas, today you can see the house in Nepal St]…..”

[draja]

Second portion of e-mail received today:

DEREK WALCOTT, from his NOBEL LECTURE, SWEDEN, December 1992:

“Felicity is a village in Trinidad on the edge of the Caroni plain…and on the afternoon that I visited it with friends from America, all the faces along its road were Indian, which, as I hope to show, was a moving, beautiful thing, because this Saturday afternoon Ramleela, the epic dramatization of the Hindu epic the Ramayana, was going to be performed, and the costumed actors from the village were assembling on a field strung with different-coloured flags….and Indian boys in red and black were aiming arrows haphazardly into the afternoon light….
Under an open shed on the edge of the field, there were two huge armatures of bamboo that looked like immense cages. They were parts of the body of a god, his calves or thighs, which, fitted and reared, would make a gigantic effigy. This effigy would be burnt as a conclusion to the epic. The cane structures flashed a predictable parallel: Shelley's sonnet on the fallen statue of Ozymandias and his empire, that "colossal wreck" in its empty desert…. ….
….It was as if, on the edge of the Central Plain, there was another plateau, a raft on which the Ramayana would be poorly performed in this ocean of cane; but that was my writer's view of things, and it is wrong. I was seeing the Ramleela at Felicity as theatre when it was faith.
… They did not have to psych themselves up to play their roles. Their acting would probably be as buoyant and as natural as those bamboo arrows crisscrossing the afternoon pasture. They believed in what they were playing, in the sacredness of the text, the validity of India, while I, out of the writer's habit, searched for some sense of elegy, of loss, even of degenerative mimicry in the happy faces of the boy-warriors or the heraldic profiles of the village princes. I was polluting the afternoon with doubt and with the patronage of admiration. I misread the event through a visual echo of History - the cane fields, indenture, the evocation of vanished armies, temples, and trumpeting elephants - when all around me there was quite the opposite: elation, delight in the boys' screams, in the sweets-stalls, in more and more costumed characters appearing; a delight of conviction, not loss. The name Felicity made sense.

Consider the scale of Asia reduced to these fragments: the small white exclamations of minarets or the stone balls of temples in the cane fields, and one can understand the self-mockery and embarrassment of those who see these rites as parodic, even degenerate. These purists look on such ceremonies as grammarians look at a dialect, as cities look on provinces and empires on their colonies. Memory that yearns to join the centre, a limb remembering the body from which it has been severed, like those bamboo thighs of the god. In other words, the way that the Caribbean is still looked at, illegitimate, rootless, mongrelized. "No people there", to quote Froude, "in the true sense of the word". No people. Fragments and echoes of real people, unoriginal and broken.

…Here in Felicity, I had discovered that one of the greatest epics of the world was seasonally performed, not with that desperate resignation of preserving a culture, but with an openness of belief that was as steady as the wind bending the cane lances of the Caroni plain…. Looking around slowly, as a camera would, taking in the low blue hills over Port of Spain, the village road and houses, the warrior-archers, the god-actors and their handlers, and music already on the sound track, I wanted to make a film that would be a long-drawn sigh over Felicity. I was filtering the afternoon with evocations of a lost India, but why "evocations"? Why not "celebrations of a real presence"? Why should India be "lost" when none of these villagers ever really knew it, and why not "continuing", why not the perpetuation of joy in Felicity and in all the other nouns of the Central Plain: Couva, Chaguanas, Charley Village? Why was I not letting my pleasure open its windows wide? … “

“But in our tourist brochures the Caribbean is a blue pool into which the republic dangles the extended foot of Florida as inflated rubber islands bob and drinks with umbrellas float towards her on a raft. This is how the islands from the shame of necessity sell themselves; this is the seasonal erosion of their identity, that high-pitched repetition of the same images of service that cannot distinguish one island from the other, with a future of polluted marinas, land deals negotiated by ministers, and all of this conducted to the music of Happy Hour and the rictus of a smile. What is the earthly paradise for our visitors?...”

We agree with WALCOTT - that is not our T&T, that is not the T&T we want to market; instead, it is our culture, our festivals, and our lifestyle that matter, not merely the stereotyped ‘rum and sand’ image….

[draja]

Third portion of e-mail received today:

It is up to us to advocate for, and implement, plans and projects so that we can develop these cultural and religious festivals and observances, not only those in Hinduism, but of all religions.
Cultural and religious tourism is not only a potentially huge revenue earner, but extremely helpful in bringing people together in the quest to create a peaceful and harmonious society. In India, many villages, towns, and cities are almost totally dependent on cultural and religious tourism, e.g Haridwar, Varanasi, Vrindavan, Rishikesh. Those of us who have been there can attest to fact that rather than take away from the spirituality, these cities are all the more richer – in both spiritual and material ways; this is also the case in many other cities with religions other than Hinduism.

We know than many Trinis abroad come home for the Diwali and Phagwa; giving lived in he U.S. for several years, I can tell you that they will jump at any opportunity to visit home; targeted marketing in Queens, Toronto, DC, Florida, London, LA….marketing in Richmond Hill, Liberty Avenue, New Jersey, Long Island…

Also local tourism…many of us are not fully aware and informed of festivals and events by all the different race and religions; we still are strangers in some regards – this leads to misinformation, misconceptions, and hinders national unity. e.g. RAWAN – burning of etc; negative but false stereotypes…

Here is an example of a tourism package for visitors – Diwali Nagar or Ramleela at nights, depending on the time of year; one day in POS – including St James Mandir; one day on Waterloo/Carapichaima – Hanoman Murti, Indian Museum, Temple at the Sea; one or more days in South – Triveni Mandir; Debe/Penal area… Rio/Grande area…then Diwali night in Felicity, with information and entertainment booths, food (veg) and drinks (non-alco), performances, traffic controls and management to avoid gridlock as happens now….

This is another example extracted from an e-mail I got:
“….a tourist route be developed that would take the white tourists straight to the country to see a temple and a mosque, visit a cane farming area [or rustic rural area, what we call bush], get a ride on a buffalo, touch the appetite with some doubles, roti, fresh coconut water, drop in by a Ramayana yagna, a satsangh or a Hindu wedding, get a pundit to read their patra, dress up like a local for pictures, take part in any of the current cultural religious events like Divali, Eid, Krishna Janamasthami, Phagwa, Ramleela, etc etc.…”
--
The main OBJECTIVES of this Seminar/Workshop are to explore the potential of local and foreign Tourism in these festivals and consider a PILOT PROJECT in 2010, and a FULL-SCALE PROJECT in 2011. We want to create a Draft Policy Document that will be presented to the Government of Trinidad and Tobago. DRPTC will also lobby and advocate for implementation of this plan.
We know that the People’s Partnership government is ready and willing to help, as outlined in their election manifesto and also by Finance Minister, the Honourable Winston Dookeran, in the recent budget. It is now up to us; ultimately, it is up to us to plan and implement, these are our festivals, this is our culture, this is also national culture, and we should do our best to design and implement projects that will grow and strengthen this extremely valuable component of our society, and the wider world.


We will now break for refreshments and resume the Workshop in about 20 minutes, with the Group Session.


SESSION 2 - GROUP DISCUSSIONS
- Brainstorming with several groups

SESSION 3
– Refining GROUP for draft Policy document

FOLOW-UP
- DRPTC executive and members – arrange meeting and election
-- Finalize Policy Document, send to Govt.

Thanks to TDC.

http://www.tdc.co.tt/images/logo.gif