NETRAKONA. Aug 7: Birishiri is a small rural centre near Durgapur upazlla headquarters. It is the centre of cultural, religious and educational activities of tribal Garas and Hajongs. Birishiri is situated on the other end of a 30 km long road connecting from Mymensingh and 20 km from Netrakona. Durgapur and adjacent Dubaura and Kalmakanda upazilas have a large population of tribal people mainly Garos and Hajongs. In 1977 this academy had been established to promote the cultural. educational and other activities of the tribals.

Research Officer of Birishiri Tribal Cultural Academy Sreejon Sangma told this correspondent that this academy stands on three acres of land. The main centre is a two storied big L-shaped building. There is a separate auditorium near the main building. The auditorium has ail modern facilities with 1000 seats for audience. The stage is quite large and has multi-colour lighting system. Such a modem auditorium in a remote area is quite unthinkable.

The ground floor of the main building Is used as office. There is a separate rehearsal room. All four walls of the rehearsal room are covered with mirror so that artistes can see their images in the glass.

There Is another spacious room for keeping old tribal artifacts. A huge collection of old cultural attributes are scattered all around. Sreejon Sangma told this correspondent that the

objects are piled here and there for lack of space. He said that they needed a complete museum to keep old artifacts of the various tribes. Without that it is quite impossible to preserve those things in a proper manner. He informed that they had requested the Cultural Ministry repeatedly to establish a tribal cultural museum. But there Is no positive response till now. he added.

There is also a library, but it is not self-sufficient.

Sangma informed that adequate money is needed in the academy. Immediately after the establishment of the academy they had requested the Ministry of Cultural Affairs to arrange a special periodical broadcasting on tribal culture. Every Friday Bangladesh Betar broadcast "Shal Gittal," a special programme of Garo culture.

Many foreign NGOs are active here. Garos have been benefited in terms of money and education. But their own culture and tradition are about to be vanished. The academy has Liken initiative to preserve the Garo culture.

The grand success here is the invention of own alphabet of Garo language. Garo language had no alphabet. Still it is written in English alphabet. Three Garo scholars John iTirosin Rlchll, Daniel R Ruran and Martin Rcma invented a set of alphabets for Garo language. They have submitted their thesis at Academy for approval. This Is a great achievement." said Sreejon Sangma.

However, the Assistant Director of the academy said fund

crisis is hampering the activities of the academy.

The academy runs a three year long course on tribal cultural activities namely traditional dance, songs, lyrical drama and folk festivals, Twenty students can get admitted in every session. There is one music teacher and one dance teacher who run all the courses. The students who can show excellence In the training course may get scope of being appointed as the staff artiste of the academy. A staff artiste gets only a poor honorarium. Moreover. staff shortage hampers the academy's activities to a great extend. Though three posts of Deputy Director has been created yet no one has been appointed to All up the posts. Only one Assistant Director has been appointed against vacancy of three posts tn the same position. There is a post of Curator. But no one has been appointed in this position so far.

Similarly one post of engineer is vacant. The academy authorities have been requesting repeatedly to the government to establish a museum. But the government is not responding to it.

The academy's transportation facility is poor. At least four Motorblkcd and one Jeep arc badly needed to run and monitor various programmes. But there are only three motorbikes, one of which is always lying out of order.

However. Blrishlri Cultural Academy is yet to be established as a full-fledged academy. It needs much more attention from the government.