An invite to "MAMANI" The Ethnic Food Festival of Kargil, Ladakh !

India is rich in its art, culture, traditions, heritage and food. Likewise Ladakh too has its own cultural values and rituals. IIP’s commitment in supporting India diversified culture throughout the world got one more feather in its cap when we got this opportunity to document the annual food festival “MAMANI” from Tourism of Ladakh that was curated by Art4Cause who is our regional associate in Ladakh.

IIP students were privileged to be participants to document this ethnic food festival being held at Kargil from 17th to 22nd January 2021. The festival was organised by Ladakh Tourism and was curated by our regional associate @art4rcause. It is our pleasure to support and promote Ladakhi culture in the best of our capacities. IIPians Sheevashish and Kabir both contributed their best in -21 degree temperature. The warm welcome by the localites , the stay and food offered was amazing. Students took the reiki and understood the purpose, the possibilities and planned their work accordingly. The preparations, the people, the mood was on agenda for the first two days…

It was outrageous! when i was Informed about the kargil trip. I still remember it was 2am in the dark star night when I left the hostel for the airport. The flight Take off was impervious and we landed safely. The first thing I saw was the peak mountainous beauty covered with the pearly snow conserved safely by the armed army-mens under the luminous clear sky. while moving forward we had a covid-19 Rapid test on the leh airport. Hopefully the report appears to be negative & we went from Leh to Kargil By road. It was a graceful road experience The long never ending roads covering all the way in adding with popular points like (sangam of indus and zanskar river),(The snow flower valley),(The kargil tourist stop point) etc. Later we reached Kargil and rested. Next morning while covering the street we met locals and got familiar with the area. The people over there were consuming a little interrogative style of manner with a very flabby & delightful heart. Later-on we went for the women’s Ice hockey match. It was an admirable exposure to see the hockey match for the first time.

: IIPian Sheevashish | BFA 1st Year

The next morning students went for the main event for which they were there. “The MAMANI Festival ”(refers to a food fest celebrated in Ladakh – spotted in kargil) every village of ladakh lends a hand on The festival.The different villagers have their different style of cooking and presenting. villages like (Karmana-A, khachay-B, Wakha-C)etc participate in the fest. The villagers also manifest their culture in an impassioned manner through (cultural dance, dialog delivery & Poems etc). The display of antique utensils, the display and the fragrance was in the air. The events were going on in the ground where the people were very much filled with enthusiasm while holding The Indian Flag in their hands. Activities were going on for quite some time…

By the end of the day students rolled back towards the leh airport and took rest and had our flight next morning to Delhi.

“It was a trip of togetherness of getting acknowledged & experience for us. the visuals of sky and landscape views over there were mesmerizing in the fest it was a proud moment to see all ministers of Ladakh including Governors were present there It is one of the major league fest consider in Kargil at last i would like to bow down for IIP who consign me for this opportunity To step in Ladakh!”
– IIPian Kabir Singha | BFA 1st Year

We would like to continue this journey by supporting Ladakh in whatever capacity required there or at New Delhi…