South India - Tourist Attraction - Folklore Museum - Kerala
The rich and ancient South Indian cultural heritage set the inspiration for Kerala Folklore Museum that has emerged as one of the popular icons of the city of Cochin. George and Annie Thaliyath extended their love for antiques and came up with the idea of establishing a unique museum featuring items collected from different regions and dating to different centuries.
Specialty of Folklore Museum
The three - storey building houses architectural objects that include everything from pillars,temple steps and slabs to animal figures, utensils and doors. These items represent variety of architectural styles, ranging from Arabic and Islamic to Vijayanagar architecture and European styles. Another interesting section is that of musical instruments like veena, violin, sitar, mridangam, chengila and thampuru.
The museum exhibits an exciting section of lamps made of materials like stone, silver, brass and bronze. Masks, varying from human masks and fantasy masks to ritual masks, performance masks and animal masks are truly worthwhile to explore at the museum. Equally mesmerizing are the variety of headgears used in different classical performances.
In the museum, you can explore many other fascinating collectibles that include mural paintings, sculptures, jewelry items, costumes, inscriptions, ornaments, bells and the objects obtained through excavations. There are fabulous items representing the folklore of the long history of Kerala. You can obtain assistance from the museum staff members to learn more about each and every item put on display.
The building also accommodates theaters that act as venues for the classical Indian performance. Kanjadalam, one of the two theaters, hosts the world - famous and mesmerizing dance form performance like Kathakali, Bharathanatyam, Mohiniyattom and many more.
The martial art performances based on Kalaripayattu are also showcased in the theater. The second theater called Kalithattu hosts ritual and folklore art performances like Theyyam, Mudiyettu, Puppet Shows and Oppana.The theaters are admired for their superlative sound and lighting arrangements.