|
1. Description of Our Community
oimbatore is a budding city in Southern India, in the state of Tamil Nadu. The Manchester of South India, commonly called as “Kovai”, is well known for its Siruvani water – the second sweetest water in the world. The Kongu Tamil spoken here is popular for its beautiful slang. Situated in the Western Ghats, it is known for its pleasant and cool weather. It is also a major textile, industrial, commercial, educational, information technology, healthcare and manufacturing hub of Tamil Nadu. Located on the banks of River Noyyal, it is a city which has a wide branch in all the fields available in the world. But one particular field for which our region is quite famous is the art of handweaving. Coimbatore is surrounded by numerous cities and small towns handweaving. This ancient art form which dates back to the Harappa civilization is an art which has amazed people from all over the world with its intricate weaving and sharp details. Indians are very religious and follow their culture and traditions with strong belief. This strong cultural belief is what unites India. Our community may be geographically limited, but our views and ideas stretch out to the whole world as from a single soul named “India”.
2. Summary of Our Project
Hand weaving, the art of forming a fabric by interlacing at right angles two or more sets of yarn or other material. It is one of the most ancient fundamental arts, as indicated by archaeological evidence.According to legends in Hindu mythology, Kanchi silk weavers are the descendants of Sage Markanda, the master weaver of Gods who is supposed to have woven tissue from lotus fibre. Also, while cotton is considered to be the most lovable fabric of Lord Shiva, silk was preferred by Lord Vishnu. Kanchipuram became prestigious during Krishnadevaraya's era. There were two weaving communities, • Devangas • Saligars Even today the people living around Kanchipuram take weaving as their main profession.
3. Our Computer and Internet Access
A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:more than 50%
B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom:none
C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dial-up modem
D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:1
E. Additional comments concerning your computer and/or Internet access (Optional):
Internet played a major role along with our field visits and research in developing our project. It helped us verify our facts and get additional information to support our project.
4. Problems We Had To Overcome
1. Description of Our Community
Coimbatore is a budding city in Southern India, in the state of Tamil Nadu. The Manchester of South India, commonly called as “Kovai”, is well known for its Siruvani water – the second sweetest water in the world. The Kongu Tamil spoken here is popular for its beautiful slang. Situated in the Western Ghats, it is known for its pleasant and cool weather. It is also a major textile, industrial, commercial, educational, information technology, healthcare and manufacturing hub of Tamil Nadu. Located on the banks of River Noyyal, it is a city which has a wide branch in all the fields available in the world. But one particular field for which our region is quite famous is the art of weaving. Coimbatore is surrounded by numerous cities and small towns which do the weaving work for the people around. According to legends in Hindu mythology, Kanchi silk weavers are the descendants of Sage Markanda, the master weaver of Gods who is supposed to have woven tissue from lotus fibre. Indians are very religious and follow their culture and traditions with strong belief. This strong cultural belief is what unites India. Our community may be geographically limited, but our views and ideas stretch out to the whole world as from a single soul named “India”.
2. Summary of Our Project
India, during the time period 900-1400 AD became the hub for sculpting big monuments and statues. Every day, a new monument rose up with such crystal clear details that would leave one mesmerized. But as the days passed by, the art of sculpting was overtaken by various other jobs as the most dominating job in India. By the 1700’s, it was reduced to a few. But still there are many cities and towns in the present age like Mahaballipuram, Thirumurugan Poondi, Myladi, Perur and several areas around Coimbatore that still have kept the art of sculpting intact. These cities sculpt beautiful statues of Gods and Goddesses which are mostly kept in temples for …
5. Our Project Sound Bite
1. Knowledge – This project has definitely opened our eyes about the long forgotten art of Weaving. By the intensive internet research we have done, we learnt a lot of new information that we were not aware of earlier. And the field visits to the weaving areas made us ponder upon the stages of transformation of a raw shapeless thread to a beautiful garment – a true marvel we had never witnessed before. 2. Money doesn’t matter always – While interviewing the weavers and artists, we found out a fact about the workers – that even though they were not paid very well, they still did not leave their job – they work because it gives them satisfaction. 3. Patience – Watching them carry out their weaving patiently to prevent any damage to the cloth instilled the importance of patience in our life.
6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?
The subjects in our regular school curriculum are pretty diversified; there is no chapter or any mention on the art of Weaving. But there are many chapters and many topics related to our tradition and culture – emphasizing on the need to preserve our unique culture. This art of Weaving is just a part of the vast cultural specialties that India has. This project about the art of Weaving is a part of our ancient culture and it is necessary to preserve this precious art form. Along with all our regular portions, this information will be the “out of the box” information that will help students in their future.
$ We learnt the various techniques in hand weaving
$ we had hands on expertise in handling the silk thread into beautiful saree
$ we have gained knowledge in this beautiful art which we would transfer to all our students community
$ Our educational system should emphasis on such research based projects to have a detailed knowledge in various topics. Our research through Cyberfair has been an initiative to take up such research projects in future.
$ Yes definitely the Internet has played a major role in identifying the various places around our city where Hand weaving is the source of income. We also had video conference session with the weavers away from our city.
| 
