In 1997, 40 Royal Enfield motorcycles ascended the treacherous heights of Khardung La, in the Leh district, the world’s highest motorable pass. Winding through tight switchbacks and thin, oxygen-starved air, the ride mapped the route for the now-iconic Himalayan Odyssey. These adventures laid the ground for a broader project, the Royal Enfield Social Mission, which has worked to support 100 Himalayan communities as they address the growing challenges of climate change. The inaugural edition of its festival Journeying Across the Himalayas is on view at Travancore Palace in New Delhi from December 05 - 15, 2024. The festival includes art exhibitions and installations, music shows, panel discussions, storytelling sessions, photography, performances, stores and food displays, put together by artists and communities with connections to the Himalayan landscape. 

The shape of the wind is a tree

The shape of the wind is a tree by the Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (FICA) is an exhibition by the inaugural cohort of The Himalayan Fellowship for Creative Practitioners, with explorations spanning traditional knowledge, alternative ecologies and contemporary cultural practices. Artist and poet Millo Ankha’s video work replicates an Indigenous ritual of gathering in the forest to braid tree fibres and welcome the onset of spring – four pairs of elderly hands move in synchrony, purposefully braiding an invisible set of fibres, their tactility only for the hands to feel. In the face of climate change, communities have moved on to other occupations and places, leaving behind the generational memory of hand movements. Walking across the exhibition space, which houses photographs, objects and anecdotes, one finds little symbols and arrows painted in pastel pink across the floor, performance cues from dancer and choreographer Joshua Sailo’s work of reconstructing folk performance with a new semantics. Sailo says about his choreography, “We are creating a new lexicon that is more expansive and less prescriptive than the familiar Western syntax. The magic of folk stories, music and practices is that they take a new form with each performer and narrator. Rejecting exactness and uniformity, we honour and celebrate agency within a collective practice, watching folklore shift and expand.” At the far end of the exhibition space lies a small room, its walls and a makeshift ceiling used as screens for a video installation by Soujanyaa Boruah and Shyam Lal. On the floor is a mattress, a staple of the Gaddi communities of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. Around it lie small objects that gesture to the tribe’s nomadic life, their ecological anxieties and their close relationships with the flock of animals they travel with across changing seasons.

The Himalayan Knot

What lies behind the soft, comforting warmth of a pashmina? What can we know of the hands that weave and knit our stylish throws and shawls? The Himalayan Knot project embraces generational wisdom through textiles. From Folk to Fabric showcases textile installations from nine Himalayan regions, alongside the myths and stories they embody. Every weave, heft, colour, hue and imperfection evinces motifs that exist in the society and culture of the communities that make these fabrics. Curator Ikshit Pande says, “Weaving and knitting is the intergenerational transfer of folktales. It is how the adults of these communities make children believe in things. Everything is a story in the end. Even with the research and science behind things, it is not so serious, it is simple and relatable whilst being tedious and labour-intensive. Textile as a practice is a communal one; the ‘product’ is a result of deliberating for hours and days; in its fabric are details (or imperfections) that indicate what the day was like, what the weather was, the state of mind, the mood, the gossip, the pulse of the humans that made it.” These handwoven textiles move beyond the exotic or their position as luxury fashion. With this project, ideas of beauty extend to include indigenity in the popular imagination of what constitutes style and sharp design.

Helmets for India, Art for Change

Helmets become a constant in bikers’ journeys across the Himalayas. Helmets for India, Art for Change treats the protective gear as a canvas for storytelling. 12 artists paint helmets exploring varied themes - Indian women reclaiming public spaces, gender journeys, anti-caste revolutionaries, aspirations of flight, botanical musings and cherished biking memories. From banyan trees lining southern highways to childhood experiences of liberation, each helmet showcases unique perspectives through vivid styles. Siddhesh Gautam’s helmets are in his signature blue, the colour of Dalit pride, forging a path to justice and dignity for all. Karnika Bai of the Aravani Art Project finds joy in her art, saying, “Art has given my journey as a trans woman vibrant colours. I get to express trans joy that challenges the notions people hold about our hijra community, one of destitution and pity. Transness is magnificent; our customs, rituals and community bonds are a celebration.”

The Green Hub

Across the Northeast, the Western Himalayas and Central India, Green Hub thrives as a youth-led, community-driven conservation network, growing steadily over the past nine years. What began as a video fellowship empowering Indigenous youth as storytellers has become a movement for systemic change. From Wanmei Konyak, who restores habitats in Nagaland, to Chajo Lowang and Sara Khongsai whose cameras go beyond documenting native biodiversity in the Tirap district in Arunachal Pradesh to foster hyperlocal conservation discussions and Tsangpo Dawa, who revives yak-herding trails in Sikkim, allowing travellers to experience an ancient way of life, this ecosystem exemplifies how collaboration and innovation drive conservation from the ground up.

With over 50 ongoing projects across the Indian Himalayan region, including compelling architecture and design projects, the Royal Enfield Social Mission fosters diverse initiatives: from promoting rural sports and winter tourism through the Ice Hockey League to establishing Green Pitstops for eco-conscious travellers. Designed by Sandeep Bogadhi of Earthling and Rahul Bhushan of North, these pitstops use rammed earth and mobilise local techniques of building and insulation; they are run and managed by women from local self-help groups. The pitstops advocate for slow travel, prioritising native communities and eco-sensitivity. They have cafes that serve food made from locally sourced ingredients, exhibition spaces and hygiene facilities. Inspired by the pitstops, Journeying Across the Himalayas features The Long Road, an exhibition by artist-architect Vishal K Dar, documenting sustainable architectural projects in the Himalayas through drawings and scale models. It gives audiences a sense of the intersections between design and conservation that are crucial to building projects in the Himalayan landscape. STIR founder and editor-in-chief Amit Gupta moderated a conversation on this topic on December 8, with inputs from Bhushan, Bogadhi and Zeenat Niazi of Development Alternatives.

The mission and its ongoing efforts cultivate opportunities for education, livelihoods and agency for communities. Through practices rooted in memory and resilience, Journeying Across the Himalayas unravels symbiotic relationships with the land, offering plural perspectives from within the Himalayan communities. It compels us to reimagine borders—state, national, personal, relational—and question what purpose they serve in our larger understanding of ‘far-off’ lands and their original inhabitants.