Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein has launched the first Tai Khamti heritage archive website and released the book Lik Loka Ping-Nyep, marking a significant step towards preserving the community’s language, literature and cultural heritage. Under Phase I of the project, 471 rare Tai Khamti manuscripts comprising 28,264 pages have been digitally preserved, providing scholars, researchers, students and community members with greater access to valuable texts on Buddhist philosophy, history, folklore, traditional medicine, customary laws and indigenous knowledge. Mein stressed that preserving the Tai Khamti language and traditional script is equally important, noting that 37 teachers have been appointed to teach the language as a third language in schools, while 118 youths have received vocational training in Tai Khamti script and Pali. The multi-phase project will expand to include scholarly translation, manuscript authentication, field digitisation, audio documentation and the preservation of traditional medicine knowledge. An audio recording studio at the Centre for Tai Khamti Language & Folk Culture in Chongkham has also begun documenting chants, oral traditions and spoken language. Mein called for strong community participation, particularly from monks, elders, scholars and young people, and said the initiative could serve as a model for community-led heritage preservation. The project is being implemented by the Tai Khamti Manuscripts Documentation Committee in collaboration with the Nanda Talukdar Foundation under the Tai Khamti Heritage & Literature Society.
