GUWAHATI: Three people from Assam are set to receive the prestigious Padma Shri award for the year 2023, as announced by the Ministry of Home Affairs in a press release on January 25.
The three people who have been selected to receive the Padma Shri are Hemoprova Chutia and Hem Chandra Goswami in the field of Art, and Ramkuiwangbe Newme.
Hemoprova Chutia is an artist who is widely known for weaving the entirety of the Bhagavad Gita on a cloth. She also weaved the English version of the scripture on a 280 feet long and two feet wide cloth, a task which took her almost three years to finish. She has received several awards for her weaving, including the ‘Bakul Bon Award’, the ‘Aai Kanaklata Award’ and the Assam government’s ‘Hand-loom and Textile Award’. She is also a recipient of the Assam Gaurav Award and hails from Moran in the Dibrugarh district of Assam.
Hem Chandra Goswami, an artist from Majuli, is well-known for making lifelike masks in the Sattras (monasteries) of the largest river island in the world. He has drawn masks of various mythological figures of India including Surpanakha, Ravana, Narasimha, Hanuman and Garuda. He was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2018. He runs a school of mask-making in Majuli and is also renowned for his skill in makeup for Sattriya, an Assamese classical dance.
A native of Dima Hasao, Assam, Ramkuiwangbe Newme is a social worker who is known as the ‘Hero of Heraka’ for preserving and promoting the Heraka faith and traditional culture of the Heraka people. He transcribed the Heraka religious text "Tingwang Hingde" and founded ten primary schools throughout his life. He has also promoted women's education throughout his life.
