By RIA Novosti
Moscow : A new Indian cultural centre – the Indian House – will soon come up at the 84-acre multicultural Ethnomir complex in the vicinity of the capital to help Russians know more about the country.
The centre, the groundbreaking ceremony of which took place Thursday, will include an exhibition hall, a yoga hall, an Ayurvedic medicine room, an Indian restaurant and a guest house.
The construction, planned by architect Koushal Choudhry, is to be completed in 2009, officially announced as the year of India in Russia. It will host cultural events, exhibitions, meetings, conferences and seminars.
The Ethnomir complex, 90 km west of Moscow in the Borovsky district of Kaluga Region, will have 52 ethnic cultural centres of different countries.
“What we want is to familiarise young Russians with other cultures. We believe it is good for young people’s mentality. India has become much closer now,” said Borovsky District head Viktor Ternikov, adding that the project also offered commercial viability though that had not been the original idea.
Igor Soldatenkov, a Merited Artist of Russia and chairman of the Kaluga governor’s Council on Culture, said many Russians who had never been to India would be able to learn a great deal about that country at the centre.
Ramesh Chandra, Counsellor (Information), Embassy of India, expressed the hope that Indian House would further strengthen Indian-Russian friendship.
Ethnomir was established in 2006 and is supported by the Russian Commission for Unesco, Russia’s Education and Science Ministry, and the Ministry of Culture and Mass Communications.
Ethnomir has offered programmes highlighting several nomadic cultures since 2006. It has traditional ethnic dwellings – around 40 ‘yurts’ from Tibet, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tuva, and ‘tipi’ of North American Indians.
The construction of a Russian House began in 2007, and there are plans to build Japanese, Chinese and Australian centres there.