Shaping Heritage and Culture

Heritage is the expression of all aspects of human mind and its ability to represent its innovation in space and time. No country in the world is devoid of culture that has local significance in terms of the ways of life of the people , their religion, traditions, rituals and social customs. This shapes the aesthetics and environment paving the way for the specific behavior. It develops a whole system of society that has at its core the beliefs which are representative of its existence. As established above heritage incorporates everything that shapes the landscape in comprehensive cultural sense.The curiosity to witness the diversity of nature and natural resources has been the prime motivation that has driven people to travel to seek solace and rejuvenate their mind and body. Tourism is the natural way out to seek this change and release from routine. Tourism has acquired various forms to accommodate within its fold many peculiar human ambitions and desires to give humankind a kind of bail out formula to shun the negativities and fatigue developed by rigorous routine. That is why, tourism includes almost every desire of human mind in its typologies to satisfy the needs, giving humans an opportunity to experience the bounties of nature and genius of human mind.Various forms of tourism have acted as the savior of humans from frustration that accumulates due to peer pressure, immense professional competition and frail health. But culture has been the prominent feature of the human involvement in social life and it has contributed to evolve the philosophy of the religions and the allied belief system. Shaping the consciousness of man has been the prime contribution of nature and interaction between the man and nature has given shape to progression of human life with harmony.This interaction has developed assets that have been carried from ancient times to the present day. These assets whether in tangible or ( in)tangible form make humans curious about their past and stimulate the imagination to seek answers to the questions regarding evolution and continuity. As argued above that continuity is the basis of culture and this continuity assumes the crystallized form in terms of heritage.Religion lies at the root of culture as it holds in its bosom the traditions and rituals that make it sprout in varied forms. Pilgrimage is the oldest form of cultural representation through tourism. As it is evident that pilgrimage never lost significance as the major activity concerning the movement of people to take solace in the ambience of the destination that had religious intent but at the same time it brought to the fore the human activities that gave peep into the minds of the people like food habits, language, music, scripts, dress etc. These allied activities presented the complete whole of the human imagination and the extent of the flight of innovations of humankind. It has not ceased even in the present times when people congregate at the religious places and exhibit all the signs of cultural moorings through their activities that range from offering specific foods to the deities or the special dress meant to be worn on the particular occasions. Even days are fixed for the pilgrimages and then the whole period is the complete package of events that is integral to the whole cultural affair. There are many other cultural events in the rural areas that are meant to celebrate the seasonal harvest and locals assemble to add flavor to their life by relishing the food and delicacies that are peculiar to the events. Jhiri Mela and other Mails(dedicated to local clan deities)in Jammu region are the instances of local involvement of common masses in the cultural affairs.