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An archive of the world’s living traditions

What tradition are you looking for?

4 traditions on record. Every claim sourced.

/⌘K

Tell us where you are by searching a place — the archive meets you there.

Built for study the same way the archive is built — every answer cites its source.

Dance 2Music 0Textile 1Craft 0Painting 1

Colour here marks the family. On every chart and map, colour marks condition only.

Traditions4recorded, with sources
Fading0by sourced assessment
Critical0by sourced assessment
Unassessed · we say so1no citable condition yet

Explore by tradition

Each family’s photography will carry its own dye. The badge is the condition today — the tile never pretends otherwise.

thriving

Kathakali

Dance · Kottarakkarathriving

Madhubani Painting

Painting · Madhubanistable

Kanjeevaram Silk Weaving

Textile · Kanchipuramunassessed

Krishnanattam

Dance · Kerala

Tiles will carry licensed photography, duotoned in the family’s dye. No image renders without photographer, licence and source on file — these gradients hold the space honestly until then.

How we know what we know

Every figure on this site carries its status and its sources. Where two good sources disagree, we will show both rather than pick one. Where nobody has counted, we say nobody has counted.

Confirmed2 sources
When did Kathakali take its present form?
17th century, evolving from Ramanattam
Kathakali — the classical dance drama of KeralaTIER 1
17th century, shaped by Krishnanattam, Koodiyattam and Kalaripayattu
Kathakali Dance-Drama: Where Gods and Demons Come to PlayTIER 2
Kathakali · origin periodOpen the entry →
Uncertain1 source
How old is Madhubani painting?
Unknown
The craft's oral lineage is older than its paper trail; the record begins where sources do.
Oral tradition traces it to King Janaka; documented from 1934 (W. G. Archer)
Madhubani Paintings: People's Living Cultural HeritageTIER 2
Madhubani Painting · origin periodOpen the entry →

What an entry looks like

4 traditions are live today. Each page carries its condition, its evidence, its timeline and the people who practise it.

NO LICENSED PHOTOGRAPH YET
THE PLATE HOLDS THE SPACE HONESTLYAWAITING RIGHTS-CLEARED PHOTOGRAPHY
ARCHIVE / DANCE / KOTTARAKKARA

Kathakali

Thriving — actively performed and institutionally taught
17th centuryfirst attested
unknownpractitioners
4claims on record
Confirmed · Thriving — actively performed and institutionally taught
Confirmed · Kerala Kalamandalam (est. 1930)
Confirmed · 17th century

Open the entry →

A century on the record

Drag through time. Colour is condition, not category.
2026
Tap any point for its name and its state on the record.
1900195020002026
2thriving
1stable
0fading
1recorded, unassessed

Present day, as the sources record it.

Counts are of the 4 mapped traditions, and of nothing else. Grey and dashes mean the sources go quiet, not that nothing happened.
Condition of every recorded traditionn = 4
Thriving 2
Stable 1
Unassessed 1
Unassessed 1 — we don’t know yet, and we say so

Practitioner counts on record

only what a source supports
Kanjeevaram Silk Weaving
GI Tag Product — Kancheevaram Silks and Sarees
~10,000 weaving families
Kathakali
No survey we can cite has counted them
unknown
Krishnanattam
No survey we can cite has counted them
unknown
Madhubani Painting
No survey we can cite has counted them
unknown

Latest in the record

+Dance-Drama · Initial seed.
+Visual Arts · Initial seed.
+Folk & Wall Painting · Initial seed.
+Craft & Textile · Initial seed.
+Performing Arts · Initial seed.

Every change lands in a public, append-only history.

4traditions
15claims on record
19sourced evidence rows
9sources on file
32entries
6need sources

You know something we don’t.

If a tradition from your town is missing here, it is missing everywhere.

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