Royal Enfield Social Mission announces the programming lineup for the second edition of Journeying Across The Himalayas, its annual multidisciplinary festival dedicated to celebrating and safeguarding the cultural and natural heritage of Royal Enfield’s spiritual home, the Himalayas. Following its successful debut last year, the 2025 edition will be held from 4th to 10th December 2025 at Travancore Palace, New Delhi, bringing together artists, practitioners, and communities from across the Himalayan region for a week-long celebration of culture, craft, and collaboration.
Anchored in this year’s curatorial theme, ‘Ours to Tell’, the festival will present a layered exploration of the Himalayas as a living archive of memory, identity, and resilience through exhibitions, performances, dialogues, workshops, and culinary experiences co-created with Himalayan communities and collaborators.
Bidisha Dey, Executive Director of Eicher Group Foundation, the CSR arm of Royal Enfield, said: “The second edition of Journeying Across The Himalayas brings together voices from across the region through rich creative expression. A melting pot of diverse narratives, the festival becomes a space for celebration - where community members, artists, and creative practitioners share their stories in their own words. This year, the festival opens a gateway into the lived experiences, crafts and culture of Himalayan communities, reflecting their expressions and spotlighting the theme “Ours To Tell”.
This year’s edition brings together an expanded line-up of curations and collaborations, highlighting the depth and diversity of cultural expression from across the Himalayas.
Programming Highlights
1 Installations & Exhibitions
Bridging Spaces; Living Roots!
An interactive, multi-sensory installation by Sumant Jayakrishnan crafted from recycled fabrics and materials, using light and reflections to evoke the magic and beauty of Meghalaya’s living root bridges.
Crown
A large-scale metal and mixed-media sculpture by artist Dhruvi Acharya, created from dismantled motorcycle parts, forms the centrepiece of the Helmets for India installation. Shaped as an exploding sphere, the work reflects on impact, fragility, and collective responsibility. Sculptural drops in cement, resin, and ceramics emanate from the sphere, evoking both loss and renewal, while an inscription at its base anchors the piece to the mission of road safety and awareness.
Echoes of the East
An interactive exhibition by Julie Kagti tracing endangered languages, draping traditions, and harvest festivals from Northeast India, presented through soundscapes, textile displays, and seasonal rituals. The exhibition centres the intangible cultural heritage of Northeast India, with a special focus on its Himalayan communities. Through three interwoven zones, the exhibition invites visitors to engage with traditions that are often unheard, untranscribed, or unseen, yet remain deeply alive in memory, labour, and everyday rhythms.
Materials of Everyday Life: Mapping the Material Culture of the Himalayas
Material Library of India, a think tank that questions everyday materiality, presents an installation exploring circularity and material innovation in the Indian Himalayan region. The project engages with communities, materials, and design practices that reflect regenerative futures and bring visibility to local, sustainable systems shaping the region’s evolving material culture.
Materials Lab Feature
Curated by internationally renowned materials expert Chris Lefteri, the installation offers a deep dive into the evolving world of materials and finishes that define contemporary interiors. Bringing together designers, makers, and industry professionals, the feature is presented in partnership with Design Mumbai and it showcases the role of material intelligence in shaping the future of design — from sustainability and tactility to innovation and craftsmanship.
The Cult of the Machine: An Immersive Helmets for India Experience by SFAC
Helmets for India extends its vision through a travelling exhibition housed within a custom-designed container, a mobile space that reflects the movement and materiality of the roads it travels. The exhibition looks at how design and engineering can coexist with empathy and expression. Each helmet reinterprets the familiar form through craft, material, and concept, turning an object of safety into one of reflection and care. The exhibit will feature twelve artists (Ashna Malik, Ishaan Bharat (Osheen), Nabi, Srijan Jha, Khatra, Kapil Jangid, Shweta Sharma, Jigmet Anglo, How Are You Feeling Studio (Doyel Joshi & Neil Ghosle Balser), Martand Khosla, Vibhla Galhotra, Mo Naga) from across India coming together to reimagine the helmet — an emblem of motion, masculinity, and modernity — as an artefact of care.
Live Sand Mandala
A representation of ‘Compassion’, monks from Namgyal Monastery, Dharamshala, will curate a live Sand Mandala, offering an immersive glimpse into the richness of the Tibetan Mandala tradition while preserving its essence and cultural depth. A sacred practice symbolising impermanence, the Sand Mandala is created only by monks with special knowledge and skill. Traditionally kept within the monastery, it began to be shared publicly only on the advice of His Holiness, underscoring its profound spiritual significance.
The Himalayan Fellowship for Creative Practitioners showcase
The culminating exhibition of the second cohort of the Fellowship (2024–25), presented by the Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (FICA) will feature a series of artistic projects rooted in the lived experiences and contexts of the Himalayan region. The exhibiting artists include Arieno Kera, Tsetan Angmo, Wasim, Lalsangzuala, Tetea Vanchhawng, Veecheet Dhakal, Zainab, Kesang Thakur, Zeeshan, Nabi, Sagar Saurabh, and Thodum Victor.
Sacred Nature
An immersive installation by Aranyani, envisioned as a space where art, ecology, and spirituality converge. Drawing from the organic geometry of sacred groves, the route made of invasive lantana curves inward, surrounded by a serene cluster of Himalayan plants — a living metaphor for balance, interconnectedness, and the sacredness of nature.
II Culinary Experiences
Memory on a Plate: A show & tell of Dimasa food traditions
An intimate 45-minute session curated by Avantika Haflongbar will offer a rare introduction to the plant-based, foraged culinary heritage of the Dimasa community from Assam’s Dima Hasao district. The experience will trace ancestral food practices rooted in the forest and the field, connecting taste with memory, ecology, and identity.
Stendel
An immersive and interactive culinary experience by Kunzes Angmo that foregrounds the culinary heritage of India’s Trans-Himalayan region through storytelling, presentation, and tasting. Using the foodways of Ladakh as a narrative lens, the session links cuisine with memory, landscape, and history, illuminating how food continues to shape cultural and ecological identities.
Sarai Kargil
An experiential culinary experience by Yash Saxena exploring the world of Kargili foodways through stories of soil, survival, and shared humanity. Through taste and storytelling, the session connects personal and collective memories, revealing how food becomes a medium for resilience and belonging.
III Workshops
Fundamentals of Fiction Writing
The workshop by Dhruv Sehgal introduces participants to the fundamentals of fiction writing, helping them develop their narratives with clarity and purpose. By exploring key principles such as the character’s objective, internal and external conflicts, and the thematic premise, participants will learn how to shape a story’s core structure — from simple outlines to more layered plots — and gain practical tools to weave compelling narratives.
The Game is ON
An engaging, play-based workshop by Peeyush Sekhsaria explores the role of games in communicating ideas of nature and conservation. Led by Peeyush Sekhsaria, the session introduces participants to the use of games as tools for education, research, and community building. Through interactive play, discussions, and hands-on design exercises, the workshop highlights how play can inspire learning, foster collaboration, and create meaningful connections with the natural world.
Art for Nature
Led by ecologically conscious artist Manveer Singh, known as Plasticvalla, this interactive workshop engages children in reimagining plastic waste as art. Using discarded materials collected from everyday life, participants will create crafts inspired by Himalayan endangered species such as the Red Panda and Satyr Tragopan. The session aims to spark awareness about recycling, sustainability, and individual responsibility, transforming waste into a tool for creative learning and environmental dialogue.
Clay Narratives from the Himalayas
An interactive clay workshop that explores the Himalayas as a living archive of stories, identities, and craft. Led by the design studio Milimeter, the session invites participants to engage with clay as a medium of storytelling, hand-building small objects inspired by Himalayan traditions, textures, and memories. Co-led by a local potter from the region, the workshop reflects on clay as both a tactile and symbolic material that connects community, craft, and landscape.
Postcards from the Future
An interactive session curated by Sweety Taur and Gaurav Juyal from Prolog Collective that explores the impact of travel and climate change on the fragile Himalayan ecosystem. Through guided discovery and hands-on creation, participants will design imaginative postcards envisioning a future shaped by responsible travel and environmental awareness.
Performances
The festival’s music curation brings together an intergenerational lineup of artists from across the Himalayas, tracing the soundscape of the mountains through folk traditions, contemporary voices, and cross-genre collaborations. Some of the many performing artists include:
Lou Majaw, Rudy Wallang & Joi Barua together for the first time ever
Three of the most influential voices from the Northeast come together on one stage for the first time. Pioneers of the region’s rock and blues sound, their collaboration marks a landmark moment in India’s independent music history, bridging generations and geographies through song, storytelling, and soul.
EvenFlow
Trailblazers of Mizoram’s blues scene, EvenFlow are the only traditional blues band from the region. Fronted by vocalist Chali, with Kima and Eric on bass and drums, the group brings technical mastery and emotional intensity to the stage, fusing classic blues energy with a distinctly Mizo spirit.
Balti Ghazal
A popular part of communal gatherings in the Nubra Valley, Ladakh, Balti Ghazals, akin in form to Urdu ghazals, feature romantic and sentimental lyrics.
rary folk-rock quartet formed in 2017, creating genre-fluid music that is both grounded and nomadic, fusing Nepali folk and South Indian rhythm; rock, hip-hop and soul.
Girish & The Chronicles
Known for their electrifying performances and powerful rock sound, Girish & The Chronicles have shared stages with global acts such as Guns N’ Roses, Skid Row, and Nazareth. Led by vocalist Girish Pradhan, celebrated for his exceptional range and commanding stage presence, the band’s set blends originals and rock anthems in a high-octane showcase of Indian hard rock.
Festival Shops
The Himalayan Bazaar curated by Puneeta Chadha Khanna, will showcase craft, culture, and creativity from across the region, letting audiences engage with Himalayan artisans firsthand. With food stations serving authentic Himalayan dishes passed down through generations, one can enjoy the culinary experiences and celebrate food as a living archive, connecting visitors to the flavors and traditions of Himalayan communities.
Dialogues & Discussions
The festival will spark dialogue through panel discussions with thought leaders, practitioners, and community voices on themes from sustainable tourism and conservation to textile collaborations, climate resilience, cultural heritage and Intangible Cultural Heritage practices. Spotlight sessions will offer informal spaces for personal stories and lived experiences, while closed-door roundtables will drive solutions for collective action on climate, tourism, and circularity.
