Shri Hem Chandra Goswami

I, Shri Hem Chandra Goswami, born on 1st March 1958, am a stalwart Sattriya artist and master craftsman of Bhaona mask making, an art innovated by the great Guru Srimanta Sankaradeva. Acquainted with the Satra environment from my childhood, I completed my HSLC and obtained a Bachelor's degree in Arts and Crafts from the Arts and Crafts Society, Guwahati. I have dedicated my life to taking the traditional art of making masks from bamboo splits, used in Bhaona and Sattriya Nritya, from a local to a national and international level. My masks are displayed at prestigious institutions like Dibrugarh University, Tezpur University, Srimanta Sankaradeva Kalakshetra, IGNCA New Delhi, IGRMS Bhopal, and in museums across America, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Israel. In 2015, the Chief Curator of the British Museum, Shri T. Richard Blurton, visited Majuli and took five of my masks which are now preserved in the British Museum and were exhibited as "Krishna in the Garden of Assam" in 2016. I have lectured on this heritage at various institutions including Dibrugarh University and Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan, and have established "Sukumar Kala Peeth" at Chamaguri Satra, Majuli to teach the new generation. I have been honoured with the La Mezo Da Anand Award 2012, Damodara Deva National Award 2014, Honorary Ph.D. from Gauhati University 2017, Luitporia Lifetime Achievement Award 2018, Sangeet Natak Akademi Award 2019, Achiever Award by Pratidin Time 2022, and the Padma Shri by the Government of India.