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Objects, Entities, Meanings: The Tale of the Dom Worker's Moksha

Part 2 Project 2023
Eldon Ng Yew Keong
National University of Singapore | Singapore
Rituals of death and the meanings behind them are often intangible elements of life, birthed from mere practical instincts shrouded in faith. The thesis explores the absurdity of these practices through the investigation of a land committed to the rituals of death, Manikarnika, India. Submitted to these rituals and enslaved to the caste system are the Dom Workers of Varanasi. Since their birth, they are cursed to be the servants of Death.

The thesis stands as a speculation of how the dom workers can be granted a sense of liberation via the exploiting of an unchanging culture and anticipating the loss of a vital entity (wood) in their sacred belief, the thesis seeks to overcome the crisis through the professionalization of the existing rituals and in doing so, renerate the stature of the Untouchable class of individuals to become ‘Architects’ of Death.

The thesis is written from the position of a young Dom Worker, Aastha. Who authors a book and a series of physical manifestations (models/drawings), in hopes of the possibilities of Moksha (liberation) for the Dom Workers.


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2023
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