Uttarakhand to focus on ‘Gotra Tourism’ to woo travellers

In an effort to promote ‘Gotra’ (clan lineage), the Uttarakhand Government plans to to offer ‘gotra tourism’ packages to tourists. According to Hindu culture, ‘gotra’ or clan broadly refers to people who are descendants in an unbroken male line from a common male ancestor or patriline. The progeny of seven sages or saptarshi, Gautama and Bharadvāja, Viśvāmitra and Jamadagni, Vashishtha and Kaśhyapa and Shandilya are declared to be gotras.

Announcing the plan a few days ago, Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said that the idea is to encourage visitors to come to the Himalayan state to update their family records, visit places associated with the sages after whom the principal gotras are associated, and in turn, promote the state tourism.

“The tourism department will develop the places associated with the seven sages who are said to have meditated in Dev bhoomi, the Uttarakhand Himalayas. In addition, logos will be developed for each gotra so that people can identify with their gotras in a better manner,” said Rawat.

“We intend to put the details of family genealogies online so that people can get to know about their family history and feel motivated to come to Uttarakhand to get it updated on frequent basis,” said Dilip Jawalkar, Tourism Secretary to TOI.