Museum of Tribal Arts and Artefacts

The main objective of setting up the Institute was to conduct studies on the problems of the tribal communities of Odisha and to serve as a centre for providing data and advisory services to Government on the problems of the Scheduled Tribes and the Scheduled Castes.

In 1955, the TRB attained the official status of a Bureau with the appointment of one anthropologist as Assistant Director of Research and the Secretary of the Tribal & Rural Welfare Department functioning as the Ex-Officio Director. The Research Scholars were re-designated later as Research Officers.

In 1960, the Bureau was constituted as a separate unit under the administrative and technical management of the Assistant Director (Research) subject to the general control and supervision of the Ex-Officio Director it functioned in an office building of its own located in between the state museum and BJB College. The technical and non-technical staff of the Bureau got considerably strengthened to cope up with its expanded activities.

In 1961close relationship with the Department of Anthropology, Utkal University was established with the appointment of Dr. A. Aiyappan, Professor of Anthropology as the Honorary Director of the Bureau who was later re-designated as Honorary Advisor of TRB. As per the recommendation of the TRB Advisory Board under the Chairmanship of the Chief Minister, Odisha, a post of Deputy Director (Research) was created in 1963 and the Government gradually adopted the policy of according the Bureau the status of a full-fledged Directorate.

After the recommendations of Dhebar Commission were made available, the scope of the Bureau was further expanded to cope up with ‘ situations and 3 posts of Research Assistants and 14 posts of the changing Investigators were created and filled up in 1964. As it was needed for further enhancement of staff due to increased workload another Assistant Director, 2 Research Officers, 1 Junior Statistician, 4 Research Assistants, 8 Investigators, 4 Tabulators and other clerical and class-IV staff were recruited.

To expand its activities to the core tribal areas of the state i.e., the erstwhile 3 districts namely Phulbani, Koraput and Ganjam, the second centre of TRB started functioning at Phulbani in 1965. The Bureau at Phulbani functioned for little more than a year and after the Assistant Director of the Bureau was promoted and appointed as the Principal, Tribal Orientation Training Centre at Machhkund in Koraput district, it was shifted to Bhubaneswar and both centers were merged into one vide letter No. TRB l2/66-l 4556/TRW dated 24.6.67.

Later it was decided to integrate the Tribal Research Bureau and Tribal Orientation Training Centre shifted from Machhkund to Bhubaneswar under a technically qualified Deputy Director at Bhubaneswar, and finally they were amalgamated vide Resolution No. 23674/TRW dated 10.10.1972, and Tribal and Harijan Research-cum-Training Institute (THRTI) came into being. Dr. N. Patnaik, an anthropologist, joined as the first regular Director of this Institute on 6.5.1976 vide notification No. 15137/TRW Dated 6.5.1976. By that time while the THRTl’s Research Wing functioned in the BJB College area, its Training Wing functioned in a new building built in a 12+ Acre plot located besides the National Highway in CRPF Square of Nayapali area of Bhubaneswar.