RANCHI: As Jharkhand marks 25 years since its formation, the state is set to showcase its unique living megalithic traditions practised by Adivasi communities on the ancient Singhbhum Craton at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting 2026 in Switzerland’s Davos.
Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren will lead an 11-member delegation to the WEF Annual Meeting.
Jharkhand lies on the Singhbhum Craton, one of Earth’s earliest stable landmasses, formed over 3.3 billion years ago. Across this geological base, human communities have for millennia raised megaliths, monoliths and stone circles to mark memory, ancestry and cosmic order.
According to an official communique from the CM’s Office, unlike most megalithic cultures across the world that survive only as archaeological remains, Jharkhand’s stone traditions are still living practices, maintained by indigenous communities who continue to use these sites for ritual and remembrance.
Sites such as Chokahatu in Ranchi district, the largest living megalithic landscape in the Indian subcontinent, continue to receive new memorial stones placed by the Munda community, creating a layered archive of lineage and memory that spans across centuries, it said.
Similarly, at Pakari Barwadih in Hazaribagh, carefully aligned monoliths track the movement of the sun and the Equinox, placing Jharkhand within the global history of prehistoric astronomy.
These stone formations invite comparison with iconic sites such as Stonehenge, reflecting a shared human impulse across continents and millennia to anchor time, death, and cosmic order in stone.
Together with cave complexes such as Isko and the fossilised forests of Mandro, these landscapes form a rare continuum where deep planetary time and living human culture coexist in the same geography.
The State Government believes that by presenting this heritage alongside its economic and development vision at Davos and in the UK, Jharkhand is offering a perspective that is increasingly vital to the global conversation: that long-term growth must be anchored in ecological memory, cultural continuity, and respect for deep time.
This narrative also aligns closely with the India–United Kingdom cultural preservation and cooperation framework, which promotes ethical conservation, museum partnerships, research exchange and the protection of heritage in Situ.
“Jharkhand’s megalithic landscapes preserved not in distant collections but in living villages and forests represent a powerful example of how heritage can be safeguarded while remaining embedded within its communities,” stated the official communique.
The stones of Jharkhand are not remnants of a forgotten world, they are living witnesses, recording ancestry, astronomy, and human resilience across millennia, it said.
From the Stone Age to the golden pages of history, Jharkhand has carved its legacy, and in the modern era, it is playing a vital and decisive role in strengthening the nation’s economy and development.
The Chief Minister’s visit to Davos also aims to present Jharkhand as a major investment destination, rich with opportunities, establishing direct dialogue with leaders of global industry and advance new investment prospects in the State’s priority sectors.
Discussions with multinational and international organisations on potential investments and engagements will be a key focus, alongside positioning Jharkhand as a state with “infinite opportunities’’.