Explore a world of South Asian board games, sports, and athletes from every walk of life.

Sample Activities:

• Track & Field: Learn about Milkha Singh, who survived the partition of India & Pakistan as a child and went on to become one of the fastest runners in the world, and broke records. Experience the thrill of track and field, learn relay techniques, and create your own "championship medals" decorated with South Asian patterns. Along the way, discover how sports became a path to healing and hope for athletes like Milkha Singh.

• Kabaddi: Discover kabaddi, a 4,000-year-old game, and play adapted versions for different skill levels and abilities. Explore how this ancient sport teaches teamwork, strategy, and the power of breath control.

• Chess: Did you know that the history of chess begins 1,500 years ago in South Asia? Learn about the fascinating journey of chess across time and space, learn chess techniques, and play mini-tournaments.

• Kite Flying: Explore the science and tradition behind South Asian kite festivals, where skilled flyers engage in "kite fighting" battles using glass-coated strings and aerodynamic designs passed down through generations. Build and decorate your own kites using tissue paper and bamboo, learn about wind patterns and lift, then test your creations while discovering why kite flying remains one of the most beloved celebrations across South Asia.

Explore the history of South Asian foods, cook food from different parts of South Asia, discover practices like Ayurveda and Unani for healing through food, and learn about food systems and farmers’ struggles in California and South Asia.

Sample Activities:

• Spice Explorers: Did you know there was a time when black pepper was worth more than gold? Learn about the stories that drove the spice trade in South Asia from ancient time, through colonialism, to the present. And of course, plant your own spice garden with seeds like coriander and fenugreek. Play games to identify spices by smell, cook with these spices, and find out how these tiny seeds shaped world history.

• Roti Chemistry: Discover the magic behind roti, naan, and paratha, while learning about gluten development, heat transfer, and the Maillard reaction that creates that perfect golden-brown color. Get hands-on kneading and rolling dough, experiment with different flours and cooking methods, make flavored variations with herbs from our garden, and enjoy the fruits of your labor with homemade chutneys.

• The Journey of Dal: Explore how lentils, chickpeas, and beans have been cultivated in South Asia for over 4,000 years, providing protein-rich nutrition that sustained ancient civilizations and remains a staple food for over a billion people today. Plant fast-growing mung beans to observe germination, sort and identify different types of lentils, cook a simple dal from scratch, and learn why these humble legumes are both an ancient superfood and a key to sustainable future farming.

• Mango Madness: Meet the mango, king of fruits, queen of our hearts, which has been cultivated in South Asia for 4,000 years. Learn mango-based recipes (lassi, pickle, and popsicles). Explore how this fruit is celebrated in poetry, festivals, and family traditions across South Asia, and beyond.

Explore the rich world of South Asia’s performing arts traditions, including music, dance, and drama.

Sample Activities:

• Storytelling Through Kathakali: Enter the ancient art of kathakali dance-drama from Kerala, where performers use elaborate costumes, dramatic face painting, and precise hand gestures (mudras) to bring epic stories to life without speaking a word. Learn basic mudras that represent animals, emotions, and nature, make your own masks using traditional color meanings, and perform a short story using only gestures and expressions.

• Bollywood Beats: Mix your own Bollywood song, and get an instructor to choreograph moves to the song that you can learn, or create your own choreography! Make a music video to your beats to share with your family and friends.

• The Drum Talks: Discover the tabla, twin hand drums that can mimic the rhythms of language itself, and learn how master musicians use complex mathematical cycles to create captivating conversations in sound. Try basic tabla bols (spoken rhythms), create your own rhythm patterns using everyday objects as percussion, explore how rhythmic cycles connect to patterns in nature, and experience the joy of a drum circle jam session.

• Shadow Puppets: Journey into the world of tholu bommalata (leather shadow puppetry), an art form over 2,000 years old from Andhra, where intricately carved puppets dance behind translucent screens, telling tales to village audiences under starlit skies. Design and create your own shadow puppets from paper, cardboard and craft sticks, experiment with light sources and screen distances, write a short script adapted from a folk tale or your life, and put on a shadow puppet performance for fellow campers.

Interested in making your own clothes or building models of the Golden Gate? Interested in learning how to create things sustainably? Join our design week! We will explore 3 South Asian design mediums: digital design, textile design, and architecture.

Sample Activities:

• Block Printing Fashion: Learn about how textiles shaped South Asia’s art and history, from pre-colonial weaves, to the colonial hunger for cotton, to the anti-colonial khadi movement. Block printed fabrics are everywhere in our world, and many have their origins in South Asia. Carve your own printing blocks from potatoes or foam, experiment with natural dyes, print patterns on fabric tote bags or t-shirts, and discover how this ancient art is being kept alive by modern artisans. Learn the labor experiences of these artisans, their struggles, and their hopes, write a letter to an artisan in Jaipur, and hear back from them by the end of camp!

• Bandhani & Tie-Dye: Explore bandhani, in which artisans tie thousands of tiny knots in fabrics to create intricate dot patterns. Learn the basic tie-dye techniques that originated from Gujarat, including the traditional bandhani method. Experiment with different folding and binding patterns, understand the chemistry of dye setting, and create your own wearable art while appreciating the skill of traditional craftspeople.

• Ancient Architects: Step into the shoes of the master builders who constructed long-standing edifices in South Asia. Discover their precise mathematical calculations, perfect symmetry, and innovative engineering techniques. Build your own arch using household materials, and find out for yourself what creates structural soundness alongside beauty.

Camp Kahani is a feminist history summer camp for all girls of color! We build a world where 5-13 year old girls are surrounded by the stories of people who look like them, and get to do hands-on activities inspired by these stories.

Sample Activities:

• Rocket Women: Discover the incredible stories of female scientists, including Black women at NASA, and the Indian women ISRO who led India's missions to Mars and the Moon. Then channel your inner rocket scientist by building and launching seltzer rockets while learning the same propulsion principles that power real spacecrafts!

• Business & Skincare: Learn about Madame CJ Walker who was America’s first self-made woman millionaire, and who built a business around haircare for Black women. Discover the world of herbal skincare from around the world. Create your own bodycare business by making healing spice blends, natural remedies, and aromatic teas while learning the ancient science behind why our grandmothers always said "food is medicine.” Then sell your creations on our last day!

• Creative Writing: Mourning Dove was born Christine Quintasket of the Okanagan people, and she became the first known Native American woman to publish a novel. At a time when Indigenous stories were only being told by colonizers, she fought to tell them herself. Campers will go outside to explore the Berkeley Hills’ indigenous history. They will then do a creative writing workshop to find the story only they can tell.

At The Banyan Tree, we believe that South Asian youth deserve to create stories that represent their lives, particularly because they are unlikely to find those stories in the media.

Sample Activities:

• Monsoon Stories: Explore how the dramatic monsoon rains that drench South Asia each year have inspired centuries of poetry, songs, and stories—from ancient verses to modern Bollywood songs—making weather itself a character in countless narratives. Write your own weather-inspired poetry and short stories, and learn about how climate patterns affect literature.

• Filmmaking: Did you know that Bollywood was inspired by the Parsi dramas of 20th-century Bombay? Discover more fun facts about the South Asian film industry, and make your own short film. Learn basic cinematography techniques (framing, lighting, angles), storyboard your own short film inspired by everyday observations, and explore how you can combine South Asian storytelling traditions with filmmaking.

• Reporting from Family History: Explore the powerful tradition of South Asian journalism that speaks truth to power. Examine how writers and reporters have documented major historical events like independence/partition through personal narratives, investigating facts while honoring human experiences. Conduct oral history interviews with family and/or community members, learn journalism skills for writing and reporting a feature piece, and create a multimedia piece for The Banyan Tree’s quarterly, Mausam Magazine.