The Dances of Tripura refer to several forms of folk dance performed in the state of Tripura in

northeastern India Northeast India, officially the North Eastern Region (NER), is the easternmost region of India representing both a geographic and political administrative division of the country. It comprises eight states—Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, M ...

. These dances are performed by the Tripuri (the largest regional

ethnic group An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, traditions, society, re ...

) and Mog (or Marma) peoples, during annual regional celebrations, such as sowing and harvesting festivals.

The dancers

The Tripuris comprise over half the tribal population of Tripura. They live in the hills of Tripura and are jhum cultivators. Their dances and festivals revolve around the agricultural seasons. Other large local groups, such as the Marmas , Halams, and Reangs share in and conduct their versions of these dance festivals as well.

Types of dances

Goria/Garia

The Tripuris practice ''jhum'', or shifting cultivation and the Goria Puja festival marks the commencement of their sowing season. ''Garia'' is commemorated through the Garia dance that accompanies the prayers and pujas for a bountiful harvest and is held in April. The Goria or Garia dance is performed at the time of the sowing of the crops during the festival, in the month of April, and includes people from other ethnic groups in addition to the Tripuri themselves. The dance is accompanied by

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

and

flutes The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

,Debapriya Deb Barman, ''Treatise on Traditional Social Institutions of the Tripuri Community'', p. 104, Directorate of Research, Department of Welfare for Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes, Government of Tripura, 1984 and consists of both sexes dancing from village to village in a gradually increasing tempo through various

mudra A mudra (; , , "seal", "mark", or "gesture"; ) is a symbolic or ritual gesture or pose in Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. While some mudras involve the entire body, most are performed with the hands and fingers. As well as being spiritual ges ...

which mimic the movements of different aspects of nature.

Hai-hak

Hai-hak dance The Dances of Tripura refer to several forms of folk dance performed in the Tripura, state of Tripura in Northeast India, northeastern India. These dances are performed by the Tripuri people, Tripuri (the largest regional ethnic group) and Marma ...

is a dance which is specific to the ''Halam'' community within the Tripuri. It is performed to honor the goddess

Lakshmi Lakshmi (; , , sometimes spelled Laxmi, ), also known as Shri (, , ), is one of the principal goddesses in Hinduism, revered as the goddess of wealth, fortune, prosperity, beauty, fertility, sovereignty, and abundance. She along with Parvat ...

after the annual harvest, and is typically done at her place of worship.

Hojagiri

''Hojagiri'' is a folk dance performed by young women of the Tripuri people of Reang clan. It comprises four to six members in a team singing and balancing various objects or props on their head and hands, (such as a bottle or an earthen pitcher on the head; and lamps on the hands) while only moving the lower half of the body. Hojagiri dance

Jhum

The ''Jhum dance'' is a dance which is typically performed by girls and boys.

Lebang Boomani

Both men and women participate at harvest time in the ''Lebang Boomani dance''. The men use

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of mostly evergreen perennial plant, perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily (biology), subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family, in th ...

clappers called ''tokkas'' to set a beat while the women join them waving colorful scarves to catch the lebang (colorful insects of the region). The rhythmic play of the clappers is thought to attract the lebang out of their hiding places allowing the women to catch them. The dance is accompanied by musical instruments like the

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

, khamb, the

percussion instrument A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

known as a '' pung'', and the sarinda. Women adorn themselves with silver chains, rings, and bangles; and a;so ear and nose rings made of bronze.

Lebangs

Following Garia, there is a lull in agricultural activity as the Tripuris await the

monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in Atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annu ...

. During this time, hordes of colorful insects called ''lebangs'' descend on the hill slopes in search of the freshly sown seeds. The dancers depict how bamboo clappers are used to catch them. The Tripuris believe that the number of lebangs caught indicate how good the harvest will be.

Mamita

''Mamita dance'' is performed at the Mamita Festival, the harvest festival of the Tripuri people.

Mosak sumani

The ''Mosak sulmani dance'' is a traditional Indian dance. It originated in Tripura as a hunting ritual. It mimics the act of hunting through elaborate gestures.

Owa dance

The dance is one of the traditional dances of the Marma clans of Tripura, who will also perform the Sangrai dance. The Marmas, also known as Mogs, are

Buddhists Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or 5th century BCE. It is the world's fourth ...

; and the ''Owa -Cho -labre'' is one of their main Buddhist festivals. The Mogs celebrate the Owa festival on the full moon day of Ashwin in the

Bengali calendar The Bengali Calendar or Bangla Calendar (, colloquially , or , , "Bangla Year") is a solar calendar used in the Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent. In contrast to the traditional Indian Hindu calendar, which begins with the month Chait ...

. They attend the Buddhist temple, and laterwards launch paper boats or toy boats in the river.

Sangrai

The ''Sangrai dance'' is a traditional Indian dance performed by the Marma community on the occasion of the Sangrai festival during the month of April (Chaitra in the Bengali calendar year). The Marmas are one of the 19 tribes in Tripura. This dance originated in Tripura. On 26 January 2018, on India's Republic day, Rajpath witnessed for the first time a traditional dance of the Mog tribe of Tripura, the land of plentiful myths and legends.

References

External links

Lebang Boomani dance on YouTube
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tripuri Dances