Assam's Karbi Youth Festival showcases dances for the living and the dead
Jan 19, 2024
Karbi Anglong (Assam), January 19 : Assam's Karbi Cultural Society showcased an array of Karbi dances for different occasions on the golden jubilee of the Karbi Youth Festival (KYF).
In the domain of Assam's Karbi community, folk dances are for the dead as much as for the living.
These included the Han'up Ahi Kekan, entailing the ceremonial distribution of fermented bamboo shoot among the people of a village or locality.
There were the staple dances associated with farming. If Ritnong Chingdi is a youthful celebration of practising jhum or slash-and-burn cultivation with traditional instruments such as the chengburuk kethip, a drum, Hacha Kekan highlights a harvest festival involving prayers to the local deities and water bodies.
Some dances such as the Bong-oi-Alun conveyed romance and courtship.
"We have traditionally had about 10 types of dances to celebrate youth. Some are expressions of love and some are preparations for marriage," Dilip Kathar, the tribal culture research officer of Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC) said.
The KYF has been largely funded by the KAAC, which governs the central Assam district of Karbi Anglong.
The event is held annually at the 672-acre Taralangso, a cultural complex on the outskirts of Diphu, the headquarters of Karbi Anglong district.
The spotlight of the festival, however, was on some dances associated with death or the last rites.
Banjar Kekan, for instance, involves the use of decorated bamboo poles locally called 'banjar' by young men who dance during Chomangkan, a festival dedicated to the dead. This dance is dedicated to Thireng Vangreng, the shaman with superhuman powers believed to have started Chomangkan.
Kenkir Kekan, on the other hand, warrants a dance by the youth at the feet of a deceased person to the beat of drums.
"Chongkedam, where chong means 'shield' and kedam means 'to go', is a dance with swords and shields during the last rites envisaged to protect the people on earth from the demons or evil spirits," Kathar said.
The Nimsokerung is another dance performed during the last rites.
"This ritualistic dance is performed to pray for a happy afterlife for a deceased member of the community," Dharamsing Teron, a former legislator and the director of the Centre for Karbi Studies said.
The 50th KYF is scheduled to conclude on January 19 with a cultural nite and a campfire.
