Chhau dance[edit]

A semi classical martial Indian dance found in its eastern states
Wikidata item: Chhau dance (Q1071518)
UNESCO ICH ID: RL/00337
instance of: type of dance
country: India
subclass of: Indian folk dance and war dance
indigenous to: Purulia district, Mayurbhanj district and Seraikela Kharsawan district
intangible cultural heritage status: Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (2010) and National List for Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH)
described at URL: https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/00337 (English)
https://ich.unesco.org/fr/RL/00337 (French)
https://ich.unesco.org/es/RL/00337 (Spanish)

Introduction

How can I contribute?

Add a piece of text

Add an openly licensed piece of text below for annotating. Remember to add the source reference and a reference to the open license. If that is not possible, you can either write an article in Wikipedia, write the piece of text yourself with references, or add references at the bottom of the page.

Make visible hidden related topics

Enter edit mode and urderline important related topics in the text. This way you can tell others to link them to their Wikidata items.

Create related topics

Pick a highlighted topic and link it to its Wikidata item. If the item is missing, you can create it! You can find instructions in this article.

Chhau dance is a tradition from eastern India that enacts episodes from epics including the Ramayana and Mahabharata, local folklore and abstract themes. Its three distinct styles hail from the regions of Seraikela Kharsawan district, Purulia Chhau dance and Mayurbhanj Chhau of Orissa, the first two using Chhau mask. Chhau dance is intimately connected to regional festivals, notably the spring festival Chaitra Parva. Its origin is traceable to indigenous forms of dance and martial practices. Its vocabulary of movement includes mock combat techniques, stylized gaits of birds and animals and movements modelled on the chores of village housewives. Chhau is taught to male dancers from families of traditional artists or from local communities. The dance is performed at night in an open space to traditional and folk melodies, played on the reed pipes mahuri and shehnai. The reverberating drumbeats of a variety of drums dominate the accompanying music ensemble. Chhau is an integral part of the culture of these communities. It binds together people from different social strata and ethnic background with diverse social practices, beliefs, professions and languages. However, increasing industrialization, economic pressures and new media are leading to a decrease in collective participation with communities becoming disconnected from their roots.^[1]

Communities[edit]

The dances mainly come from communities known as Mundas, Mahatos, Kalindis, Pattnaiks, Samals, Darogas, Mohantys, Acharyas, Bhols, Kars, Dubeys, and Sahoos. Musicians are from the communities known as Mukhis, Kalindis, Ghadheis, Dhada. They are also involved in the making of the instruments. Masks form an integral part of Chhau Dance in Purulia and Seraikella. Communities of traditional painters known as Maharanas, Mohapatras, Sutradhars are involved in the making of these masks.^[2]

Wikipedia articles

How can I contribute?

Is there already an article in your language about this element?

Read articles about this element by clicking on one of the blue buttons.

You can translate an existing article to your own language by clicking on a white button. You may be asked to enable translation. After you have enabled it, click the back button in your browser to continue from where you were. You can change the source language in the language menu to select a language you know better or that has a more popular article. Start over if you loose track.

Manually update list | Find images

This list is generated from data in Wikidata and is periodically updated by a bot.
Edits made within the list area will be removed on the next update!

Modern Standard Arabic

Chhau dantza (Basque)

Chhau dance (Dagaare)

Chhau dance (Dagbani)

تشاو (Egyptian Arabic)

Emilian–Romagnol

Chhau dance (English)

Chhau (danse) (French)

Ghanaian Pidgin English

Tari Chhau (Indonesian)

ഛൗ നൃത്തം (Malayalam)

Standard Moroccan Amazigh

North Frisian language

Danza Chhau (Spanish)

West Frisian language

End of auto-generated list.

Images

How can I contribute?

Does this element have a Wikimedia Commons category?

You can find images of this element in the Chhau dance category on Wikimedia Commons.

Find all the images on Wikimedia Commons

Find images that are not added to the Wikimedia Commons category. Search Wikimedia Commons to find images that depict Chhau dance. Add all the images that depict this element to the category and add depicts statements to them.