Garia (Goria) Dance

Understand

Where Garia (Goria) Dance comes from

Garia (or Goria) is the sowing-season dance of the Tripuri people, performed at the Garia Puja festival (the central jhum-cultivation ceremony of the Tripuri community) in April. The Garia Puja marks the beginning of the new sowing season of the Tripuri jhum (shifting cultivation) and is celebrated with the dance moving from village to village in a procession. The dance is one of the most distinctive regional traditions of Tripura and is performed at the Garia Puja and at the cultural programmes of the state. The form is documented as one of the most distinctive Tripuri folk-dance traditions and is regularly performed at the cultural programmes of Tripura and the Northeast.

How it's practiced

Garia is performed by men and women of the Tripuri community in a procession from village to village during the Garia Puja festival. The men and women dance in coordinated steps to the song of the Garia cycle and to the rhythm of the dhol and the small flutes. The dance increases in tempo through the procession, with the men and women performing the mudra (gestures) that mimic the movements of nature (the planting, the rain, the wind). Costume is the traditional Tripuri dress — the colourful rignai (the women's wrap-skirt) and the men's dhoti-kurta with the small regional cap. Performances are at the Garia Puja festival and at the cultural programmes of the state.