Kayang

Understand

Where Kayang comes from

Kayang is the women's folk-dance of the Lahaul-Spiti and Kinnaur Buddhist communities of Himachal Pradesh, performed at the Buddhist festivals of the Lahaul region and at the harvest season of the high-altitude villages. The dance is associated with the Tibetan-Buddhist cultural heritage of the high Himalayas and is performed at the local festivals of the Lahaul, Spiti and Kinnaur valleys. The form is documented as one of the most distinctive regional traditions of the high-altitude communities of the state and is regularly performed at the cultural programmes of the Himachal Pradesh government. The dance shares the broad character of the Buddhist folk-dance traditions of the Himalayan region (the Tibetan folk-dance, the Kinnaur Shon dance) but with regional characteristics.

How it's practiced

Kayang is performed by women of the Lahaul community in a circle at the central courtyard of the village or at the courtyard of the monastery (the gompa) at the festival. The women perform in small coordinated steps and sing the regional songs of the Lahaul tradition. The dance is gentle, with the women's small hand-gestures and the light clapping of the palms. Music is the dhol-chang (the double-headed drum of the high Himalayas) and the long horn (the ling-bu). Costume is the colourful Lahaul dress — the woollen-silk goncha and the colourful brocade-silk headdress of the women, with the heavy silver and turquoise jewellery of the Lahaul tradition. Performances are at the monastery courtyard and at the central village square of the Lahaul community.