Tamang Selo (Tamang Dance)

Understand

Where Tamang Selo (Tamang Dance) comes from

Tamang Selo is the dance of the Tamang community of Sikkim, performed at the cultural festival and at the marriage of the community. The Tamang are one of the major communities of Sikkim (the Tamang and the Limbu are the largest non-Bhutia-Lepcha communities of the state) and have their own vibrant folk-music-and-dance tradition centred on the Selo song-cycle. The dance is performed at the village festival and at the regional Tamang community gatherings. The Selo is recognised as one of the most distinctive regional traditions of the Sikkimese Tamang and is regularly performed at the cultural programmes of the state.

How it's practiced

Tamang Selo is performed by men and women of the Tamang community in a circle at the central courtyard of the village or at the open ground of the festival. The men and women perform in coordinated steps to the song of the Selo cycle and to the rhythm of the small regional instruments (the dhol, the madal, the small cymbals and the Sarangi). The dance is gentle, with the small stepping rhythm of the Tamang tradition. Costume is the traditional Tamang dress — the colourful tunic (the bhaku) and the women's wrap. Performances are at the village festival and at the cultural programmes of the state.