Ramman Festival

News: President Droupadi Murmu received a Ramman mask at a special Uttarakhand Assembly session, spotlighting this centuries-old Garhwal festival.

About Ramman Festival

• It is a multiform cultural event that reflects the community’s environmental, spiritual, and cultural concepts and recounts its founding myths.
• Location associated with: Twin villages of Saloor-Dungra in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli.
• It strengthens community self-worth by combining theatre, music, historical reconstructions, and traditional oral and written tales.
• Time: Celebrated annually in late April during Baisakhi.
• Dedicated to: It is dedicated to the tutelary god Bhumiyal Devta.
• Festival premises: Most festivities occur at the temple of Bhumiyal Devta.
• UNESCO Recognition: Inscribed in 2009 on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list.
• Key Features
  • Ritual Theatre:
    • The festival stages the Ramayana and local legends as full theatrical performances.
    • Performers wear 18 distinct masks made from Bhojpatra (Himalayan birch).
    • The masks are accompanied by make-up using sheep’s wool, honey, vermilion, wheat flour, oil, turmeric, soot and locally grown plants and vegetables.
  • Dances:
    • The sequence begins with an invocation to god Ganesha.
    • It includes the Sun God dance and an enactment of the myth of the birth of Brahma and Ganesha.
    • Other dances feature Bur Deva alongside Krishna and Radhika.
    • The dance sets depict local livelihoods and hardships, for example Mwar-Mwarin shows buffalo herders facing a tiger attack, while Baniya-Baniyain portrays a trader couple being robbed.
  • Musicals:
    • The local Ramkatha is sung in carefully measured rhythm, covering a total of 324 beats and steps.
    • The Jagar tradition is also performed as part of the musical narration.
  • Storytelling: The festival uses historical reconstructions and both oral and written tales to present founding myths and everyday community life.
  • Caste-based Roles: Different castes have specific, hereditary roles in the festival, reflecting a strong community structure.