Sangai festival kicks off in Manipur

News:Recently,the ‘Manipur Sangai Festival’, the biggest tourism festival of the state has started.

Facts:

About Sangai festival:

• Sangai festival is an annual cultural festival organised by Manipur Tourism Department every year from November 21 to 30.
• Since 2010,the Tourism Festival has been renamed as the Sangai Festival as Sangai deer is the state animal of Manipur.
• The festival showcases tourism potential of Manipur in field of arts & culture, handloom, handicrafts, indigenous sports, cuisine, music and adventure sports of the state among others.
• The tourism festival also promotes Manipur as a world class tourist destination.

Features of the festival:

• The State’s classical dance form, ‘Ras Leela’ forms an important part of the dance performances during the festival. 
• Other folk dance performances like the Kabui Naga dance, Bamboo dance, Maibi dance, Lai Haraoba dance, Khamba Thoibi dance are showcased at the festival.
• The festival brings to light an array of Manipur’s best indigenous handlooms and handicrafts products which are otherwise not widely available in the market.
• Further,Manipur’s famous martial arts namely (a)Thang Ta (a combination Spear & Sword skills) (b)Yubi-Lakpi (a game played with greased coconut like rugby) (c)Mukna Kangjei (a game that combines hockey and wrestling) and (d)Sagol Kangjei- Modern Polo (believed to have evolved in Manipur) all formed part of the festival.

Additional information:

About Sangai deer:

• The sangai is an endemic and endangered subspecies of brow-antlered deer found only in Manipur,India.
• The species is listed as Endangered(EN) in IUCN Red list.
• The species is found only at Keibul Lamjao National Park over the floating biomass locally called phumdi in the south eastern part of Loktak Lake.

About Keibul Lamjao National Park: 

• Keibul Lamjao National Park is the only floating National Park in the world.It is located on the Loktak Lake.
• The park is located on phumdis.Phumdis are the floating mass of entangled vegetation formed by the accumulation of organic debris and biomass with soil.