Tribal Cultural Festivals

Tribal cultural festivals organized in the premises of Sanskruti Kendra have been quite significant. The purpose behind these festivals are two: a. to display before the people the tribal cultural heritage so that the people see and know them and take pride in them, and b. to document in the form of audio, video and still pictures all these rare event presented and displayed in course of the event.

So far two such festivals are conducted

Kisan Tribal Cultural Festivals are conducted in the premises of Sanskruti Kendra in the presence of hundreds of people: 1. Tribal Cultural Dance Festival   2. Kisan Tribal Cultural Festival.

Tribal Cultural Dance Festival was a well-attended one-day festival where fourteen cultural dance teams including one from Chhattisgarh participated. Apart from a variety of seasonal tribal dances presented by different groups, there were some rare dances like Kiho and Handur that were presented on the stage. These dances were well appreciated by delirious crowd that attended the program, and these dances were documented in the form video.

Despite industrial boom in Sundargarh district, and despite the fact that present day youth and children are taken to the trends of the modern time, the interest in cultural dances still persist in the rural areas albeit in a subdued form. Tribal cultural dances are the essence of tribal life as these represent much of the life and society of the tribal people. The tribal dance festival shows how much the tribals miss these riches in their life, and devoid of this how morose they become with only poverty and misery accompanying them.

Kisan Cultural Festival

One of the individual tribes that attracted the attention of Sanskruti Kendra for their tribal cultural festival is the Kisans. The Kisans are one of the larger tribal groups in Sundargarh district having their own distinct look, occupation, language and culture. Thus, the Kisan Cultural Festival was conducted with solemnity. No less than sixteen villages from all over the district and one village from Jharkhand participated in the festival.

Specialty of the festival apart from Kisan dance and songs were stage presentation of birth, initiation, marriage and death rites of the people of the tribe. Well prepared presentation well recorded and documented served as a rich and resourceful accumulation of their tribal cultural heritage. Dressed in Kisan tribal dress women and maidens created a solemn and pleasing atmosphere in the campus. Many more such serious efforts are needed to enrich the documentation so that the tribe has rich resource to look back to in days to come.