Of Shon, Alley Yaato and Kud

The plethora of dance forms in J&K share a common goal — to bring human beings closer together.

The kaleidoscope of Indian folk dances reflects the shared human desires to share happiness and ward off evil. Sharing traditions of dance enhances our sense of community, which can also serve to support a more harmonious society. Earlier, I had shared some of the Sufi and secular Jammu and Kashmir dance traditions and continue now with the folk and monastic traditions of the Ladakh region and folk dances related to Hindu celebrations.

Folk dances are part of any Ladakhi festive occasion, but are prevalent especially during Losar celebrations of the Tibetan New Year. Jabro, a community dance of Tibetan nomads living in the Changtheng hills of western Ladakh, is accompanied by the Damian stringed instrument and flute.

Other popular folk dances include Chabs-Skyan Tses (dance carrying a pot), Raldi Tses (dance with a sword), Kompa Tsum-Tsak (meaning three successive steps), Shon dance (patronised by royalty), Alley Yaato (Zanskari dance and song sequence) and the trans-Himalayan Yak Dance.

The antics of the yak and the people interacting with the dancing yak vary in the stories embedded in the yak dances of Ladakh, Sikkim and Nepal, but all have two men inside the yak costume to sit, run and jump and roll over. In the Ladakhi version, a milkmaid comes and is ignored by the yak, and then the milkman arrives striking the lash, and controls and takes away the yak.

The “Drugpas”, or nomads settled in the Drass and Gorkhan areas of Ladakh, are a vegetarian Aryan-origin tribe called Dards. Their Drugpa-Rches dance is accompanied by the ‘surna’, the Persian ancestor of the shehnai and the damman, a set of two kettledrums called “fo” and “mo”, meaning male and female. Water is poured into a hole in fo to produce a heavy, deep sound. The damman, with its deep pulsating, resonant beat is played with a number of dances and songs in Ladakh.

Spring flowers inspired the offering of bouquets to the deity in the Tukhstanmo dance of the Zanskar and Bakhamul area and Nubra valley. The Ladakhi marriage dance Bagstonrches continues for weeks during the marriage ceremonies, with the bride and bridegroom participating. The still popular Koshan dance is performed while riding horses, while the Chang Rches, performed carrying pots of the local brew on the head, is almost extinct now.

The most wonderful dances of Ladakh are the Tibetan sacred ritual dances, or Chams, performed in the monasteries. Accompanied by huge trumpets and cymbals, these profoundly spiritual dances focus on the struggles between good and evil within us. This is often represented fantastically by masked dancers externalising malevolent forces and the Dharmapala guardian divinities after complete mental concentration and identification, with the deity being visualised.

The ‘Chams Yig’ treatise was written mainly by the fifth Dalai Lama in around 1650 and gives guidance on the performance of these temple dances, allowing an unchanging tradition to be maintained over long periods in places with religious freedom like Ladakh. The movements include some leaps and full body movements of twisting and turning along with the main slower, mesmerising ritual floor patterns.

There are Chams presented by lay Buddhists, but most are performed by monks initiated in higher levels of Vajrayana so that the dance is actually a form of tantric yoga and meditation for the teaching of compassion. Even to see a Cham is to gain merit.

I will never forget seeing two sword-wielding lamas, with seven layers of cloth covering their eyes, “seeing” through an eye painted in the center of their chests, literally running along the narrow towering heights of their monastery during the Matho Nag rang festival and beating any viewers who harbored excessive negative attributes. Matho Gompa is the only representative of the Sakyapa sect of Tibetan Buddhism in Ladakh. Rituals include these oracle lamas cutting their tongues with swords that heal up within a day after the many months of fasting and meditation to prepare psychically.

In ancient Kashmir, music and related arts thrived under the patronage of kings. In Prince Kalhana’s 12th century Rajtarangini Chronicle of the kings of Kashmir, the first reference is about King Jalanka, who maintained musicians including Mamma, a blind musician, who was employed to play music at the time of tantric worship. The music of Central Asia along with many musical instruments melded with Hindustani music to create a distinctive synthesis.

The Kud dance is a typical community dance performed in the middle mountain ranges of the Jammu region. During the rainy season, after the harvest, villagers gather at the local Gramdevta temple to dance all night. The winding and swaying movements of this ritualistic dance allow a lot of improvisation and spontaneity as all ages and genders join together to give thanks for the divine protection of crops, farm animals and families. Twenty to 30 farming community members at a time follow the rhythms and melody of the lute-like chhaina, the huge curved flute and drums.

Several dances are related to marriage. Surma is an interesting and emotional dance, which reveals the frustrations of a newly-married bride whose groom has left for war. A less-seen dance of Kashmir is Wuegi-nachun, performed after a marriage ceremony, when the bride has left for her new home. Its unique feature is that women dance around the bridal rangoli.

Both men and women in the rural areas of Jammu perform the Geetru Pahari dances and songs at feasts, festivals and marriages by the rural folks in the Jammu region. One of the most popularly-known dance of Kashmir is the energetic Dandaras, performed during the festival of Lohri/ Makarsankranti. A model of a peacock made of bamboo and coloured paper is carried by the dance group, as each dancer expertly dances with a stick in hand to click on the head of the adjoining dancer.

Last but certainly not least is Hikkat, one of the oldest-known folk dances generally performed by young girls and young boys during marriage ceremonies in the valleys of Kashmir. This dance is a modified version of the games played by young children. The songs focus on the affectionate relationships they have with their elders. There is absolutely no musical accompaniment, not even a beat played as the dancers, in couples, sing songs. The boys and girls, called Natio, lock arms facing each other, lean back and start to spin slowly and then faster and faster with exhilarating joy. The audience enjoys the proceedings as much as the dancers, clapping and cheering. It is a real stress-reliever at social get-togethers apart from marriage ceremonies.

The state of Jammu and Kashmir has a rich cultural heritage from ancient times, boasting of great poets, philosophers, sages, dancers, writers, musicians and dramatists. Celebrating these multi-religious and multi-faceted traditions in dance and related arts can bring people together. At the core, we are all more similar than different in wanting happiness and sharing values that bind us together in our humanity.

Sharon Lowen is a respected exponent of Odissi, Manipuri and Mayurbhanj and Seraikella Chau whose four-decade career in India was preceded by 17 years of modern dance and ballet in the US and an MA in dance from the University of Michigan. She can be contacted at sharonlowen.workshop@gmail.com