The Story
OrganizerThe Chau Jhumur Utsav is a folk-arts festival celebrating two of eastern India's most distinctive traditions: Chhau, the vigorous masked dance-form of the Purulia region of West Bengal and the wider Bengal-Jharkhand-Odisha belt, and Jhumur, the lyrical folk song-and-dance of the same tribal and rural landscape. Purulia Chhau, with its athletic leaps, elaborate masks and mythological themes, is recognised within India's rich tradition of Chhau dance, while Jhumur carries the seasonal, devotional and everyday songs of the region's communities. The festival gathers folk troupes and performers to present these living traditions on a shared stage, sustaining and showcasing the folk heritage of the region.
The Chau Jhumur Utsav is significant as a platform that keeps two important living folk traditions of eastern India visible, valued and economically viable for their practitioner communities. Chhau is among the most celebrated of India's traditional dance forms and Jhumur a cherished folk idiom of the Bengal-Jharkhand-Odisha region, both rooted in rural and tribal life. By bringing folk troupes together before wider audiences, the festival supports the artists who carry these hereditary traditions, encourages transmission to younger performers, and asserts the cultural richness of a region often overlooked in the national cultural conversation.
Visit the Chau Jhumur Utsav to experience the acrobatic masked Chhau dance and the lyrical Jhumur songs of eastern India performed by the folk communities who keep them alive. A vivid immersion in the living folk heritage of the Bengal region, it offers a rare chance to see these traditional forms in their full colour and energy while directly supporting the rural and tribal artists who sustain them.
