Bodo dancers and musicians take the stage

It’s nearly noon and dancer Golapi Goyari is ready and waiting at home. She is adjusting the yellow-striped dokhona wrapped around her body when eight school-going girls arrive, all dressed in matching dokhonas and red aronais (stoles), traditional to the Bodo community of Assam.

“I teach these young girls our Bodo dances,” says Golapi, a Bodo herself and a resident of Goalgaon village in Baksa district. 

Baksa alongwith Kokrajhar, Udalguri and Chirang districts form Bodoland – officially the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR). This autonomous region is predominantly inhabited by the Bodo people, listed as a Scheduled Tribe in Assam, among other indigenous communities. BTR lies on the banks of the Brahmaputra river below the foothills of Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh. 

“They also perform at local festivals and events,” says Golapi who is in her early thirties. She has offered her home to host a performance in honour of PARI Founder Editor, journalist P. Sainath, who was given the 19th UN Brahma Soldier of Humanity Award in November 2022 by the Upendra Nath Brahma Trust (UNBT).

As the dancers prepare for this performance, local musicians from Gobardhana block begin setting up at Golapi’s home. Each of them wears a khot gosla jacket along with green and yellow aronais or mufflers around their heads. These items of clothing are usually worn by Bodo men during cultural or religious festivals.

They unpack their instruments, commonly played during Bodo festivals: siphung (long flute), kham (drum), and serja (violin). Each instrument is decorated with aronais, patterned with the traditional “Bonduram” design, and is locally crafted.

One of the musicians, Khwrwmdao Basumatary who will play the kham, addresses the small audience of locals that have joined in. He informs them that he will perform the Subunsri and Bagurumba dances. “The Bagurumba is usually performed after the cultivation of crops during spring season or after harvest, usually during the Bwisagu festival. It is also performed during marriages with joy.”

Soon after the dancers take to the stage, Ranjit Basumatary, steps forward. He ends the show with a solo performance playing the serja. He is one of the few performers here who also plays in marriages as a source of income. During this time, Golapi has slipped away, preparing the food she has laboured all morning to cook for her guests.

She lays the table with dishes such as sobai jwng samo (black gram with snails), fried bhangun fish, onla jwng dau bedor (chicken curry with a local variety of rice flour), banana flower and pork, jute leaves, rice wine and bird's eye chilli; a feast that is relished after watching the captivating performances from earlier in the day.