Lebang Bumani || Tripuri Traditional Dance || Tiprasa Tripuri Tribe || Tripura Christian Fellowship

Tribe Name:Tripuri (Tiprasa)
Song Name:Lebang Bumani


Unlike other folk-dances that originated in religious worship, this particular dance form is based on tribal existence as shifting cultivators and it is thus based more on socio-economic occasion. In fact the etymological origin of the word brings into focus the context of this folk dance as part of the ‘Jhum’ culture. The Kok-Borok word ‘Lebang’ means a type of insect that swoops on the ‘Jhum’ field in countless numbers and damage the ripe crops while the Kok-Borok word ‘Bumani’ means ‘driving away’. In the month of September or early October when the ‘Jhum’ crop grows ripe for harvest large number of ‘Lebang’ insects invade the fieldand in the past groups of tribal males and females would rush tothe ‘Jhum’ field to drive away the insect by beating one piece of bamboo with the other , held in both hands. Gradually this practice was altered in dance form with a romantic overtone as groups ofyoung girls and boys would rush to the ‘Jhum’ field with pieces ofbamboos held as weapons in both hands to drive away ‘Lebang’ or kill them in large numbers. This would often lead to familiarisation between potential lovers, courtship and marriage. The poses and postures of performers of this dance still imitate the physical movements of tribal youths with beats of bamboos and slow beating of drum or ‘Kham’ while killing or driving away swarms of ‘Lebang’ from the ‘Jhum’ field . Since the tribals of Tripura have mostly moved away from ‘Jhum’, the originality of the ‘Lebang Bumani’ dance has now given way to a more sophisticated form performed on daises of auditoriums or on open air platforms though the physical movement, poses and postures of the original dance have remained mostly unchanged.

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