Traditional Thadou Kuki dance at Manipur's Sangai Fest

Thadou Kuki youth rock the stage with their outstanding dance at Sangai Fest 2013.

Viewer Michael Lamjathang tells us that "This dance is the Thadou Dance from Manipur. You may correct it! There is no Kuki dance in particular in Manipur."

The Kukis are an ethnic group that spread throughout the Northeastern region of India, Northwest Burma and Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh. In Northeast India they are present in all the states except Arunachal Pradesh. This dispersal across international borders is mainly attributed to the British colonial policy.

The term Kuki, in literature, first appeared in the writing of Rawlins when he wrote about the tribes of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. It refers to "wild tribe" comprising numerous clans. These clans share a common past, culture, customs and tradition. They speak in dialects that have a common root language belonging to the Tibeto-Burman group.

The Kukis have Mongoloid features and are generally short-stature with straight black hair and dark brown eyes. The different Kuki clans are recognised as scheduled tribe of India.This tribe recognition is based on the dialect spoken and region. Kuki is composed of many different entities and clans.

Sangai festival is an annual cultural festival organised by Manipur Tourism Department on every year from November 21 to 30. Even though many editions of this Festival has been celebrated over the past few years with the name of Tourism Festival, since 2010 this has been renamed as the Sangai Festival to stage the uniqueness of the shy and gentle brow-antlered deer popularly known as the Sangai Deer, which is the state animal of Manipur. As this festival is being celebrated to promote Manipur as a world class tourism destination, it showcase the best of what the state has to offer to the world in terms of art and culture, handloom, handicrafts & fine arts, indigenous sports, cuisines & music, eco & adventure sports as well as the scenic natural beauty of the land.

Manipur is a state in northeastern India, with the city of Imphal as its capital. Its people include the Meitei, Pangal (Muslims), Naga, and Kuki, Zomi and Gorkhali(Nepali) who speak different languages of branches of the Tibeto-Burman family. The state is bounded by Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south, and Assam to the west; Burma lies to the east. It covers an area of 22,327 square kilometres (8,621 sq mi).

The Meitei, who live primarily in the state's valley region, form the primary ethnic group (60% of the total population).The term Meitei now refers to five social groups -- the Meitei marup (believe in only Meitei culture and God), Meitei Christians, Meitei goura Chaytonya (believe in both Meitei and Hindu gods), the Meitei Brahmins (Manipuri Brahmin locally called "Bamons") and the Meitei Muslims (called Miah Meitei or Pangal). All of them has Meiteilon as their mother-tongue. Their language, Meiteilon (also known as Manipuri), is the lingua franca in the state.

Source: Wikipedia

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