In pics: How Sangai Festival aims to unite Manipur’s diverse communities

The Sangai Festival is to Manipur what Hornbill Festival is to Nagaland. The festival, which started earlier this week, has now become much more than mere celebrations. This year, the festival has also become a platform for the state to show its collective history. 

One argument that tends to get thrown around a lot when it comes to Manipur is that the state’s tribal history is overshadowed by the Meitei history. To address the same, the Manipur government set up traditional tribal huts at the Sangai Ethnic Park, Moirang Khunou in the Bishnupur district.

Constructed for Rs 45 crore, visitors were welcomed by a gigantic bust of Sangai deer being put up right at the entrance of the Sangai Ethnic Park. Although the Park is a tourist destination, the park aims to preserve and showcase the state’s diverse ethnic communities and its cultural mosaic.

The name Sangai comes from the rare species of brow-antlered deer, locally known as Sangai, which is available only at Keibul Lamjao, the world’s only floating national park.

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While the park is now home to 33 huts representing the state’s different tribal groups, the Meiteis do not have a hut yet, but that will change soon. 

“We are targeting the construction of 34 hurts for all recognised tribes and one more for the Meiteis. So, we are trying to cover almost all the major tribes, leaving the sub-tribes in the state,” state tourism director W Ibohal to EastMojo.

“All infrastructure developed here will be permanent. For organising Sangai Festival in Imphal or other places, we used to invest a huge amount on temporary arrangements. That’s why we decided to take up this project. We have developed it in such a way that annual festivals or other events can be organised,” he added.

Earlier, addressing the gathering on the inaugural day of the Sangai Festival 2022, Union Minister of Tourism, Culture and DoNER G Kishan Reddy said he was lucky to have met groups of 33 communities in one place.

According to Chief Minister N Biren Singh, the festival aims to achieve unity through the participation of all indigenous communities of the state and to encourage oneness, a sense of belongingness, and the pride of ownership of the land amongst the people.

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“The state government constructed this Monsang traditional house to mark the Sangai Festival 2022. In our Monsang dialect, we call it ‘Sirti Kastam Een’ meaning the Monsang house. It is our traditional house. Since time immemorial, our forefathers have built their houses this way while settling in the jungle,” said NG Benithan, president of the Monsang Tribe Union.

According to Benithan, their forefathers constructed huts/houses at four feet and above to prevent wild animals from entering their homes. Each house will have an Itaah (hearth/fireplace) to cook as well as to warm themselves, he added.

Dressed in their traditional attire, some youths from the Gangte community were playing an indigenous game in the courtyard of their traditional hut.

“This is our traditional hut and the game we played is called Suongkikap (a stone game) in the Gangte dialect. Olden days, our forefathers used to engage in such games to spend their leisure time,” said Esther.

Likewise, some men were also seen engaged in playing Kangchoi (top), an indigenous game of the Thadou community. 

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“To play this indigenous game, it requires a strong hand because we need strength in both the shoulder and arm. And the one who could make the top rotate the most emerged as the winner,” Michael Lamjathang Haokip, secretary general, Thadou Students’ Association.

The 11th edition of the Sangai Festival 2022, a 10-day long annual cultural cum tourism festival, started on November 21 and will continue till November 30. This year, unlike the previous years, the festival in line with the theme ‘festival of oneness’ has been organised in 13 different venues across the state to showcase the best of the state’s cultures and traditions of the people. This is one of the biggest editions of the festival since its inception in 2010.

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