News:Recently,the ‘Manipur Sangai Festival’, the biggest tourism festival of the state has started.
Facts:
About Sangai festival:
- Sangai festival is an annual cultural festival organised by Manipur Tourism Department every year from November 21 to 30.
- Since 2010,the Tourism Festival has been renamed as the Sangai Festival as Sangai deer is the state animal of Manipur.
- The festival showcases tourism potential of Manipur in field of arts & culture, handloom, handicrafts, indigenous sports, cuisine, music and adventure sports of the state among others.
- The tourism festival also promotes Manipur as a world class tourist destination.
Features of the festival:
- The State’s classical dance form, ‘Ras Leela’ forms an important part of the dance performances during the festival.
- Other folk dance performances like the Kabui Naga dance, Bamboo dance, Maibi dance, Lai Haraoba dance, Khamba Thoibi dance are showcased at the festival.
- The festival brings to light an array of Manipur’s best indigenous handlooms and handicrafts products which are otherwise not widely available in the market.
- Further,Manipur’s famous martial arts namely (a)Thang Ta (a combination Spear & Sword skills) (b)Yubi-Lakpi (a game played with greased coconut like rugby) (c)Mukna Kangjei (a game that combines hockey and wrestling) and (d)Sagol Kangjei- Modern Polo (believed to have evolved in Manipur) all formed part of the festival.
Additional information:
About Sangai deer:
- The sangai is an endemic and endangered subspecies of brow-antlered deer found only in Manipur,India.
- The species is listed as Endangered(EN) in IUCN Red list.
- The species is found only at Keibul Lamjao National Park over the floating biomass locally called phumdi in the south eastern part of Loktak Lake.
About Keibul Lamjao National Park:
- Keibul Lamjao National Park is the only floating National Park in the world.It is located on the Loktak Lake.
- The park is located on phumdis.Phumdis are the floating mass of entangled vegetation formed by the accumulation of organic debris and biomass with soil.
