Traditions of South Asia
Diwali, Holi, Eid and Vesak, saptapadi and mehndi: the densest calendar of living traditions anywhere. 346 traditions on EveryParampara so far.
Countries
🇦🇫 Afghanistan 28🇧🇩 Bangladesh 64🇧🇹 Bhutan 14🇮🇳 India 363🇲🇻 Maldives 4🇳🇵 Nepal 70🇵🇰 Pakistan 69🇱🇰 Sri Lanka 45
Cities and towns
On the calendar
🇮🇳 Guwahati, IndiaBihu dance
A folk dance from Assam that celebrates spring, fertility and the new year with energetic movement and music.Performance
🇮🇳 Puri, India and 1 morePattachitra
A cloth scroll painting tradition from eastern India featuring mythological stories and folk tales.Performance
🇮🇳 IndiaWarli painting
Sacred white rice paste murals made on red clay walls in western IndiaCraft
🇮🇳 IndiaPandavani
A folk singing tradition from central India that retells episodes of the Mahabharata epic through music and theatrical nPerformance
🇦🇫 Kabul, Afghanistan and 1 moreAttanاتڼ
A Pashtun circle dance of drums and clapping, kept at weddings and gatherings.Performance
🇲🇻 MaldivesBoduberuބޮޑުބެރު
A Maldivian drumming and dance tradition performed by groups of common citizens.Performance
🇮🇳 Amritsar, India and 1 moreGatkaਗੱਤਕਾ (Gurmukhi) / گَتّکا (Shahmukhi)
A Sikh martial art of stick-fighting and sword dance from the Punjab region.Performance
🇮🇳 India and 5 moreTribal youth dormitoryMorung
A communal house where a tribe's unmarried young people sleep, learn and serveRite of passage
🇮🇳 Alappuzha, IndiaNehru Trophy Boat Race
An annual longboat race held on Punnamada Lake in Kerala, India.Festival
🇮🇳 Thrissur, IndiaKerala mural painting
Frescoes of Hindu deities painted on temple and palace walls in Kerala, India.Performance
🇮🇳 Jammu, IndiaBhangra
A Punjabi harvest dance, first kept by farmers and now performed worldwidePerformance
🇮🇳 India and 5 moreGhazalغَزَل
A short rhyming poem of love and parting, recited and sung from Arabia to South AsiaPerformance
🇮🇳 Kolkata, IndiaJana Gana Mana
India's national anthem, from a Bengali hymn of 1911, sung at civic occasionsCeremony
🇮🇳 Thrissur, IndiaPulikaliപുലിക്കളി
Painted tigers and leopards dance through Thrissur on the fourth day of OnamPerformance
🇵🇰 Islamabad, Pakistan and 2 moreQawwaliقَوّالی
Devotional Sufi singing from South Asia, led by hereditary parties at shrinesPerformance
🇮🇳 IndiaSatsangसत्सङ्ग
Sitting in the company of truth, to hear, sing and meditate in northern IndiaSpiritual
🇱🇰 Kandy, Sri LankaKandyan danceඋඩරට නැටුම්
The sacred dance of Sri Lanka's hill country, kept in temple and on the stagePerformance
🇮🇳 IndiaTheyyam
A sacred ritual dance and divine invocation from North Malabar in IndiaSpiritual
🇧🇩 Bangladesh and 1 moreAlpanaআলপনা (Alpona)
A Bengali floor painting tradition using rice flour paste to mark festivals and rituals.Performance
🇵🇰 Karachi, Pakistan and 2 moreSouth Asian truck art
The craft of painting and adorning cargo trucks and buses across India and Pakistan.Craft
🇮🇳 Thrissur, IndiaThrissur Pooramതൃശ്ശൂര് പൂരം
A grand Kerala temple gathering with elephant pageantry, percussion, and fireworksFestival
🇳🇵 Nepal and 1 moreMani stone
Inscribed stones placed along trails in Tibetan Buddhist regions as devotional offerings.Spiritual
🇮🇳 Thrissur, IndiaPanchavadyamപഞ്ചവാദ്യം
A Kerala temple orchestra of five instruments that builds rhythm from slow to fast over two hoursPerformance
🇮🇳 India and 2 moreGiddhaਗਿੱਧਾ
A lively circle dance of women from the Punjab region, performed with clapping and call-and-response songs.Performance
🇮🇳 Vrindavan, IndiaRaslilaरासलीला (Rāsalīlā)
A traditional Indian dance and folk theatre performance depicting the divine love of Krishna and the gopis.Performance
🇲🇻 MaldivesRaivaru
Unaccompanied Maldivian singing built on intricate syllable and verse patternsPerformance
🇮🇳 India and 1 moreDandiya Raas
A stick dance from Gujarat performed in pairs during the festival of NavaratriPerformance
🇮🇳 Gwalior, India and 1 moreDhrupadध्रुवपद
The foundational vocal and instrumental classical music tradition of northern IndiaPerformance
🇮🇳 Goa, India and 2 moreShehnai
A traditional reed instrument played at weddings and temple festivals across IndiaPerformance
🇮🇳 Kochi, India and 5 moreOnamഓണം
A ten-day harvest festival in Kerala celebrating the return of King Mahabali with feasts, flower carpets and boat races.Festival · Feasts and festival meals
🇮🇳 Mysuru, India and 2 moreVijayadashamiविजयदशमी (Vijayadaśamī)
A Hindu festival marking the end of Navaratri, celebrating the victory of good over evil across India and Nepal.Festival
🇮🇳 Guwahati, IndiaBihuবিহু (Assamese)
Three annual festivals in Assam marking the new year, crop cycles and harvest with dance, music and feasts.Festival · Feasts and festival meals
🇧🇹 Thimphu, BhutanTshechuཚེས་བཅུ།
Annual Bhutanese Buddhist festivals of sacred Cham dances and colossal cloth scrollsFestival
🇮🇳 India and 2 moreSohrai
A harvest and cattle observance kept by indigenous communities in eastern IndiaSeasonal · Feasts and festival meals
🇱🇰 Kandy, Sri LankaEsala Perahera
A Sri Lankan procession of sacred relics, drummers and elephants honouring the BuddhaSpiritual
🇮🇳 Kolkata, IndiaDurga Puja in Kolkataকলকাতার দুর্গাপূজা
The grand annual autumn festival honouring the mother goddess Durga across KolkataSpiritual
🇮🇳 Guwahati, IndiaBohag Bihu
A multi-day Assamese New Year festival of cattle rites, music, gifts and feastsSeasonal · Feasts and festival meals
🇮🇳 Kohima, IndiaHornbill Festival
A ten-day December gathering of Nagaland's ethnic groups, held at Kisama near KohimaFestival
🇮🇳 Chidambaram, India and 1 moreThiruvathira
A Hindu festival celebrating Shiva's cosmic dance, observed in Tamil Nadu and Kerala with fasting, processions, and dancFestival
🇮🇳 India and 1 moreChapchar KutChapchâr Kût
A spring festival of dance and food kept by the Mizo people in Mizoram, India.Festival
🇮🇳 Sambalpur, IndiaSitalsasthiଶୀତଳ ଷଷ୍ଠୀ
A festival in western Odisha re-enacting the divine wedding of Shiva and ParvatiFestival
🇮🇳 IndiaKoodiyattamകൂടിയാട്ടം
An ancient Sanskrit temple drama and dance tradition from Kerala, IndiaPerformance
🇮🇳 Ahobilam, IndiaNarasimha Jayantiनरसिंहजयंती
A one-day Hindu festival marking Vishnu's man-lion avatar and the rescue of PrahladaSpiritual
🇮🇳 Varanasi, India and 5 moreRamlilaरामलीला
Open-air community plays staged across autumn nights, recounting the journey of Rama.Performance
🇮🇳 Ahmedabad, India and 1 moreGarbaगर्भ
A Gujarati circle dance performed around a sacred flame during the festival of NavratriPerformance
🇮🇳 IndiaBharatanatyam
A South Indian temple dance of set poses, hand gestures and rhythm, now danced on stagePerformance
🇱🇰 Sri LankaSanni Yakuma
A Sinhalese rite where masked dancers summon eighteen illness demons and banish themSpiritual
🇵🇰 PakistanShandur Polo Festivalشندور چوگان میلہ
A three-day mountain polo competition played with freestyle rules in northern PakistanGame
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Bhangra: Jimmysekhon25, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Ghazal: Poem by Sa'di of Shiraz (13th century). 19th century manuscript, Public domain, source
- Onam: Jiteshgt, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Jana Gana Mana: Rabindranath Tagore, Public domain, source
- Pulikali: Felix Francis, CC BY 2.0, source
- Tshechu: Stephen Shephard, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Bihu: Diganta Talukdar, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Durga Puja in Kolkata: Biswarup Ganguly, CC BY 3.0, source
- Qawwali: Saswat swarup mishra, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Shandur Polo Festival: Addden321, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Kandyan dance: PIERRE ANDRE LECLERCQ, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Theyyam: Shagil Kannur, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- South Asian truck art: Alexandros.Papadopoulos, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Bohag Bihu: Diganta Talukdar, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Thiruvathira: Kalakki at Malayalam Wikipedia, CC BY 2.5, source
- Chapchar Kut: Ramesh Lalwani, CC BY 2.0, source
- Garba: anurag agnihotri, CC BY 2.0, source
- Koodiyattam: Sreekanthv at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Dandiya Raas: User:psubhashish, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Shehnai: TAPAS KUMAR HALDER, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Pattachitra: Unknown, Public domain, source
- Warli painting: Omrmankar, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Pandavani: Suyash Dwivedi, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Boduberu: Suvalex, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Gatka: Simon Speed, Public domain, source
- Tribal youth dormitory: Aravind Manickam, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Nehru Trophy Boat Race: Varghesepunnamada, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Kerala mural painting: Sivavkm, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Bihu dance: Digantatalukdar, CC0, source
- Raslila: https://www.flickr.com/photos/matsukin/, CC BY 2.0, source
- Giddha: University of the Fraser Valley, CC BY 2.0, source
- Panchavadyam: Mahesh K, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Mani stone: John Hill, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Thrissur Pooram: Rameshng, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Narasimha Jayanti: anonymous, Public domain, source
- Sanni Yakuma: Michael Gunther, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Alpana: Tripan123, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Vijayadashami: DiplomatTesterMan, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Esala Perahera: Ashan96, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Hornbill Festival: Vikramjit Kakati, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Bharatanatyam: Arian Zwegers, CC BY 2.0, source
- Ramlila: Ankit Gupta, CC BY-SA 3.0, source