Festivals and celebrationsSouth AsiaIndigenous and traditional
Garia Puja
A seven-day festival in Tripura honouring Baba Garia with worship and sacrifice
Garia Puja is a seven-day festival kept in Tripura, India, in honour of Baba Garia, the supreme god of the communities who worship him. All Kokborok-speaking tribes and the Halam tribes take part, asking for prosperity and well-being, and the Jamatia hold a mass celebration at state level.
When is Garia Puja kept?
Garia Puja is kept every year for seven days and nights, from the first day of the month of Boishakh.
Garia Puja is a festival kept in Tripura, in India. For seven days and nights, communities honour Baba Garia, their supreme god, and ask for prosperity and well-being. The Jamatia hold a large public celebration, and Kokborok-speaking and Halam tribes take part. It begins on the first day of the month of Boishakh.
What it is
Garia Puja honours Baba Garia, the supreme god of the communities who keep it. It lasts seven days and seven nights. The festival belongs to Tripura, a state in India. All the tribes that speak Kokborok take part, along with the Halam tribes. One of those peoples, the Jamatia, organises a mass celebration at state level. People come to ask Baba Garia for prosperity and well-being. The days are counted from the start of Boishakh, the first month of the Tripuri and the Bengali calendars.
How it is kept
Garia Puja runs for a full week, day and night. Devotees in the Tripuri community offer a chicken as a sacrifice. This is a ritual act, not an everyday meal. The whole period is given to the worship of Baba Garia. The Jamatia stand apart in how they keep it: they hold a mass celebration at state level. All the Kokborok-speaking tribes and the Halam tribes join in the observance. Whether a family marks the days quietly or a whole people gathers, the aim stays the same: prosperity and well-being.
What it means
Garia Puja is kept to honour Baba Garia and to ask for prosperity and well-being. Those two things are the point of the whole week. The chicken is an offering, set apart from ordinary food. Taking part is a shared act: the tribes that speak Kokborok and the Halam tribes keep the same days. The Jamatia give the festival its largest public shape with a mass celebration at state level. In 2019 the date fell on 21 April, and it moves each year with the calendar.
How Garia Puja is kept
The festival runs for seven days and nights. Devotees of the Tripuri community sacrifice chicken as part of the ritual. All Kokborok-speaking tribes and the Halam tribes worship Baba Garia through the week. The Jamatia hold a mass celebration at state level, which is their own distinctive way of keeping the festival. Worship is aimed at prosperity and well-being for the community. The days begin on the first day of Boishakh, the opening month of the Tripuri and Bengali calendars.
When and where
Garia Puja is kept every year for seven days and nights, beginning on the first day of Boishakh, the first month of the Tripuri and Bengali calendars. The date shifts from year to year with that calendar; in 2019 the festival fell on 21 April.
The festival belongs to Tripura, a state in India. It is kept across the tribes that live there, among them all the Kokborok-speaking peoples and the Halam tribes, and it is strongest where the Jamatia hold their mass celebration at state level.
What Garia Puja means
The festival turns on two promises: prosperity and well-being. Baba Garia is honoured as the supreme god of the communities who keep him, and the seven days are given over to that worship. The chicken sacrifice is an offering, a ritual act set apart from ordinary eating. Taking part is a shared duty: whole tribes keep the days together, and the Jamatia mass gathering makes that sharedness visible to the wider state.
Questions people ask about Garia Puja
When is Garia Puja kept?
Garia Puja is kept every year for seven days and nights, from the first day of the month of Boishakh.
What is Garia Puja?
It is a seven-day festival kept in Tripura, India, to honour Baba Garia, the supreme god of the communities who worship him. Devotees ask for prosperity and well-being. All Kokborok-speaking tribes and the Halam tribes take part, and the Jamatia hold a mass celebration at state level.
Where is it kept?
In Tripura, a state in India. It is the festival of the Tripuri community and of all the tribes that speak Kokborok, together with the Halam tribes. The Jamatia tribe keep a mass celebration of it at state level, which is particular to them.
Why is a chicken sacrificed?
Devotees in the Tripuri community sacrifice a chicken as part of the ritual. It is an offering within the worship of Baba Garia, not an everyday meal. The whole festival asks the god for prosperity and well-being for the community.
Does the festival have other names?
It is also known as Buisu, Bihu, Busy, Boisabi and Sangrain. These are recorded as other names for the same observance, which is kept in Tripura in the month of Boishakh.
See also
DiwaliA five-day festival of lights celebrated across India and its diaspora to mark the victory of light over darkness.
MawlidAn annual festival marking the birth of the Prophet Muhammad, marked by poetry, processions and feasts.
HoliA spring festival of colours and bonfires that marks the end of winter and the triumph of good over evil.
Water lanternSmall lamps floated on water to honour the dead and ask for good fortuneGood reading and sources
The facts on this page come from the Wikipedia article "Garia puja", written by its contributors and used under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence, and from its Wikidata record (CC0). EveryParampara rewrote the text in its own words, with AI assistance, and compares every page with the article to make sure no passage is copied. It may be reused under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 licence with a link back.
It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-12.
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