Sanni Yakuma

What it is

Sanni Yakuma belongs to Sri Lanka's Sinhalese community and is one of the island's best known exorcism rites, a class of ritual known in Sinhala as tovil. Eighteen masked dances carry the action, and each dance stands for a sickness or complaint that affects people. Those eighteen pieces are the heart of the Pahatharata, or country, dancing form, one of the three main dance styles of Sri Lanka. The rite calls on the demons thought to be harming a patient, orders them to stop, and sends them back to the demon world.

Origins and history

The idea that demons bring sickness, and the rites built on it, may go back to prehistoric times. In folk telling, the eighteen demons belong to the age of the Buddha. The king of the Licchavis at Vaishali suspected his queen of adultery and put her to death, but she gave birth as she died. Her son, the Kola Sanniya, fed on her body, grew up, and attacked the city to punish his father. He made eighteen lumps of poison, charmed them into demons, and with them killed the king and ravaged the land until the Buddha subdued them. When the rite began is not known; people have staged it in the island's south and west since long ago.

How it is performed

A lead performer, the yakadura, first works out whether a demon is causing the patient's trouble. This healer is also called the edura, and in everyday life is often a fisherman, a farmer or a drummer. When the rite is needed, the healer fixes a date that is thought to be favourable. The night is spent in two long stages. Dancers wear bright costumes and carved masks and move through fast, intricate steps and turns while drums keep time. Between the dancing, the drummer and the demon trade taunts, and the demon is made to look foolish before the audience.

The two stages

The Ata Paliya, the first stage, is made of eight dances. Before they begin, the healer prepares offerings for the patient to hand over. These eight palis call down blessings on the patient. Suniyan Yakshaniya appears three times: as a beautiful young woman, as a woman with child, and as a mother with a baby. Maruwa, or death, follows, with the demons Kalu Yaka, Vatha Kumara and Kalu Kumara, then the palis Anguru Dummala, Kalaspaliya and Salupaliya. In the second stage, Daha Ata Sanniya, the sanni demons appear one by one, frightening at first and comic afterwards. Kola Sanni, shown as a non-Buddhist demon, comes last. He must ask the Buddha's consent and take what people give him, and the dancer removes the mask and faces the patient.

Today and change

The rite has not died out. Stagings continue, chiefly in the coastal south, and they are usually put on for audiences rather than to treat a patient. Two things hold the tradition back: a full performance costs a great deal, and it lasts a whole night. The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami also harmed its survival. Coastal areas felt foreign influence long before colonial rule and then colonial power as well, yet the art held on best in the south-west of the island.

How Sanni Yakuma is kept

A healer called the yakadura is sent for when someone falls ill, and decides whether a demon is at work. If one is, the healer picks the night. Offerings are readied for the demons and the patient hands them over. Dancers in bright costume and mask then work through two stages: the eight dances of the Ata Paliya, which bring blessings, and the Daha Ata Sanniya, in which the eighteen sanni demons come forward, are taunted and humiliated, then dismissed. The patient watches throughout, and at the end the last dancer removes his mask.

When and where

There is no set date. For each patient the healer chooses a time held to be favourable, and the ritual fills one night, finishing as the sun comes up.

The tradition belongs to Sri Lanka's Sinhalese community and is strongest in the south and west of the island, above all on the south-western coast. It is still staged today, though less often than in the past.

What Sanni Yakuma means

For those who keep it, sickness can come from a spirit, and the rite is a way of taking back control. The demons are not only feared. They are teased, made small, and then released, and the patient is restored to ordinary life. The Buddha's authority closes the matter, and the Kola Sanni demon, who refuses that authority, is brought to accept it. The mask removed at the end marks the return of the person to health and to the community.

Questions people ask about Sanni Yakuma

See also

Esala PeraheraA Sri Lankan procession of sacred relics, drummers and elephants honouring the BuddhaKandyan danceThe sacred dance of Sri Lanka's hill country, kept in temple and on the stageCandlemasA Christian feast of candle blessings marking the end of the Christmas seasonOvooA stone cairn on a peak or pass, circled by travellers and honoured in sky worship

Good reading and sources

• Sanni Yakuma on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data

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 2026-10-05.