Kolkata will host an international mask dance festival on November 19 and 20, bringing together traditional performers from Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Sri Lanka and the Republic of Korea at an event in New Town focused on intangible cultural heritage.
The International Intangible Cultural Heritage Mask Dance Festival is being organised by UNESCO and the West Bengal government’s MSME department under the Rural Craft and Cultural Hubs Project. The Kolkata Society for Cultural Heritage, a UN-accredited social enterprise, has been tasked with organising the programme.
The festival will feature five performing traditions from different geographical and cultural settings: Chhau from Purulia, Gomira from Dinajpur, Karma Shaila Dance from Madhya Pradesh, Tukka Wadu Kolam from Sri Lanka and Haeseo Talchum from the Republic of Korea. The programme is intended to place Bengal’s masked performance traditions on a wider international platform while creating a shared setting for cultural exchange.
Chhau from Purulia is already recognised by UNESCO, but Gomira does not have the same designation. Sourav Mukherjee, founder director of the Kolkata Society for Cultural Heritage, said the festival was intended to widen promotion for Chhau and provide greater visibility to Gomira.
“Chhau dance of Purulia has had a Unesco tag but Gomira, another mask performing art of Bengal, does not. Despite the Unesco tag, promotion for Chhau needs to be wider so that artistes from Purulia receive global recognition,” Mukherjee said, according to the report. “That is why we are trying to bring these two on the Unesco global platform.”
The event comes as traditional performers continue to face challenges in sustaining these art forms across generations. Kartik Kumar, a Chhau artiste from Debnatorang village in Purulia, said the UNESCO recognition had not substantially improved conditions for performers and that younger generations were losing interest in continuing the tradition.
“Now that the govt and Unesco are taking an initiative to bring us on a global stage, we hope it will be a boon for us,” Kumar said.
The festival also follows a cultural exchange programme in which UNESCO took eight Chhau dancers from Purulia to Korea two months ago. The new event will extend that exchange by bringing international mask dance traditions to Kolkata, allowing the city to function as a meeting point for regional and global heritage practices.
Asharu Sarkar, a Gomira performer from Dinajpur, described the form as a centuries-old masked dance tradition that remains little known outside Bengal. Sarkar said the UNESCO initiative could support the survival of the art form and help connect communities and cultures.
A state official said the festival would provide artistes with an opportunity to perform on an international platform and could contribute to cultural inclusion and empowerment. The two-day programme is scheduled to take place in New Town on November 19 and 20.
