Wangala Dance

Wangala is the post-harvest thanksgiving dance of the Garo tribe of Meghalaya, performed to honour Misi Saljong (Pattigipa Ra'rongipa), the sun god and giver of fertility.

Two long lines of men and women move in parallel, their steps driven by the rolling beat of dama oval drums — giving the festival its popular name, the Hundred Drums Festival.

Wangala has been performed in the Garo hills for centuries as the closing rite of jhum (shifting) cultivation, sealing the agricultural year before winter.

The contemporary Hundred Drums Festival at Asanang, near Tura, was institutionalised in 1976 and now draws Garo sub-tribes from across Meghalaya, Assam and Bangladesh.

The Garos are a Tibeto-Burman matrilineal people of the Western Meghalaya hills, who call themselves A·chik Mande — 'the hill people'.

Wangala is led by the village Nokma (chief) and accompanied by traditional drummers, flutists and buffalo-horn blowers.

• Men wear a dokmanda waistcloth, a turban (kotip) topped with feathers of the great hornbill, and chest ornaments of brass and shell.
• Women wear the dakmanda — a hand-woven wraparound skirt — with a marang jaksil headband and beaded necklaces.

• Hundred Drums Wangala Festival — Asanang, near Tura (second weekend of November).
• Village Wangala — celebrated in individual Garo villages across West, East and South Garo Hills through October–November.

• Asanang Cultural Complex, near Tura — the official festival ground.
• Tura, West Garo Hills — main hub with homestays and cultural villages nearby.
• Sasatgre and Daribokgre villages — authentic community celebrations.

A curated gallery of Wangala Dance. Images are placeholders until license-cleared photographs are sourced.