Arunachal’s Yak dance selected for R-day parade
ITANAGAR: The famous yak dance from Arunachal Pradesh has been selected for the tableaux to be presented during the Republic Day parade next year.
Fifteen states and union territories have been selected, and Arunachal Pradesh finds a place in it with only two other states from the Northeast - Manipur and Tripura, an official communique said on Tuesday.
An expert committee comprising 10-15 members was appointed by the defence ministry to choose tableaux from among all the states, it said.
The expert committee chose the Yak dance, which is a famous pantomime of the Mahayana sect of Buddhism. The masked dancer represents the members of a family who are said to have discovered the Yak with the help of a magical bird hundreds of years ago.
Performed during the Losar festival, the dance represents the joy of the people on finding the yak and their belief that performing the dance would relieve them of all their complications and anxieties.
Arunachal Pradesh had missed out on a hattrick in 2016, after performing in 2015 and 2014 with the theme ‘Igu Dance’ and ‘Aji Lhamu’ respectively at the Republic Day programme.