Yaks from Arunachal’s Mountains on Republic Day Parade

Tawang-

Witness the Yaks from the mountains of Arunachal Pradesh in the lanes of Rajpath in New Delhi on January 26th as it dances in all its glory in the cold misty morning along with other tableaus of the country at the Republic Day Parade Celebration 2017.

This selection comes after several rounds of meeting held by the Ministry of Defence, involving various stages of elimination. An expert committee, comprising of 10-15 members is appointed to choose the tableaux amongst all the states and to suggest various modifications and changes to the selected states. These suggestions are concerned with the music, the model and the overall theme itself. In the first round, Arunachal Pradesh had presented five themes- Battle of Kekar Monying, Yak dance, Nyokum Yullo, Carpet Making and Murung Festival. The expert committee zeroed in on the Yak dance.

Yak dance 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. Belief is this leads to peace and prosperity in the community. Performed during the Losar festival, this dance represents the joy of the people upon finding the yak and their belief that performing this dance would relieve them of all their complications and anxieties.
Arunachal Pradesh had missed out on a hat trick this year after parading in 2015 and 2014 with the theme ‘Igu Dance’ and ‘Aji Lhamu’ respectively. In 2007, the state got a special award for its theme ‘Harnessing the Nature’.

Fifteen states and Union Territories have been selected this year. Arunachal Pradesh features in it with only two other states from the Northeast – Manipur and Tripura.  A team of officers and officials, led by  Michi Kani, Deputy Director, DIPR, had recently gone to Tawang to meet the artists and brief them about the requirements.

Republic Day Tableaux is an annual event to showcase the developmental, diversity and cultural fabric of the nation. The Department of Information and Public Relations, vested with the task of the tableaux, and  Dhruba Bhattacharjee, Art Expert in DIPR under whose able leadership the tableaux has been selected needs special mention and congratulations for pulling it off and for showcasing Arunachal in the national arena.