The Ghatu nach or dance festival takes place in the month of Magh Panchami (Fifth day of brighter moon in Magh) or towards end of January and ends on Baisakh purnima which falls around the end of April or beginning of May. Final performance lasts from morning to evening for three days and night. Not a single episode must be omitted; at a specific point called Kusunda; the dancers fall into spirit possession. A strict rule governs the Kusunda. Gurungs believes mistake may result in blindness, madness or even death. Due to these sanctions the Ghatu has maintained its unique Ghatu language, barely comprehensible to present day singers or audiences, which may be in ancient Gurung language. It is even unintelligible to the Ghatu gurus and Gurumas who can only say what each part is about generally.
Young virgin girls perform the Ghatu and are called ghansaris or ghatonis. They wear typical Ghatu dress comprising of traditional Gurung dress, jewellery and special headgears. They dance trance-like and it is extremely graceful, twisting, rising, and sinking and then turning in a squatting position with the hands just touching the ground, with eyes closed, in a story that is sung by a group of men in heterophony style, a slow chant to the rhythm of a double-ended drum and Jhyali (Cymbols). The story tells a long story of a legendary King Parsuram and his queen, various events in their lives including the death of the king and the immolation (sati) of his queen and her subsequent return to life. This is the most important part of the Ghatu. It is said that if a Ghansari cannot be resurrected after she swoons when the part about the self immolation is sung, then she is liable to die. The rest of the story depicts a long and eventually successful hunting venture followed by a gambling spree.
There are two types of Ghatu dances that are performed are the sati and baramasye Ghatu. The former is performed at a specific time as described above, whereas baramasye can be performed at any time and is not rigid following strict adherence as the sati Ghatu dance.
A distinctive Gurung institution, Ghatu is fading away, as the old men who sung the songs die; young girls have less time from their school work. We as a Gurung community could work together to preserve this wonderful Ghatu Dance for our future generation.
For more information on Ghatu dance please click below to read a article written by Prem Gurung.
