Relationship
120 public knowledge systems connected to this registry facet.
L’Ahellil du Gourara
Performed during collective ceremonies, the Ahellil is a poetic and musical genre emblematic of the Zenete population of Gourara. This region in southwest Algeria includes some one hundred oases populated by over 50,000 inhabitants of Berber, Arab and Sudanese origin. The Ahellil, which is specific to the Berber-speaking part of...
Al-Ayyala, un art traditionnel du spectacle dans le Sultanat d’Oman et aux Émirats arabes unis
Al-Ayyala is a popular and expressive cultural performance practised in north-western Oman and throughout the United Arab Emirates. Al-Ayyala involves chanted poetry, drum music and dance, and simulates a battle scene. Two rows of about twenty men face each other, carrying thin bamboo sticks to signify spears or swords. Between the rows...
L’Al-Razfa, un art traditionnel du spectacle
Al-Razfa is a traditional performing art practised throughout the United Arab Emirates and the Sultanate of Oman. It is performed by men of all ages and classes during social occasions, such as weddings and national festivals. Male performers form two facing lines with dancers filling the space between. Led by the main singer, the two...
L’épopée Al-Sirah al-Hilaliyyah
This oral poem, also known as the Hilali epic, recounts the saga of the Bani Hilal Bedouin tribe and its migration from the Arabian Peninsula to North Africa in the tenth century. This tribe held sway over a vast territory in central North Africa for more than a century before being annihilated by Moroccan rivals. As one of the major...
Alardah Alnajdiyah, danse, tambours et poésie d’Arabie saoudite
Alardah is a traditional performance combining dance, drumming and chanting poetry that signifies the start and end of notable occasions, such as religious holidays, weddings, births, graduation ceremonies, or events of national or local significance. It is considered a fundamental component of the cultural expressions of the practicing...
L'Almezmar, danse du bâton au son des tambours
Almezmar is a traditional group performance practised by members of the Hijazi community in Saudi Arabia for festive occasions, such as family and national celebrations, religious holidays or government events. It involves about 15 to 100 practitioners dressed in long white garments who begin by standing in two rows opposite each other....
La cosmovision andine des Kallawaya
The Kallawaya ethnic group, based in the mountainous Bautista Saavedra region north of La Paz, traces its roots to the pre-Inca period. Like many aspects of Andean culture, the Kallawaya’s practices and values have evolved through the fusion of native and Christian religions. The principal activity of the Kallawaya involves the practice...
L’art de fabriquer et de jouer la mbira/sanza, lamellophone traditionnel au Malawi et au Zimbabwe
The art of crafting and playing Mbira/Sansi, the finger-plucking traditional musical instrument in Malawi and Zimbabwe, plays a key role in the communities concerned. The basic Mbira/Sansi instrument consists of a wooden board with metal keys attached on top, and the instrument is sometimes mounted on a calabash/wooden resonator. The...
L’art de la danse xòe du peuple tai au Viet Nam
Xòe is a form of Vietnamese dancing with movements that symbolize human activities in ritual, culture, life and work. It is performed at rituals, weddings, village festivals and community events. There are three main types of xòe: ritual, circle and presentational. The ritual and presentational xòe dances are named after props used...
Le mugham azerbaïdjanais
The Azerbaijani Mugham is a traditional musical form, characterized by a large degree of improvisation. The Mugham, though a classical and academic art, draws upon popular bard melodies, rhythms and performance techniques and is performed in many venues throughout the country. Contemporary representations of the Azerbaijani Mugham...
Le baile chino
Bailes Chinos are brotherhoods of musicians who express their faith through music, dance and singing in the context of commemoration festivities. The practice stretches mainly from the area known as the Norte Chico to the central region of Chile and comprises five fully differentiated styles, each named after the valley or basin where...
L’art du bakhshi
Epic poetry plays a crucial role in the musical and poetic heritage of the Uzbek and Karakalpak people of Uzbekistan. Called dostons, the traditional centuries-old poems are based on myths, legends, folk tales and legendary chants, and address varied themes such as patriotism, commitment, love, friendship and solidarity. Bakhshi refers...
Le carnaval de Bâle
Beginning on the Monday following Ash Wednesday and lasting exactly 72 hours, Basel Carnival is the largest carnival in Switzerland. Two parades take place on the Monday and Wednesday, bringing together 11,000 costumed carnivalists in parades of fife and drum cliques, floats and carriages. Tuesday is dedicated to children, with concerts...
Les chants des Baul
The Bauls are mystic minstrels living in rural Bangladesh and West Bengal, India. The Baul movement, at its peak in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, has now regained popularity among the rural population of Bangladesh. Their music and way of life have influenced a large segment of Bengali culture, and particularly the...
Le bigwala, musique de trompes en calebasse et danse du royaume du Busoga en Ouganda
Bigwala music and dance is a cultural practice of the Basoga people of Uganda, performed during royal celebrations such as coronations and funerals and, in recent decades, on social occasions. Bigwala describes a set of five or more monotone gourd trumpets blown in hocket to produce a melody, accompanied by a specific dance. A typical...
Le chant bouddhique du Ladakh : récitation de textes sacrés bouddhiques dans la région transhimalayenne du Ladakh, Jammu-et-Cachemire, Inde
In the monasteries and villages of the Ladakh region, Buddhist lamas (priests) chant sacred texts representing the spirit, philosophy and teachings of the Buddha. Two forms of Buddhism are practised in Ladakh – Mahayana and Vajrayana – and there are four major sects, namely Nyngma, Kagyud, Shakya and Geluk. Each sect has several forms...
La danse budima
The Budima Dance is a warrior dance performed all year round by the Wee people on a number of sombre and spiritual occasions, especially during traditional ceremonies, funeral processions, weddings, initiation ceremonies, the installation of chiefs, thanksgiving, harvest celebrations and ritual activities. The dance is performed with...
Le Candombe et son espace socioculturel : une pratique communautaire
Every Sunday and on many holidays, the ''llamadas'' ''de'' ''tambores'' ''de'' ''candombe'' or candombe drum calls enliven the Sur, Palermo and Cordón districts in southern Montevideo, Uruguay, home to a population of African descent. The practice of the candombe begins around communal fires as people gather to tune their drums and...
Le carnaval de Binche
The town of Binche is situated south of Brussels in Belgium’s Hainaut province. Each year, during the three days preceding Lent, it is host to carnival festivities that mobilize the historic centre and attract throngs of foreign visitors. With roots dating back to the Middle Ages, Binche’s famed celebration ranks as one of Europe’s...
La fête du pardon célestinien
The Celestinian forgiveness celebration was inspired by Pope Celestine V, who issued a historical ‘Bull’ as an act of partnership among local populations. Taking place in the city and province of L’Aquila, the tradition comprises a set of rituals and celebrations transmitted uninterruptedly since 1294. The practice conveys a sense of...
La tradition cérémonielle du Keşkek
Keşkek is a traditional Turkish ceremonial dish prepared for wedding ceremonies, circumcisions and religious holidays. Women and men work together to cook wheat and meat called ‘Keşkek’ in huge cauldrons, then serve it to the guests. The wheat is washed with prayers the preceding day, and then carried to a large stone mortar, to the...
Le chidaoba, lutte en Géorgie
Chidaoba (wrestling) is an ancient form of martial art practised by a large proportion of the male population throughout all the regions, villages and communities of Georgia. Bearers of the tradition include young people, city residents, sports clubs, educational institutions and amateur organizations. The practice is a complex...
Le Chopi Timbila
The Chopi communities live mainly in the southern part of Inhambane province in southern Mozambique and are famous for their orchestra music. Their orchestras consist of five to thirty wooden xylophones, called timbila, of varying sizes and ranges of pitch. The timbila are finely manufactured and tuned wooden instruments made from the...
Le bram de Noël et le sambai de Gales Point Manatee au Belize
The Christmas Bram and Sambai are annual cultural celebrations held on 25 and 26 December in the Gales Point Manatee Village, located on a peninsula inside Southern Lagoon on the central coast of Belize. Deeply rooted in African heritage, these festivities promote unity and a shared sense of identity within the practising community. The...
La sortie des masques et marionnettes de Markala
The coming forth of the masks and puppets is a ritual festivity practised among the Bambara, Bozo, Marka and Somono communities in Markala, and is characterized by masked dances, drums and songs featuring dancers and puppeteers. Each mask and puppet symbolizes the sacred link between man and nature, with particular animals incarnating...
La fête de commémoration de la découverte de la Véritable Sainte-Croix du Christ
The festival of Maskel is celebrated across Ethiopia on 26 September to commemorate the unearthing of the True Holy Cross of Christ. Celebrations begin with the building of the Damera bonfire in Maskel Square in Addis Ababa – a conical pyre of poles surrounded by bundles of branches and torches, decorated with green grass and Abyssinian...
Le cuarteto : musique, danse et paroles dans la ville de Córdoba, Argentine
Cuarteto is a lively dance music genre that blends local criollo musical styles with influences from European immigrants. Early cuarteto orchestras featured instruments such as the piano, violin, accordion and double bass, with a singer leading the performance. Over time, the genre has incorporated Caribbean rhythms, Afro-Latin...
Les pratiques et expressions culturelles liées au balafon et au kolintang au Mali, au Burkina Faso, en Côte d’Ivoire et en Indonésie
The balafon (in Mali, Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire) and kolintang (in Indonesia) refer to a set of wooden xylophones of different lengths. The Indonesian and West African instruments share similarities in material, shapes, keys, functions, transmission processes and values. They are believed to represent mutual respect and tolerance...
Les pratiques et expressions culturelles liées au "M'bolon", instrument de musique traditionnel à percussion
The M’Bolon is a musical instrument with a large calabash sound box covered with cowhide and a bow-shaped wooden neck with strings. To amplify the sound vibrations, the player often wears a bell-like device made of metal plates with small oval-shaped lobes. This device is fitted with small iron rings and attached to the player’s hand by...
L’espace culturel du Sosso-Bala
The sacred balafon instrument, known as the Sosso- Bala, has been perceived as the symbol of the freedom and cohesion of the Mandingue community, which is spread across a territory that once belonged to the Empire of Mali. Originally owned and played by King Sumaoro Kanté, who succeeded to the Sosso throne in the early thirteenth...
L’espace culturel de la Fraternité du Saint-Esprit des congos de Villa Mella
The Brotherhood of the Holy Spirit of the Congos of Villa Mella is distinguished in the fields of music, dance and popular festivities. The Brotherhood musicians play instruments called congos. These congos, the origin of which is attributed to the Holy Spirit, are hand-drums. The Brotherhood, which is nowadays open to all without...
Le Dondang Sayang
Dondang Sayang is a traditional Malay art still practised in Melaka by four communities: the Malay, Baba Nyonya, Chitty and Portuguese communities. The practice combines elements of music (violins, gongs and tambourines or the tambour), songs and chants, and features beautiful melodious strains of poetry. Also known as love ballads, the...
Le durbar à Kano
In Nigeria, Durbar is a procession of about 10,000 men on horses, and men and women on foot. It takes place during the ninth and twelfth months of the Muslim calendar to mark the Eid el-Fitr and Eid el-Kabir every year. The central figure of the Durbar procession is the Emir and his palace courtiers, officials and bodyguards. There are...
El Güegüense
A forceful expression of protest against colonial rule, El Güegüense is a satirical drama well known throughout Nicaragua. It is performed during the feast of San Sebastián, patron saint of the city of Diriamba in Nicaragua’s Carazo province. El Güegüense, a synthesis of Spanish and indigenous cultures combining theatre, dance and...
Le falak
Falak, meaning ‘heaven’, ‘fortune’ and ‘universe’, is the traditional folklore music of the mountain people of Tajikistan. The expressive and philosophical musical genre may be performed by a male or female soloist, either acappella, or with a single instrumental accompaniment or an ensemble and dancers. Characterized by their high...
Le festival de la déesse Bà Chúa Xứ au Mont Sam
The festival of Bà Chúa Xứ Goddess at Sam Mountain takes place from the 22nd to the 27th day of the fourth lunar month. Observed by the Kinh, Khmer, Cham and Hoa communities in Châu Đốc city, it entails performing religious ceremonies and music and dance to express gratitude to the Mother Earth goddess, who is believed to grant...
Le cycle des festivités autour de la vénération et du culte de Saint Jean-Baptiste
The Venezuelan Saint John the Baptist celebrations feature practices and knowledge that originated in the eighteenth century in Afro-Venezuelan communities associated with former colonial estates. From the beginning, the festivities have been heavily influenced by Catholicism, but they are also rich in verbal, musical and physical...
Le fjiri
Fjiri is a musical performance that commemorates the history of pearl diving in Bahrain. Dating back to the late nineteenth century, it was traditionally performed by pearl divers and pearling crews to express the hardships faced at sea. The performers sit in a circle, singing and playing different types of drums, finger chimes and a...
Le Gagaku
Gagaku, characterized by long, slow songs and dance-like movements, is the oldest of the Japanese traditional performing arts. It is performed at banquets and ceremonies in the Imperial Palace and in theatres throughout the country, and encompasses three distinct arts. The first, Kuniburi no Utamai, features ancient Japanese songs,...
Le Gagok, cycles de chant lyrique accompagnés d’un orchestre
Gagok is a genre of traditional Korean vocal music sung by men and women to the accompaniment of a small orchestra, one of several forms of singing that together constitute ''jeongga,'' or ‘right song’. Formerly a music associated with the higher classes, Gagok is today widely popular throughout the country. Gagok comprises twenty-six...
Le gamelan
Gamelan refers to the traditional Indonesian percussion orchestra and to the set of musical instruments used. Consisting primarily of ornate, percussive instruments made of hand-forged metal, the ensemble typically includes xylophones, gongs, gong-chimes, drums, cymbals, string instruments and bamboo flutes. Gamelan music follows...
Le Gbofe d’Afounkaha, la musique des trompes traversières de la communauté Tagbana
The Gbofe is mainly performed in the village of Afounkaha in the Tagbana community. The term Gbofe is used both for the transverse horns and for the performance as a whole, which encompasses music, song and dance. The Gbofe horns are made of roots covered by cowhide. Six of these horns are used together, ranging in length from 50 to 70...
Gnaoua
Gnawa refers to a set of musical events, performances, fraternal practices and therapeutic rituals mixing the secular with the sacred. Gnawa is first and foremost a Sufi brotherhood music combined with lyrics with a generally religious content, invoking ancestors and spirits. Originally practised by groups and individuals from slavery...
La grande fête de Tarija
The Grand Festival of Tarija takes place in the city of Tarija, in the southeast of Bolivia. Celebrated every year in August and September, it involves devotional processions, music festivals, competitions and fireworks dedicated to Saint Roch. The festival has its origins in the colonial period, when the inhabitants of the city...
Le Yimakan, les récits oraux des Hezhen
When the element was first inscribed, only five storytellers were still capable of performing certain Yimakan cantos, and the traditional practices associated with the Hezhen oral narratives faced several threats. This programme has engaged families, communities, schools, local authorities and the State in safeguarding the custom. Its...
La musique et la danse highlife
Highlife music and dance is a popular form of musical expression and storytelling known for its lively rhythms, lyrics and strong connection to everyday life. It features a mix of instruments, including guitars, horns, drums, xylophones and percussion. The music is often built around call-and-response singing, with the lead singer...
L’Alardhah du cheval et du chameau
Horse and camel Ardhah is practised across many regions of Oman. On Alardhah day (meaning the ‘day of the festival’ in Arabic), people gather around the racecourse to watch shows by horse and camel riders that reflect Omani people’s skill in dealing with and taming the animals. Traditional arts (such as the reciting of traditional...
Le système de divination Ifa
The Ifa divination system, which makes use of an extensive corpus of texts and mathematical formulas, is practiced among Yoruba communities and by the African diaspora in the Americas and the Caribbean. The word Ifa refers to the mystical figure Ifa or Orunmila, regarded by the Yoruba as the deity of wisdom and intellectual development....
L'Ingoma Ya Mapiko
The mapiko dance is a celebratory dance practiced by the Makonde people of Mozambique. A part of the traditional rite of passage from puberty to adulthood, the dance is performed in an enclosure, usually under mango trees, with dancers, musicians and the public coming together to celebrate the initiation rite. The dance may also be...
Intore
Intore is a Rwandan dance performed by a troupe. The dancers are arranged in lines representing the ranks of warriors on a battlefield. Through their movements, they mimic a battle with an invisible adversary, leaping and wielding their spears and shields to the rhythm of the traditional drums and horns. They are supported by songs and...
Le chant et la danse du tambour des Inuits
Drum dancing and drum singing are indigenous forms of Inuit artistic expression and music in Greenland. Drum dances and songs are frequently performed during national holidays, festive celebrations and social events, by a single person or a group. A single drum dancer may also perform with a choir. During a drum dance, the performer...
Le maqâm iraquien
Widely recognized as Iraq’s predominant classical music tradition, the Maqam encompasses a vast repertory of songs, accompanied by traditional instruments. Moreover, this popular genre provides a wealth of information on the musical history of the region and the Arab influences that have held sway over the centuries. The Iraqi Maqam is...
La danse Isukuti des communautés Isukha et Idakho de l’ouest du Kenya
The Isukuti dance is a traditional celebratory performance practised among the Isukha and Idakho communities of Western Kenya. It takes the form of a fast-paced, energetic and passionate dance accompanied by drumming and singing. An integral tool for cultural transmission and harmonious coexistence between families and communities, it...
Le Junkanoo
Junkanoo is the national cultural festival of The Bahamas. Dating back to the beginning of the nineteenth century, it was brought to The Bahamas by enslaved Africans who used their three-day holiday to recreate festivals from home. An outlet for creative expression, today Junkanoo is mainly celebrated through parades that retain many...
La pratique de la danse k’cimi de Tropojë
In Albania, the k’cimi dance is a popular, festive dance performed in spontaneous gatherings or during traditional ceremonies such as weddings, birthdays, initiations and village celebrations. Typically accompanied by drums, k’cimi is performed by men, women and children of all ages, and usually in couples, with partners changing...
Le théâtre Kabuki
Kabuki is a Japanese traditional theatre form, which originated in the Edo period at the beginning of the seventeenth century and was particularly popular among townspeople. Originally, both men and women acted in Kabuki plays, but eventually only male actors performed the plays: a tradition that has remained to the present day. Male...
La danse kalela
The Kalela dance originated during colonial times in the Luapula Province of Zambia. It was adopted by mine workers and used for entertainment at the Chief's Palace during traditional ceremonies, funerals, harvest celebrations and other important occasions. Kalela is a kind of dance drill formation in which the dancers form two or three...
Le Kankurang, rite d’initiation mandingue
The Kankurang is an initiatory rite practised throughout the Manding provinces of Senegal and Gambia, mainly corresponding to the Casamance, and in the city of Mbour. According to tradition, the origin of the Kankurang is to be found in the Komo, a secret society of hunters whose organization and esoteric practices contributed to the...
Le Karagöz
Karagöz is a form of shadow theatre in Turkey in which figures known as ''tasvirs'' made of camel or ox hide in the shape of people or things are held on rods in front of a light source to cast their shadows onto a cotton screen. A play begins with the projection of an introductory figure to set the scene and suggest the themes of the...
La kopatchkata, danse communautaire du village de Dramtche, Pianets
Kopachkata is a dynamic and energetic social dance performed by local residents of the village of Dramche in the region of Pijanec. It is danced at weddings, public gatherings and religious holidays by the village’s best male dancers. The dance is performed in a semicircle accompanied by drummers, a fiddle, and sometimes a tamboura lute...
L’opéra Kun Qu
Kun Qu Opera developed under the Ming dynasty (fourteenth to seventeenth centuries) in the city of Kunshan, situated in the region of Suzhou in southeast China. With its roots in popular theatre, the repertory of songs evolved into a major theatrical form. Kun Qu is one of the oldest forms of Chinese opera still performed today. It is...
Le kwagh-hir, représentation théâtrale
Kwagh-Hir theatrical performance is a composite art form encompassing a spectacle that is both visually stimulating and culturally edifying. Kwagh-hir has its roots in the story-telling tradition of the Tiv people called ‘kwagh-alom’, a practice where the family was treated to a storytelling session by creative storytellers, usually in...
La Tumba Francesa
The dance, song and drumming style known as Tumba Francesa (French Drum) was brought to Cuba by Haitian slaves who were resettled in the island’s eastern regions following the unrest in Haiti during the 1790s. It embodies one of the oldest and most tangible links to the Afro-Haitian heritage of Cuba’s Oriente province and developed from...
La langue, la danse et la musique des Garifuna
A population of mixed origin incorporating cultural elements of indigenous Caribbean and African groups, the Garifuna settled along the Atlantic coast of Central America after being forced to flee from the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent in the eighteenth century. Today, Garifuna communities mainly live in Honduras, Guatemala,...
Le lkhon khol de Wat Svay Andet
Lkhon Khol Wat Svay Andet is practised in one community surrounding a Buddhist monastery, Wat Svay Andet – located about 10km east of Phnom Penh on the Mekong River – and is performed by men wearing masks to the accompaniment of a traditional orchestra and melodious recitation. The specific aim is to propitiate the Neak Ta (guardian...
Le Malhoun, un art poético-musical populaire
Malhun is a popular form of poetic expression in Morocco. The verses are sung in dialectical Arabic and sometimes Hebrew. They are accompanied by music played on traditional instruments, notably the lute, the violin, the rebab and small drums. Popular topics include love, the joys of life, the beauty of people, nature, religious prayer...
Le Maloya
Maloya is a form of music, song and dance native to Réunion Island. Of mixed racial origins since its outset, maloya was created by Malagasy and African slaves on the sugar plantations and was eventually appropriated by the whole of the island’s population. Initially conceived as a dialogue between a soloist and a choir accompanied by...
Les traditions des Marrons de Moore Town
Situated in the highlands of eastern Jamaica, Moore Town is home to the descendants of independent communities of former runaway slaves known as Maroons. The African ancestors of the Moore Town Maroons were forcibly removed from their native lands to the Caribbean by Spanish slave traders in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The...
La danse des masques des tambours de Drametse
The mask dance of the Drametse community is a sacred dance performed during the Drametse festival in honour of Padmasambhava, a Buddhist guru. The festival, which takes place in this eastern Bhutanese village twice a year, is organized by the Ogyen Tegchok Namdroel Choeling Monastery. The dance features sixteen masked male dancers...
La danse Mbende Jerusarema
The Mbende Jerusarema Dance is a popular dance style practiced by the Zezuru Shona people living in eastern Zimbabwe, especially in the Murewa and Uzumba-Maramba-Pfungwe districts. The dance is characterized by acrobatic and sensual movements by women and men, driven by a polyrhythmic drummer accompanied by men playing woodblock...
Le Sema, cérémonie Mevlevi
The Mevleviye is an ascetic Sufi order founded in 1273 in Konya, from where it gradually spread throughout the Ottoman Empire. Today, the Mevleviye can be found in many Turkish communities throughout the world, but the most active and famous centres of the order’s activity are in Konya and Istanbul. The Mevleviye are renowned for their...
La danse mooba du groupe ethnique lenje dans la province Centrale de Zambie
Mooba is the main dance of the Lenje ethnic group of Central Province of Zambia, performed since pre-colonial times. It is also practised in parts of Copperbelt and Lusaka Provinces, by both men and women. On certain occasions, when the dance reaches its peak, some lead dancers are possessed by ancestral spirits called BaChooba; it is...
L’épopée maure T’heydinne
The T’heydinn epic encompasses dozens of poems lauding the glorious feats of Moorish emirs and sultans. It propounds ancestral values underpinning the way of life of the Moorish community in Mauritania, and constitutes a literary and artistic manifestation of the Hassaniya language. Griots perform the epic accompanied by traditional...
Le moutya
Moutya was brought to Seychelles by the enslaved Africans who arrived with the French settlers in the early eighteenth century. They used to practise this dance at night in the forest, at a distance from the plantation house where their masters lived. Historically, Moutya was a psychological comfort against hardship and poverty and a...
La musique et la danse de la bachata dominicaine
The music and dance of Dominican Bachata is a danceable musical expression, deriving from a fusion of rhythmic bolero with other Afro-Antillean genres such as Son, the Cha-cha-cha, Merengue, etc. The Dominican people consider the music and dance of Bachata as a vernacular cultural manifestation, omnipresent in community celebrations and...
Mvet Oyeng, art musical, pratiques et savoir-faire associés à la communauté Ekang
Mvet Oyeng is a cultural tradition that is practised by the Ekang community. It entails the singing of a series of epic stories, accompanied by dancing and the playing of a traditional stringed instrument. The audience actively participates in the performance by playing drumsticks or clapping, singing and engaging with the storyteller....
La danse spirituelle mwazindika de la communauté Daida du Kenya
The Mwazindika spiritual dance is a traditional practice used to promote individual and communal well-being amongst the Daida community. It combines dance, music, ritual and storytelling, and is performed during important events such as rites of passage, harvests, coronations and times of crisis like droughts or floods. Its purpose is...
Le mwinoghe, danse joyeuse
Mwinoghe is an instrumental dance performed among three ethnic communities – Sukwa, Ndali and Bandya – in the northern region of Malawi. In the Chisukwa dialect, the word ‘Mwinoghe’ literally means ‘Let us enjoy ourselves’: the dance is therefore performed to express joy and happiness. Derived from a ceremonial dance of the neighbouring...
Le Nestinarstvo, messages du passé : le panagyr des saints Constantin et Hélène dans le village de Bulgari
The Nestinarstvo fire-dancing rite is the climax of the annual Panagyr ritual on the feast days of Saints Constantine and Helena (3 and 4 June) in the village of Bulgari, in the Mount Strandzha region of south-east Bulgaria. The ritual is held to ensure the well-being and fertility of the village. In the morning, consecrated and...
Le Nha Nhac, musique de cour vietnamienne
Nha Nhac, meaning “elegant music”, refers to a broad range of musical and dance styles performed at the Vietnamese royal court from the fifteenth to the mid-twentieth century. Nha Nhac was generally featured at the opening and closing of ceremonies associated with anniversaries, religious holidays, coronations, funerals and official...
Le patrimoine oral Gèlèdé
The Gelede is performed by the Yoruba-Nago community that is spread over Benin, Nigeria and Togo. For more than a century, this ceremony has been performed to pay tribute to the primordial mother Iyà Nlà and to the role women play in the process of social organization and development of Yoruba society. The Gelede takes place every year...
L’ortéké, un art du spectacle traditionnel au Kazakhstan : danse, marionnettes et musique
Orteke is an indigenous Kazakh performing art that combines theatre, music and puppetry. This folk art entails a music performance with a dombyra, a traditional two-stringed instrument, and a dance performed by a wooden puppet. Attached to the surface of a traditional drum with a metal rod, a wooden puppet in the shape of a mountain...
Les rituels du Pahlevani et du Zoorkhanei
Pahlevani is an Iranian martial art that combines elements of Islam, Gnosticism and ancient Persian beliefs. It describes a ritual collection of gymnastic and callisthenic movements performed by ten to twenty men, each wielding instruments symbolizing ancient weapons. The ritual takes place in a ''Zoorkhane,'' a sacred domed structure...
Les chants épiques Pansori
Pansori is a genre of musical storytelling performed by a vocalist and a drummer.This popular tradition, characterized by expressive singing, stylized speech, a repertory of narratives and gesture, embraces both elite and folk culture. During performances lasting up to eight hours, a male or female singer, accompanied by a single barrel...
La Patum de Berga
The Patum of Berga is a popular festival whose origin can be traced to medieval festivities and parades accompanying the celebration of Corpus Christi. Theatrical performances and parades of a variety of effigies animate the streets of this Catalan town located north of Barcelona. The celebration takes place every year during the week...
Les arts du spectacle chez les ṭwāyef de Ghbonten
In Tunisia, the Twāyef are troupes of poet singers affiliated with the Ghbonten tribe. The troupes perform chants or songs wearing white robes and scarlet chechias (caps). They are accompanied by the sounds of the chenna, a traditional drum. Consisting of a leader and a group of male performers, each troupe boasts a unique repertoire of...
Le pèlerinage au sanctuaire du seigneur de Qoyllurit’i
The Pilgrimage to the sanctuary of the Lord of Qoyllurit’i combines elements from Catholicism and worship of pre-Hispanic nature deities. It begins fifty-eight days after the Christian celebration of Easter Sunday, when 90,000 people from around Cusco travel to the sanctuary, located in Sinakara hollow. Pilgrims are divided into eight...
Le pèlerinage à Watt Town
The Revival Pilgrimage to the community of Watt Town in Jamaica occurs every year on the first Thursday in March. Watt Town is considered a sacred site, which was once a refuge for enslaved Africans. Groups, called bands, journey from across Jamaica to the sacred site. The bands engage in ritual songs and dances, wearing clothing with...
Le punto
Punto is the poetry and music of Cuban farmers, consisting of a tune or melody over which a person sings an improvised or learned stanza of ten octameter verse lines, with a rhyming scheme. There are two main variants of Punto: punto libre, a tune of free metre; and punto fijo, which can be in key or crossed. Throughout history, the...
Le festival du Nouvel An des Qiang
Held on the first day of the tenth lunar month, the Qiang New Year Festival is an occasion for the Qiang people of China’s Sichuan Province to express their gratitude and reverence, reaffirm their harmonious and respectful relationship with nature, and promote social and family harmony. The festival is also a means of regulating...
Les Raiho-shin, visites rituelles de divinités masquées et costumées
Raiho-shin rituals take place annually in various regions of Japan – especially in the Tohoku, Hokuriku, Kyushu and Okinawa regions – on days that mark the beginning of the year or when the seasons change. Such rituals stem from folk beliefs that deities from the outer world – the Raiho-shin – visit communities and usher in the new year...
Ramlila, représentation traditionnelle du Ramayana
Ramlila, literally “Rama’s play”, is a performance of then Ramayana epic in a series of scenes that include song, narration, recital and dialogue. It is performed across northern India during the festival of Dussehra, held each year according to the ritual calendar in autumn. The most representative Ramlilas are those of Ayodhya,...
Le reggae de Jamaïque
Having originated within a cultural space that was home to marginalized groups, mainly in Western Kingston, the Reggae music of Jamaica is an amalgam of numerous musical influences, including earlier Jamaican forms as well as Caribbean, North American and Latin strains. In time, Neo-African styles, soul and rhythm and blues from North...
Le rituel et les cérémonies de la Sebeïba dans l'oasis de Djanet, Algérie
The ritual and ceremonies of Sebeïba are practised by two communities living in Djanet during ten days in the first month of the Islamic lunar calendar. Male dancers and female singers compete for the right to represent their communities during a nine-day contest called Timoulawine. The chosen winners take part in the Sebeïba ritual and...
Les expressions rituelles et festives de la culture congo
The ritual and festive expressions of the Congo culture encompass the contemporary vision of a collective celebration of the black rebel descendants enslaved during the colonial period. Nowadays, participants play congo, celebrate their freedom, cheerfully sing about their everyday lives and perform representations and sensual dances...
La cérémonie rituelle des Voladores
The ritual ceremony of the Voladores (‘flying men’) is a fertility dance performed by several ethnic groups in Mexico and Central America, especially the Totonac people in the eastern state of Veracruz, to express respect for and harmony with the natural and spiritual worlds. During the ceremony, four young men climb a wooden pole...
La danse rituelle au tambour royal
The ritual dance of the royal drum is a spectacle combining powerful, synchronized drumming with dancing, heroic poetry and traditional songs. The entire population of Burundi recognizes it as a fundamental part of its heritage and identity. The dance calls for at least a dozen or so drums, always in an odd number, arranged in a...
Le rituel royal ancestral du sanctuaire de Jongmyo et sa musique
The Jongmyo Shrine in Seoul is the setting for a Confucian ritual dedicated to the ancestors of the Joseon dynasty (14th to the 19th century) that encompasses song, dance and music. The ritual is practised once a year on the first Sunday in May and is organized by the descendants of the royal family. It offers a unique example of a...
La rumba à Cuba, mélange festif de musiques et de danses et toutes les pratiques associées
The music and movements of rumba in Cuba are mainly associated with African culture but also feature elements from Antillean culture and Spanish flamenco. Historically, rumba in Cuba developed in marginal neighbourhoods of cities in Cuba like Havana and Matanzas, near other ports and shanty towns and grew especially popular in rural...
La Samba de Roda de Recôncavo de Bahia
The Samba de Roda, which involves music, dance and poetry, is a popular festive event that developed in the State of Bahia, in the region of Recôncavo during the seventeenth century. It drew heavily on the dances and cultural traditions of the region’s African slaves. The performance also included elements of Portuguese culture, such as...
Le séga tambour des Chagos
Sega tambour Chagos is one of the types of Sega music of Mauritius, with origins in the Chagos Archipelago. Like other Sega music, it is born from slavery and sung in Chagossian Creole particular to the islands. Sega tambour Chagos is a gentle, vibrant and rhythmic performance of music, song and dance based on the ‘tambour’ – a large,...
Le séga tambour de Rodrigues
Sega Tambour of Rodrigues Island is a vibrant rhythmic performance of music, song and dance with its origins in slave communities. The leading percussion, the tambour, is banged energetically, while a triyang is hit from the side and the bwat and mayos are clapped. Sega Tambour is performed all over Rodrigues Island in the home and on...
La musique Shashmaqom
For over ten centuries, the classical music tradition of Shashmaqom has evolved in the urban centres of Central Asia formerly known as Mâwarâ al-nahr, an area which now encompasses present-day Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Shashmaqom, meaning “six maqoms”, constitutes a fusion of vocal and instrumental music, melodic and rhythmic idioms...
La fête de shuwalid
Shuwalid is an annual three-day festival celebrated by the Harari people of Ethiopia. It marks the end of six days of fasting to compensate omissions during Ramadan. The Harari people celebrate Shuwalid at the shrines of Aw Shulum Ahmed and Aw Akebara, found at the main entrance gates of the walled city of Harar. The festival starts...
L’espace de la culture des Gongs
The cultural space of the gongs in the central highlands of Vietnam covers several provinces and seventeen Austro-Asian and Austronesian ethno-linguistic communities. Closely linked to daily life and the cycle of the seasons, their belief systems form a mystical world where the gongs produce a privileged language between men, divinities...
Le tahteeb, jeu du bâton
In ancient Egypt, tahteeb was used as a form of martial arts. Its role has since changed to that of a festive game but some of the symbolism and values associated with the practice remain. Performed in front of an audience, it involves a brief, non-violent interchange between two adversaries, each wielding a long stick while folk music...
Les tamboradas, rituels de battements de tambour
Tamboradas drum-playing rituals are loud, group rituals based on the simultaneous, intense beating of thousands of drums, played uninterruptedly for days and nights in public spaces in towns and villages. Each year, this creates a captivating landscape of sound and identity in an atmosphere charged with emotion and an intense feeling of...
La Taskiwin, danse martiale du Haut-Atlas occidental
Taskiwin is a martial dance specific to the western High Atlas mountain range in Central Morocco. The dance gets its name from the richly decorated horn each dancer carries – the Tiskt – and involves the art of shaking one’s shoulders to the rhythm of tambourines and flutes. The practice fosters social cohesion and harmony and provides...
Le Compas d'Haïti
Compas is a popular music and dance genre that holds deep cultural significance for the practising communities. As strong identifying factor, it brings together people of all ages, genders and backgrounds. The music is characterized by a syncopated rhythm and accompanied by instruments such as guitars, keyboards and drums. Compas...
L'épopée Samba Gueladio
The Epic of Samba Gueladio is a legend in which the hero, Samba Gueladio, the legitimate heir to the throne, was cast aside by his uncle. To regain his throne, he forged alliances wherever he went. For instance, he killed a monster that had been preventing the Moors from fetching water from the river and recovered their cattle from a...
Les marionnettes à gaine traditionnelles
Al-Aragoz is an old form of Egyptian theatre using traditional hand puppetry. Performances are highly popular events during which puppeteers remain hidden inside a small portable stage while an assistant interacts with the puppets and crowd. Al-Aragoz takes its name from the main puppet, whose distinctive voice is created with a voice...
Le séga mauricien traditionnel
Traditional Mauritian Sega Tipik is a vibrant performing art, emblematic of the Creole community and performed at informal private family events or in public spaces. Songs sung in a minor key gradually increase in tempo, as dancers move their hips and hands to a percussive beat, using short steps to manoeuvre around each other in a...
Tsapiky, rythme et style musical caractéristique de la région Sud-ouest de Madagascar
Tsapiky is a fast-paced musical genre that combines modern and traditional sounds and is deeply rooted in the social life of the inhabitants of southwestern Madagascar. It features electric guitars, drums, accordions and local instruments such as the ‘kabosy’ (a small guitar) and the ‘marovany’ (a string instrument). Although initially...
Le muqam ouïgour du Xinjiang
The Xinjiang Uyghur Muqam is the general term for a variety of Muqam practices widespread among the Uyghur communities, which form one of the largest ethnic minorities of the People’s Republic of China. Throughout its history, the Xinjiang region has been marked by a high degree of cultural exchange between East and West, due in...
Le Vimbuza, danse de guérison
Vimbuza is a healing dance popular among the Tumbuka people living in northern Malawi. It is an important manifestation of the ng’oma, a healing tradition found throughout Bantu-speaking Africa. Ng’oma, meaning “drums of affliction”, carries considerable historical depth and, despite various attempts over the years to suppress it,...
Le rituel wosana et les pratiques associées
Wosana is a rainmaking ritual that is observed by the Bakalanga community in the Northeast and Central Districts of Botswana and in certain Zimbabwean villages along the Botswana border. The ancestral practice is characterized by rituals, prayer, feasts, song and dance. It is a collaborative practice involving traditional leadership,...
L’ensemble d’instruments à vent et à percussion de Xi’an
Xi’an wind and percussion ensemble, which has been played for more than a millennium in China’s ancient capital of Xi’an, in Shaanxi Province, is a type of music integrating drums and wind instruments, sometimes with a male chorus. The content of the verses is mostly related to local life and religious belief and the music is mainly...
Le chant Xoan de la Province de Phú Thọ (Viet Nam)
As a performing art, Xoan singing of Pho Tho province includes singing, dancing, drumming and clapper beating. It is closely linked to the worship of the Hung Kings, a belief rooted in the ancestor worship practice of the Viet people. Bearers and practitioners form four guilds, in which the male and female Trum play the most important...
Le xooy, une cérémonie divinatoire chez les Serer du Sénégal
The Xooy divination ceremony is organized in village squares among the Serer community in west-central Senegal prior to the rainy season. During this long nocturnal gathering, master seers known as Saltigues each in turn step into a designated circle, where they deliver predictions before a rapturous audience accompanied by the rhythm...
Le yalli (kochari, tenzere), danses collectives traditionnelles du Nakhtchivan
Yalli, traditional group dances, are dance expressions based exclusively on collective performances. Typically, yalli are performed in a circle, chain or line, and involve elements of games, pantomime (bird or other animal imitations), physical exercises and movements. The community of the yalli dances consists of practising dancers,...
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