Bhubaneswar: The State Tribal Museum is organizing first of its kind virtual tour featuring the rich traditions of the Lanjia Saoras of Odisha from November 15th to 21st through Facebook and Twitter pages of @stscdev, @scstrti.
The Saoras are an ancient folk which lives in the remote mountains of Southern Odisha. They are so enterprising that they have tamed rugged mountains by making picturesque terraces with ingenious water management systems for paddy cultivation and by raising vast orchards.
They are artists by nature who can compose and sing songs instantly and make beautiful wall paintings (icons) which have made them famous over the world. They worship innumerable GODs and spirits. The Saora are a PTG in Odisha.
The Saora society is divided into 25 subdivisions based on occupation, food habit, social status, customs and traditions. Gomango is the secular head of the village. He is assisted by Buya, the ritual head. Disari is the village astrologer.
Saoras live in Baragarh, Gajapati, Rayagada and Bolangir districts. They speak both Saora and Odia languages. Their major occupation is terrace and shifting cultivation, horticulture, forest produce collection.
The Lanjia Saora, a tribal community of Southern Odisha belongs to a part of a larger Saora community. The Lanjia Saoras are skilled agriculturists, constructing terraced paddy fields in the hills.
The community lives in villages nestled amidst dense forests and Eastern Ghats in Gajapati and Rayagada districts. They make icon (wall painting) wood carving, stone terracing and water management, cashew plantation and processing.
Lanjia Saoras constitute one of the primitive sections of the Saora tribe. They are called so by their neighbors for their distinct dressing pattern which is a loin cloth hanging in front and tail like tails (Lanja).
The traditional dress of Saora women is a traditional coarse waist cloth. Saora women do not use too many ornaments. The women greatly enlarge their ear lobes to wear wooden ear plugs and have a characteristic tattoo in the middle of the forehead.
The Lanjia Saoras have shattered types of housing pattern in the hill slope. They install the village guardian deities represented by wooden posts in the entrance of the village. They pursue shifting cultivation and ingeniously prepare stone bounded terrace fields with inbuilt water management system for paddy cultivation.
They have no clans by lineage organization called as Birinda. They are famous for their attractive wall paintings called idital. Their major festivals and rituals are Baruism, Buoy-n-a-Adur, Ganugey-n-a-Adur, Osa-n-a-Adur, Rago-na-Adur, Kondam-n-a-Adur.
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