Kandyan dance - A world class traditional masterpiece

As been mentioned in the post on Temple of the sacred tooth relic,kandy was the last kingdom of Sri lanka.It is believed the origin of Kandyan dancing is from the "kohomba kandariya"which was made to relieve the king Paduwasdev from an illness called "divi dosha" and it has been able to brake the spell on the king.

There are 4 main streams of dances found in Sri lanka.They are Kandyan dance,Low country dance,Sabaragamuwa dance and Baratha natyam.Of these,Kandyan dance consists of different kinds of dances representing Vannam,Ves dance,Udekki dance,Pantheru dance etc.

There are 18 main dances in Kandyan style named as "Vannam" that display the styles of birds and animals well known in the country.A main dance is called a 'Vannama"and some of the vannams are
Mayura vannama - Peacock dance(see the article on peacock on this blog)watch mayura vannama
Uraga vannama - Snake dance
Ukusa vannama - dance of the eagle
thuranga vannama - dance of the horse etc.
all these dances are displaying the movements and emotions of the animals in a great pleasurable way and always very fascinating to watch.

Ves dance is the unique and essential upcountry symbolization of traditional sinhalese dance.It is only performed by the males.The ves costume,mostly the headgear is considered sacred and believed to be belong to the divine spirits.One of the best parts of this Ves dance that includes vigoruous rhythmic movements with brilliant foot works is kohomba kankariya.It is a ritual dance made for "kohomba god"of the kohomba tree,as an appeal for his blessings.watch a Ves dance

Another type of Kandyan dance is Udekki dance which is believed to be a very esteemed one.Udekki is a type of a hand drum that is believed to be given by the god and is said it's also had been played in the heaven.It should be mentioned that it is very difficult to play.The characteristic feature of Udekki dance is that the dancer plays the udekki by him self by tightning the strings of udekki to obtain various pitches while he dances
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Naiyandi dance is another type of dance believed to be evolved by kohomba kankariya,The dancer is adorned by various decorations like beadwork on chest,silver chains and brass shoulder plates.

Pantheru dance has had its name by the drum pantheru,which is different from other types of drums by not having the skin.This dance is dedicated to the goddess Pattini and it has a very long history which runs to the ages of Lord Buddha.The costume is somewhat similar to the udekki(when males are dancing)costume but most of the times,the jacket is not beaded like in Udekki dance(substituted by a cloth at the waist).watch a Pantheru dance
You can have the great opportunity to watch almost all the types of Kandyan dances at the Esala perahera which is an annual colourful event.(there is a post on temple of sacred tooth relic).

watch a video of a crative Kandyan dance