Lingo Jatra

The video is a presentation on the festival of Lingo Jatra which is celebrated by the Muria tribe of Bastar in Chhattisgarh. The Muria world is a sheltered one with little contact with the outside world. Their life is rooted to agriculture and food gathering which goes on throughout the year. The Muria Gods are known as anga and pen and most of their Gods are clan-deities. The Anga Gods are unique in form and are housed in special shrines. For the Murias the God of all Gods is Lingo Pen. Every four years a jatra or festival is organized in His honour at the site of the Lingo Pen shrine in Semurgaon in North Bastar. The film documents the Lingo Pen jatra which took place on the 29th of March, 1991. On this occasion the Lingo Pen’s relatives from surrounding villages are brought over to the shrine.