Folk Dances of Nepal: A Complete Guide to Sakela, Maruni, Deuda & More

Nepal is one of the most ethnically diverse countries in South Asia, and its folk dances (lok naach) are among the clearest expressions of that diversity. The National Population and Housing Census 2021 (2078 BS) recorded 142 caste and ethnic groups, and a large share of them maintain their own song-and-dance traditions performed in their own languages. Rather than a single national style, Nepal has dozens of community-specific dances, each rooted in a particular geography, livelihood and belief system.

Most Nepali folk dances share a few recognisable features. They are usually danced in the open by groups rather than solo performers, often in a circle or a line where dancers hold hands or interlock arms. Many are agrarian in origin, imitating the cycle of planting, weeding and harvesting, or the movements of birds and animals. Call-and-response singing, where one group sings a verse and another answers, is common, and a lead pair or lead singer often sets the steps and the tune for everyone else.

These dances are tied to the festival calendar and the life cycle. Some accompany harvest thanksgiving (Sakela, Dhan Naach), some belong to Dashain and Tihar (Sakhiya, Chutka), some enliven weddings and fairs (Deuda, Maruni), and some are ritual or devotional performances linked to worship and trance (Ghatu, Lakhey). This guide covers each major dance's community, region, occasion, instrument, costume, formation and Nepali name.

Sakela (also spelled Sakewa or Sakenwa in some Kirat languages) is the signature dance of the Rai (Khambu) community of eastern Nepal, and one of the most widely photographed folk dances in the country. It is performed at the twin Kirat festivals of Sakela Ubhauli, held on Baisakh Purnima (the full moon of April-May) to pray for a good farming season, and Sakela Udhauli, held on the full moon of Mangsir (November-December) as thanksgiving after the harvest. Dancers move in a large circle in traditional dress, following a lead couple, the Silimangpa (male) and Silimangma (female).

The dance itself is a sequence of set movements called sili, each of which mimics an activity of daily life or the natural world, such as sowing, cutting grain, or the flight and gestures of birds. Because the sili represent the relationship between the community and nature, learning them is treated as passing on cultural knowledge, not just choreography. Drums such as the dhol and cymbals called jhyamta drive the rhythm, and the whole community, including children and elders, may join the circle.

The Limbu, another Kirat people of the far east, have two celebrated dances. Dhan Naach (paddy dance) is a slow, graceful chain dance performed after the rice harvest and at social gatherings; young men and women interlink arms and sway in a line as they sing courtship songs, and it is a traditional occasion for young people to meet. Chyabrung Naach is named after the chyabrung (ke), a large two-headed drum slung from the neck and struck with an open palm on one side and a stick on the other; dancers leap and step to its powerful beat, making it one of the most energetic dances in Nepal.

Maruni (Maruni Naach) is one of the oldest and most colourful folk dances of the eastern hills, popular among Magar, Gurung and Kirati communities and widely performed in Nepal, Sikkim, Assam and Darjeeling. It is strongly associated with Tihar (the festival of lights) and with weddings and other celebrations, when performers go house to house dancing and receiving small gifts.

The dance is famous for its costume and its gender play: performers, traditionally men, dress as women in bright saris, heavy jewellery, nose rings and ornate headdresses, and dance to the beat of the madal (the double-headed hand drum that is the workhorse of Nepali folk music). A comic or trickster figure often accompanies the troupe. Popular tradition traces Maruni back several centuries, linking it to Magar communities and figures such as King Balihang.

Because Maruni crosses ethnic lines and is performed across the eastern Himalayan diaspora, it has become a shared symbol of hill Nepali identity, still performed at Tihar and cultural programmes today.

Deuda (Deuda Naach, also Deuda geet or Deuda bhaka) is the defining folk dance of the Khas communities of Sudurpashchim (Far-West) and Karnali provinces, with roots often traced to the medieval Khas kingdom centred on the Sinja valley of Jumla. It is danced across districts such as Jumla, Dailekh, Achham, Bajhang, Doti, Baitadi and Bajura, and a related form is found in the Kumaon region of India.

What makes Deuda distinctive is that it is sung entirely a cappella, without any musical instrument. Men and women hold hands or link arms in a slowly rotating circle and sing in call-and-response: one group poses a sung verse (often fourteen syllables to a line) and the other answers, with themes ranging from love and daily life to history, valour and social commentary. The steady side-step of the circle keeps the rhythm that instruments would otherwise provide.

Deuda is central to festivals and fairs of the region, most notably the Gaura (Gamara) festival, as well as Dashain, weddings and village melas. It has several sub-styles, including Thadi Bhakha, Rateri, Hudkeuli and Dhamari, and remains a living, improvised tradition in which skilled singers compose verses on the spot.

Tamang Selo is both a music genre and a dance of the Tamang community, and it is probably the most recognisable Nepali folk sound at national events. It is built around the damphu, a round single-headed frame drum, similar in appearance to a large tambourine but without jingles, that the player holds in one hand and strikes with the other. According to Tamang tradition the damphu is closely tied to the community's identity, and the same drum is also used by some Gurung and Magar performers.

Selo is fast, catchy and danceable, with lyrics that tell stories of love, migration, work and everyday hardship. Dancers move in pairs or groups with light, bouncy footwork that follows the drum's tempo, and the style adapts easily to the stage, which is why it appears at almost every broad-based Nepali cultural programme and in popular music. Its accessibility has helped Tamang Selo spread far beyond Tamang villages into the wider Nepali and diaspora music scene.

The central and western hills, home to Gurung and Magar communities, have a rich cluster of song-dances. Sorathi (Sorathi Nritya) is a narrative dance-drama built around a folk legend of a king and his queens, the name being linked to the sixteen queens of the story; performers, often with sixteen lamps as a motif, enact the tale in a circle to sung verses. Though frequently associated with the Gurung, Sorathi is also traced to the Magar and is performed by Darai, Kumal and other groups.

Ghatu (Ghatu Nritya) is a devotional trance dance of the Gurung community of the Gandaki region. It is traditionally performed by young unmarried girls, roughly aged from the pre-teens to late teens, who dance slowly to long sung narratives and may enter a trance-like state; the fuller Barahmase Ghatu unfolds over the seasons and is considered sacred. Both Ghatu and Sorathi are oral traditions passed down by senior singers, and both are now regarded as endangered.

Two lighter western forms round out the group. Kaura is a Magar circle dance of the western hills, performed to the Kaura tune with madal accompaniment at fairs and festive gatherings, often with playful, flirtatious call-and-response. Jhyaure is a brisk, popular mid-hill folk dance of the Gandaki and Lumbini belt, associated with fieldwork, nature and young love, whose infectious rhythm has made it a staple of folk pop.

The Tarai and the Kathmandu Valley add further dance traditions. Sakhiya (Sakhiya Naach) is a Tharu dance performed mainly during Dashain and Tihar by unmarried young women and men, who move in a circle with graceful, coordinated hand and stick movements to drum and cymbal accompaniment; it is one of several vibrant Tharu dances, alongside stick dances, that mark the festival season.

In the Newar cities of the Kathmandu Valley, Lakhey Pyakhan is a masked demon dance most famous at the Yenya (Indra Jatra) festival around Bhadra-Ashwin (August-September). A dancer wearing the fierce red Lakhey mask and a mane of long hair charges through the streets to fast, thunderous drumming, playing a protective demon believed to guard children and the locality. It is one of many Newar masked and processional dances (pyakhan) tied to the valley's jatra calendar.

Beyond these, the hill Khas communities also perform Chutka, a lively courtship song-dance of groups such as Chhetri, Bahun and Bhujel, danced through the season from Maghe Sankranti (mid-January) toward Asar Purnima (mid-July) at weddings and gatherings. Other regional forms, including Magar dances grouped under names such as Singaru and semi-classical vocal styles like Tappa, add still more variety, though documentation of many smaller traditions remains incomplete.

A handful of instruments recur across these dances. The madal, a double-headed hand drum, is the backbone of hill folk music and accompanies Maruni, Kaura and many others; the damphu drives Tamang Selo; the chyabrung/ke powers Limbu drum dances; and dhol drums with jhyamta cymbals accompany Sakela. Some dances, most notably Deuda, use no instruments at all and rely entirely on the human voice and stepping rhythm. Costume is equally distinctive, from the sari and jewellery of the Maruni performer to the community dress worn in Sakela and the fearsome mask of the Lakhey.

Many of these traditions are under pressure from migration, urbanisation and changing tastes, and forms such as Ghatu and Sorathi, which depend on ageing singers who hold long oral texts by memory, are widely described as dying. Cultural bodies work to record and promote them: the Nepal Academy of Music and Drama (NAMUDA), a government academy established under the Nepal Academy of Music and Drama Act, 2064 BS (2007 AD), is mandated to preserve, promote and develop Nepal's music and drama heritage, and regional festivals, schools and diaspora associations increasingly stage folk dances to keep them alive.

For students and researchers, each dance encodes a community's history, economy and worldview: knowing the group, festival, instrument and formation behind a dance is the fastest way to understand the people who perform it.