Suggi portraits

When I photographed this  Suggi dance event  this year in last March ,  I never ever thought  that  it is such a rich folklore  . Now I am struggling to sort all photos  out and dropped the idea of writing  everything about Suggi dance  in single post! And I  feel  need more time and posts to cover every aspects of this celebration. So I will give a  start by posting  portraits I have taken and in a year or two hope I will be able to club all the posts and write one big article ( should be good enough to write a boring book  🙂   )

Halakki Vokkaligas  ( Vokkaliga- Farmers) is a tribal community from Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka, India . Agriculture is feeding them from the years. Most have their own agricultural land but  they also work in other’s land for cash. Also they serve in nearby landlord’s houses and the relationship between the landlords and them is unique. I spent my childhood here so Halakki people played very important role in my life as well as my family.

After the hard-working harvesting season is over in March Halakki community ready  for some entertainment.  The men dress colorful costumes  and perform their traditional dance “ Suggi Kunitha”  . They  travel to houses of their community in different villages  to perform. There is a rich culture and years of history behind this. Since I am still gathering the information I feel it is inappropriate to write everything about it at this time. So these are the portraits I took when the men are in their costumes.