Children’s music class at Laihui. With Mangka Mayanglambam. Laihui is a center for the traditional performing arts in Imphal, Manipur. Founded in the 1980s by a collective of musicians and artists they are working to preserve and protect the music and dance of the region. Every […]

Ima Dhoni Amaibi is the current senior Amaibi at the JN Manipur Dance Academy. This set of short videos were taken at her home in Imphal as she gives lessons to other Maibi and a research student from the university. (Special thank you to Ima […]

  One of the elders of the Kabui Naga community is Oja Dingbulung. He lives with his family at Mahabali Kabui Khul, a tribal neighborhood near the palace grounds in Imphal. Oja has great knowledge of many rare and disappearing songs of his tribe the […]

Of the Amaibi’s ritual dances, perhaps the most beautiful and dramatic is the Kanglei Thokpa, known also as Lai Nupi Thiba, “the Lai searching for their bride”. It is a trance dance of the highest order, mystical, theatrical, and at times ominous. Traditionally the Lai […]

Puthem Chaobi is a folksinger of the Chakpa village of Andro, East Imphal,Manipur. She can recall many of the traditional folksongs of her village which no one else remembers or sings. We were able to record Iche Puthem Chaobi during December of 2013. The recording […]

Here are some rare folksongs performed by Ima Yehkhom Chandani Leima. Ima remembers some of the songs from her youth. Today many songs are being forgotten and it is only the elder folks of the villages who retain them. Perhaps Ima Chandani is the only […]