Pung Cholom

The Pung cholom (Meitei: ꯄꯨꯡ ꯆꯣꯂꯣꯝ, lit. 'roar of the drum') is a traditional Meitei dance form originated from Manipur, which is the soul of the Manipuri Sankirtana music and the Manipuri classical dance. The Pung cholom is a unique classical dance of Manipur. This dance may be performed by men or women and is usually a prelude to the Ras Lila. In this style, the dancers play the pung (a form of hand beaten drum) while they dance at the same time. Dancers need to be graceful and acrobatic at the same time. They use these acrobatic effects without breaking the rhythm or flow of music. The dance is marked by a gentle rhythm, which gradually builds up to a thunderous climax. Pung cholom borrows elements from the Manipuri martial arts, Thang Ta and Sarit Sarak and also from the traditional Maibi Jagoi.¶

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Pung Cholom”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence.¶

Pung Cholom is is a dance form originated from Manipur, which is the soul of the Manipuri Sankirtana music and the classical Manipuri dance, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition.¹¶

The source record links this tradition to 1 external register, which can be verified through the citation.¹¶