Purulia Chhau Dance Mask West Bengal

Purulia Chhau is a vigorous masked martial dance drama from Purulia district of West Bengal, listed under UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage since 2010. Male performers wear large paper-mache masks depicting gods, demons, animals, and epic characters from Ramayana and Mahabharata. Masks are crafted in Charida village, Bagmundi block, by Sutradhar artisan families who have specialised in Chhau mask making for generations. Masks are built from layers of torn paper soaked in rice paste over clay moulds, dried, painted in bold primary colours with silver and gold accents. Each mask character has specific colour code — Durga in red-gold, demons in dark green-black. Cooperative artisan groups in Charida supply masks to Chhau troupes statewide and export through Biswa Bangla emporium.