Wangala 2026: the hundred-drum dance thunders through Garo Hills
Garo villages gathered at Asanang to thank Misi Saljong for the harvest with 100 drums and a sea of feathered headgear.
At Asanang, the traditional seat of the Wangala festival, a hundred drums beat as one while dancers in feathered headgear moved through the day-long thanksgiving to Misi Saljong, the goddess of fertility.
Wangala marks the end of the jhum harvest, and elders use the gathering to pass on songs, dance steps and the rules of the community grain storehouse to a new generation.
The festival has grown into a magnet for photographers, but organisers insist the drums still lead — the cameras follow.