The Limboos are ethnically akin to other tribal communities of Himalayan belt, but distinguished by their rich culture and tradition. They have a variety of typical la:ngs (dances) such as Yah Lak and Key (Chabrung) dance meant for occasional, ceremonial and seasonal functions.
Yah Lak (dhan nach) is one of the most popular dances among the Limboos. It is of different kinds – Panthorey La:ng, Phedapey La:ng, Tambrangay La:ng, Sirthapey La:ng, Kengjori La:ng and Kusorokpa La:ng. Both the sexes of teenagers and men and women of late adult as well as purely boys and purely girls or purely men and women can also dance or participate in the Yah Lak. In Yah Lak no musical instrument is played but it is accompanied or followed by prolong sounding rhythmic tune of Pallam, melodic vowel-lengthening sound Ha-Ha-Ha holding hands by ladies and gentlemen. They arrange themselves either in line or circle and a person at the end of the group leads the dancing group.
Pa:llam: Pa:llam is an improvised poetical song accompanying traditional Limboo dance, Ya?rak (Ya? means paddy and La:ng means dance).The pa:llam samlo varies from place to place and person to person. While sung, it requires no musical instrument but accompanied by the melodic tonal chorus, ha..ha..ha. The tune or vocalization styles of pa:llam depends upon the type of dance and style of singer. It is usually sung in slow tempo with a long regular gliding tune, difficult to measure with a metronome.
The subject matter of pa:llam is predominantly the love affairs, romantic relationships, aspirations and frustrations feeling of melancholy or separation and unsettled longing of life. It is full of light and romantic discussion between two sweet-hearts or singers. Pa:llam starts from introductory inquires as it is against the Limboo custom to sing love songs among relatives. The discussions sometimes encompasses the way of life of early people, the origin of love, relationship of love and life, love affairs and marriage union and many other areas of inner human world Yah Lak, which in Nepali parlance means dhan naach and paddy dance in English is a derivation of two separate Limboo words- ‘Yah’, meaning ‘corn’ preferably paddy and ‘La:kma’, means to ‘trample’ or ‘thrash’. It’s genesis can be traced back to very ancient tribalian time and civilization when the Limboos initiated the cultivation of land (zoom cultivation), sowed crops and harvested when mature. When the crop paddy, was ready for harvest, they cut it and made into bundles and trampled or thrashed it to separate the grain from the hay with their hands. But later, they experienced that use of feet and participation or engagement of more people was more convenient and a quicker way to thrash the paddy. So, dozens of young girls and boys and late adults, men and women from the villages around got together and thrashed the grain trampling the dried paddy. When they experimented, the thrashing job was very tough, time consuming and boring. They started singing in rhythmic dialogue holding one another’s hand. This way both girls and boys, men and women, entertained themselves throughout the day and even up to late night, till the work was completed. Gradually the dance developed and eventually took the shape of present Yah Lak that is dhan naach. Though Yah Lak is seasonal and harvesting dance of Limboos in its outset, with the change of time, it transformed into the dance of lovers irrespective of occasion and season. Both teenagers and adults gathered together in the market places, fairs, seasonal occasions, Villages during the ceremonial functions, courtyards of the houses when guests and strangers came and organized themselves in dance time to time.
At the time when spoken and written communication was unknown to the Limboos, they used Yah Lak as a medium of communication and Pallam as medium of expression of their love affairs, emotional feelings, aspirations and frustrations, feeling of melancholy or separation and unsettled longing of life. Till this day, one can witness Limboos ladies and gentlemen doing Yah Lak dance in the market places, fairs, villages and courtyards of the house during the ceremonial functions to entertain the guests and strangers. There are certain conventions which should stickly followed during Yah Lak dance or dhan naach.
* The girls and the boys of same consanguinity or cousins are not allowed to hold one another’s hands and dance together.
* The male members of a different family of a separate blood relation are allow to hold hands of a female members of a different family of a separate blood relation and dance together.
* While dancing, one should not touch the tip of toes of others. And if by mistake one does so, both the dancers must stop the dance and come out of the group and beg pardon by bowing down with folded hands and rejoin the dance for continuation.
It is also important that dancing group should consist of pairs of either of same sexes or opposite sexes and at the end of the line or circle of dancing group has to lead the group. One person male or female in the group sings songs, Pallam in a dialogistical way and others repeat after him or her. When Pallam ends with vowel-lengthening sound Ha-Ha-Ha, the dancers in the group have to turnabout. After the first person completes the song Pallam, second person who is answerable in the group has to reply him or her. In this way, Yah Lak goes on till both the singers reach to certain agreeable points.
Although, Yah Lak is one of the ancient and popular dances among the Limboos with its historical origin and evolution, it has been passing through number of ups and downs in this transactional period of modernization and hedonism. It is in the octogenarian stage, hard to revive to survive due to its marginalization. And early salvation for the traditional dance should be thought as earlier as possible by the young generations and concern people to save the culture from getting lost.
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