Imphal: Manipur Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla inaugurated the first North East Waree Leeba Festival today at the Irom Meijrao Mamang Community Hall in Imphal West district, marking the start of a five-day regional event aimed at preserving the traditional Meitei narrative art form.
Organised by the Repertory of Waree Leeba, Khurai, in collaboration with the Irom Meijrao Women for Cultural Centre, the festival began with the Governor paying floral tributes to the portraits of three deceased Waree Leeba gurus and felicitating serving master storytellers from Assam and Tripura.
Addressing the gathering, the Governor commended the organisers for bringing together regional artists and said the dramatic oral performance served as a living tradition through which ancestral knowledge, myths and moral values were passed down across generations.
He further said safeguarding this ritualistic storytelling form, traditionally performed by a solo male chronicler who re-enacts religious epics such as the Mahabharata and Ramayana, was essential to preserving Manipur’s cultural identity and collective memory.
The inaugural programme was also attended by Art and Culture Minister Kh. Loken Singh and local artists.
It concluded with a live presentation of an episode from the Mahabharata by renowned artist Shyamkanhai Singh, whose performance the Governor commended for bringing the epic to life through expressive, rhythmic narration.
In Manipur, Wari Leeba refers to a traditional Meitei narrative art form. It is not simply a form of casual storytelling but a formal oral performance in which a solo male chronicler, known as the Waree Leeba, narrates and re-enacts episodes from religious epics such as the Mahabharata and Ramayana through expressive gestures and rhythmic speech.