सोहराई / कोहबर (Sohrai / Kohbar)
Sohrai and Kohbar are two distinct but related ritual wall-painting traditions of the Jharkhand tribal communities (Kurmi, Munda, Oraon) of Hazaribagh district, both executed by women on mud-plastered house walls using fingers and natural earth pigments. Sohrai is the harvest festival painting — created in October-November, it fills the interior and exterior walls of houses with exuberant animal imagery (cattle, deer, peacock, fish, tiger) painted in white, red, black, yellow, and ochre against dark mud ground. Kohbar is the wedding room painting — more formal, geometric, and fertility-symbolic, created for the bridal chamber. Both are created and then allowed to fade — they are not meant to be permanent. The tradition was documented and revived as a portable art form by Bulu Imam in the 1990s; it received GI Tag in 2021.
Risk level: Endangered · Not inscribed; GI Tag 2021
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