The famous Hajgiri is a tribal dance from Tripura. The main occupation of the Riangs is cultivation. They depend on a good harvest for their livelihood. To ensure a good harvest they pray to Goddess Lakshmi. The Hajgiri dance is a part of this ritual ceremony.
The dance is performed by young girls who display extraordinary balancing skills while performing this dance. In this dance the moment of the upper body from the hips onward is absent or quite minimal. The movement occurs from hip downwards to display amazing wave like depiction. The Riang girls stand on an earthen pitcher and a bottle is placed on their heads. The bottle contains a lighted lamp. Then the girls dance with their upper body almost motionless while the lower body sways, turns and twists in rhythmic patterns. This dance can be performed with several variations to leave the spectator mesmerized.
While the women perform difficult dance movements with graceful precision, the men also join in the dance. The compound of their own houses is usually where the tribal folks perform these dances.
Rea and Black Pachra are the costumes used by the tribal women for performing this dance. Their upper body is covered with coin rings. They use coin rings as earrings too. Also the women use a lot of ornaments made of fragrant flowers. This depicts their love for nature and how close they are to it. Even the musical instruments used for the Hajgiri dance are made of bamboo like flutes, khamb etc.