India's 'Sarang' cultural festival to return with unprecedented scale

The poster of this year's Sarang: The Festival of India in the Republic of Korea

India expands culture promotion campaign

By Yi Whan-woo

The logo of this year's Sarang: The Festival of India in the Republic of Korea

The Embassy of India in Korea is broadening the scale of its annual cultural festival aimed at promoting rich and diverse cultures of India spanning back to the beginning of human civilization.

The embassy will host Sarang: The Festival of India in the Republic of Korea from Oct. 1 to Nov. 22 — the longest-running since the festival started in 2015 as a small event.

The fifth edition of Sarang, a nationwide event, is similar to its predecessors in a way they are all designed to introduce the Korean public to various cultural elements from all parts of India.

At the same time, the 2019 festival consisting of dance, music, exhibition, food and film has been updated from the previous ones.

For instance, it will introduce Bharatanatyam, one of eight Indian classical dance forms.

The eight forms include Kathak and Odissi that were featured last year.

After skipping the exhibition component last year, artistic collaborations between the artists of the two countries willl return through the Indo-Korean Exhibition to be held from Oct. 4 to 10 at K&K Gallery in Busan.

The 2019 campaign will also have elements of Mahatma Gandhi to mark his 150th birthday, according to the embassy.

As in previous years, the festival will run in major cities such as Seoul, Busan and Gwangju.

But it will also be taken to Gimhae, a South Gyeongsang provincial city where Heo Hwang-ok, a legendary queen from India, married King Kim Suro of the ancient Korean kingdom of Gaya (42-562 A.D.).

The tale has been much touted recently when underscoring deeply rooted bilateral ties, in line with President Moon Jae-in's New Southern Policy aimed at enhancing Korea's relations with India and other regional countries.

The festival is named after a term used in both countries — meaning love in Korean, and colorful or diverse in India's languages — to highlight cultural similarities.

The opening ceremony will be held at Yonsei University's Centennial Hall on Oct. 2 at 7:30 p.m.

A curtain raiser will be held on Oct. 1 at 7 p.m. on the same day at Lotte World Tower, a supertall skyscraper in Songpa-gu, southern Seoul.

The two events will feature Bharatanatyam performances by a group of male and female dancers and musicians who will play traditional Indian musical instruments such as mridangam, nattuvangam, tanpura and venu.

Originated from the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Bharatanatyam traces its origins to the Natya Shastra, a Sanskrit text on the performing arts said to have been written 2,000 years ago by theatrologist and musicologist Bharata Muni.

It conveys stories on mythical legends and spiritual ideas from the Hindu texts, through spectacular footwork combined with gestures of hands, eyes and face muscles.

Bharatanatyam performances will be held on 11 occasions throughout the festival, including Oct. 3 at Indian Culture Centre Seoul, Oct. 4 at Nurimaru APEC House in Busan, Oct. 6 at Gimhae National Museum, also in Gimhae, Oct. 8 at Daegu National Museum in Daegu, Oct. 9 at Gwangju Traditional Culture Center in Gwangju, Oct. 11 at Buyeo National Museum in Buyeo, South Chungcheong Province and from Oct. 12 to 13 at Nami Island in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province.

As in last year, the music program will feature Carnatic, one of two main subgenres of Indian classical music, with the other being Hindustani music.

Its main emphasis is on vocalization, with most compositions written to be sung.

Carnatic has three essential elements — raga (tuneful rendition with minute intervals), tala (rhythmic order marked by mathematical precision) and bhava (feeling, expressivity).

A modern interpretation of this ancient tradition will be brought by violin maestro Sridhar and his support musicians playing the ghatam and the morsingh — two unusual Indian musical instruments.

A Carnatic music performance will run four times nationwide — Oct. 8 at Yongsan Art Center in Seoul, Oct. 9 at Tri-Bowl in Incheon, Oct. 10 at Gwangju Cultural Foundation in Gwangju and Oct. 11 at Nurimaru APEC House in Busan.

The week-long exhibition will be available only at K&K Gallery.

Screenings of internationally acclaimed and national award-winning movies will run at Korean Film Archive in Seoul (Oct. 16 to 20), Busan Cinema Center in Busan (Oct. 25 to 27) and Asia Culture Center in Gwangju (Oct. 26 to 27).

The films to be featured are produced in various Indian languages, such as "Secret Superstar," a 2017 Hindi musical drama about a talented young girl from a conservative family who breaks the bonds of convention to attain stardom.

Others are "Rakshasi" (Tamil), "Andhaadhun" (Hindi), "Chumbak" (Marathi) and "Uma" (Bengali) and "Peranbu" (Tamil).

For food, two master chefs from India's northwestern state of Rajasthan will give royal cuisines of the maharajas at the Millennium Seoul Hilton hotel in central Seoul from Nov. 14 to 22.