Chadar Badar, also known as Santhal Puppetry, is a tribal performing art of the

Santhal people The Santal or Santhal are an Austroasiatic speaking Munda ethnic group in South Asia. Santals are the largest tribe in the Jharkhand and West Bengal state of India in terms of population and are also found in the states of Odisha, Bihar and A ...

, mainly found in the Indian states of

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ; ) is a state in eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north and Odisha to the south. It has an area of . It ...

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

Odisha Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...

and

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

. Once a dying art form, it was revived by the efforts of social activists such as Ravi Dwivedi and exponents like Sukan Mardi and Daman Murmu. The Government of west Bengal has set up a National Puppet Museum at

Kankurgachi Kankurgachi is a neighbourhood of northeast Kolkata, in Kolkata district, West Bengal, India. With a cosmopolitan crowd and several commercial buildings and restaurants, Kankurgachi is considered one of the upmarket and elite places in Kolkata. K ...

to preserve the art forms of puppetry including Chadar Badar. Chadar Badar is performed with the assistance of wooden puppets hung inside a wooden box, open on three or four sides with curtains. The performer narrates stories by words and verse from ancient Santhal culture using the puppets, accompanied by tribal musical instruments. The painted puppets are 5 to 9 inches tall and has movable limbs, manipulated by the performer, using strings attached to them.

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