Luira Phanit: Sowing seeds of festivity in Manipur

The Luira Phanit festival of the Tangkhuls marks the beginning of the annual seed-sowing. Luira has its origin in two Tangkhul words. Lui means field and ra means dig. The word phanit means festival. Celebrated either during the last week of January or in the early weeks of February, it is the most important and colourful festival of the Tangkhul tribe of Manipur.