Craft and rtheatre have been companions over milennia, just as atemples have offered a setting and an audience for them. Melas or temples would be incpomplete without enatcing mythological stories of brave heroes and their ferocious adversaries. The use of masks engnces the craft of actors and trasnports the audience to an alternate world. Mukhota is the art of crafting masjks and Urgam in Chamoli district, is a renowned centre for it.
The wood workers, traditionally called Tiwaris,collect the fallen wood fom the trees and make the masks. The wood that is used is usually bhojpattra, bhooj or pangar. the collected wood is chopoped into 20 inch wooden pioeces and may be further cut in half or other desired sizes. The portion used to make the mask from the wood is called the giri. the mask making priocess from the wodd is hence called “giri ka maal banana” i.e making things from the wooden giri.
