Whose heritage is the teyyam?

Filipe Pereira
josefilipeslp@gmail.com

I recently co-authored an article (Filipe Pereira & Madina Ziganshina, 2020, “A post-colonial
instance in globalized North Malabar: is teyyam an ‘art form’?” Asian Anthropology) that
focused on the issues related to folklorization and touristification of the teyyam tradition. The
text was addressed to academics and researchers and there we demonstrated, I think, the
negative impacts of the commoditization of the ritual. At the light of the news about a “teyyam
yard”, to be built at the Thekkumbad island for tourism purposes, I will now write more clearly
and directly, in defense of the communities closely involved in the ritual practice of teyyam, and
affected by the dangers of its touristification.

Kerala and its Heritage

Kerala is quite different from the other States in India, and I would highlight two important
aspects: sustainable general wealth, which reaches the entire population through access to
education, good healthcare and social guarantees, and the special happiness and kindness of its
inhabitants. An uninformed observer would grant this prosperity exclusively to historical and
political conditions, and strong labor relations with the Gulf. But we should admit that there are
other very specific milestone factors that allow the fair circulation of prosperity: these are the
strong cultural relations rooted in family traditions and sustained by an ancient community
system. Thus, the uniqueness of Kerala, which hardly can be observed in any other part of the
modern world, is that its culture and traditions belong to and serve its people, playing a great
role in social and ecological balance, without the need for tourism.

It must be clearly understood that this perfect balance can be blown away in a very short time
if an uncontrolled process of touristification and folklorization is imposed. Once the true
traditions are alienated, there is no way back: the bond with the ancestors and the family rights
is lost, nature sites are destroyed, and the performers, artists, and craftsmen become jobless.
The healthy and regular practice of traditions, independent from the simplifications, mass
production and symbolic abuse imposed by the tourist market system, also serves to protect
cultural identity, self-respect and respect for others - values that flourish in Kerala’s population.

In this sense, the teyyam tradition is one of the strongest and most vital, as it contains all the
rites and elements that complete the cycle between man and nature, present and ancestry, life
and afterlife. This practice, performed in sacred groves, joint family houses, village sanctuaries
and other sanctified places, pays respect to the unity and continuity of the family, regulates
social and power relations, and advocates ecology, agriculture, and land-dwelling issues.

Heritage and Economy

Within the logic of the teyyam tradition, ecology is economy, and social balance.

It is very important to recognize that, in economic terms, while the heritage of teyyam belongs
to the practicing communities (performers of the rituals, keepers of the kavus, organizers of the


Filipe Pereira is researcher at the Nova University, Lisbon, Portugal. He studies the teyyam tradition since
2015 and has published articles and documentaries on the subject.
kaliattams, crafters, assistants, and the villagers), the income that the activity generates goes to
these people and is used for their benefit.

The organizers of a kaliattam raise a considerable budget, from donations and side activities.
This money will be distributed by many contributors to the festival: performers, officiants,
providers of all kinds of materials and services, food for all the guests. Much of this is possible
due to the voluntarism of the population, but let us not ignore the significance of the economic
benefits of the large amount of currency circulating through the fragile rural economies of the
villages of North Malabar, in a system that has been built and improved over centuries, and
consolidated with the end of the feudal system and the empowerment of disadvantaged
communities.

Touristification, or the so called “heritage preservation programs”, promoted by government

organizations, are adequate as measures to save the dying or disappearing traditions, which is
not the case of teyyam. On the contrary, until now the teyyam communities have been
extremely successful and creative in its preservation, adaptation, and development, and on
keeping the tradition alive and authentic. The admirable adaptability of the teyyam tradition
permits that, besides the traditional roles and tasks, it includes and motivates contemporary
services such as taxi, photography, design, and others, providing stability for a vast range of jobs
which are unfavored in other liberal systems.

Fragile balance

The other point to be taken seriously, is that teyyams have always belonged to the oppressed,
to the tribals and the untouchables, to those subject to unfair laws and to the violence of the
caste system and the iniquity of the feudal exploitation. Thus, the teyyam tradition is also a
defensive social procedure for its practitioners.

For all these reasons, no political or administrative instance has the right to interfere in the
processes of the ritual tradition. Only its rightful heirs can guarantee the conditions for a
dynamic adaptation of the custom to the new contexts of modern Kerala, and for its
transmission to the future generations.

In the case of teyyam, any mass touristification project brings an intention to commercialize the
tradition and appropriate the income which it produces, in a mere capitalist sense. Capitalism is
about the maximum exploitation of manpower and resources, and seizure of profit.

Here, the entrepreneurial plan will be about substituting the healthy community involvement
by more economically rentable transport companies and hotels, cutting all unessential costs,
substituting local made costumes and artifacts by objects “made in China”, and taking advantage
of the performers for fixed minimum wages. If a teyyam “tourist yard” is to be built at the
Thekkumbad island, it is the first step in destroying a precious and fragile balance.

I hereby appeal to common sense in this matter.

Unpublished paper, October 2020