Pilichamundi Bhuta Mask

Pilichamundi Bhuta Mask

This large Bhuta Mask has been used in Pre-Hindu ritualistic form of dance worship in Kerala and Karnataka, India. The dance is highly ritualistic with elaborate face and body makeup and costumes. The dancers themselves enter into a trance in the dance held in the open-air stage in front of the community shrine. Many tourists may watch the rituals. These large bronze masks created by the lost wax process are placed in front of shrines during the dances and offer an opportunity for families to receive celestial and ancestral messages through the rituals.