USLA NIGHT 2004:  Thovil Dance Ceremony

Thovil is a ritual performed to recover from mental illnesses supposedly caused by demons and spirits.

In Sri Lanka this ritual is a magnificent devil dance ceremony performed by many skilled persons with lot of drama and activity.

It is in popular belief that the main demon has 18 forms of illnesses. The ritual performed in the thovil ceremony is to bring all these 18 myth demon forms and then identify which form of illness has struck the patient. For this, the performers prepare themselves wearing masks, and each mask will typify each of the 18 demon form of an illness. The performer has his own drama style to appear before the patient who is dressed in clean white cloths.

When these 18 demons arrive one by one towards the patient, the exorcist enquires whether any of these demons has any link to the illness. If not matched, the exorcist calls for the next demon.

A whole night is spent in an actual thovil dance ceremony.

Today what you see on stage is the exorcist trying to identify the illness of the patient by calling 2 of these myth demons. The exorcist is happy at the end because he has a match and manages to chase away the demon illness from the patient’s mind and body. The patient is cured.