It was a pageant with a difference -- shortlisting of young boys and girls for the Mr and Miss Adivasi contest at a tribal festival was done on the basis of their tribal attire and not beauty.
Dulari and Soman were adjudged Miss and Mr Adivasi on Sunday night at the Soharai festival, an annual tribal fair. A ten-member jury tested the participants' knowledge of adivasi culture.
Participants were selected from among more than 5,000 revellers who turned up at the fair, said Iswar Soren, cultural secretary of Adivasi Youth Club, which organised the impromptu competition at Jaipal Singh Stadium in Karandih.
"No make-up was applied on contestants or any special wardrobe given to them to wear," Soren said. "We did not go for a process of inviting applications for the contest but formed an organising committee, which picked up the participants directly from the visitors."
"Contestents wearing tribal attires -- huta sari (for women) and phuta kachha (for men) were preffered," said Bahadur Hansda, general secretary of the club.
The Soharai festival is organised to worship cattle, which play an important role in agriculture, the organisers said.
A large number of tribals also thronged to witness dangri khuntau, a bull fight organised as part of the festival.
