Folklore
Ramlila and the Ramayana
Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, India
The Ramayana, an ancient Sanskrit epic, is retold each autumn in Ramlila folk theatre across northern India. Ayodhya is its traditional setting.
Kind: Epic and folk theatre
Epics and oral stories
Long stories told aloud: sung, acted and handed down by storytellers.
The places
Folklore
Kurukshetra and the Mahabharata
Kurukshetra, Haryana, India
The Mahabharata, one of the longest poems ever composed, sets its great war on the plain of Kurukshetra. The Bhagavad Gita is presented as a conversation on the battlefield.
Kind: Epic
Folklore
Pandavani
Bhilai, Chhattisgarh, India
A solo singer retells the Mahabharata with a tambura in hand and acts out the characters. Teejan Bai made it famous.
State: Chhattisgarh · Kind: Epic storytelling
Folklore
Wayang kulit
Surakarta, Central Java, Indonesia
Intricately cut leather puppets cast shadows on a screen while a single puppeteer, called a dalang, voices every character and narrates stories from epics.
Kind: Shadow puppet theatre
Folklore
Kalevala
Kuhmo, Kainuu, Finland
Elias Lönnrot compiled this national epic in the 19th century from oral poems collected in rural Karelia. It helped shape Finnish identity.
Kind: Epic poetry
Folklore
The Icelandic sagas
Þingvellir, Iceland
Icelanders wrote down tales of Vikings, settlers and gods in the Middle Ages. Þingvellir was where the Althing, one of the world's oldest parliaments, met from 930.
Kind: Sagas and Norse tales
Folklore
Griot tradition
Kaolack, Senegal
West African griots are hereditary storytellers, praise singers and historians who preserve genealogies and histories through music, often accompanied by the kora.
Kind: Oral storytelling and music
Folklore
The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter
Fuji, Shizuoka, Japan
A tale of a girl found inside a glowing bamboo stalk who later returns to the moon. Parts of the story are linked to the area around Mount Fuji.
Kind: Legend
Folklore
The Brothers Grimm
Kassel, Hesse, Germany
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm collected folk tales such as Hansel and Gretel and Snow White and published them from 1812. Kassel holds the Grimm museum.
Kind: Collected fairy tales