during the tamil months Chithirai And Vaikasi (April to June), temple festivals gain momentum throughout Tamil Nadu. During festival days, the village square and temple grounds gradually fill up, even though the sun is setting mercilessly at noon. By evening, performances of songs, dances, dramas and rituals begin; As the night progresses, people come, stay for a while, clap and move on. However, for the performers, the work begins several hours before the first drum beat and continues well into the last act, and involves long periods of waiting, preparation, and travel before the performance.
a living archive
Tamil Nadu has a vast tradition of folk arts that spans rituals, storytelling, music and movement – from Koothu forms and Oppari lamentations to Parai drumming, Devarattam, Bommalattam (puppets) and performances before the village deity. Many of these traditions are inseparable from temple festivals, agricultural cycles, and caste- and region-specific practices, and form part of the living cultural archive, often through oral transmission. In recent years, the state has sought to preserve and promote these traditions through cultural festivals, documentation, and platforms that bring rural artists to urban audiences. However, artists face a variety of pressures – among them heat stress, an unseen but increasingly felt challenge when performing under the open sky.
Kaniyan Kuthu is an ancient folk performance tradition practiced by members of the Kaniyan, a Scheduled Tribe community in Tirunelveli district. Combining music, dance, singing and narration, it is commonly performed in temple festivals, especially in rituals dedicated to the folk deity, Sudalai, where the performers invoke the spirit of the deity through singing.
Ganesh Murthy, 45, of Vadakkankulam, describes his art as an oral tradition passed down through generations. Performing extensively in Tirunelveli, Tenkasi, Thoothukudi and Kanniyakumari in a troupe of seven to eight members, he said, “We also sing the stories of Sivasudalai Madan, Pechiamma, Karuppasamy and others. Shivpuranam, Empuranam, Kannagi PuranamAnd so on.”
made to wait
Their performances usually run from 9 pm to 4 am, “After the show, it takes us an hour or more to pack our stuff, and then we usually have to wait for a few hours for payment, because the village head has some work. Sometimes, we are given tea,” Mr Murthy said, adding that the troupe usually reaches the venues well in advance during the day and wait for hours before the performances begin.
Waiting for hours in open fields, rehearsing under tin roofs, wearing heavy costumes and performing are the factors that are turning summer festivals into a test of endurance for folk artistes, who say the rising heat is becoming another challenge adding to existing concerns like dwindling patronage and dwindling audiences for folk arts.
According to a study released by the State Planning Commission (SPC) in 2025, about 74% of people in Tamil Nadu are now living in areas where the air temperature regularly remains above 35 degrees Celsius. Of the 389 administrative blocks in the state, 94 have experienced ‘very high change’ in heat intensity from 1981 to 2023.
Marginalization: Many folk traditions are inseparable from temple festivals, agricultural cycles, and caste- and region-specific practices – part of a living cultural archive that is largely sustained through oral transmission. | Photo courtesy: N. Rajesh
M. Chandrakumar, a resident of Kilnathur in Tiruvannamalai district, is an Opari singer who has been performing for 30 years. While Oppari is his primary art, he took training in Periya Melam to supplement his income, as he says Oppari performances occur sporadically, usually after deaths in and around his village and often only for a few days every month. Despite three decades of experience, he says he will never be able to perform as well as the elders from whom he learned. “nearby Katthiri It is not easy to perform without wearing slippers (in the summer season),” he added.
In addition to rising average daytime heat, about 70% of the districts in Tamil Nadu now experience “very hot nights”, with temperatures ranging between 26°C and 28°C. The intense night-time heat creates a cycle of thermal stress without interruption, as it prevents the human body from expelling the heat accumulated during the day.
lack of relief at night
When the minimum temperature remains between 26 °C and 28 °C, the body’s natural cooling system is disrupted, leading to cumulative exhaustion, poor sleep quality and cardiovascular stress. The SPC study notes that lack of relief at night is particularly dangerous for vulnerable groups such as the elderly and outdoor workers, as it significantly reduces physical recovery and long-term productivity.
According to the study, the number of administrative blocks recording high minimum temperatures at night has increased from just six blocks 20 years ago to 80 blocks today. Many artistes say many of them suffer from chronic conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure, which may force them to step away from performances earlier than expected. While some take their children’s education as a safety net, it also means that the younger generation are less likely to enter the arts, as many folk artists themselves hope that their children will move on to greener pastures. With senior artists retiring early and fewer successors emerging, what does this mean for the future of folk traditions? Anita Pottamkulam, cultural director of Dakshina Chitra, says that while factors like migration have always affected the continuity of traditional art, climate change has worsened the situation. She says, “They have been displaced. There has been loss of habitat and loss of access to the materials and ecological resources needed to practice their art. To that extent, climate and ecological change certainly exacerbate existing challenges.”
According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), traditional understandings of climate-related harms largely focus on impacts that are measurable and monetizable, while non-economic damages – those that cannot be quantified in financial terms – remain significant, yet under-recognized. The UNFCCC says cultural heritage, in particular, has been largely absent from climate agreements and policy discussions. While heat affects everyone and all performances, its impact is not felt equally. Human sensitivity to heat goes beyond physical reactions to include socio-economic factors such as income, access to health care and housing conditions, the SPC study notes.
some basic comfort
G Sundararajan of Poovulagin Nanbargal and member of the Tamil Nadu Governing Council on Climate Change says folk artistes are often transported in cramped vans and rest in government schools, community halls or asbestos-roof shelters, leaving little scope for their bodies to thermoregulate. “When it comes to upper caste arts, performances are often held in air-conditioned gatherings, but OBC and Dalit artists usually perform in open rural spaces. Apart from the difference in remuneration, there is a lack of basic comforts for the artists.”
For Shyamala and members of Thirunangaiyar Kali Attam Kalai Kuzhu, an all-transwomen troupe from Cuddalore district, the inconveniences have escalated. “In most places we can’t even imagine using toilets because they are all temporary,” she says. As a result, they often avoid drinking too much water or even tea, even while wearing elaborate costumes and performing for long periods of time.
If artists face heat-related challenges, equipment manufacturers – especially those making Thol Karuvi Or skin-based devices – experience them even more intensely. P. Matheswaran, Ek Aadhi MelamBusinessmen in the Salem district describe enduring heat beyond working hours. “The tool we use is Thol Karuvi. it holds Shruti Correctly only for a short period of time, so to get the right tone we have to keep heating it in a very specific way and for a set period of time, not too long. During the summer months, it is a struggle to hold the equipment and heat it over the fire,” he says.
Performers are out for long periods of time, performing overnight and then facing the heat of the morning, often not giving their bodies enough time to recover. “I started when I was a 10-year-old boy. In these 30 years, I can see how much things have changed. There are about 12 people in our group. Many of them, including me, now often feel tired, or struggle to sleep properly after a show, even on nights when we don’t perform,” says Mr Chandrakumar. During the off-season, he says, they sometimes work as daily laborers in neighboring districts to earn their living. Ms. Pottamkulam says migration does not always end tradition. “For example, Chennai has a very strong urban folk culture and this is actually the product of people who have migrated from rural areas. Some performances are as grand as those in villages, although adapted to the urban scale. However, continuity depends on the context. Some forms, once removed from their original social and ecological surroundings, struggle to survive,” she adds.
While government advice urges people to stay indoors during peak morning heat, Mr Sundararajan points out that informal outdoor workers receive no compensation for lost workdays. Comparing the short-term assistance given to fishermen, he says vulnerable groups like folk artists should also be considered climate-vulnerable groups and compensated.
systematic health checkup
Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Tourism, Culture and Religious Endowments K. Manivasan says the Tamil Nadu Folk Artistes Welfare Board, under the Department of Arts and Culture, has more than 50,000 registered members, many of whom have received financial assistance for education and marriage. However, he said, two key areas need to be addressed. The first requirement is systematic health checkups and regular screening camps for the artistes. “The welfare board will work closely with the health department for this,” he says. The second is to ensure that all artistes are covered under health insurance schemes. He said that efforts will also be made to include more artists in the board.
(This story is part of the Asian College of Journalism’s Climate Change Media Hub Mentorship Programme.)
