In Kerala, almost every village has its own temple, with an annual festival. So there’s always a local festival happening somewhere or the other. As we mentioned about Theyam in our previous post, there are more than 400 Theyams performed in Kerala each year.There are very specific methods for making costumes and applying the makeup. The costumes are all handmade by the performer themselves out of mostly natural materials such as tender coconut leaves, wood and bamboo.

The makeup is also usually organic in material: Turmeric for yellow color, crushed rice for white color, oil lamp carbon or burnt rice for black color, sandalwood or camphor for red.