Ankia Nat is a folk play native to
Assam. This art form makes use of large masks of gods, goddesses, demons and animals.
The masks used in these plays are huge in dimension reaching up to the waist of the performer. Some masks can be up to 15 feet in height. Several artists are required to give appropriate movement to individual masks. The artists have to enter inside a mask and rest it on their shoulders.
The masks contain thin clothes in the front to enable the artists to see through them. Due to the heavy weight and almost immobile nature of these masks, the characters depicted by them are usually restricted to demons and snakes having very limited movements.
