Gulabo Sapera: Woman Buried Alive as Baby for Being a Girl Becomes Padma Shri-Winning Dance Queen

She was buried alive simply because she was born a girl. Seven hours later, her cries led her mother and aunt to dig her out. Decades on, Gulabo Sapera would turn that near-death beginning into an extraordinary life of dance, recognition and empowerment.

Gulabo Sapera’s life story is one of survival, courage and remarkable transformation.

Born in 1973 in Rajasthan, India, Gulabo was the seventh child of her parents in the Kalbelia community, a nomadic snake-charming community.

According to accounts attributed to The Times of India Lifestyle and The Better India, Gulabo was buried shortly after birth because she was a girl.

However, she survived.

Her story would later take her from village fairs to international stages. She eventually became one of the best-known performers of Kalbelia dance and was awarded the Padma Shri, one of India’s highest civilian honours.

She was buried alive because she was a girl

Gulabo’s childhood began with an ordeal that could easily have ended her life.

According to her account to The Better India, she was buried alive for nearly seven hours after her birth.

Her mother and aunt eventually heard her cries. They dug into the earth and pulled the newborn out.

Gulabo later recalled the experience, saying she did not know what kept her alive for so long. She only knew that she had refused to give up.

Her survival became the first chapter of a story that would later inspire countless people.

How did she get the name Gulabo?

Gulabo was originally known as Dhanvantari, according to accounts about her life.

Her father was a snake charmer. He reportedly fought against opposition from members of the community who wanted the newborn girl to die.

Gulabo later became seriously ill as a baby.

During that difficult period, a rose was reportedly placed beside her as a symbol of hope. Her father then began calling her “Gulabi”.

Later, a magazine reportedly misspelled the name as “Gulabo”.

The name stayed.

And eventually, the woman behind the name became famous around the world.

How snakes inspired Gulabo Sapera’s dance

Gulabo did not receive formal dance training.

Instead, she grew up watching her father perform his work as a snake charmer.

As a child, she watched snakes move to the sound of the been, a traditional wind instrument associated with snake charming.

She began copying their movements.

The slow swaying of the body. The flexibility. The flowing movements.

Over time, those movements became central to her performance style.

That style became closely associated with Kalbelia dance.

Gulabo’s performances helped bring the traditional dance of the Kalbelia community to wider audiences in India and abroad.

From village fairs to international stages

Gulabo’s talent eventually attracted attention beyond her community.

She was reportedly discovered while performing at the Pushkar Mela, a major cultural and livestock fair in Rajasthan.

Officials from the Rajasthan Tourism Department subsequently helped create opportunities for her to perform on larger stages.

In 1985, she reportedly travelled to Washington, D.C., as part of an Indian government cultural exchange programme.

For a girl who had once been treated as though her life did not matter, the journey marked a dramatic change.

Yet her rise was not without hardship.

In the early 1990s, she reportedly experienced periods of poverty and lived in roadside tents.

Her fortunes later changed after Maharani Gayatri Devi reportedly recognised her talent and described her as a “daughter of Rajasthan”.

That support became another important chapter in Gulabo’s journey.

She designed her famous Kalbelia costume

Gulabo also developed the distinctive look associated with her performances.

Her costume features a flowing black ghagra-choli, a dupatta and colourful decorative details.

The outfit became an important part of her stage identity.

Meanwhile, her performances took her across India and to international audiences.

She also became involved in Bollywood and international musical collaborations.

Her work eventually earned recognition far beyond the dance stage.

Padma Shri recognition

In 2016, Gulabo Sapera received the Padma Shri, one of India’s highest civilian honours.

The award recognised her contribution to Indian culture and dance.

Kalbelia songs and dances were also added to UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2010.

The UNESCO recognition helped draw global attention to the cultural tradition that Gulabo had spent decades performing and promoting.

She continued teaching during the pandemic

Gulabo’s work did not stop when the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted live performances.

Instead, she turned to online platforms and began teaching through live video classes.

The online lessons also became a way to support other performers who had lost their income during the pandemic.

According to accounts of her work, some of the money generated from the classes was used to help artists obtain food and other necessities.

Her mission has since gone beyond preserving Kalbelia dance.

She has also focused on encouraging girls in her community to receive opportunities that she did not have as a child.

Today, she is associated with dance schools in Pushkar and Denmark, where Kalbelia is taught to new generations.

From an unwanted baby to a symbol of survival

Gulabo Sapera’s journey is more than a dance story.

It is a story about survival.

She was born into a community where, according to accounts of her life, her gender was initially treated as a reason to deny her existence.

Yet she survived.

She learned from the world around her. She transformed the movements she observed in snakes into an art form. She travelled beyond Rajasthan and performed before international audiences.

Then came recognition.

A Padma Shri.

Global attention for Kalbelia.

And a new mission to teach girls.

The baby who was once buried because she was a girl eventually grew into a woman whose name became associated with one of India’s most distinctive traditional dances.

Her story stands as a powerful reminder that the circumstances surrounding a person’s birth do not have to determine the limits of their future.

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