Tangkhul Folk Songs

Tangkhul, one of the major sub-tribes within the Naga tribe, native inhabitants of present Ukhrul district in Manipur state, within the Union of India, has a very unique past. Blessed by the quiet and green surroundings, it is said that life used to be very pleasant and peaceful. The Tangkhul tribe, as it is said, was well known as one of the most hostile tribes among the Naga tribes, in the days when head hunting was considered a heroic sport.

Agriculture and hunting being the chief occupations, life is said to be hectic and busy. However, there always seem to be a special space for merriment, entertainment and healthy social interaction to grow, in spite of their busy daily chores. Every Old men in their octogenarian stage claim that life in the past was more calm and ideal and social life to be more robust than that of the present day. Looking at the youngsters of today, most of them lament, ‘You have missed so much fun and merriment as youths.’ Of course, what they perceive and what we have to say about the present are two different poles, which cannot be compared. However, the real problem lies in our inability to find the point where the past and the present converge.

Though I am a Tangkhul, I find it hard to reshape the past in my mind, listening to the tales of aged men, narrating their glorious past; their tales appear to me more like a fairytale. My fate of not being able to identify myself with the past is not an isolated case but is shared by all the younger generation. According to my perception, this sense of alienation is caused partly due to the absence of written History and our ignorance of oral literature as the equal alternate source. What strikes me most today is the oral tradition of my forefathers, through which they preserve history of all sorts, mainly in the form of folk songs.

In my venture to know more about Tangkhul folk-songs, I was really surprised, when I came across songs which were purely historical. These songs speak about, origin, identity, of war between villages, business dealings, marriage, death, and many other interesting facts, which are not in the least second to written history. Enlightened by the captivating facts buried within the content of various kinds of folk-songs, that I happen to come across, I decided that every possible means be explored to preserve these songs at least in print even if we might not be able to sing in their original tune and flavor.

Folksongs were part and parcel of life in the past, sung both in times of joy and sorrow. It is said that there used to be sixteen types, each having special occasions of its performance in the indigenous calendar. Out of the sixteen kinds, only six to seven can be heard sung today, that too by very few old people. Hence, it is a rational fear that these songs would be lost forever, with the passing away of the few aged sources.

The traditional harp which was the main accompaniment is rarely seen today, after being replaced by modern instruments. It is not an exaggeration to say that none among the youth of today, knows how to sing folk-songs. It is indeed a chance to pity ourselves of our own plight, being carried away, or charmed more by Western pop, heavy metal and such other songs at the cost of letting our indigenous songs to rust and rot. Like the steady extinction of endangered species of flora and fauna; culture, tradition, and customs of yesteryears are going away, along with the process of change.

The mountains which are said to be green and impenetrable once are now barren; the seasonal songs of both mirth and sorrow are no longer heard. The harp strings which used to twang are now rusted. It is true to say that ‘change is inevitable,’ and we at least feel fortunate to be living in a better world today, considering the positive sides of change. However, this must not make us forget our past. The days of head hunting are gone, but we are still known as head hunters, let it also be known that, our forefathers were great composers of verse, songs, poems, and great preservers of history through oral means, by preserving the precious lyrics of the folk-songs, which according to me are comparable to the finest works of literature.

Folk songs like the indigenous customs of the Tangkhul tribe slowly got discarded with the advent of Christianity in the late 19th century. Once converted, the converts were forbidden to drink wine, and were not allowed to sing folk songs as these things were perceived to be aligned to paganism. There was mass conversion, and as a result of this the popularity of folk songs diminished. Those Songs which have some occasional similarity with Christian rituals were retained (like, harvest, seed sowing, New Year etc,.) But, this also cannot uphold the popularity, so, very slowly these songs also got assimilated to western tunes.

Songs which are purely aligned to indigenous festivals are now forgotten forever. Songs said to be sung on auspicious occasions like, erection of Totems, birth, death anniversaries etc. can no longer be traced. Taking into account all the changes that have come about in a matter of a century, it won’t be surprising if the following generation forgets totally about yesterday, which we ourselves seem to be unaware today. By saying all these things it must not be misinterpreted that; I’m considering the past to be more glorious than the present. We know that in many ways we are privileged than the past. The customs, ways of life of yesteryear may not be applicable to us anymore, but that does not mean we can just throw away the past.
Documentation of all the existing Folk-songs of the said tribe, and translating the whole lot will not be a task so easy to be completed in a matter of months or years.

The main difficulties that any researcher is likely to face, pertaining to the aforesaid documentation, are manifold. There are no guidebooks, references, and other printed sources from which one will have direct and cooked information about the folk songs of this tribe. One interesting feature of the Tangkhul Naga tribe is every village has its own dialect, though they belong to the same language family. It is very difficult to communicate in one’s own dialect to a person from a different village, and the possibility of understanding each other become remote with distance of location of the scattered villages. The dialect, ‘Tangkhul,’ originally the dialect of Ukhrul/Hunphun village, now one of the district headquarters’ of Manipur, was made the lingua-franca by William Pettigrew, the first Baptist Missionary.

We need to understand that Folk songs of the tribe are not sung in the lingua-franca alone, every village has their own version and varieties. Owing to this fact, the effort to document all existing version would be a mammoth task, as there are about 300 villages inhabited by this tribe. As has been cited before, about absence of printed sources, the only way of documentation is hectic field work, which would include, recording the songs, getting to know the context and content of the songs, translating etc. Folk songs are sung mainly during Festivals, like the seed sowing festival (Luira/Luita), post cultivation festival (Mangkhap/Rishit), post harvest festival (Chumpha) etc. Since these festivals are now, in many ways, assimilated with Christian festivals, originality of the songs are said to be doubtful. Therefore, the most dependable sources for data collection are from the non-Christian aged grannies and grandpas, which again are hard to trace.
This could be the right moment to profess our pride for the long ignored past, which was once considered to be shameful and uncivilized. I have very high respect for the past, because it is the past which shaped our today. As a tribute to the past, and as our responsibility to the coming generation, we should shoulder the task of preserving folk-songs of the Tangkhul Naga tribe in print, and translating them into English, so as to showcase to the outside world that, we had a very rich oral tradition. This also will ensure that the coming generation would not feel lost and detached from their root. Let the songs which used to enlighten our forefathers be objects of marvel not oblivion.

Burial of the Bamboo Mug Rice Beer Folk Song and Harp of the Tangkhuls

'You are not allowed to drink rice beer as Christians. It makes you do bad things that God does not want you to do...' Ashang listened to the sermon of the Christian Missionary with a strange kind of disturbed attentiveness. He had a notion that the missionary must be talking about some irresponsible drunkard as he was unable to recall any bad things he had done in his whole life because of drinking rice beer. He went home in-convinced and decided to postpone his earlier resolve to get himself baptized and convert to Christianity.

Holding a huge bamboo mug filled with rice beer, Ashang sat by the fire sipping the content talking to his wife (Phanitla) about the missionary's strange teaching.

Ashang: How can he say eating food is bad? My parents drink rice beer, their parents drink rice beer and we drink rice beer to give us strength to live. Can you think of living without it? Have I ever fought with anyone after drinking? Have I ever raised my voice on you after drinking?

Phanitla: No.

Ashang: Then why should I give up rice beer? I can't imagine living life drinking only water. And I don't like the taste of water where they add something called sugar to boiled water. Let my children decide for themselves, for me I'll not convert. As for you, you are free to decide. But, I suggest you also don't convert.

Phanitla: I don't know.. But, what if the whole village gets converted?

Ashang: Let them convert. The missionary was also saying something about singing folk songs. Once converted, people are not supposed to sing folk songs. Only heaven knows why.

Looking at the logs burning into live charcoal and then to ashes in the hearth, Ashang realized how life has changed so much in a matter of decades. When he was a child there were no coins, people just use to exchange things, but now people use only coins. He remembered the times when his father took him along for hunting and bird trapping. He often dream of the days when the whole village feasted when his father erected those wooden totems and huge stone slabs outside his house. The wooden totems have gathered moss over the years but still stand as strong as the stones.

He requested his wife to refill his bamboo mug and to give him his tingteila (Harp). Somewhere in his heart he knew his children would never know what was the past like. It pains him thinking how the future would be like for his children. A faint smile lit up his wrinkled face when he consoled himself that he would be meeting his parents again in Kazeiram (Kingdom of the dead) after death.

Ashang looked at his wife and said "When I die bury me in the family grave along with my bamboo mug, spear, dao, and harp." Not knowing what to reply, his wife answered "When are you going to die?" and suddenly realized the oddness of the words. Without waiting for further interjection from his wife, Ashang asked her "It must have been tough for you living with me all these years right? Do you still love me as you used to?" His wife just replied, "You're becoming sillier everyday" and giggled.

Ashang tuned his tingteila and started singing the folk song of how a man went to Kazeiram (Kingdom of the dead) and brought back his dead wife. The last logs in the fire were burning out and Ashang pointed to the few logs and told his wife that they are like the last logs in the fire burning away so quickly. If live coal are found among the ashes in the morning, a new fire would be lit out of it, else some live coal would be fetched from the neighbors. He can cover the burning coal with load of ashes to ensure some coals are found in the morning. However, he can't hide his children and grand children from the many changes that are happening around too quickly. He knew he would be buried along with his tingteila, bamboo mug, spear and dao but beyond that he was not able to foresee whether his children and grand children would sing the song that he used to sing, hunt like he did and drink rice beer as he and his forefathers did. To be continued...

Note: The advent of Christianity has totally changed the Tangkhul Naga's way of life. Many things have been forcefully buried. This blogpost is a tribute to my grandfather who lived and died without giving into the wave of Christianity.

Totem Erection Rituals of the Tangkhul Nagas

If I have a time machine, the first thing that I would do is sneak back a century and explore the lifestyle, culture and tradition of my forefathers. Changes that have occurred after the advent of Christianity and Western Education to this otherwise isolated hills are almost incomprehensible. It was so hard for me to believe the stories that my grandpa used to tell me about his childhood, adolescent, youth and the prevalent lifestyle, rituals and social practices. I often tasked dad to validate that there are some truth in the stories and tales that grandpa narrated to me. For dad, it was not that hard to believe as he grew up seeing and living some of the experiences of the times that are now lost forever. One of the stories I remember is about the rituals people used to perform before erecting totems and stones, which were symbols of prosperity those days.

As Tangkhuls are basically an agrarian society, wealth in olden days was computed in terms of food grains and livestock of the family. So a rich man is someone who has a surplus of food grain and cattle. Life was that simple. Erection of totems and stones was a luxury that only the rich could afford to do. The process involved feasting for weeks and even months of the whole village at the expense to the man who erects these symbols of prosperity. Many erected stones stand even today to remind the younger generations of the glorious past. However, there are only few moss covered wooden totems (poles) left even in interior villages, which would soon rot away erasing remnants of the past that was so different.

Erection of totems as I was told is done only by people who are rich and mainly by the eldest in the family or the clan. When it is decided that a family is going to erect totems, the news is made known to all the relatives, the whole village and subsequently the neighboring villages too. Preparation for the occasion include, searching for a witch doctor/priest, collecting spotless sacrificial animals(biggest to the smallest), bulk brewing of wine and beer (for the villagers and guests), bulk grinding of rice and other food grains, etc. Once these initial preparations are done, village elders along with the witch doctors go scouting to find the right trees and stones to be brought home for erection.

Trees and stone selection as I was told was not done randomly. Necessary sacrifices were offered and are felled based on what the tree or stone spirits reveal in dreams or through a medium. Only unmarried trees and stones are to be selected and felled. This is one part where I choose not to hide my sarcasm, unable to comprehend how trees and stones can possibly speak or could have spirits in them. Anyway, there are too many things that I don’t understand and may never understand about the past.

After the sex of the tree or stone is determined, the objects as I was told are adorned with the appropriate costumes of male or a female. Cross dressing entails serious curse upon the family which was believed to last for generations.
After felling the trees, the young men in the village are tasked to carry home the trees and stones in single pieces. The drinking and eating celebration starts with coming home of the first tree or stone and ends when all the totems are erected following strict sacrificial procedures.

Animals that are considered perfect in every aspect are sacrificed throughout the erection ceremony. There are folk tales that suggests even human beings were sacrificed at the time of totem erections. However, my grandfather didn’t mention about this particular thing. Maybe he didn’t want me to know that people then were inhuman, or maybe human sacrifice was discontinued at some point of time. It was strictly mandatory to sacrifice animals and fowls from the smallest to the biggest. Missing out a single animal was believed to be a bad omen which has an associated curse, which would run in the family for generations. Scary as it sounds this one seems to be true as there are families where some of the siblings have some abnormality that people believe is the curse inherited from totem erection blunders.

This is one of the practices that were still prevalent till the late 19th century. With the advent of Christianity, the practice became odd and conflicting with the new faith. There is nothing I can connect this practice with the Tangkhuls of today. The time gap and difference between the present and the semi distant past is too wide. It is more like the past Tangkhuls disappeared one fine day like the Incas and Mayans and the present Tangkhuls suddenly replaced them. I am a Tangkhul, one of the many who are struggling to connect with the past.


Note this is a draft version that Google allowed me to post; If there are any grammatical mistakes or Typos, shoot a mail to Eric Schmidt and Google

Traditional House of the Tangkhul Nagas

This would without doubt will be my toughest post to understand and probably the most boring one as I am going to flung us all back to the times when there were no iron nails, saw, and other carpentry tools to build houses. This is when the axe and iron chisel were the only tools Tangkhuls used for building their houses. We are glaring at early nineteenth century, the pre-Christian era in the Tangkhul hills.

I can understand a bit of what mammoth effort it would have been to build a house with only an axe and a chisel in the hands of the carpenter. I am a part time carpenter and I vouch it would take me a decade at least to complete a house with an axe and a chisel.

Traditional Tangkhul houses are unique in every way. The front portion consists of huge carved pillars with the gaps filled by wooden planks. The back and sides are covered with horizontally placed wooden planks which are joined by ropes.The roof is slanted and covered with thatch.

The wooden planks were chipped out from huge trees, which are split in the middle first and then the two sides made into single planks. Thus, a huge tree which could build a whole house if modern tools were used were just made into two planks. Some of the wooden planks measure 3/4 meters. Depending on the length of the tree, the planks are cut into multiple pieces to fit the height of the walls.

The huge carved pillars for the front side are made from single woods, which are chipped and shaped with axe and crude chisels. It is said that 90% of carving on the pillars are done with axe, which is sort of unimaginable.

The interior of the house is partitioned into two sections separated by wooden planks and carved pillars.The front side which forms major part of the house is reserved as the cooking area and the smaller portion is kept as the bedroom.

The front door and the bedroom doors were usually made of single wood planks and are heavily carved. One side of the doors have pointed ends which are slightly longer than the main frame. These pointed ends are fixed to hollowed out wooden frames on one side of the door that makes closing and opening of the doors possible. Hinges were something unheard of then.

The Building Process:

The whole village in some ways or the other is involved when a house is built. Men are responsible for felling trees and cutting them into planks and to carry them home from the forest. Craftsmen and carpenters in the village are responsible for carving the pillars and the doors. Women and children help in collecting the thatch of house.

The owner of the house feeds the workers until the house is completed. People who are rich build more magnificent houses to showcase their social standings. The house of the rich apart from being larger has more carved pillars. The workers do their duties voluntarily, with the understanding that they are just helping each other. Rich people host a grand feast for the whole village when the building is completed, this is in addition to feeding the workers throughout the building period.

It is said that building a house take months. After the advent of Christianity and introduction of modern carpentry tools the traditional way of house building got replaced by simpler and less time consuming strategy. Pure traditional houses are hard to find today even in the most interior Tangkhul villages.

After moving into the new house, the heads of animals slaughtered at the time of building it are hung on wall of the cooking area as decoration. The front wall of the house used to be adorned with wild animal heads killed by the head of the family. It is said that during the days of head hunting, the heads of the victims are hung at the front wall of the house between the carved pillars.

The carved pillars and doors too have vanished. Some of the pillars and doors were looted away by antique collectors which most of the villagers gave away at throwaway price not knowing their value. It is a shame that we have lost almost everything that can remind us of our glorious past. In some villages, the wood totems were cut down to use as fuel which otherwise has withstood for centuries.

Author's Note: A writeup based on memory from stories I heard from old people by the hearth.

Tangkhul Naga Burial Rituals

Tangkhul, a sub-tribe of Naga tribe inhabitants of Ukhrul District in Manipur, India and some in Somra tract of Myanmar had very distinct burial rituals before the advent of Christianity in the late 19th century. The pre-Christian era rituals reveal the tribe's reverence and respect for the dead.

Like many other tribal communities, Tangkhuls believed in the concept of life after dead. The abode of the dead "Kazeiram" was believed to be on the other side of the living world. Tangkhuls of yore believed that the gateway to the kingdom of dead was manned by Kokto for which reason a shawl and some other gifts were buried along with the dead as a gift for Kokto.

Tangkhuls bury their dead outside the house in family vaults which are dug out like slanting tunnels of about 12 feet deep and 3-4 feet wide. Some of these graves can be found in old settlements even today. The mouth of the vault was usually covered with a big stone. The vaults are used only if the last burial was more than a year. Vaults of relatives are used in case burial in the family vault is lesser than a year. The bones and remains of previous burial are collected, given a wash and wrapped in a piece of cloth and put back in the corner of the same grave.

On the day of burial, an animal befitting the social standing of the deceased is killed. A buffalo or a mithun is slaughtered for a rich man. A cow or a pig is killed for people who are not very rich. Part of the meat is cooked and the left over is distributed among the relative of the deceased and the priest. The cooked meat is consumed by the attendees of the burial after making due sacrifice to the Death deity.

The Burial

Before sunset the deceased is tied to a flat wooded plank and slide into the vault after all the burial rituals are completed. Various articles for the use and comfort of the deceased are placed in the grave for use in the other world.

Clothes, daos, spear, shield, drinking cup, tobacco and pipes, ornaments, coins and quantities of food and drinks are said to be placed in the grave. Extra drinks and food are also placed for Kokto the deity who manned the gate to Kazeiram. In some cases a dog is killed to give the deceased company through the long journey to Kazeiram.

The mouth of the grave thereafter is sealed with a big stone slab. In the late evening a pine torch is lit near the grave. This is the time when all the mourners leave the grave and the fire in the deceased house is put out and all the ashes cleared. A fresh fire is brought from the neighbors to make a new fire.

A pine torch is lit near the grave for three days. It was believed that the spirit returns after having an interview with Kokto one day after the burial. For this reason all the doors are left open until the sending off ceremony of the spirit, which was usually done after 10 – 12 days from the day of burial. Until the sending off ceremony, food and drink share of the deceased are placed twice a day on the seat used by the deceased when alive.

Sending off Ceremony of the Spirit

10 - 12 days after the burial, the nearest to the deceased had to find a person who has some resemblance with the deceased to be his/her representative in the ceremony. Animals are slaughtered and a feast is hosted for the whole village. In the evening, the representative is escorted to the village gate with all sorts of gifts and messages, which are to be passed on to those who have died recently. All the lighted pine torches are put out once the final words are said and gifts given away. To symbolize that the spirit is finally going away from the living world, the representative walks away from the crowd and returns to the village taking a different route.

The Tangkhuls believed that spirits live life similar to the one they enjoyed in this world. The rich are rich the poor are poor even in Kazeiram.

Note: This write up is based on whatever I can remember of elders talking about burial rituals of the Tangkhuls, which is now discarded and even forgotten after the advent of Christianity. Death in some way was a burden to the living considering the un-necessary feast and ceremonies, however, it also is a testimony of how much respect and reverence the Tangkhuls once had for the dead.