Northeast, which once had many tribes with a rich tattoo culture, is now watching these inked people and their heritage slowly disappear forever in the miasma of the modern world. The spread of the religion played a major role in converting the Naga headhunters into devout Christians and making the tribals believe that tattooing was a sin. TOI takes a sneak-peek into this fascinating world.
It is a hot May afternoon in Longwa village and Penjun Konyak, 77, is taking a nap on a wooden cot with his granddaughter.
Nothing here reflects the violent times Penjun has lived and the risky headhunt trips he has taken, but to the tattoos that cover his face and torso, and his longhouse adorned with all manner of weapons. There’s a whole wall – from axes to guns. Penjun, a warrior from the Konyak tribe that dominates Nagaland’s mountainous Mon district, worked on a head-hunting mission in Myanmar 50 years ago and earned his ‘patties’.
He is one of the last hunters of the Naga head tattooed. Nestled amidst the serene hills is the Ziro Valley of Arunachal Pradesh, about 400 km from the village of Longwa in Nagaland. This picturesque valley is home to Tadu Sunku, an 80-year-old farmer from the Apatani tribe, one of the 26 tribes of Arunachal Pradesh. Penjun and Sunku do not know each other, but are connected by a common thread – the lines engraved on their bodies.
Sitting by a fireplace in the middle of Sunku’s house in the Bamin-michi village of Jiro, her 49-year-old daughter Tadu Yaki recalls how decades ago her tattooed older sister reimposed a new prohibition to get her face tattooed. was violated. make her beautiful
Yaki has a light tattoo, a straight line from his forehead to his nose. Yaki is a rare link between his tattooed mother and his 26-year-old schoolteacher daughter, who hasn’t been inked. Apatani women traditionally had tattoos on their faces – a straight line from forehead to nose and five small lines on their chins – in addition to bulbous noses and ear plugs.
Like Penjun of Nagaland’s Mon district, Sunku is one of the Apatani women in Arunachal Pradesh sporting tattoos and plugs. The Northeast, which once had many tribes with a rich tattoo culture, is now seeing these inked people fade away, and with them a rich heritage forever vanishing into the miasma of the modern world. “Tattoos of every tribe are unique because they are a marker of their identity and their connection to ancient aesthetics, nature, history and spiritual beliefs,” says Morangam Khaling, one of three Indians featured in the World Atlas of Tattoos Is. 100 Tattoo Artists published by Yale University Press in 2015.
37-year-old Khaling, named Mo Naga, travels extensively to villages in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur to talk to elderly tribals and study their tattoo culture and methods. “No tribe in the Northeast now practices tattoos,” says Mo. The meaning of every tattoo is “far from visible and physical”.
Ink Headhunters of Nagaland
Most of the Naga tribes practiced beheading. Tattoos on the face, neck and torso were a way for many tribes to honor and distinguish their brave warriors. A successful ritual was followed by a successful headhunting trip. There was ceremonial dance and the queen, or angi, tattooed the brave warriors. The designs were specific to each tribe and were meant to differentiate veterans of many successful migrations from those who had participated in certain expeditions.
“When trying to understand the practice of headhunting, we must begin with the assumption that no matter how barbaric people are, they will not kill their fellow human beings for no reason. Tuisem, who teaches history at the Hindu College of Delhi University “One of the most common motives was to hunt the head in revenge for the murder of relatives or a fellow villager,” says Ngakang.
“Headhunting was a last resort and deeply devout Nagas believed that God would intervene on behalf of the aggrieved side,” says Nagakang.
Apart from tattoos, some Naga tribes also had separate marks for their brave warriors. “Among the Tangkhul Nagas, there was a distinctive shawl that could only be worn by a person who brought home the heads of his enemies.
Even among the Ao tribesmen, some markings were permitted only to those who had proven their head-hunting skills. Among the Angami, no man could believe the ‘Toga virilis’ cultivar decorated with cowrie shells until he had killed an enemy,” says Ngakang. In 1878 at Kohima and in 1890 at Mokokchung With the establishment of an administrative centre, the practice of headhunting was largely controlled.
Konyaks from Mon district are rare as they are the last of the remaining headhunters as the region of Nagaland as well as what is now Tuensang district was the last to be administered by a formal government and headhunting is said to have continued in the 1970s as well. notification was received. , The missionaries who took on the task of spreading Christianity among the tribes also contributed to the end of head hunting.
Hongo Wangshu is in his 70s. Wangshu, treasurer of the Village Church in Longwa, made several visits to what is now Myanmar on several headhunting missions. Despite the cajoling, Wangshu refuses to delve into those violent days and give an accurate count of the heads he raised. He is now a devout Christian. And sometimes, after a Sunday sermon, he delivers an address to believers that rests on peace.
“Before we knew Christ, we were hunters. We had a lot of enemies and we went on headhunt excursions. Sometimes we returned empty handed and sometimes with the enemies severed heads,” says Wangshu .
Artist and researcher Mo says that the introduction of “foreign religion” was the biggest cause of the destruction of tattoo culture in the Northeast. He says tattooing continued even after headhunting was banned because tribes held fake headhunting sessions, but stopped entirely because the British arrested anyone with a new tattoo. The Aborigines were told that tattooing was a “sin” because “they were maligning the image in which God had made them”.
tattoo women of the valley
Among the Apatanis, females have the most obvious tattoos and prominent ear and nose plugs. Men have only three inked lines on their chins. Experts say that some sub-tribes of Adi, Aka, Miji, Nocte, Nyashi, Seppa and Wancho also practiced tattooing in Arunachal.
“Apatani girls, when they were about 13 years old, were tattooed by the older women of the village,” says Tage Yakha, 63, who has tattoos and prominent nose rings and earrings. Aborigines used thorns from a special bush to dig out the skin and cast ink made from soot, rice starch and pig fat.
The Apatani Youth Association, a powerful community organisation, banned face tattoos in 1974, as girls who were inked were teased and humiliated when they went out of the Valley for higher education . The imposition of a heavy fine of Mithun (Gayal) on any offender ensured compliance of the rule.
But why did Apatani women get tattoos and prominent cane ear and nose plugs?
Urban legend has it that women used these to “mutilate” themselves to prevent their abduction by men from other tribes living around the valley. Experts have challenged this narrative.
“The Apatanis did not start tattooing in the Ziro Valley, the practice had started even before they left Tibet and continued during that migration.
Therefore, the argument that this was a way to stop the kidnappers around Ziro Valley does not hold water,” says Abang Gyati Rana, a prominent author of the tribe and a cultural activist.
“We got tattoos to look beautiful,” says octogenarian Sanku. She says the girls used bamboo plugs to increase the size of the piercing and shifted to larger ones and “just sat for the cane plug when they were happy that the piercing was big enough to give them the desired look.” was big”.
“It is good that tattooing has stopped. Girls go out of state and not everyone will find it beautiful,” she adds.
leave a mark for future generations
People have been documenting tattoos through photographs, books and videos, but Moe believes conservation will only happen if the art is practiced.
Mo, who is trying to revive the almost lost tattooing tradition of the Nagas and reinterpret the designs, will have 10 photos of his traditional tattoos on display at Berlin’s Humboldts Forum – one dedicated to human history, art and culture. Museum – for two years, beginning mid-September.
But back home in Nagaland, a different story is going on. And nowhere are the shifting lines of tattoos more evident than in Dimapur, the commercial hub of Nagaland and its most cosmopolitan centre.
Lipokmaren Jamir, who has been a tattooist for the past six years, says that most of his clients prefer tribal designs, not Nagas but those of Maori and other Polynesian peoples. “Only 2-3% of my clients want a traditional Naga design. We mostly use Naga motifs from traditional tapestries and designs on morangs (boys’ hostels),” says Jamir.
Jamir Naga is not very optimistic about the resurgence of interest in traditional tattoos among the youth. “Today’s culture is influenced by celebrities and social media. He says most of the youth want to go with contemporary patterns, and women prefer minimalist designs,” says Jamir.
Mo is not giving up yet.
Mo, who belongs to the Yupo Naga tribe of Manipur, says, “I have identified 20 Naga tribes whose tattoo culture was flourishing. “This is the generation
E first one who has the education and means to revive the art form and traditional methods of tattooing,” he added.
After working as a tattoo artist in Delhi for a long time, Mo is back to his village in Manipur and is in the process of setting up a tattoo-centrecum-school with the help of his community members.
It is a hot May afternoon in Longwa village and Penjun Konyak, 77, is taking a nap on a wooden cot with his granddaughter.
Nothing here reflects the violent times Penjun has lived and the risky headhunt trips he has taken, but to the tattoos that cover his face and torso, and his longhouse adorned with all manner of weapons. There’s a whole wall – from axes to guns. Penjun, a warrior from the Konyak tribe that dominates Nagaland’s mountainous Mon district, worked on a head-hunting mission in Myanmar 50 years ago and earned his ‘patties’.
He is one of the last hunters of the Naga head tattooed. Nestled amidst the serene hills is the Ziro Valley of Arunachal Pradesh, about 400 km from the village of Longwa in Nagaland. This picturesque valley is home to Tadu Sunku, an 80-year-old farmer from the Apatani tribe, one of the 26 tribes of Arunachal Pradesh. Penjun and Sunku do not know each other, but are connected by a common thread – the lines engraved on their bodies.
Sitting by a fireplace in the middle of Sunku’s house in the Bamin-michi village of Jiro, her 49-year-old daughter Tadu Yaki recalls how decades ago her tattooed older sister reimposed a new prohibition to get her face tattooed. was violated. make her beautiful
Yaki has a light tattoo, a straight line from his forehead to his nose. Yaki is a rare link between his tattooed mother and his 26-year-old schoolteacher daughter, who hasn’t been inked. Apatani women traditionally had tattoos on their faces – a straight line from forehead to nose and five small lines on their chins – in addition to bulbous noses and ear plugs.
Like Penjun of Nagaland’s Mon district, Sunku is one of the Apatani women in Arunachal Pradesh sporting tattoos and plugs. The Northeast, which once had many tribes with a rich tattoo culture, is now seeing these inked people fade away, and with them a rich heritage forever vanishing into the miasma of the modern world. “Tattoos of every tribe are unique because they are a marker of their identity and their connection to ancient aesthetics, nature, history and spiritual beliefs,” says Morangam Khaling, one of three Indians featured in the World Atlas of Tattoos Is. 100 Tattoo Artists published by Yale University Press in 2015.
37-year-old Khaling, named Mo Naga, travels extensively to villages in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur to talk to elderly tribals and study their tattoo culture and methods. “No tribe in the Northeast now practices tattoos,” says Mo. The meaning of every tattoo is “far from visible and physical”.
Ink Headhunters of Nagaland
Most of the Naga tribes practiced beheading. Tattoos on the face, neck and torso were a way for many tribes to honor and distinguish their brave warriors. A successful ritual was followed by a successful headhunting trip. There was ceremonial dance and the queen, or angi, tattooed the brave warriors. The designs were specific to each tribe and were meant to differentiate veterans of many successful migrations from those who had participated in certain expeditions.
“When trying to understand the practice of headhunting, we must begin with the assumption that no matter how barbaric people are, they will not kill their fellow human beings for no reason. Tuisem, who teaches history at the Hindu College of Delhi University “One of the most common motives was to hunt the head in revenge for the murder of relatives or a fellow villager,” says Ngakang.
“Headhunting was a last resort and deeply devout Nagas believed that God would intervene on behalf of the aggrieved side,” says Nagakang.
Apart from tattoos, some Naga tribes also had separate marks for their brave warriors. “Among the Tangkhul Nagas, there was a distinctive shawl that could only be worn by a person who brought home the heads of his enemies.
Even among the Ao tribesmen, some markings were permitted only to those who had proven their head-hunting skills. Among the Angami, no man could believe the ‘Toga virilis’ cultivar decorated with cowrie shells until he had killed an enemy,” says Ngakang. In 1878 at Kohima and in 1890 at Mokokchung With the establishment of an administrative centre, the practice of headhunting was largely controlled.
Konyaks from Mon district are rare as they are the last of the remaining headhunters as the region of Nagaland as well as what is now Tuensang district was the last to be administered by a formal government and headhunting is said to have continued in the 1970s as well. notification was received. , The missionaries who took on the task of spreading Christianity among the tribes also contributed to the end of head hunting.
Hongo Wangshu is in his 70s. Wangshu, treasurer of the Village Church in Longwa, made several visits to what is now Myanmar on several headhunting missions. Despite the cajoling, Wangshu refuses to delve into those violent days and give an accurate count of the heads he raised. He is now a devout Christian. And sometimes, after a Sunday sermon, he delivers an address to believers that rests on peace.
“Before we knew Christ, we were hunters. We had a lot of enemies and we went on headhunt excursions. Sometimes we returned empty handed and sometimes with the enemies severed heads,” says Wangshu .
Artist and researcher Mo says that the introduction of “foreign religion” was the biggest cause of the destruction of tattoo culture in the Northeast. He says tattooing continued even after headhunting was banned because tribes held fake headhunting sessions, but stopped entirely because the British arrested anyone with a new tattoo. The Aborigines were told that tattooing was a “sin” because “they were maligning the image in which God had made them”.
tattoo women of the valley
Among the Apatanis, females have the most obvious tattoos and prominent ear and nose plugs. Men have only three inked lines on their chins. Experts say that some sub-tribes of Adi, Aka, Miji, Nocte, Nyashi, Seppa and Wancho also practiced tattooing in Arunachal.
“Apatani girls, when they were about 13 years old, were tattooed by the older women of the village,” says Tage Yakha, 63, who has tattoos and prominent nose rings and earrings. Aborigines used thorns from a special bush to dig out the skin and cast ink made from soot, rice starch and pig fat.
The Apatani Youth Association, a powerful community organisation, banned face tattoos in 1974, as girls who were inked were teased and humiliated when they went out of the Valley for higher education . The imposition of a heavy fine of Mithun (Gayal) on any offender ensured compliance of the rule.
But why did Apatani women get tattoos and prominent cane ear and nose plugs?
Urban legend has it that women used these to “mutilate” themselves to prevent their abduction by men from other tribes living around the valley. Experts have challenged this narrative.
“The Apatanis did not start tattooing in the Ziro Valley, the practice had started even before they left Tibet and continued during that migration.
Therefore, the argument that this was a way to stop the kidnappers around Ziro Valley does not hold water,” says Abang Gyati Rana, a prominent author of the tribe and a cultural activist.
“We got tattoos to look beautiful,” says octogenarian Sanku. She says the girls used bamboo plugs to increase the size of the piercing and shifted to larger ones and “just sat for the cane plug when they were happy that the piercing was big enough to give them the desired look.” was big”.
“It is good that tattooing has stopped. Girls go out of state and not everyone will find it beautiful,” she adds.
leave a mark for future generations
People have been documenting tattoos through photographs, books and videos, but Moe believes conservation will only happen if the art is practiced.
Mo, who is trying to revive the almost lost tattooing tradition of the Nagas and reinterpret the designs, will have 10 photos of his traditional tattoos on display at Berlin’s Humboldts Forum – one dedicated to human history, art and culture. Museum – for two years, beginning mid-September.
But back home in Nagaland, a different story is going on. And nowhere are the shifting lines of tattoos more evident than in Dimapur, the commercial hub of Nagaland and its most cosmopolitan centre.
Lipokmaren Jamir, who has been a tattooist for the past six years, says that most of his clients prefer tribal designs, not Nagas but those of Maori and other Polynesian peoples. “Only 2-3% of my clients want a traditional Naga design. We mostly use Naga motifs from traditional tapestries and designs on morangs (boys’ hostels),” says Jamir.
Jamir Naga is not very optimistic about the resurgence of interest in traditional tattoos among the youth. “Today’s culture is influenced by celebrities and social media. He says most of the youth want to go with contemporary patterns, and women prefer minimalist designs,” says Jamir.
Mo is not giving up yet.
Mo, who belongs to the Yupo Naga tribe of Manipur, says, “I have identified 20 Naga tribes whose tattoo culture was flourishing. “This is the generation
E first one who has the education and means to revive the art form and traditional methods of tattooing,” he added.
After working as a tattoo artist in Delhi for a long time, Mo is back to his village in Manipur and is in the process of setting up a tattoo-centrecum-school with the help of his community members.