From the 23rd to the 25th May 2008 some 30 scholars gathered in Berlin, Germany for an international conference on “Origins and Migrations Among Tibeto-Burman Speakers of the Extended Eastern Himalaya”, which was organized by Prof. Toni Huber of the Humboldt University, Institute for Asian and African Studies and Prof. Stuart Blackburn of SOAS, London University. The scholars covered areas such as eastern Nepal, Yunnan Province in Southwest China, Burma, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. Particularly for those international scholars working on Arunachal it was the most amazing setting of having the few people working on this remote area gathered in one place. Many met each other for the first time in person.

Prof. Stuart Blackburn from the University of London delivered a lecture on Apatani Ideas and Idioms of Origins. He pointed out that their thinking on origin is dominated by concepts of genealogy and cosmogony rather than geography saying that: “Apatanis really do not think of themselves primarily as migrants from another place but rather as descendents of a particular ancestor [Abo Tani].” The central concept in doing so however is that of the process of differentiation from formlessness to the formation of the natural as well as the social world.

Professor Toni Huber from Humboldt University in Berlin spoke about his fieldwork data on “Micro-Migrations and Our Understanding of Origins: A Case Study from the Upper Subansiri Region of the Eastern Himalaya”. “How do people actually move?” Toni Huber tries to give some answer to this question for a particular area of the Upper Subansiri River valley and a particular time, the 20th century. What he shows by means of historical records and personal interviews of a large number of local people is that whenever people move for reasons such as conflicts or bamboo flowering they also interact with the people they come in contact with and even take wives from there. Adding to that some clans are explicitly exogamous and marry outside their own community. Consequently there is a high mix of people. However he also shows something else very interesting. Those movements are not just downwards along the rivers but also upwards depending on the particular cause for migrations as well as the direction from which the jeopardy comes. Consequently the very widespread belief of a unidirectional migration from Tibet to the South might prove to be much more complicated.

Further, Dr. Alex Aisher from the University of Sussex, England spoke about “Migration Narratives and the Environmental History of the Nyishi Tribe in Arunachal Pradesh” and Mark Post from La Trobe University, Australia gave a presentation on “The Language, Culture, Environment and Origins of Proto-Tani Speakers”. From the Rajiv Gandhi University, Arunachal Pradesh Dr. Sarit Chaudhuri delivered a lecture on “Oral Narratives of Origin and Migration and Construction of Identities by the Tibeto-Burman Tribes of a Frontier state of India”. Kerstin Grothmann from Humboldt University reported about her recent fieldwork as did Atsuko Ibata a Japanese student from Delhi University, both are working on societies in central Arunachal Pradesh.

The author is MA student, Department of Anthropology at Heidelberg University, Germany

Earlier, all that can be seen of any township of Arunachal Pradesh in Google Earth was just a blurry image. With this, shall we hope that high resolution images of other township of the state would be uploaded by Google Earth in near future? Waiting for that to happen and to see high resolution satellite imagery of Ziro/Hapoli township.

Now, that Google Earth has uploaded images of Along Township, denizens of Along- go…go..explore and locate your houses

P.S.: I had been to Along once and that too for a period of some hours only, as such I don’t have much idea of Along Township. So folks explore for yourself.

The first impression was, hey this is better designed site than the Nyishi.org but as I navigated through to the About us page, I found, it had the same lacunae as of Nyishi.org, i.e., page under construction. The rest of the pages are well laid out.

Where Nyishi.org is a community based site, ttt-ao.org is the site for particular clan of Galo community (correct me), which aims at encouraging the literary development and documentation besides promoting and fostering unity, belongingness, brotherhood and fraternity amongst the descendents of Tutem, Tuni and Tusi.

So, if you are descendents of Tutem, Tuni and Tusi, head on to this site for the activities of TTT-AO Welfare Society, and if you are not, still head on to this site if you want an insight into the Ori clan.

Now, I’m thinking why other communities of Arunachal is not following suit? Or are there other sites too that is eluding me.?

]]> http://arunachaldiary.com/2007/08/wwwttt-aoorg/feed/ 2 http://arunachaldiary.com/2007/06/can-tani-language-become-lingua-franca/ http://arunachaldiary.com/2007/06/can-tani-language-become-lingua-franca/#comments Fri, 22 Jun 2007 04:55:00 +0000 AG http://arunachaldiary.com/?p=156 Read more ...]]> But what is Tani Language? Do we really have a language called Tani Language? Is it the language spoken by the Apatani’s or the Nyishi’s or the Adi’s or any other tribe of Tani group? But then, don’t their languages differ not to be quite intelligible enough amongst themselves? So, when Tani Federation Forum (TTF) based at Guwahati called for making Tani Language as lingua franca of Tani group, I wondered which Tani Language they were referring to.

Unification bid by the Tanis

ITANAGAR, June 18: The Tanis of Arunachal Pradesh and Asom irrespective of their boundaries, religion and political identities have decided to unify and unite in their greater interest.

This was the unanimous decision taken at the first plenary session of Guwahati-based Tani Federation Forum (TFF) held at North Lakhimpur yesterday with the participation of representatives from both states. Former Arunachal Minister Tadar Taniang was the chief guest.

Though the tribe society was passing through a transition, the session opposed the imposition of Sanskrit language and called for its replacement by Tani language, which could serve as lingua-franca and integrate the entire tribe living in various part of the North East Region, according to TFF release.

-The Arunachal Times

Though, their call for unification of Tani groups is quite commendable yet I couldn’t understand their call for making Tani Language a lingua franca of Tani groups, when there is no common language amongst Tani group as Tani Language. Or do we have?

BTW, what is this TTF? Who are they? Why are they based at Guwahati when majority of Tani groups are settled at Arunachal Pradesh?

I don’t deny that we the North-Easterner has always been part of prejudice whenever we are in other parts of the country for whatever reasons (for Higher studies, for business trips or just for vacationing) and may be this is one of the reasons why this part of the country has not been able to be brought to the mainstream completely, so far.

But my dear friend Buru, I don’t agree with you that our history says that we came from China. Though, certainly there is folklore, of us migrating from high up above present day Arunachal (In case of Tani Groups), but it never suggested that it was from China. The only reference is some large lake (probably at Tibet) beyond which the elders doesn’t seem to know much or may be doesn’t want to tell further (may be due to some reservations). And to talk about food and culture, I don’t know if there is any similarity between us and the Chinese as I’ve not been to China nor I’ve tried to study their food habits, tradition or culture, so far. (Here I’m referring to Tani group only). In this regard, I fumbled upon ethnology, and couldn’t find anything that says that Tani group has any link with the people of China. If you do, then let me know.

And I do agree with you that, who the heck they are to decide about our land without taking us into confidence. After all, it’s our land. But then, don’t you think that we people have accepted that we are part of India and we are Indian? What is intriguing is that despite us considering to be part of India, the Centre doesn’t seem to think so. If that’s not the case then Centre should have taken us and the state Government into confidence while carrying forward the talks on border row, even though it is highly sensitive in nature and a diplomatic issue. And now they are deciding our fate. Also, what is more despising is that the state Government seems to be content with the statement that Arunachal is integral part of India, and parroting whatever the Centre wants it to mouth. And the so called intellectuals of this state, they seem to know nothing about or bother about the whole issue.

And if it is the question of who rules Arunachal, then why India or China? Why not America? In that case, Arunachal would become buffer zone to India and China and we may witness infrastructural developments which has so far been eluding us.

The question here is not about Tani group, Mishmi’s, Monpa’s or the other groups of the state, it is about Arunachal-the state as a whole, it is about why should anyone challenge the territorial integrity of our state? Should we be satisfied with the Centre’s statement that ‘Arunachal is integral part of India‘, when they are actually trying to challenge the integrity of the state? Shouldn’t we try to save the territorial integrity? Or should we think either way it’s o.k. and don’t bother at all about the territorial integrity? What do you say?

This has made me think, isn’t it easy to manipulate and play around with simple, though at sometimes complex, highly orthodox Arunachalee peoples’ mindset and their outlook? I wonder, it is; and if it is on the line of their faith and belief, the easier it is. This was evident from the attendance it garnered during the recently concluded “Donyi Polo Day” (or rather Indigenous Faiths Day as was earlier known) observation on 31^st last month at Donyi-Polo ground Hapoli.

What is Donyi-Polo and Donyi-Poloism?

Literally, Donyi means Sun and Polo means Moon. The descendants of mythical “Abotani”, which by and large follows animism, considers Donyi-Polo as one of their supreme powers among so many benevolent and malevolent supreme powers that governs their life. These supreme powers, in some way or the other, had some relation with the mythical Abotani as the folklore suggests. And since time immemorial, the descendants of Abotani had a ritual to erect altars of these supreme powers and make sacrifices in order to appease them, whenever these supreme or supernatural powers interfered with their lives. And this has been their religion.

But, in Indian perspective, animism is not recognized (I still remember the look on the face of interviewer when I said I don’t have any religion rather I’m an animist, in response to their question during my interview for a job – they were far from believing me, thinking either I was Buddhist or a Christian), and in order to have definite religious identity and to preserve the indigenous traditional faith, Donyi-Poloism was born and now it is recognized as a religion. And now, well, may be I guess I would say I follow Donyi-Poloism whenever I’m asked about my religion.

The Present Scenario

Going by what Donyi-Poloism stands for today, I may not say that I’m follower of Donyi-Poloism but would rather say that I’m an animist, if ever I’m asked about my religion. Why? Because it is totally devoid of the rituals that have been performed since time immemorial. Now, it has definite place of worship called “Medar Nello” or “Nyider Namlo” and has an idol too. So far, as I remember, the Apatanis or for that matter I presume even Adis or Nyishis (descendant of Abotani) had ever idol worshipped and in a designated place of worship called “Medar Nello” or “Nyider Namlo” as it is done today. Though as suggested above, only symbolic altars were erected whenever certain ceremonies or rituals had to be performed. Going by the way the rituals, that are performed now-a-days, in the so called place of worship vis-à-vis the rituals that are performed at temple, I wonder if it is akin to Hinduism or has influence of Hinduism. But then, with so many Hindu missionary leading the Medar Nallo, no wonder, if the rituals performed in the Medar Nello has Hinduism tone. And in some way or the other Donyi-Poloism has always been linked with Hinduism-Donyi with Surya Devta and Polo with Chandrama. But would someone tell those missionaries that Sun is feminine (Ayo Danyi) and Moon is masculine (Ato Piilo) unlike otherwise in Hinduism?

If Donyi-Poloism is akin to Hinduism, why people are thronging at Medar Nello?

As suggested in the previous para, the conversion to Christianity has been growing at a very rapid pace among Apatanis in these past few years and to put check on this conversion, Hindu missionary has simultaneously been trying to convert the population to Hinduism, albeit with little success. Those converted to Christianity, altogether not only stopped performing the earlier rituals but also started branding those practising the Traditional Rituals as the son of “Satan” as I’m told. This irked the highly orthodox Apatanis who performed the Traditional Rituals. And the Hindu Missionaries, which were working covertly on conversion, cleverly took advantage of this irked mindset by encouraging them to join Donyi-Poloism and to attend Medar Nello as it was their indigenous faith.

With their traditional ethos hurt and countering conversion of population to Christianity being the other motive, the people quite played into the hands of Hindu Missionaries and started attending the so called place of worship. After all, it had a Donyi-Polo tag, enough to let them believe that they are following their traditional form of faith and worship and not being almost converted to Hinduism.

Is Donyi-Poloism really an indigenous faith?

I would say no in the present context, but an altern

ate form of Hinduism. It has played into the hands of missionary and now has evolved into altogether different form of faith and practice with nothing indigenous about it.

Conclusion

With blatant rate of conversions- be it to Christianity or to Hinduism or to Donyi-Poloism (neo-Hinduism) and with the people who still orthodoxically follows the age old rituals and practice, I fear, in near future it may flare up communal tensions based on the religion and we would be witnessing riots due to the difference in opinions among them. Also, I fear, would we be able to retain our age old traditional custom, culture and faith for preservation of which, Donyi-Poloism was created?

What do you say?