Photo-story: rich cultural heritage of North-East India & Hornbill Festival

Originally published on medium.com

Unusual political boundaries have isolated North-East India from rest of the world (and rest of India) for many years. This is perhaps one of the reasons that has allowed this region to retain and celebrate a good part of its indigenous culture without significant influence from outside.

hornbill festival
Performances at the Hornbill Festival, Kohima.

The Hornbill Festival in the hill-state of Nagaland is perhaps the most eclectic and elaborate of all the cultural events in the region. It offers a glimpse of North-East India’s rich culture, even though it showcases life and rituals from just one of the seven states in the region. This is a celebration of customs, cultures and everyday life of the seventeen communities that inhabit the hills of Nagaland. For ten days every December, the slopes of Kisama Village reverberate with gentle murmur of folks songs alternating with cries of hunters displaying their skills in the arena.

Every December, we conduct a week long mentored photography tour that offers excellent opportunities to learn the nuances of photographing people and cultures. The tour also helps you experience the rich culture of North-East India from up-close. We travel with a cultural guide having an in-depth knowledge of North-East India, its history and culture. It’s an awesome journey that offers unparalleled photography opportunities and unique people encounters. To be a part of this tour, visit “Photography in North-East India and Hornbill Festival” and find out more details.

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Naga people at a performance during Hornbill Festival.

What makes Hornbill Festival an endearing experience is in the way the festival is not limited to an on-stage ensemble that isolates itself and doesn’t connect with its audience beyond the performance. During the days of the festival, each of the seventeen communities setup their own corner at the festival venue that permits personal interactions between visitors and the performing artists.

hornbill festival
Performers in their morung at the festival venue.

Morungs, roughly translated as dormitories, are places where a community’s performing members come to rest between performances and occasionally conduct small ritual activities. In Naga tradition, a morung is a community building in a village that serves as a dormitory and a place for schooling young men. A morung also doubles up as a place of gathering for the community, from where villagers conduct meetings or announce events in the village.


The Eclectic Hornbill Festival – Images and Information

Hornbill Festival

On a cold December morning, every road in Nagaland seems to be leading to the Hornbill Festival venue. Large signboards, usually adorned with portraits of Naga people clad in their beautiful best traditional wears, welcome you to the ‘Festival of Festivals’. They are compellingly beautiful images – seeing one of them in a newspaper or a magazine will compel you to pack the bags and catch the next flight available.

The Hornbill Festival is a celebration of Nagaland’s traditions and cultural heritage. Sixteen communities–collectively called Nagas–come together at the festival venue to exhibit their wears, enact their daily life and re-create their energetic festivals at one place. Imagine spend a year travelling through rural Nagaland, witnessing their way of life and celebrations, and then think about bringing it all together in one-go. That’s hornbill festival for you.

Here is a collection of images from Hornbill Festival – celebrations, performances and portraitures, made in the last two years of leading photography tours to the festival.

Hornbill Festival
The festival venue–called Kisama Heritage Village–just outside Kohima. The venue is far larger than just an amphitheater for performances. Surrounding the amphitheater are the resting places of the participating communities, restaurants, shops, museums and community areas. 


Categories: photos

A Konyak man at Hornbill Festival in Kohima, Nagaland.

Daily photo: A Konyak man dressed in his traditional best, during Hornbill Festival in Kohima, Nagaland.

Hornbill Festival - Portrait of a Konyak man

Konyaks, a tribe from Nagaland, are known for their history of headhunting. The practice apparently lasted until as late as the 1960s. The tattoos on the face served as recognition of a headhunter’s proud acquisitions.

Photographed last year, when I was leading my annual photography tour to the hornbill festival.