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.


Travels in North East India

I was travelling through parts of North East India, in Assam, Nagaland and Meghalaya in the first two weeks of December. During the journeys, we have had many close interactions with people from remote places in the region, which made this visit a gratifying and an eye-opening experience. I can’t recall too many places where I have felt so welcome and completely at ease. In many faraway locations where we randomly wandered into, people welcomed us unassumingly right into their houses. In one small village inhabited by Rengma Nagas, we were escorted to and offered tea at the house of a friendly villagers. As soon as we came out of their house, we exchanged smiles with another stranger, and were immediately led to her house for more tea! I am grateful to have received such warmth from so many people in the last few days. Having been recipient of such treasured welcome, I can’t help but say that I am going to be back here again in future, hopefully for many times in the years to come. Stories from the region will follow in January.

travels in North East India

In the image is a happy family in Assam, walking through the woods towards their paddy fields.


The Last Living Head Hunters

Esben Agersnap writes in his blog about the last living men who once practiced head hunting in Nagaland. An interesting story with a lot of pictures of headhunters.

…tribes – which often waged war upon each other as well as on the more peaceful peoples of Assam. A peculiar aspect of Naga tribal warfare was the brutal and feared concept of head hunting. It was believed that by taking the head of your slain enemy as a trophy you would gain some of his power and spirit.

Read ‘the last living head hunters