On a bright Sunday afternoon, I was standing on a hilltop - one foot in India and the other in Myanmar. With neither a passport nor a visa in hand, there I was straddling across an international border [another thing off the 30 before 30 list]. In front of me, were the mountains of Myanmar covered in a dense blanket of lush greenery. To my left, located on a ridge below was the traditional Naga village of Longwa in India. The mountain air was fresh and knew no borders, but at that moment, I did.
More stories from Exotic North-East:
Going Offbeat in Meghalaya & Learning Interesting Things
Notes from Nagaland : The beginning of an Adventure
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| Children of the Chief and the villagers, hanging out by the bonfire in the church grounds of Longwa, a remote Konyak Naga village situated on Indo-Myanmar border |
Two days ago, there was nothing remarkable about the jam-packed, rickety and dirty bus journey along the broken mountain roads from a little border town in Assam called Sonari to Mon town in north Nagaland. But it was only until an old man climbed into the bus and sat next to the driver facing the crowd. Instantly I knew he had killed at least one man. How did I know that? Because of the dark tattoo on his face and the necklace with brass faces adorning his chest. He wore colorful beaded ornaments around his neck. His ears were pierced with long animal horns jutting out. He wore a headgear that was decorated with wild boar’s teeth! Never in my life had I seen so many vestiges of slaughter on one person. He was a Konyak Naga Headhunter.
Konyaks are the largest of the 16 tribes inhabiting Nagaland. Located in the mountainous regions of northeast, they are spread across Nagaland and Arunachal in India and Myanmar. They come with a history of brutal headhunting and animistic culture. Severing heads was a common practice amongst Konyaks until as recently as 1940s with the last reported head hunting in 1970s. Capturing an enemy’s head was the rite of passage for boys to turn into men, capturing the head symbolically represented capturing the enemy’s spirit. Only a person who had successfully hunted a head was given the prestigious facial tattoo.
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| Longwa village, as seen from a vantage point. To the left is India, to the right is Myanmar |
A day after I reached Mon town, I headed to Longwa, one of the bigger and traditional Konyak villages. The first glimpse of the village made quite an impression. Sitting atop a ridge of a far ahead mountain, Longwa commands a grand view of the valleys and mountains around. Naga villages were strategically built upon hilltops and ridges so that they could monitor enemy activity and impending raids. Konyaks were known to be the fiercest of headhunters and raids between villages were quite common. Neighboring villages were raided to command authority and acquire land.
Konyaks are still ruled by hereditary chieftains known as Anghs. When we arrive at Longwa, as per the tradition we first visited the Angh as soon as we reached. I could recognize the Angh by the turquoise blue beads he wore below the knees. A necklace with brass faces was hanging around his neck, however he wasn’t a headhunter. He had inherited the position and the necklace from his father, who was a headhunter. The practice of polygamy is prevalent among the Anghs and chief here had several children from many wives.
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| Proud hunters. Earlier, human skulls were also part of this elaborate display, but since being "civilized", the human skulls are gone but the animal skeletons still remain |
Hanging out with the children as they warmed themselves around a bonfire in the vast church ground was a surreal experience! The fire quickly died down as the darkness descended upon us bringing a deep chill along with it, the stars came out and filled the sky. I walked down the road that goes through the village. In the darkness, one of the Chief’s son pointed towards the mountains in front of me and said that is Burma and hidden inside those forests is the Burmese check post. I chuckled, wondering if I had to take his words with a pinch of salt. Earlier that evening, I was told the house of the Angh is longitudinally split between the two countries and that the international border actually cuts across the house and the village! The joke around here is that the Angh dines in India and sleeps in Myanmar. I wasn't very convinced of the border story.
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| House of the Village Chief "Angh", it lies half in India and half in Myanmar. The international borders cuts across the house longitudinally! |
Later that night, we huddled ourselves around the kitchen fire inside Wanlem’s traditional bamboo house, accompanied by her family. Wanlem was my host in Longwa, a young Konyak lady who is the caretaker of the rest house. Accompanying me was Aching, a young college boy from Mon acting as my translator. Very few people speak English and even fewer speak Hindi in the remote parts of Nagaland. Nagamese is the script-less language spoken predominantly in Nagaland, which is a mix of Hindi and Assamese. While Wanlem and Aching conversed and I couldn’t follow their conversation, I took to admiring the bamboo structure. I couldn’t get over the fact that these houses were so vast. Every house was decorated with hordes of skeletons of hunted animals and birds. Skulls of Mithun, a bovine species found only in certain parts of North East adorning the walls and was a prized possession along with hornbill beaks and feathers.
The next morning I woke up with a huge spider next to me in the rundown rest house but I couldn’t care less when I was waking up to views of cloud filled valleys, green mountain ridges and witnessing one of the most fascinating indigenous cultures! It was a Sunday morning and many of the villagers were heading to the church. Every Naga village today has a church. The Naga people were animists to begin with but after the arrival of Christian missionaries, almost all of them have adopted the new religion save for very few, like Wanlem. When I asked her if she would go too, she nodded vehemently saying she doesn’t like the church.
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| The slow process of converting the animist tribe to Christianity started somewhere in the early 1900s. Today most of the Nagas have converted, left their headhunting ways and are staunch followers of Christianity. Every village has a church, like this. |
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| The Border Pillar! Written in Burmese. I was technically in Myanmar while taking this photo! ;) |
Wanlem had something planned for us for the afternoon, she wouldn’t tell us what. Aching, one of the Angh’s son and myself, three of us followed Wanlem diligently as she navigated through the mountain trails around the village. We left behind the village houses and kept going higher. Apprehensive, I asked Aching if he knew where we were headed. He didn't. Finally, we arrived at a small patch of land with brilliant views of the mountains of Myanmar and India. At the center of the open patch was a small concrete structure, the border pillar! Carved into the structure, was written “BP 154, 1970-71”, one side in Hindi and the other side in Burmese language. It was true, the international border did cut across the village and the Angh’s house! Fascinating as it was to me, it didn’t matter much to the Konyaks though. They woke up one day in 1970 to the news of the demarcation but how do you split an age-old community suddenly between two countries? They are free to move within the two countries to visit other Konyaks villages.
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| A Konyak woman inside a typical Konyak house, they are vast airy and the kitchens have a hearth in the center which keeps the house warm during cold nights. We spent all our time around the hearth while I was there. |
On our way back from the border pillar to the village, we came across Pangshong, a 76 year old former headhunter waiting by the roadside. His face was covered in a beautiful dark tattoo that seemed to be fading with every passing day. Later I find out he had claimed seven lives, today the older generation has resorted to smoking opium, chewing betel nut and reveling in the glory of the former days. These people are the last generation of headhunters who had severed heads before the barbaric practice was banned. These old men will take to grave with them, the traditions, stories and the famed tattoos! To put it in simple terms, it would be the end of an era - of brave warriors, rich culture and violent times.
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| Pangshong, a former headhunter - took seven heads! Only those who have successfully hunted a head would receive the prestigious facial tattoo. His was the last generation of headhunters before the practice was banned. He is 76 years old. These men are old, vanishing fast and will take to grave stories of headhunting. |
But the Konyaks have made a rather long and remarkable journey - from living in times of inter village feuds to a more peaceful time of friendship across borders. After flying back home, just out of curiosity I tried searching Longwa on Google Maps, what I saw brought a smile to my face – a border line cutting across the village!
A different version of this story appeared in last month's National Geographic Traveller India.
Read that story and the logistics here - Between the Lines
Going Offbeat in Meghalaya & Learning Interesting Things
Notes from Nagaland : The beginning of an Adventure
