The Mon District of Nagaland is one of the remotest parts of eastern India and I was in Longwa village, straddling both India and Myanmar’s borders. The land belongs to the fierce Konyak tribe. The hillsides are green but not with dense forests. Slash and burn agriculture has led to the growth of only a scant grass and stunted bush growth cover. Men leave early … Continue reading A close encounter with a headhunter.
A waxy wrinkled figure of a woman, so tiny and so old that it seemed impossible that she was alive. She was sitting on her haunches knees drawn to her chest and claw-like hands clasped around them. Her shaved head bore a dusting of white stubble. Her ears were pierced with enormous metallic and wooden ear plugs Continue reading The Ancient Tattooist of Lungwa Village, Nagaland
Another pipe was soon made, refilled and passed around the room, and soon the longhouse filled with a cloud of thick smoke.
The Angh opened his eyes and smiled at me.
‘You have come? Really? Good, I did not believe that you would come. You are very brave and very smart. You are the first Indian woman to visit our village’, said Longsha, helping me out of the car. I peered at him suspiciously. Was this fellow joking? What did he mean by saying that he did not believe I would come? Of course I would, … Continue reading My first solo trip to the land of erstwhile headhunters in Lungwa Village, Nagaland.
Here & Thereness 