Aka men in tradzy beads
Women with painted faces in all their finery.
Haggling over bride price using twigs.
Sleepless roosters
crowed, stray dogs barked ,cool winds gusted into the mountains making Nimasow
shiver as he sat collecting the ritual items: a tigers claw, a pythons jaw, a
crystal quartz and other objects that are a part of a Shaman’s kit. He has a
ritual to perform today since the village is abuzz about the spirits being
unhappy. The harvest has not been good this year.
Nimasow , as his father before, is the Shaman in the tiny
village of Palizi, a rustic hamlet on the mountains of Arunachal Pradesh. He
belongs to the Aka tribe, which is one of the last isolated tribes of these
hills .They are a community of self sufficient set of people who have certain
similarities to other Buddhist tribes of Arunachal. The tribe grows its own rice,
vegetables, fruits , rear their own hogs and breed cattle, build their houses
on silts and speak a unique dialect. It’s a utopian setting untouched by the
outside world where life is still primitive and unengineered.
Nimasow is affectionately referred to as ‘Mucrow’ by his
people-a term of endearment and apart from his shaman status, he is well known
to have a collection of necklaces of yellow stone beads. Now, the Aka have more
than 26 words to relate to the beads. Beyond being objects of adornment, beads
are a status symbol and even play the part of currency for purchase or exchange.
In one of its varied important forms , it is the dowry parents will give their
daughters when she becomes a bride, and men of this village will adorn
themselves with beaded necklaces on special occasions to show off their status-
as Nimasow today. These necklaces are simply made out of yellow stones that used
to be found in the river nearby. But now those stones are no longer found and
the necklaces have become a precious commodity that the Aka people have inherited
from their elders. They believe these necklaces embody the deified spirits of
their ancestors.
When I first saw an Aka necklace, I could see certain design
similarities to the prayer beads we Tibetans wear but looking closely I
realized that it’s a unique artifact having symbolic representation. It stands
for a way of life centuries old. The way our ancestors lived when the world to
them was flat and sustainability was got from ones immediate surroundings.
There has always been a huge connection between people and their landscape and
the beads represent that connection by beautifying and also running the economy
of this tribe. At a time when rest of the world is committing ecocide, I sit
writing about a tribe where men and nature exist in harmony-a race so precious
that I had to document them in my blog so people can read about the Aka tribe
and their precious beads.
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