Ahuna Festival (I)

On the first day of the 'official' Ahuna festival celebration I arrived at the festival / football ground in the late morning and quickly ran into my new friend I. who I'd met on the sumo ride from Kohima. He said that even though he was Sumi, this was his first time in Zunheboto and his first time attending the Ahuna celebrations here too. He works as a designer / advisor for the State Government, selecting and working with traditional designs. His work is based in Kohima, although he gets sent to other offices in the state.

I. with his cousin Ab. Behind them, the sign for 'Special Handloom Expo 2010' behind was some of I.'s work, using traditional Sumi designs (red lines on black are very popular on Sumi shawls).



We wandered around the grounds and watched a few performances, mostly done by students from local schools. There were a few traditional war dances, a mass dance (like the ones I used to have to do in school in Singapore) and a showcase of Sümi kiti do (or Naga kiti do), a kind of martial art based on traditional Sumi kick-fighting and developed as an 'indigenous martial art form' - the word do refers to 'way' or 'path', as in other martial arts like taekwando and akido.





Performers waiting their turn


The mass dance


Breaking boards


Self-defence, Sümi kithi do style


And just as I. was suggesting I take a photo with some boys who were dressed up in traditional warrior outfits, I happened to run into Hk., whose house I stayed at the last time I was in Zunheboto. The boys in warrior outfits were his students, and he kindly obliged a picture with me.



I almost feel like a foreign correspondant in this photo...


Hk.'s boys performing a war dance.