So I find myself back in Kohima for Hornbill Festival 2011. Technically, the main festival ground's at Kisama, which is about 10km from Kohima on the road to Manipur, but there're festival-related activities all over town. It's not the easiest to get to by public transport and thankfully I caught a ride with a friend at 6.45 this morning. Tomorrow though, I'll have to catch a share taxi, but anyway...
As far as I know, the Hornbill Festival isn't actually a traditional Naga festival, but it was created to bring the various tribes from across the state (and sometimes the region) together to showcase various traditional cultural practices, which typically involve dances and games. I heard in a speech today that this year's is the 7th festival, and assuming it's always been an annual event, that would mean it started in 2004. Twice today I heard the event being referred to as "Festival of festivals in the land of festivals", but thankfully I've developed some tolerance for the hyperbolic rhetoric that characterises the speech of politicians in this country.
Here's a Nagaland Tourism poster, with some not-so-subtle advertising by Zumvü Printex, whoever they are...
The Naga Heritage Village at Kisama, features a number of replica traditional houses and morungs (traditional bachelors' dorms used by many tribes to educate young men before the advent of Christianity).
Performers waiting for the guest of honour ( the term 'chief guest' is more commonly used here) to arrive.
A Sumi group from the village of Khetoi performing outside the Sümi ki 'Sumi house'. I actually visited their village with the Sumi Cultural Association a week and a half ago and got to watch them rehearsing for their Hornbill festival performances.
The main performances involved three different groups consisting of 4 different tribes performing at the same time. Something to do with 'unity in diversity', but for people who weren't familiar with the tribes, you couldn't tell who was who, especially when the commentary was nearly always about a tribe putting on 'colourful costumes' and 'performing a dance' for a special occasion.
Last year I complained about tourists taking photos of performers like they were animals on display - I mean, if you're dressing up in traditional gear, you're going to expect people to take photos of you, but some tourists seemed a little more invasive than others. Anyway, this is my favourite shot this year of people taking photos of each other - if you look at the lower side, one of the performers is holding a digital camera himself.
I actually had a lot of fun, but mostly because I got to hang out at a friend's stall most of the time, but that's for my next post.
As far as I know, the Hornbill Festival isn't actually a traditional Naga festival, but it was created to bring the various tribes from across the state (and sometimes the region) together to showcase various traditional cultural practices, which typically involve dances and games. I heard in a speech today that this year's is the 7th festival, and assuming it's always been an annual event, that would mean it started in 2004. Twice today I heard the event being referred to as "Festival of festivals in the land of festivals", but thankfully I've developed some tolerance for the hyperbolic rhetoric that characterises the speech of politicians in this country.
Here's a Nagaland Tourism poster, with some not-so-subtle advertising by Zumvü Printex, whoever they are...
The Naga Heritage Village at Kisama, features a number of replica traditional houses and morungs (traditional bachelors' dorms used by many tribes to educate young men before the advent of Christianity).
Performers waiting for the guest of honour ( the term 'chief guest' is more commonly used here) to arrive.
A Sumi group from the village of Khetoi performing outside the Sümi ki 'Sumi house'. I actually visited their village with the Sumi Cultural Association a week and a half ago and got to watch them rehearsing for their Hornbill festival performances.
The main performances involved three different groups consisting of 4 different tribes performing at the same time. Something to do with 'unity in diversity', but for people who weren't familiar with the tribes, you couldn't tell who was who, especially when the commentary was nearly always about a tribe putting on 'colourful costumes' and 'performing a dance' for a special occasion.
Last year I complained about tourists taking photos of performers like they were animals on display - I mean, if you're dressing up in traditional gear, you're going to expect people to take photos of you, but some tourists seemed a little more invasive than others. Anyway, this is my favourite shot this year of people taking photos of each other - if you look at the lower side, one of the performers is holding a digital camera himself.
I actually had a lot of fun, but mostly because I got to hang out at a friend's stall most of the time, but that's for my next post.
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