Climbing Mount Japfü

Over the weekend, I was in Kohima, where a friend had invited me to come on a trip up to the summit of Mount Japfü. A friend of his was organising the climb. At 3044m, it's Nagaland's second highest peak (after Saramati). The starting point was Dimori Cover, which I estimate is about 1500m above sea level (Kohima is about 1400m).



I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I wasn't particularly fit, especially having spent the past 2 months with barely any exercise and putting on weight from eating loads of pork fat. I realised the day before that it was also a climbing competition. Given my history of back and knee problems, I thought getting to the top would be competition enough for me.

The winner of the competition, who happened to come from my friend's village Khuzama, made it to the summit in a time of only 1h 22min.

In contrast, it took us (well me, mostly) 5 hours.

I was definitely not ready for the climb. The first part was easy enough.


We then walked past jhum fields owned by the nearby village of Kigwema before we entered the forest. But the going got a bit tougher as the gradient got steeper. The path was also pretty slippery with mud from all the melted frost on the ground.

And once we got high enough, most of the terrain was covered in snow. It was pretty, and my friend was thrilled to see snow, but it didn't make the trail any less treacherous. Especially when most of the path was already pretty steep.


At some points, ropes had been laid because the path was practically vertical.


The scariest portion was this set of 'steps' cut into the rock. This was a practically vertical climb, with no safety equipment at all (apart from having a person below to cushion one's fall, which is not ideal). I suggested that the organisers could have set up a rope here, or better yet, a step ladder.


But with a lot of help from my friend, I somehow made it to the top.








And it was definitely worth it for the view (as well as the bragging rights, and the little certificate they gave us at the top).

There's a little cross at the top, which I assume marks the peak.


I was told you could see the Dzükou Valley from the peak, though I'm not quite sure if this photo shows the side of the mountain where the valley is located - I was way too tired when people were pointing it out to me.


But I did note that we could see Kohima in the distance.


Coming down was another ordeal. After negotiating the near-vertical sections, I had trouble with the muddy path and kept slipping. I'm definitely not as surefooted as most people I know here and needed my friend's help a lot coming back down.

Thankfully we made it safely back down the mount. And the return journey only took us 3.5 hours!

Getting to Kisama on public transport

Yesterday I had to get from Kohima to Kisama by myself. I was told that this year (it changes some years), the easiest ./ cheapest way to get from Kohima to Kisama for the Hornbill Festival without a private car is to first get a local taxi to the P.R. Hills Junction traffic point. Coming from the War Cemetery, the Hotel Japfü will be on the hill to the right and the massive Nagaland Police HQ building (see below) on the hill to the left.



Continuing down the road towards Imphal (with the Hotel Japfü to the right and the Police HQ to the left) just a little bit from the traffic point, the road will swing to the right. About 100 metres from where the road turns, there'll be a few yellow Sumos (the big jeep-like vehicles, not the wrestlers) waiting outside a "Network Travels" office to the left. These Sumos should be labelled 'Zonal Taxi'. (When I went there I saw many taxis waiting right at the point where the road swings to the right - I'm not sure if those were also going to the festival grounds.)

The cheapest way is to look for a yellow Sumo that's filling up and say you're going to Kisama. No matter what language you speak, the passengers will understand 'Kisama' (pronounced 'kee-sah-mah', with the stress on the first syllable). Some Sumos will be going straight to the festival ground gate, but many will be heading towards other towns, like Jakhama and Khuzama. These will still pass Kisama, but they'll only drop you off at the base of the hill and you have to walk up (it's only a 10-15 minute walk, but it's uphill).

Yesterday morning, I ended up getting a Sumo that was heading to Jakhama. There were 4 men crammed into the back row, 4 women in the middle row and 2 girls in the front row. Being the only male in the front two rows, the driver thought it most appropriate that I sit next to him.

The reason? When the vehicle's this packed, it's common practice to have a passenger sit with the gear stick between their legs.

The journey wasn't very long and it wasn't as uncomfortable as I thought it would be.

Except a few times when the driver went into 4th gear.

'Oodles of doodles' exhibition at Dream Cafe

(This post was meant to have come out yesterday, but I was having trouble uploading the photos.)

Yesterday I arrived in Kohima. I wasn't originally planning on being here this year during the annual Hornbill Festival (which runs from 1 Dec - 7 Dec at the Kisama Heritage Village just out of town). The traffic in town is terrible and getting to the festival site isn't terribly easy without private transport. And frankly - this coming from someone who is genuinely interested in the different cultures here - after a day or two of performances, all the dances start looking the same (the commentary isn't always that illuminating). Last year, I ended up taking photos of foreign tourists ogling these 'naked' Nagas like they were animals at a zoo (see here). That said, I am looking forward to seeing people compete in the Naga pork eating competition and Naga chilli competitions this year.

But I digress. This year I decided to come for a number of reasons, one important reason being that my friend Canato Jimomi is having his first public exhibition of his artwork at the Dream Cafe. Sadly though, I missed the grand opening at 10am on 29 Nov because I was still in Dimapur. The artist himself refused to let me take a photo of him at the cafe but his photo is in the Nagaland Post article here.



His work typically depicts children and is characterised by a blend of traditional Naga and modern imagery, with a few blends of traditional and Christian thrown in for Christmas (like the little shepherd boy in the photo below and the three Anghs / Three Wise Men here).






You can see more of Canato's work at http://canajimo.blogspot.com/
(Although given the internet situation in Zunheboto, don't count on regular updates while he's there.)

If you're in Kohima for the Hornbill Festival this year, Canato's also got a stall at Kisama where he'll be selling some of his work, including T-shirts, bookmarks and cards. And if you're visiting the War Cemetery, drop in at the Dream Cafe across the road - some of the artwork is still for sale.

Also, the cafe itself has a lovely view (see below). And wifi! Just be prepared for slow service.



Congrats again Cana!

The 'Oodles of Doodles' exhibition runs from 29 Nov 2011 to 7 Dec 2011 at Dream Cafe, next to the Kohima War Cemetery. The cafe is open from 10am to 5pm.

Indian Folklore Congress 2010

On Thursday (9 Dec) I was invited by a friend to attend with her the inaugural programme (basically the inauguration ceremony) of the 34th Indian Folklore Congress at ATI (Administrative Training Institute) Kohima. I thought it would be a good idea, given that the chief guest (guest of honour), Khekiye Sema, is Sumi himself, and back in Zunheboto we had originally planned to come down to Kohima to meet with him and discuss the oral literature project.

After the sweet little traditional song presentation by some Angami kids (see above), Professor Jawaharlal Handoo, the President of Indian Folklore Congress, gave the keynote speech. I wasn't terribly impressed with the speech because he simply read off a 5-6 page document that only some members of the audience were given. Still, I suppose it's the fashion for some professors to do that here (and having spent a year at a French university has given me more patience for such things). In the talk he mentioned issues to do with folklore and the construction of ethnic identity (I prefer the term 'negotiation'), which was all quite expected.

When the time came for the chief guest, retired government official Khekiye Sema, to speak, he was much more candid and natural. He started off by congratulating everyone who'd come from outside the state, suggesting that everyone should be given a medal of courage for 'daring' to come to this part of the world (to the few Indians who've heard of Nagaland, the place conjures up images of bloodthirsty headhunters, a violent insurgency, or just frightening food). He spoke about the loss of traditional oral literature and its transmission mechanisms, particularly with the loss of the traditional morung system after the arrival of Christianity. Also in more recent times, Nagaland University has not been giving much attention to the study of such traditional folklore.

Sure, there was the usual lament that with modernity and Christianity, the younger generation no longer knew the old traditions, but bear in mind that all this happened within the span of a generation or two (almost like Singapore's rapid urbanisation). At the moment, there is a cultural cringe among the younger generation who are quickly embracing Korean culture, after having done the same with American culture. (I'm sure it's a familiar story in other parts of the globe.)

He also spoke of the connection between Nagas and nature, and recounted his own experience with an old man from Aghünato village who was a were-tiger - I'd heard about such stories from friends in Zunheboto. Unlike the werewolves in the European tradition, people who are were-tigers don't physically transform into tigers, but their souls simply become tiger spirits (according to some people, these people actually have tiger spirits). In any case, there seems to be some bond between the human spirit and that of the animal, allowing that person to find out things happening in the jungle even if their body is physically at home. I like to think it's a kind of 'astral projection' of the soul.

After the talks were over, I decided to go up and speak with Mr Khekiye himself. I mentioned the World Oral Literature Project to him, and he suggested I speak with another Sumi man in Dimapur who'd done quite a bit of cultural documentation with the help of Mr Khekiye.

My heart sank a little bit when he gave the name of the person. I'd just received a copy of this person's 'Sumi grammar' and it wasn't particularly great. It wasn't even a grammar, more a vocabulary list, with a number of short traditional stories, presumably from the documentation project. But most of these were very badly translated from Sumi into English. Still, I'm off to Dimapur in a few days and hopefully I'll get a chance to meet this person and see what documentation he has already done.

Kohima sunset

This was the view from my friend's balcony here in Kohima. I had walked out to get my laundry, but ended up running back to my room to grab my camera.






It's been unseasonably wet here these past few weeks. When I was in Zunheboto it rained quite a bit two weeks ago. And here in Kohima in rained non-stop for close to 15 hours yesterday and the day before. I had assumed that the monsoon would've ended a while ago. At least the mist and clouds made for a very pretty sunset.

Hornbill Festival 2010

Here're a few photos from this year's Hornbill Festival (1 Dec - 7 Dec). It's held every year at this time here in Kohima - though the festival ground itself is in the village of Kisama, which is a bit of a drive to get to and the traffic coming back into Kohima was atrocious both times I went. There were other activities in and around Kohima too, like a night bazaar, the Miss Nagaland 2010 beauty pageant and the Hornbill Rock Contest.

I only made the trip out to Kisama twice given that I was in Zunheboto till the third day of the festival, and had spent most of the fourth day travelling. Anyway, I managed to catch a number of performances on the main stage, see replicas of the morungs (the traditional boys dormitories) of all the major tribes in Nagaland, check out the WWII museum, and even bought Mum that asükhu (wood plate on a stand) that she asked for (the guy at India Post assured me they could deliver it, but I'm having my doubts).

I don't have a lot of commentary on the festival itself. Given the diversity of the performers and performances, I'm finding it a little hard to remember what I saw and the significance of each performance. I don't really mind that many of the performances wouldn't be considered 'authentic' by even a lay anthropologist, since the festival gives the numerous cultural associations around the state a chance to showcase some of the traditional songs, dances and games that they're trying to maintain. (I'm saving other criticisms I have for another post.)

One of the entrances to the festival grounds


Participants waiting to perform


Pochury women, having just played a traditional game of catch


A nice touch on the last day of the festival