Christmas 2011 in Nagaland - Vishepu (II)

On the day of the Christmas feast, the whole (or most of the) village gathered in front of I.'s parents' home (well technically the house owned by her father's brother - I think). I noticed that most of the people sitting in this area were kids. They brought their own plates - you can some of them just brought the usual asükhu, the wood plate with its own stand.

As with the Christmas feast I attended last year, the morning's festivities began with the cake ceremony, after a prayer or two of course. The cake here was brought all the way from Dimapur.


The entertainment programme began with ashi kimiki, where one (or two) guys(s) holds a large piece of pork meat and fat and other men try to bite off chunks of meat / fat. There's also some stylised jumping involved, but I'm not 100% certain what the rules are. Also, even though the name of the game contains the word ashi 'meat', most of it is really fat - maybe some people call it atha kimiki? The word kimiki is the deverbal noun derived from the verb miki 'to bite'.




There was also a comedy act - if you think people from villages don't have a sense of humour, you're sadly mistaken! The main guy was dressed like a tourist, while the other guys were... well one of them reminded me of George Michael. They danced to a Hindi song I didn't recognise. I'd post a video, but it already took hours just to get these photos up.




And after lunch was the bamboo climbing competition. Climbers took part in teams of 3 to 4, with no special climbing equipment allowed except for some ash which they can use to clean off the pork fat from the pole.




The happy winners and their bounty - a chunk of meat and 1000 Rs!

Alright, Christmas is over. Onward to 2012!

Christmas 2011 in Nagaland - Vishepu (I)

Everyone will tell you that Christmas time in Nagaland is best spent in a village. The towns and cities tend to empty out. It's just as well I wasn't in Zunheboto town because there was a situation involving two UG factions, so people weren't even setting off fireworks on Christmas Eve, which is the usual thing to do.

You might remember that last year I was in the village of Natha New, which is actually just next to Zunheboto town. This year I spent Christmas in Vishepu, since my friends I. and N. had come back from Australia to throw a Christmas feast for the village.



As with all Christmas feasts, preparations start weeks, if not months, ahead. But it's in the week before the feast that most of the village is mobilised for the feast. One important thing is pounding rice into rice flour.



Here, two kinds of rice flour (normal and glutinous) are mixed and water (and some salt and sugar) is added to make a a kind of dough. This is then wrapped in banana leaves and boiled or steamed (though some are baked in a fire). The result is Sümi sho or 'Sumi bread'. Personally, I like it when they fry it, although I've had some very good steamed Sümi sho.



What's a feast without the meat? And a real feast in Nagaland involves the slaughter of at least one mithun. The fellow here got a bullet through his skull on Christmas Eve morning. I got to witness the killing only because the person knocked on my door at 5.30am looking for ammunition (he was looking for the guy who was supposed to be sharing my room because he apparently knew where the ammo was kept.)


And being Nagaland, there's lots of pork.


This wasn't all the pork, because a few pigs were slaughtered a few days earlier and the meat distributed all over - I.'s sister even came to where I'm staying in Zunheboto to deliver a portion.


Finally, with the food all ready for the feast, there's the entertainment as well. Here the guys were setting up bamboo poles with meat and money hanging from the top. Teams then compete to climb up the pole to get the prizes. It's a game I saw last year in Natha New. Also, the poles are greased with pork fat, since watching the guys slide down the pole as they try to climb up is probably the main highlight of the game.

Nagaland village focus: Vishepu

Given the number of villages I've managed to visit in Nagaland, I thought I'd do a 'village focus' post for specific ones. This first one has a special place in my heart, because in a sense it's where my relationship with Nagaland started. My friend I., who now lives in Melbourne hails from this village, and it's thanks to her that I started learning Sumi.

A few months ago, Vishepu made it into the local news because some white smoke was seen coming from the top of Mt Vishepu, which is right next to the village. Reports of a new volcano proved unfounded, although no one's quite certain what the cause of the smoke was - some reckon it was just steam being released.

In any case, Vishepu was the first village I visited in Nagaland, back in early 2009 (so it's almost been 3 years since I first came here). I posted some photos on Flickr a while back. One of I.'s sisters was amazed that when she recently googled 'Vishepu', she didn't just find images of her village, but also one of her parents' home!

Vishepu is a Sumi village in Zunheboto district just south of Satakha. It's one of the last villages before you enter Phek district to the south, which is predominantly Chakhesang. It was founded by two brothers, Zükiye and Vishepu. Although Zükiye was the elder brother, he let the village be named after Vishepu. Today the village has four chiefs, two from the Zükiye side of the family, and two from the Vishepu side.

To get to Vishepu from Satakha, you head south along the Chazuba Road, then turn left up the road that leads to the village of Xüivi at the top of the range. You pass Xüivi, then continue down the other side of the range.

This is Vishepu as viewed from the road between Xüivi and Vishepu.


And this is Vishepu as viewed from the top of the church tower and from in front of the church.




I took this shot a few days ago - the light on the surrounding hills was so pretty that day.


This is I.'s parents' house, as seen in Feb 2009. He's one of the village chiefs and you can a few mithun skulls on the front of the house, as well as what I think is a deer skull. This Christmas they're adding another mithun skull, since one was killed for the Christmas feast thrown by I. and her husband.


In Zunheboto district, Vishepu is famous for its woodwork and is reputed to be the first village to start crafting wood plates (asükhu). Here, I.'s father Kiviho explains to H S Rotokha about the history of woodworking in the village. (These photos were taken a few days ago.)


A new asükhu being made from a single piece of wood - I should've bought one of them from the village instead of getting one at the Hornbill Festival!


I've got Christmas feast photos too, but given how slow the internet is, uploading photos might take some time. Hope everyone had a good Christmas!