Wancho

The Wancho are a tribal people inhabiting the Patkai hills of Tirap in India. They have a population of 35,000. A Naga sub-tribe, they are ethnically related to the Nocte and the Konyak Naga of the Mon and Tirap district. Their language belongs to the Tibeto-Burman family.

Religion

Unlike the other Naga, the Wancho are an exception, together with the Nocte and a small minority of the Konyak, still retained the belief of Animism. These Animist Wancho believe in the existence of two powerful deities, Rang and Baurang.

Christianity has gained some followers among the Wancho, many of whom belong to the Baptist or Roman Catholic denominations. Acceptance of Christianity has largely to do with comparative influences from the Nagas of Nagaland as well as changing perspectives towards headhunting. However, this has also resulted in the decline in many aspects of their traditional culture, which has strong associations with religion. [cite book|title=Between Ethnography and Fiction: Verrier Elwin and the Tribal Question in India|author=Tanka Bahadur Subba, Sujit Som, K. C. Baral, North Eastern Hill University Dept. of Anthropology|publisher=Orient Longman|pages=6, 173-8|year=2005|isbn=8125028129]

Culture

Tattooing plays a major role among the Wancho tribe. According to tradition, a man is tattooed on his four limbs and his entire face, with the exception of certain regions around the eyes and the lips. The women adorn themselves with necklaces and bangles, along with some light tattooing as well.

The prime festival of the Wancho is Ojiyele, a festival between March to April, for a period of six to twelve days interspersed with prayer, songs and dances. Villagers exchange bamboo tubes filled with rice beer as a mark of greeting and goodwill. Pork skin is then offered to the village chief as a mark of respect. This festival continues for several days just sowing of Jhum paddy and Pigs, buffaloes and mithuns are sacrificed and feasts are arranged in each and every morungs (dormitories). Boys and girls, wearing ceremonial costumes, sings and dance during this Ojiyele. People dances around a "Jangban", a long ceremonial pole planted during Ojiyele.

Lifestyle

The Wancho are traditionally governed by a council of elderly chieftains, known as Wangchu-Wangcha.

Like most neighbouring tribes, the Wancho construct houses made out of wood and bamboo, and roofs were thatched with dry leaves. Dormitories, known as Murung, where the boys are trained to be men by their fathers. Although the girls do not have dormitories like the boys, they sleep in one big, single house, with the care of an old lady.

Until 1991, human headhunting was practiced among the Naga tribes, and both the government and missionaries have taken steps to ban the practice of headhunting, which is now restricted to animals.

References

External links

* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=nnp Ethnologue profile]
* [http://www.webindia123.com/craft/state/aruna/craft.html Arts - Wood carving]
* [http://www.neuenhofer.de/guenter/Arunachal/arutext2.html Eine Reise durch das südliche Arunachal]