Singpho

The Singpho people of Arunachal Pradesh inhabit in the district of Lohit and Changlang and the Kachin State of Burma. Some Singpho are also found in the Tinsukia district of Assam. Comprising a population size of 7,200 in India, they live in 12 villages, namely Dibang, Ketetong, Pangna, Ulup, Ingthem, Mungbhon, Pangsun, Hasak, Katha, Bisa, Namo and Kumsai. They are a tribe belonging to the Kachin of Burma and are ethnically related to the Jingpo of China. [cite book|title=Pacific Linguistics
author=Australian National University, Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies|publisher=Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University|year=1997|pages=24|isbn=0858834561] They speak Singpho language, closely related to Jingpo language.

The Singphos are divided into a number of clans, each under a Chief known as Gam. The principal Gams include the Bessa, Duffa, Luttao, Luttora, Tesari, Mirip, Lophae, Lutong and Magrong. The Singpho are also divided into four classes, namely Shangai, Myung, Lubrung and Mirip.

Religion

Like the Khampti, the are Theravada Buddhist by religion. In memorial of Gautama Buddha, the Songken festival is celebrated in April. Spiritual worship (nat) is also practised as well in addition to Buddhism. According to their belief, malevolent and responsible spirits causing miseries to mankind were worshipped on ceremonies and spirits like Ningsenat, Multung-Dingna, Cit-Hungnat, Natkum, Mainat, etc were given offerings upon the sacrification of cattle such as bulls, pigs, cows and chickens to appease the spirits. They also believed that God uses rainbow as the ladder to meet his wife on the moon. Small Christian communities do exist among the Singpho.

Lifestyle

Unlike most hill-people, shifting cultivation (Jhum) is not as widely practised, although tea is widely planted. The Singpho produce their tea by plucking the tender leaves and drying them in the sun and exposing to the night dew for three days and nights. The leaves are then placed in the hollow tube of a bamboo, and the cylinder will be exposed to the smoke of the fire. In this way, their tea can be kept for years without losing its flavour. The Singpho also depended on yams and other edible tubers as their staple food.

Dress

The Singpho made shields from buffalo hide, many of them can be as long as four feet. They also have helmets are made from either buffalo hide or rattan-work, and vanished black and decorated with the boar's tusks.

Most men tie their hair in a large knot on the crown of the head. The women dress their hair gathered into a broad knot on the crown of the head, fastening it by silver bodkins, chains and tassels, which is similar to the architecture of the modern skyscraper. The maidens tie their tresses into a roll and keep it tied just above the nape.

The Singpho uses the Burmese pasto as an undergarment, which is woven from coloured cloth or silk in check pattern. A coloured cotton jacket is worn over the upper portion. Many chiefs adopted the Shan or Burmese costumes. [cite book|title=Tribes of Arunachal Pradesh
author=P. Thankappan Nair|publisher=Spectrum Publications|year=1995|pages=90|isbn=] The Singpho women wear a cloth similar to the Assamese mekhela that is tied at the breast, which reaches to little below the knee. The men occasionally wear small earrings, although the women wear large pieces of amber earstuds on their ears. The men lightly tattooed their limbs, arm and shoulders. At the same time, the married women also tattooed their legs from the ankle to the knee in broad parallel bands which consist of eight bars in alternate black and white. However, the unmarried women are not permitted to tattoo at all.

The opium problem

The consumption of opium was a traditional practice among the Singpho, and it can be witnessed that the opium has severely harmed the fertility among the tribesmen. According to the 1950 census, the population of the Singpho tribe has fallen from 50,000 to less than 10,000 in recent years. With the free trade of opium between India and Burma since the signing of the Bilateral trade in 1995, extreme abuse of opium have been reported since of 1997, especially in the villages of Pangsun and Kumsai. Cases of selling off their properties for the sake of buying opium was widespread in recent years. Many of these addicts consumed opium by smoking wooden and bamboo pots known as Doba, although injection of needles fed with opium is also used. Most of these addicts take twenty grams, or even higher amounts of opiums. According to one villages, Opium used by the Singpho is supplied by members of the Tangsa tribe living just across the Burmese border.

The Indian government had also responded to the problem. Of late, they have established laws of jail terms and rehabillation centers for opium addicts. The Singpho National Council also have plans to set up posts to restrict of the opium inflow into India.

References

External links

* [http://www.kachinland.org Kachin National Organization]
* [http://www.geocities.com/zawaung_2000/kachin2.html The Kachin of Burma]
* [http://www.mizzima.com/archives/news-in-2003/news-in-nov/02-nov03-01.htm Singpho: Victims of India]
* [http://www.tribaltextiles.info/Galleries/Kachin_bags/Kachin_bags.htm Art and crafts of the Singpho]
* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=sgp Ethnologue profile]
* [http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=1,1073,0,0,1,0 Christianity Overwhelming Buddhism in India's North-East]