Tanii beliefs about earthquakes

Earthquake (MYOBU-HUNIING)

Scientifically speaking earthquakes are nothing but the tectonic movements of the earth crust which lead to a sudden (sometime violent) shaking of ground. Arunachal Pradesh as a whole and Ziro in particular are located in the earthquake prone zone of the country, we can see it from the figure given below (taken from Wikipedia).

In Apatani folklore we got different stories to hear about earthquakes. In olden days people generally used to believe that earthquakes occurred due to the shaking of Ear of CHAMBO SIIBO (Big Mithun) which is said to be lying beneath the earth crust. The movement of ear of CHAMBO SIIBO is very rare and occurs once in a while. This shaking of ear leads to the Myobu-Huniing (Earthquake). It is believed that whenever a prominent person in the society dies, the soul of person intends to visit CHAMBO SIIBO and hits its ear with a divine stick as a signal of his arrival at NELI (World where human souls live after death), and CHAMBO SIIBO shakes its ear and this leads to the earthquake.

All prominent persons in the society can not hit the CHAMBO SIIBO, for this purpose the man or woman should be born with a great thought and good morality, in another words one has to be blessed with good characters. As a child, I can still remember the shaking of earth occurring while some great person died from the society and used to believe the story of CHAMBO SIIBO narrated by folks at home. Now this story sounds unbelievable as we learn more about the reasons for occurrence of earthquakes. Fact is that our region is lying in the most earthquake prone zone of India which is due to tectonic movements of the faults between Indian plate and Eurasian plate. This naturally occurring phenomenon (i.e. MYOBU-HUNIING) is unavoidable, thus for the safety purpose we have to take great care while building our dwelling places, structures should built strong enough to resist the tremors due to earthquakes ranking high on Richter’s scale.

Sources:Ranth-Pigeh,Short Story by Er. Hage Pilliya.

beliefs about earthquakes

Ngiika Ane (My mother)

NGIIKA ANE (MY MOTHER)

Lakhii lyi hoka yamu pahu giinii,
Haya lyi hoka pila khiibii nii;
Khelyi hoka myanii,
Ngarkalyi ho ka api-ara pikin nii;
Ngiimi ka sangii nii, ngiimi ka lyangii nii,
Ngiimi ka dirii–hulo bulyin giinii;
Ngiika ANE-Chantu ane.

Aji hokii tasin babi bo hii,
Yolu hokii tanyi babi bo hii;
Myoko hoka kaji khiibi bo hii,
Dree hoka taku babi bo hii-
Ngiimi ka sangii nii, ngiimi ka lyangii nii,
Ngiimi ka dirii–hulo bulying giinii;
Ngiika ANE-Chantu ane.

Miikhalyi ho ka ganii,
Henkhalyi ho ka tonser nii;
Hadiilyi ho ka yanii,
Tumalyi ho ka yalo nii;
Ngiimi ka sangii nii, ngiimi ka lyangii nii,
Ngiimi ka dirii –hulo bulying giinii;
Ngiika ANE-Chantu ane.

Ane kapu hokii kapama,
Ane hempu hokii hempama,
Ane niimi ngo kalyu lakinma,
Ane niimi ngo helyu lakingma.
Ngiimi ka sangii nii, ngiimi ka lyangii nii,
Ngiimi ka dirii–hulo bulyin giinii;
Ngiika ANE-Chantu ane.

Tanii poetry

What future for Apatani agriculture ?

Most of the time, when Apatanis as a people are mentioned in newspapers, magazines, academic papers or travel brochures, it is for praising their age-old agricultural practices and their dexterity in having managed to use every inch of cultivable space in a sustainable way. Two years ago UNESCO was so impressed by the "rare farming and conservation techniques" of the Apatanis that the UN agency decided to nominate Ziro Plateau in order to make it a World Heritage Site. The image of Arunachal's “green valley’ or “rice bowl” has now become so evidently associated to them that, at least seen from outside, it is assumed by all that this agricultural system “in harmony with nature” is bound to last forever.

I'm not sure, however, whether this enchanting image displayed by medias corresponds to the present social realities. My attention was drawn to this issue by reading a passage from anthropologist Fürer-Haimendorf who has witnessed some of the major changes having taken place in the Valley between 1944 and 1980 :

“In the 1940s one could see throughout March April and early May fairly large patang [agricultural labour teams], usually consisting of equal numbers of young boys and girls working on the fields, repairing dams and channels, levelling terrace fields, puddling the mud and finally transplanting rice-seedlings. (…) In 1978 I did not see a single large patang. Much of the work on the field was done by middle-aged women and a few middle-aged men. There were some groups of girls, usually not more than five or six, engaged in digging over fields, but the number of boys and young men working on the land seemed very small. (…)

At the time when work on the fields was done mainly by women and girls, and a few middled-aged men, one could see in the bazaar of Hapoli large number of able-bodied young men, often smartly dressed in western clothes, filling the tea stalls and gossiping with their friends. Numerous were also the boys riding on bicycles on the road between their villages and Hapoli. When I commented on the apparent imbalance of the sexes among the workers on the fields in conversation with some of my Apatani friends, they admitted that many of the young men were not pulling their weight, and that boys who had been to high-school rarely did much work on the fields although they expected to be fed by their parents.”

That was 30 years ago ...... and the trend seems to have continued since. By becoming increasingly educated in schools, young boys and girls have also become more and more reluctant to engage in agriculture or other traditional tasks. Today the contrast is best expressed through these figures : the literacy rate among Apatanis ranks among the highest in AP (70.6 % according to 2001 Census, with 86 % of the children attending schools in the 5-14 age group), which of course is a very good thing. But at the same time the number of people engaged in agriculture is the lowest among all Arunachal ST. As someone commenting these figures of the Census has noted : “It is, however, interesting that Apatani – the famous terrace cultivators of Arunachal Pradesh – have registered only 39.1 per cent cultivators.” And judging from recent photographs showing Apatani farmers, especially the beautiful collection by A. Siddiqui, it seems obvious that this population is gradually but inexorably ageing.

The present paradox goes as follows : in future, the Apatani Valley may be among the very few world's man-made landscapes to be declared by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. But who, then, will be still cultivating the land ?

P. Bouchery

Apatani agriculture

Folktale-I

Simi nunu chinsu du ha????

Billo anyan ho siisi ka niti dro-yasi si Tanii lemba ho nyimatii. Hiika anyan ho, miyu ka alo mi miikhiisiilyi ho lemba daka yapa atan hii puwa ka asi mi rutenyatii. Puwa asi kapalyi ho, hiiko hoka puwa ajan donii mi latu lala molu ka ale/ali mi tatu tela hiira pakii lyi asi ho atii tiiku biku ko, lonye-lohin ka hiiba ho puwa asi ho dro chikan bate-bala pai kapu hokii puwa lu bolii bii yuke. Hiika pai kapu dro mi alo miikhii siinin ka ayo ho nelii siiko ho ano nyibya lada hemiyo ku yuke. Siika pai chikan dri simi ngunu Tanii miyu lu si ludu nii-puwa yapun ago hokii bolii bii yuke. Hiimii miyu ami lo kapa lama.

Do you know this ???

In olden days the modern medical facilities were not available in the vicinity of Ziro. During those days when a person got injured or fractured a bone, people resorted to hunting a crow's nest. On finding one newly hatched offspring of crow they used to injure its legs and wings, and then left it in the nest. After four-five days, the paste of "medicine" which was found in the nest was collected and applied on the injured portion of the patient's body, who used to get cured thereof. But it was not known from where those paste (medicine) was collected by crows. It was believed that that the birds flew high above the sky beyond the sight of human eye and collected it from there. Doesn't this sound interesting ????

Source : RANTH-PIGEH, Short story-I, by Er. Hage Pilliya, B.E.(CIVIL)

Apatani traditional medicine

Apatani naming system

In Apatani tradition we have got two distinct sets of first names for males and females. Most of our names don't bear any meaning, and we also use them only for the sake of naming human beings :)
Many times people asked me : "What does your name mean ???" Huh !!! Luckily my name has got a meaning so I can tell them what it is, but actually most of them don't have any.

While trying to sort out the typical Apatani names I realised that most are very specific to us, and it seems that we don't share a common naming system with other decendants of Abotani such as Nyishis, Adis, Galos, Tagins etc. (anyway I'm sure that we must have a few names in common). In Apatani we prefer to rename the newborn babies with the names of some of our ancestors (close paternal relatives only), with this restriction that two living persons of the same clan should not share the same ancestor's name. That undoubtely encourages the use of a wide array of names. In case of untime death of a man whose son was still in the mother's womb it is preferable to rename the son with the name of his father (this is a rare case). Also, there are few common names which can be used for both sexes, e.g. Sai, Kameng and Yarang. In this post I have tried my best to recall the names we use in Apatani. They are as follows :

Male names

1	APA	46	JILE	92	PUNU	138	TALING
2	APO	47	KACHO	93	PUSSANG	139	TALLEY
3	ATO	48	KAGO	94	RADHE	140	TALLO
4	BAARO	49	KAMENG	95	RAMBO	141	TALYANG
5	BAAKU	50	KANI	96	RANKA	142	TAM
6	BAATH	51	KANO	97	RAVIN	143	TAMA
7	BAKHANG	52	KARA	98	RAYO	144	TAMANG
8	BIDA	53	KECHI	99	RIBYA	145	TAMER
9	BUDDA	54	KHODA	100	RICHO	146	TAMING
10	BUKER	55	KHOKHUNG	101	RIKA	147	TAMO
11	BUTANG	56	KOJI (KOJEE)	102	RIKU	148	TANGU
12	BYAI	57	KOJING	103	RISSANG	149	TANHA
13	CHADA	58	KOYANG	104	RONYA	150	TANI
14	CHALO	59	LAAI	105	RUJA	151	TANYANG
15	CHAMA	60	LALI	106	SAI	152	TANYO
16	CHATUNG	61	LALING	107	SALA	153	TANYUNG
17	CHILYANG	62	LALYANG	108	SALU	154	TAPA
18	CHOBING	63	LAMPUNG	109	SAMA	155	TAPING
19	DELYANG	64	LASA	110	SAMBYO	156	TAPU
20	DEMPYO	65	LAJI (LAZHEE)	111	SIIRA	157	TARA
21	DIIBO	66	LENTO	112	SHAH	158	TARE
22	DODUNG	67	LODER	113	TAAMU	159	TARANG
23	DOLANG	68	LOMA	114	TABING	160	TARI
24	DOLLEY	69	MAILYANG	115	TABYO	161	TARO
25	DOLO	70	MAJI	116	TACHA	162	TAARUN
26	DOLYANG	71	MALI	117	TACHANG	163	TASSANG
27	DONYI	72	MILLO	118	TACHO	164	TASSER
28	DUKHUNG	73	MIMA	119	TADA	165	TATH
29	DURI	74	MOBING	120	TADEY	166	TATU
30	DUYU	75	MODA	121	TADII	167	TATUNG
31	EKHA	76	MUDO	122	TADO	168	TAYO
32	GAMBO	77	NAKU	123	TADUH	169	TAYU
33	GRAYU	78	NAPA	124	TAGIA	170	TAYUNG
34	GYATI	79	NEHA	125	TAGIO	171	TIINI
35	GYUTHE	80	NYIKANG	126	TAGLANG	172	TUPE
36	HAARE	81	NYIME	127	TAGO	173	UMA GURO
37	HABUNG	82	NYIPA	128	TAGUR	174	YAAPA
32	HACHANG	83	OBING	129	TAI	175	YADO
38	HADU	84	OMMO	130	TAJANG	176	YARANG
39	HAGIO	85	PADA	131	TAJO	177	YUBE
40	HAILYANG	86	PAI	132	TAKER
41	HALLEY	87	PALANG	133	TAKHA
42	HASSANG	88	PAYANG	134	TAKKE
43	HINDA	89	PIILO	135	TAKI
44	JARBO	90	PILYA	136	TAKU
45	JARJO	91	PUMBO	137	TAKUNG

Female names

1	AMER	32	MODII	64	RINYA	95	YALO
2	AMPI	33	MONYA	65	RINYO	96	YALU
3	AMUNG	34	MOPE	66	RIPA	97	YALUNG
4	ANKHA	35	MUMPA	67	SAI	98	YALYO
5	BUNE (BIINE)	36	MUNNE	68	SHANTII	99	YAM
6	BUNYI	37	MUNYA	69	SIRI	100	YAMA
7	CHAJANG	38	MURPING	70	SOKI	101	YAMANG
8	CHOKU	39	MURYANG	71	SOLI	102	YAMI
9	CHOZER	40	NAAPI	72	SUMPA	103	YAMII
10	DIMING	41	NAMPI	73	SUMPI	104	YANA
11	DISUNG	42	NYIMUNG	74	SUNKA	105	YAMING
12	DUMI	43	ODII	75	SUNKU	106	YAMUNG
13	JALYANG	44	OMANG	76	SUNYA	107	YANI
14	JAYO	45	ONYA	77	TAACHI	108	YANKA
15	KAKU	46	OPYUNG	78	TANE	109	YANKU
16	KAMENG	47	OTUNG	79	TAADO	110	YANYA
17	KAMPU	48	PABO	80	UNYII	111	YANYO
18	KANYA	49	PAMPI	81	YAAJE	112	YANYUN
19	KARI	50	PAMUNG	82	YAAMI	113	YAPA
20	KIIMER	51	PANE	83	YABII	114	YAPII
21	KOLYANG	52	PAPI	84	YABO	115	YAPYANG
22	KONYA	54	PAPU	85	YABYANG	116	YARANG
23	KUPU	55	PIIRA	86	YADI	117	YARI
24	MADO	56	PUBYANG	87	YADII	118	YARING
25	MAMUNG	57	PUMING	88	YAGUNG	119	YASE
26	MANDI	58	PUYANG	89	YAJA	120	YASSING
27	MANGKA	59	PUNYA	90	YAJI	121	YASSUNG
28	MANU	60	RALYI	91	YAKE	122	YATUNG
29	MAYU	61	REEMU	92	YAKANG	123	YAYING
30	MENII	62	RIJA	93	YAKHA
31	MIDU	63	RILUNG	94	YAKU

Tanii parents generally like to select "rhyming pairs" for naming their sons and daughters, e.g. Chada-Chama for two brothers and Rinyo-Rinya for two sisters. Pairs such as Kojing-Pussang or Dumi-Yami are also said to be "rhyming".
Addressing people by their names is considered as polite among us. But whenever we adress others, depending upon certain factors such as sex/age/relation etc., we also care to address them in a very gentle way. Thus there is a certain decorum for addressing people. For example if a person's name is Rinyo (i.e. female name), we can address her as Anyo, Nanyo, Kanyo.
Similarly for :
Rilung (female) => Alung, Ilung.
Yanku => Anku,Nanku
Tajo => Ajo
Tatu => Natu
Tai (male) => here we prefer to add prefixes such as Nama => Nama Tai.
Tallo => Lallo, Pallo.
Puming (female) can be sometimes addressed as Ampi
Pubyang (female) can be addressed as Otung

Note*** : Ajo, Ampi, Nama, Nanku and Otung can be used as separate names as well.

Note****Dear Tanii readers, please do not hesitate to point out the missing names from the lists. I might have missed some names and needed your contribution.

Apatani names
naming customs

Counting in Tanii... Apatani numeral system 1

Counting in Tanii is not easy… It may be useful here to sum up the basic features of the Apatani numeral system, although I’m not too sure to understand it fully. Differences are often subtle, and there may exist several ways to express the same number. Moreover, though originally there are only 7 Apatani villages, some dialectal variations occur which can easily lead to confusion. Therefore, as usual, corrections and comments from Tanii readers are welcome...
In this post I am only considering numbers when they are used without any reference to an object. In a next post I shall deal with numbers when they are associated with particular objects, animals, humans, etc.

1°) The numeral system is a simple decimal system

The main units are 10 and multiples of 10, 100 and multiples of 100, 1000 and multiples of 1000.

photographer: Christa Neuenhofer

2°) numbers from 1 to 10 are unique forms

1	ako or kone
2	anye or anyi
3	hinge
4	piilye
5	yango
6	khiiye
7	kanu
8	pinye
9	kowa
10	alyan

3°) Numbers from 11 to 19 are compound words, of the form : ‘ten + unit’.

Units 2, 4, 5 appearing in compound forms are shortened; unique and compound forms for 1 are different; units 3, 6, 7, 8, 9 remain unchanged. The correspondence is given below for the main dialect :

	Appearing in unique form	Appearing in compound form
1	ako	-kun or -he
2	anye/anyi	-nyi
3	hin	-hin
4	piilye	-pii/-pe/-pyi
5	yango	-ngo
6	khiiye	-khii
7	kanu	-kanu
8	pinye/pinyi	-pinye/-pinyi
9	kowa	-kowa

A particle, LE (or HELA), which can be roughly translated as ‘and’, is inserted between ‘ten’ and the unit. The difference between LE and HELA corresponds to 2 ways of counting, which are equivalent :

1. ‘ten + HELA + unit (as appearing in unique form)’
2. ‘ten + LE + unit (as appearing in compound form)’

Thus 11 is ‘alyan hela ako’ or ‘alyan-le-kung’. Both literally mean "ten and one" and can be used indiscriminately.

	10 + HELA + unit	10 + LE + unit
11	alyan hela ako	alyan le-kun
12	alyan hela anye	alyan le-nye/nyi
13	alyan hela hinge	alyan le-hin
14	alyan hela piilye	alyan le-phe/pi
15	alyan hela yango	alyan le-ngo
16	alyan hela khiiye	alyan le-khii/khe
17	alyan hela kanu	alyan le-kanu
18	alyan hela pinye/pinyi	alyan le-pinye/nyi
19	alyan hela kowa	alyan le-kowa

4°) Multiples of ten are compound forms. Compoundings are made either of the form :

1. ‘number of tens + KHAN’ : for 20, 30, 70, 80, 90.
2. ‘ten + number of tens’ : for 40, 50, 60

Thus :

20	lyikhan
30	hikhan
40	alyan-piilye
50	alyan-yango
60	alyan-khiiye
70	kanu-khange
80	pinyi-khange
90	kowa-khange

* Note that the prefixes used for 20 and 30 are respectively LYI- and HI-, different from the shortened forms -NYI- and –HING used as suffixes.

* Note also the difference between :

14 (alyan-hela-piilye) and 40 (alyan-piilye)

15 (alyan-hela-yango) and 50 (alyan-yango)

16 (alyan-hela-khiiye) and 60 (alyan-khiiye)

It seems confusing at first sight, but after all no more than English 'fourteen' and 'fourty, 'fifteen' and 'fifty', 'sixteen' and 'sixty'....

5°) multiples of hundred take the form ‘hundred + numeral’, i.e. LANG- + numeral except for 200 and 300 where the compound form of the numeral is prefixed by LA- only. Note also that LANG becomes LAM before the consonant p)

100	lan(h)e
200	lanye/lanyi
300	lahin
400	lampii/lampyi
500	lango
600	lankhii
700	lankanu
800	lampinye/lampinyi
900	lankowa

6°) Multiples of thousand take the form 'thousand (LALYAN) + numeral' :

lalyan ako = 1000
lalyan anye = 2000
lalyan ahin = 3000
etc.

However in recent years a new compound form including the Hindi word for 'thousand' (JAR) tends to replace it. It takes the form 'thousand (JAR) + numeral (contracted)'

1000	jar(h)e
2000	jarnye/jarnyi
3000	jarhin
4000	jarpii/jarpyi
5000	jarngo
6000	jarkhii
7000	jarkanu
8000	jarpinye/jarpinyi
9000	jarkowa

7°) Expressing any number above 10 is made by combining thousands, hundreds, tens and units and separating each category by the particle ‘LA’ (or HELA/LE between tens and units)

Example :

Jarnyi la lahin la alyan hela ako : 2311

P. Bouchery

Apatani language

Apatani medicine in former times

Bloodletting in one of the oldest medical practices in the world. In this historical document shot by anthropologist Fürer-Haimendorf in 1944-45 and made available online by Digital Himalaya, the bloodletting devices used by Apatanis are small bamboo tubes called take-birii. A female traditional healer applies them to face, nose and leg of a number of women of different ages who have come to her for bloodletting. They submit their affected parts to the suction of the bamboo tubes. The blood oozes into the tube and the healer then comes round to collect it - she sucks it out and spits it into a bowl.

It is interesting to remember that in Europe, for centuries fever was commonly relieved by removing an excess of blood up to the late 19^th century : suction cups, pumps, and leeches were used to suck out the infected blood. Medieval medicine in particular was based on a theory that human activity was regulated by a balance of four elemental fluids resident in the human body-blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. When the fluids were in balance, the person was healthy physically and psychically. Any overabundance of a fluid produced characteristic symptoms that could be controlled medically by releasing the superfluous fluid; consequently, a fever was relieved by removing an excess of blood… Although today it is well established than bloodletting has no or very little beneficial effect on health, it would be interesting to know the set of ideas that were underlying this practice among Apatanis.

P. Bouchery

Apatani traditional medicine