LALING YALU: Explorer of APATANI Plateau

Betty von Fürer-Haimendorf with a Nyishi man in an Apatani village. They appear to be talking, perhaps with a few words of Assamese. (Published in 1978)

Betty von Fürer-Haimendorf was wife of renowned Austrian Ethnologist and Anthropologist Christopher von Fürer-Haimendorf who did extensive fieldwork in Northeastern region of India.

* This item is protected by copyright. Please use in accord with Creative Commons license: Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC).
Source: Golden Jubilee Nyokum Yulo 2017

Apatanis and Betty von Fürer-Haimendorf

Betty von Fürer-Haimendorf is sitting on a porch railing, with a stack of freshly-cut firewood behind her. She is the centre of attention for a crowd of Apatani men, women and children, some of whom are standing on the notched board that served as steps to the porch.
Courtesy: Ziro Valley

Apatani quotes

"DIMPER MANU KA SUKUN PIITIN HOKA IPA SACHAN".

This quote is applicable to those peoples who in spite of any desirable qualities or caliber, they themselves tries to make oneself popular/famous whilst others don't find anything worth in them. Such souls can cross any limit to fend themselves a FAME. 
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Story of Dimper Manu from Apatani folktales goes this way:

Once upon a time, there lived a girl named Dimper Manu in Apatani village. She was not very attractive one amongst other village girls. Her tattoos were neither good looking one (as in olden days.. tattoos were believed to be done for beautification) and moreover she was not very hardworking like others villagers (she was the laziest one in her group). This way she always had a brunt of being ugliest and laziest among other village youths. But she always wanted to make her self popular one day.

One night, suddenly some idea struck into her mind. She found a idea to make herself POPULAR. She decided to carry out her idea near community water source SUKUN (Traditional well) of her village.

Early in the morning when dawn hasn't yet arrived, she went near the SUKUN and gave into nature's call - she passed her Latrine in front of the well.

After a while when villagers came to fetch water from well, they were shocked to see the shit and begins to inquire about the culprit. When Dimper Manu hear this news, she was elated and she herself went to village council and voluntarily admitted her deed.

The village council imposed a fine on her consisting of some Livestocks to perform the ritual of Repurifythe village well. Henceforth DIMPER MANU became very popular amongst Apatani people.
Apatani Folktales

Apatani Mythology

Qtn: Who was the first person to perform MURUNG??

Ans: According to #Apatani_Mythology, one of our ancestor by name MIPU was the first one to perform MURUNG ritual on this earth.

SUBU ARII/ARW: Horns of MITHUNS

SUBU ARII/ARW: Horns of MITHUNS
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After completion of MURUNG rituals, the horns of mithuns are dried and preserved. These preserved horns (Subu arii) are the trophies for MURUNG performer(specially for the menfolk). In Apatani tradition MITHUNS are counted as one's assets. More the numbers of horns, more wealthy is the family.

Photo courtesy: Kuru Tadii

Photo courtesy: Pascal Bouchery

Photo courtesy: Dani Sulu

Photo courtesy: #Radhe_Becktino

Recent past of Apatani culture °°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

Recent past of Apatani culture
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Q. What is the uniqueness of this particular photo (no 1)- showing supung yatañ khenii ritual???

Ans: In this particular photo we can see 6 numbers of child brides, that's the reflections from our recent past. In Apatani culture #child_marriageexisted till 70s-80s, later on it was abolished forever.

Present day's #Apatani_girl childs are more luckier in comparison with those of the pasts. With introduction of school education in Ziro, our girls have achieved feats in various fields. Today many of them are studying in various premiere institutions like IITs and IIMs.

Many of our girls have successfully cracked country's toughest and the most prestigious #UPSC exams; many of them have cracked #APPSCexams and there are numerous of administrators within our home state. Today we have administrators, doctors, engineers, lawyers, architects, scientists, teachers, police personnel, sportsman, professionals, bankers, entrepreneurs, fashion designers, yoga teachers, writers, singers, dancers, actors,painters etc.

Note: The credits for such rapid changes in our community goes to our hardworking parents. In spite of they themselves being illiterate (most of them), they could understand the#value_and_importance_of_education_for_girl_childs.

School students from Ziro

#DMING-new fashion sensation by #Rubu_Diming

Apatani girl has became State Level Champion of Delhi state in Karate. She is #Ana_Hibu daughter of IPS #Robin_Hibu

#Sunia_Taru: She wants to be a football player.. best of luck!

#Taku_Ampi-Miss Apatani 2015

#Michi_Yarang : Popular yoga teacher.

Recent past of Apatani culture

Recent past of Apatani culture
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What is the uniqueness of this particular photo showing supung yatañ khenii ritual???
Leave your comments. ....

Photo shared by #Amit_Das
Celebrating #National_Gi

rl_Child_Day on 24th January.