Dogs in Apatani Culture

 Dogs hold important cultural significance in Apatani tribe and they are regarded as part of the family. They are recorded in folklore for carrying rice grains to our ancestors to grow (species that grows in Ziro Valley) and their roles vary across different cultures.

Photo Instagrammed by @forever_Jenshi_nini

EYU GANIIN

                                                                    IYU GANIIN

              In Tanii beliefs, IYU usually affects the human being –specially the children by causing them to loss appetites, weaknesses/tiredness and slow in growth. Whenever any children are affected, it is being indicated by child’s wish to have food from particular household.

photo from- clipartoday.com

            From my childhood, I have faded memory of IYU GANIIN incident. Once my maternal uncle’s (AKU’s) wife (ATA) performed the ritual of the EYU GABI for me. On the day of IYU GABIINI, I remember having tasty morning meal at their home and at the end of ritual I was given some gift along with the TAKI ANII (leaf of ginger), that’s all I can recall.

                

                  Though scientifically, there may be no correlation between one’s loss in appetite and tiredness to IYU GANIIN and IYU GABINII ritual. In Tanii mythological beliefs, it is believed that IYU is caused by the malevolent god named KOLYUNG IYU-which interfere the growth process of child by making him to loss appetites, weakness and resulting into stunted growth.

What is the price of SALT ???

We -the present generation of Taniis- are lucky enough to be living in this 21st century. Among today's basic commodities accessible to all is common salt, probably the only cheapest ever edible that everybody can afford. It sounds unbelievable but yet it seems to be true, just prior to the Second World War common salt was one of the costliest among all edible items available in Ziro plateau... And in those days when there were no road links from our plateau towards the plains, some among our Taniis forefathers (grandparents ?) used to travel down regularly by foot to the Brahmaputra valley in search of salt.

As our place is located at higher altitude, rock salt deposits do not often occur naturally. However, salt consumption is an indispensable necessity for all humans as the iodine it contains helps preventing a dysfunctioning of the thyroid gland known as goitre or goiter. A deficiency in iodine produces a swelling inside the neck just below Adam's Apple caused by hypertrophied thyroid glands. This phenomena, which is called Lanchu alin in Tanii, was widespread in the Himalayan region till the 50's, partly because the traditional diet of the populations did not incorporate other good sources of iodine such as sea-food or plants grown on iodine-rich soil, and was heavily dependent of traded salt.


Though our Tanii forefathers were probably unaware of the existence of the link between salt consumption and goiter, they were eagerly looking for salt for its taste alone, and were ready to spare their last penny for an ounce of it. I guess, scarcity of salt in the region must have also enhanced their taste for that substance. Some Taniis were in the habit of going every year to the Assamese plains near North Lakhimpur. There they bought salt cheaply, not only for their own use but also for resale to their neighbours further in the interior, especially Nyishis and Miris by making some profit. It really sounds unbelievable when a handful of salt used to be sold at the cost of one full grown mithun... In the absence of roads a commercial journey to the plains was usually a matter of 5-6 day trek through precipitous hill country. This was done in winter, mostly by men and boys. Interestingly, it seems that not all Taniis were involved in these barter deals. Anthropologist Fürer-Haimendorf has noted that prior to 1940 people who ventured to the plain were typically poor people attempting to better their social position by trade in goods : "Men of wealth and good status never went to the plains and when I first arrived in the Apa Tani country [1944] I found that none of the clan-headmen have ever left the hills" (1980 : 63). Interestingly also, Haimendorf reports that salt was bartered in exchange for chillies of a particular large variety which were sought-after in the plains.

The traditional importance of salt among Taniis can be seen even today from the custom of gifting a handful of salt to buniin ajin during Myoko ajin gyonii ceremony. This practice reminds us that, untill a few decades ago, a handful of common salt was among the most precious items to be gifted to near and dear ones.

TAPYO

Despite the scarcity of natural salt in the surroundings of Ziro -or maybe because of it, Tanii people were gifted with the knowledge of producing a salt substitute in the form of a salty substance from the ash of leafy plants. This man-made salt cake is locally known as TAPYO. Various sources disagree on the composition of this substance. According to my knowledge it is obtained from the filtered water of millet plant ash. The process involves long preparations : one first has to dry the left over of millet plants after harvesting, reduce it to ashes and then filter it with water; this filtered ash juice is then condensed into solid form by heating it thoroughly on the frying fan at high temperature. This way it takes a long time to make one full cake of TAPYO. According to some authors TAPYO is made out of the ash juice of three wild plants mixed together. Whatever it may be, it is likely that this locally-made salt is an effective agent against goiter, and apparently people consuming it on a regular basis have never been found suffering from it.

The manufacture of TAPYO is an age-old tradition of Taniis, and over time the substance has also become one of their favourite delicacies. TAPYO is most popularly used during important occasions such as MURUN, MYOKO and MIDA. It is a well established Tanii custom to welcome a guest with a piece of TAPYO during such said occasions, and TAPYO is also used as an apetizer at drinking parties. Depending on the process of its making it can taste differently. The best TAPYO taste can bring tremendous pleasure within guests which directly enhances the happiness of celebrations. This way TAPYO constitutes one of the most important items found in a typical Tanii household. Salt cakes are generally made by women folks.

Well made TAPYO cakes can last for quite a long time, stored for smoking on the rack located above the fireplace in Tanii interiors. Usually the salty substance is kept wrapped into a particular kind of leaf available in wild forested areas.

(Photo from Tanii Aju -by Gyati kobing)

Thinking about those days of our forefathers, when the price of salt was highest ever, I feel lucky to be living in present time. At least we can avail ourselves with common edible salt at cheaper rate. Bygone days were harder... but the scarcity of common salt in our place has also given birth to a very unique technique for producing a vegetable salt substitute.

Vegetable salt
Arunachal old salt route

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

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