Tanii beads-Introduction

Jewelry in the form of necklaces and beads has always been of great importance among the Himalayan people, and the Taniis are no exception. They cherish beads as family heirlooms, especially those they assume to be of Tibetan origin, some of them being enormously valued. Necklaces made with those beads are not only objects of pride for their owners, but also objects of public display : on festive days Tanii women wear up to 7 heavy necklaces of different compositions and sizes. Although originally acquired through barter or trade, necklaces were (and still are) normally passed down from mother to daughters, therefore some of the beads may be quite old. Necklaces are occasionally made for family and friends but generally not for business, although beads coming from Assam, Nagaland or Delhi can be bought from a few commercial stands at Hapoli market.

Most valued beads are thought to have originally come from Tibet. But the Tibetans were involved in the trade, not the manufacture of beads, and in most cases the ultimate origin of those little glass, stone, porcelain or even metal products is quite remote from the Himalayan region. The production centre for carnelian beads has been Gujarat since Harappan times (Kanungo, 2006). Glass beads originated from China (especially the so-called "padre", "Peking" or "melon" beads), or Europe (esp. Venetia). Conch and cawrie shells came from the Indian Ocean, either the Gujarat coast or the Bay of Bengal... Indian and European beads usually crossed first the Himalayas northwards from Western India, Nepal or Bhutan, where they entered Tibet. After that they could be traded or bartered back to the Himalayan southern slopes through transactions with the Tibetans, as were also Chinese beads.

One of the trading points for West Arunachal, through which undirectly a great quantity of Tanii beads and other precious items must have been acquired prior to 1959, was Taksing in Upper Subansiri District. For once every 12 years, the Tibetans and the Monpas of this area used to undertake a great pilgrimage around the Takpa Siri mountain, a near to 6,000 meter sacred peak in the Tsari district of Southeastern Tibet. The pilgrim route known as the 'great ravine circuit' (Rongkor Chenmo) started from Chosam in Tibet, entered the Indian territory at Maja, followed the Tsari Chu valley (an tributary of the Subansiri) then the Subansiri river valley upto Taksing. The whole pilgrimage lasted 3 months, during which around 20,000 Tibetan pilgrims circled the mountain. For 10 to 15 days, in the southern tip of their circuit, they had to cross the territory inhabited by the Tagins. A safe passage and some assistance had to be negotiated from them by agents of the Tibetan central Government which was directly supporting the pilgrimage (Huber, 1999). The agreement to proceeed was obtained through a formal peace treaty and the Tagins were paid yearly tributes of food and various semi-precious goods. In addition, swords, tibetan bells and beads could be acquired through barter from Tibetan pilgrims along the way. From the Tagins the beads passed to the Nyishis, who in turn bartered them to the Taniis.

Today the Taniis possess a wide array of beads, each of which is described by a separate term and often has a story or belief attached to it. In coming posts I will try my best to describe them one by one in a very succinct way, according to the information collected during my recent visit to Ziro. Keep visiting.

References :
- Huber, T., The Cult of Pure Crystal Mountain. Popular Pilgrimage & Visionary Landscape in South East Tibet, New York, Oxford university press, 1999.
- Kanungo, A.K., 2006, "Indian Ocean and the Naga Ornaments", Bulletin of Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association 26 (2006), pp. 154-162. (text in Pdf)

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Beads and necklaces
Apatani ornaments

Ziro from another angle

Click on picture to enlarge

We are all too familiar with GoogleEarth or Yahoo Maps.... A recent release from the Department of Geography at California State University provides another view of the plateau, showing the way Ziro is enclosed in its green mountainous setting and separated from the Brahmaputra valley. Just imagine when people had to travel sometimes down to the plain on foot in search for salt or iron blades...The original picture is larger, and part of a photographic collection entitled Himalaya Atlas of Aerial Panoramas - Vol I. The series offers some fantastic views of the Himalayan barrier from Uttar Pradesh to the Lohit Valley in Arunachal Pradesh. They are not aerial photos in the true sense, but a photorealistic work obtained from computer mapping. One can only regret, perhaps, some of their denominations such as 'Dafla hills' or Miri Hills' which are outdated... Anyway, hats off !

Ziro Valley

The imperative mood in Tanii

Understanding the grammar of an oral language such as Tanii is an essential step in order to preserve it in a accurate written form. In this post I have tried my best to introduce one basic point of Tanii grammar in a clear, though non-academic way. This point - the imperative mood - has already been addressed by scholars, both Taniis and non-Taniis: two "Apatani grammars" have been published (Abraham, 1985, Takhe, 1994), and one linguist (Shingo, 2003) deals with Apatani imperative in one chapter of his PhD thesis. The problem is that...the three authors often disagree. So I decided to enquire by myself with NPR and a couple of Tanii friends. Below are the results of our preliminary conversations. But the discussion is still open, and if as a Tanii speaker you find that any correction or addition should be made, please feel free to drop your comment. In particular there may be some dialectical variations of which I am unaware.

The imperative is a mood which is used to express commands, requests or prohibitions. The Tanii imperative is formed by adding a suffix to a verb root.

1. Command

• a) The most common imperative suffix in Tanii is -to.

No barito !
Stand up !

Diipyokunii atan so linto !
Those who have taken their meals, come here !

• b) To express politeness, the adverb iche (a little) is added before the verb.

Iche tanto !
Please drink !

• c) When the speaker commands the addressee to move away from the speaker (for eg. to go and do something), -nge or -he are used instead of -to.

Inka ball mi tunge !
Go and kick that ball !

Harnge !
Run (away) !

• According to linguist Shingo Imai (2003: 121), -nge is attached to verbal roots having one syllable, whereas -he is attached to verbal roots having 2 or more syllables.

Sukun hokii yasi hange !

(Go and) fetch water from the well !

Dunge !

(Go and) sit there !

Barihe !
Go [there] and stand up !

Gaihe !
(Go and) sing !

The use of -to vs -nge/-he depends on the motion of the adressee in relation to the speaker : -to is used when the addressee's position remains unchanged (1), or when the addressee is moving towards the speaker (2). -Nge or -he is used when the adressee is moving away from the speaker (3).

Note that the distinction between -to and -nge only applies to the motion of the addressee, not to the motion of an object. For example , if one wants to tell someone : "Throw this ball there !", one will have to use the imperative in -to, not in-nge. For in this case only the ball -not the addressee- is moving away from the speaker.

Siika ball mi inso ripato !

Throw this ball there !

• d) Immediate imperative is formed by adding the suffix -ku (perfective aspect marker) to the imperative form.

Diito !
Eat

Diitoku !
Eat right now !

• e) When the command affects or benefits to the speaker, the verbal root is suffixed by -pe instead of -to.
• 
  
  Mo mi tasan soye mi bito !
  
  Give one necklace to him !
  
  
  
  Ngii mi tasan soye mi bipe !
  
  Give me one necklace !

• Abraham (1985 : 102) argues that if the speaker (or the place of action) is remote from the addressee, -yupe is used in place of -pe. Our own data does not confirm this. At least in Bulla speech, to request someone to give something located in a place remote from the speaker (or to send it) is expressed by adding the suffixes -tula, -tupe, or -liipe to the verb root.
  

bitula/bitupe/biliipe !
give/send [it to me] !

2. Prohibition

• Negative imperative, or prohibitive mood, is formed by adding -yo to the verb root :

Diiyo !
Don't eat !

• It's often followed by the particle -ka, which functions here as an emphatic marker.
  

Luyoka !
Don't speak !

3. Request

• Suggesting an action to be done collectivley alongwith the addressee is formed with the suffix -sa :
  

Ngunu ka Ziro mi kapyodopa busa !
Let us keep our Ziro beautiful !

4. Permission

• It's a little more complicated matter here. The permissive imperative (used to signal permission) is formed :
  

• a) When the permission is given to the addressee, with the suffix -ngetiika. The negative form is -lakema.

• No lungetiika
  You can speak (you are allowed to speak)
  
  
  
  No lulakema
  
  You cannot speak (you are not permitted to speak)

• b) When the permission is given to a third person, with the suffix -kenento (or -kenanto or -kiinento depending on the dialect spoken). The negative form is obtained by replacing -to with -yo (=> -kenenyo)
• 
  
• Mo mi lukenento
  
  Let him speak

• Mo mi lukenenyo
  Don't let him speak

• c) When the permission is sought for the speaker, -pe takes the place of -to, => -kenempe (the transformation of n into m before p letter corresponds to the actual pronounciation which is nasalized before m, b, p letters, as in English).
• 
  
• Ngii mi (iche) inkenempe
• (Please) let me go
  

References

• - Abraham, P. T., 1985, Apatani grammar, Mysore, Central Institute of Indian Languages.
• - Takhe K., 1994, The Apatani Grammar, Itanagar, Frontier Publisher & Distributor.
• - Shingo I., 2003, Spatial deixis, PhD thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the State University of New York for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Department of Linguistics
  
• PB
  

Tibeto-burman language
Grammar
Imperative mood

Basic colours in Tanii

Every language has its own way of defining and classifying colours, whose number can vary widely. But every language has got between 2 and 12 terms which are considered 'basic' or 'elementary'.

• English language has 11 : yellow, green, blue, brown, purple, red, pink, orange, black, white, and grey.
  

• Tanii seems to have 8 : yellow (pilan), green (salyi) grue (jiji), red (lanchan), pink (lamu-layu), orange (pyamin/tormin), white (pulu), black (ji) and grey (mubu).

Different variations or shades of the same colour are distinguished for some of them, especially by means of compound words. Thus lanchan-lankho for red or vermillon (lit. 'intense, very red'), lanchan koman for crimson or carmine red (lit. 'dark red'), salyi koman for dark green, pilan-pisan for yellowish, etc. Among other words used for expressing shades of yellow colour are pilan kamo (lit. 'dark yellow', possibly yellow-earth) and pilan-lanku-lamu (meaning unknown)
Below are displayed the various colours and shades in Tanii according to our present knowledge :

• Mubu is a descriptive colour words, it is primarily used to refer to ashes from fire, but secondarily used to denote ashy colour, or grey. This is a feature shared by many Asian languages such as, for eg., Japanese.

• Jiji has a meaning that covers both blue and green, depending on the situation. Compare for eg. :

yapun hii jijido => the sky is blue.

anii hii jijido => the leaf is green.

anii hii salyido => the leaf is green.

In this context, both the sky and tree leaves are jiji, although Tanii language does have separate terms for blue and green, jiji and salyi. This is also a typical feature of many East and Southeast Asian languages such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, etc. and, of course languages of the Tani family (Tanii, Adi, Nyishi, Tagin, Miri, Mishing, etc.). Linguists have coined the specific term “grue” (from "blue" and "green"), to describe the range of colours covered by such terms. Thus, jiji would be more accurately referred as "grue" color, not only blue.

Specific colours, or hues, are reserved for animals, such as dorlan (from dor, classifier for quadrupeds and lan, red) which denotes a brown, reddish hue for animal furs, sii talan (apparently a brownish-orange hue for cows), tapu (white, fair color), or tagyo (spotted ?). Human complexions also bear specific names, such as for eg. piikhe for dark complexion. There must be specific colours for certain textiles, dyes, beads... For eg. we don't know the name of this turquoise blue found on some beads which were originally brought from Tibet.

Do you know other color names which are not listed here ? Please help us to collect them all.

Basic colors
Color names

Apatani war dresses of olden days - 2 : headgears

The Apatanis used helmet-like caps called byopa that fitted close onto the head and protected it during combat. These are made of cane and have a bowl shape, except for a protruding appendice rolled at the back of the cap. According to Pura Tado*, this part is said to imitate the shape of an ear of a siidin (barking deer, Muntiacus muntjac).

A Tanii byopa

Byopa used by Taniis are very similar to cane headgears worn neighbouring Nyishis and Miris, and it is still unclear whether Taniis used to make their own caps or simply bartered them from their neighbours as they did for many other products. Fürer-Haimendorf (1980 : 62) reports that the Apatanis were in the habit of exchanging cloths and daos for cane belts, cane hats and fibre rain-cloaks. Probably this was because cane was more easily accessible to Nyishis and Miris than it was to Taniis.

As a matter of fact, only minor differences are found between Tanii byopa and Nyishi bopa :

• * Both are decorated with a twisted cane rope running lengthwise in the middle part. For the Nyishi bopa it ends in a loop at the front side, and this loop is inserted in the hair-knot (podum) or over it, so that it holds firmly onto the head. Sometimes also the front part of the hat becomes encapsulated into the knot. Tanii hair-knots (piidin) being usually smaller they are inadequate for this purpose, and the cane rope is attached to the cap as a mere decoration (see above picture).

Nyishi bopa attached to podum.

Source : Verrier Elwin photo collection

• * Both are trimmed with bird tail feathers set up horizontally at the top of the cap towards the back. Favourite species among Taniis are eagles, buzzards and hawks [pamu, pari, still unidentified but possibly Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus), Indian Black Eagle (Ictinaetus malayensis) or shikra (accipiter badius)]. Also red jungle fowl (parii-parsin, gallus gallus) and racket-tailed drongo (Dicrurus paradiseus, Dicrurus remifer) whose beautiful pairs of tail feathers embellish the cap. A distinctive ornament much prized by Nyishis is the upper beak of hornbill species (Buceros bicornis, Aceros nipalensis), often red-dyed, which is fastened in the front side of the cap. It is not unknown among Taniis, but they use them only occasionally. The reason of this difference lies in the sociological meaning of this ornament, which is different for each society. Hornbill regalia seems to be a sign of higher status among Nyishis - but not among Taniis - and for that reason some of the beaks found on Nyishi hats are conspicuously decorated.

Red-dyed hornbill beak decorating a Nyishi bopa

• 

Ornamented hornbill beak protruding over the cap (Nyishi)

• Tail feathers of the Greater racket-tailed drongo (Dicrurus paradiseus) hanging from a Nyishi bopa.
  

• * Both Tanii and Nyishi headgears are often trimmed with the talon of a bird of prey, probably obtained from the same above mentioned species.

Talon of a bird of prey trimmed on the back portion of cane hats from Nyishi (left) and Tanii (right)






A special version of the Tanii cane headgear is rendered waterproof by adjunction of tama amu (see previous post). Tufts of the outer bark of this plant are incorporated into the basketry, which for that purpose is made coarser. Today, Tanii byopa have ceased to be used for hunting, but are still occasionally worn during war related rituals such as ropi.


*Pura Tado, "War Dresses and Weapons of the Apa Taniis", in S. Dutta and B. Tripathy, Martial Traditions of North East India, New Delhi : Concept Pub., 2006, pp.220-227.

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war dresses of olden days

headgears

Apatani war dresses of olden days - 1 : body armours

Altogether with shields, war dresses contitute defensive weapons aimed at preventing warriors from being injured by daos, arrows or spears. A distinctive feature of Tanii war dresses is the fact that they are mostly made of plants. Four accessories are considered here. Headgears will be treated in a separate post.

1. Lecha is a kind of body protection of cane matting worn in the back like a haversack. The cane basketry is mounted with fur-like substance derived from a particular tree, known as tama amu. This yet unidentified plant species resembles a palm tree or a giant fern and is found in the sub-montane forest zone. The fibers or 'hair' (amu) are probably extracted from the outer bark of the tree. Tulfts are incorporated one by one into the basketry during the manufacturing process, making this back protection look like a black cloak.

Tanii lecha. Source Ahin Sajain on Flickr







In olden days lecha were used not only for war but also for hunting, as the fibre coating makes them waterproof. By covering the back of the body they offered a complementary protection to the shield during combat. According to one previous comment from Buru "a sword cut to the back is harmlessly absorbed, though less so for a spear and no protection from an arrow."







Lecha worn by Tanii are very similar to those of Nyishis (left), and it is still unclear whether they were self-made or simply bartered from their neighbours. Fürer-Haimendorf reports that the Apatanis were in the habit of exchanging locally produced daos and cloths for fibre rain-cloaks from Nyishis and Miris (1980 : 62).

Nowadays lecha are rarely seen being used as rain shields during jungle trips, but they continue to serve during war-related rituals such as for eg. ropi.

Nyishi cloak (for comparison). Source : Verrier Elwin digitalized collection, Smithsonian Institute

2. Tanned mithun or buffalo hides were fastened around the chest and offered an efficient protection from the armpit to the groin known as hupo. Similar artifacts were used by Nyishis.

3. A large cane belt or cane matted ring (hurin), designed to protect the viscera, was put on the waist and offered additional protection. The use of this accessory has been totally abandoned nowadays, although very similar cane rings are still occasionally worn by Nyishi or Miri elderly men.

Source : Verrier Elwin digitalized collection, Smithsonian Institute

4. The so-called "tails" (ahu), which attracted much attention from the first outsiders in the late 19th century, may also have had a practical function in protecting the genital organs during combat. They consist of strands of cane strips dyed in red, loosely fastened together and bent into a loop. This "tail" was set on a loin-belt (yari) that was fastened around the waist. Nowadays ahu-yari are only occasionally worn by performers during certain important rituals.

Source : Christa Neuenhofer's photobase

In addition, Pura Tado* mentions the use of two textiles as body protections which I am unable to confirm. One is a muffler (lampru) made of Tibetan wool designed for protecting the neck. Another is jilya pulye, a coarse silk coat which, according to the author, was "so strong that the pointed or sharp-edged weapons hardly penetrate it".

*Pura Tado, "War Dresses and Weapons of the Apa Taniis", in S. Dutta and B. Tripathy, Martial Traditions of North East India, New Delhi : Concept Pub., 2006, pp.220-227.

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traditional weapons

body armours

Apatani weapons of olden days - 4 : shields

The shield (siitin) is the only defensive weapon of the Taniis. It is rectangular in shape, traditionally made of several layers of mithun or buffalo hide. After being well tanned the skins are stretched together over a bamboo framework and tied with cane. By their form as well as the materials used, Tanii shields differ from both Tibetan shields (which were invariably round) and the Indo-Persian circular convex shields (circular with four domed bosses) commonly found in the Brahmaputra Valley. They share more affinities with shields found for eg. in Nagaland and Mizoram. Unlike Naga and Mizo shields however, shields made of strong bamboo matting seem to be absent, as well as ornamentations such as brass discs or tufts of animal's hair.

A strap made of plaited cane is fixed in the back, as also a cane hand-grip set in the upper right corner.

The strap is looped over the right shoulder and the shield hands at the body left side, covering and protecting it. The hand-grip located in the upper right corner allow the left hand to hold the shield firmly, while the right hand is free and can hold a spear or a sword.

Today shields are occasionally used in several rituals related to war. The presence of one siitin in the house is also said to represent the menfolk of the household.

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olden weapons

shield