April 2nd Mon to Burma Border

Work rest houses dot the blacked fields - slash and burn agriculture 

Tuesday April 2^nd we had breakfast of eggs, toast, bananas and coffee/tea before heading off a little after 8am for the Konyak tribal town of Longwoa at the Burmese border. Aphrülie, our guide, had ordered a packed lunch for us from Helsa’s as we would be traveling 41km to get to Longwoa.  The drive took a little over 2 hrs and included several birding stops. Leslie had downloaded an app for the iPad which was for birds of Asia. She was busy testing it on the birds we saw.

Warrior with face tatoo and traditional hair

When we arrived at Longwoa, the Morung at the bottom of the hill had 3 tourist cars parked outside and about 10 American tourists with very large lens on their cameras. Enquiring if they were a bird watching group, they said no, they were travel photographers on a tour with Nevada Wier. (www.nevadawier.com). With this critical mass of tourists the women of Longwoa put on a performance of dancing. We got a few pictures for which one contributed $4.

Konyak women dancing in traditional skirt and necklaces

We then went up to the Angh’s (chieftain’s) house which is always the biggest and most impressive in the village. The Angh of each Koynak village can have multiple wives and you can tell how many he has by the number of bedrooms in his long house. This chief has 4 wives and his house straddles the Myanmar border. There are hunting trophies, gong instruments, and decorative carving of interest in the abode. The Konyak villages are ruled by their Angh and they are the only tribe that has this form of hereditary ruler. He receives crops and other items from the villagers. He can be identified by blue beaded bands just below his knees among other decorative items.

Shopping opportunities!

Angh's house with gongs and hunting trophies

This was the only village that had the villagers making handicrafts for sale. We purchased a warrior’s hat and a man’s purse complete with fur and woven sash.  As you can see from the photos, the older men of the village have tattooed faces. The Konyak are also very clever and make their own guns. We saw some in production and heard many guns being fired in the evening for a sign of festivities. We also saw opium being used, as it is part of the male tradition of the Konyak tribe. This was disturbing.

Making head necklaces - gun barrels and old warrior with facial tatoo

We had a picnic lunch on the way back towards Mon. We then drove through Mon and out the other side to the village of Chui. We walked through the village and heard the log drum being played at one of the morungs so walked over to see the performance. These morungs were where the Naga culture, customs and traditions were passed from generation to generation through folk music and dance, folk tales and oral tradition, wood carving and basket weaving. The log drums in the morungs were used to make announcements of meetings, death of a villager, and other warnings. The missionaries initially prohibited the male youth from attending the morungs “since these were associated with their former life.” (A Doctoral thesis by Vihuli Sema entitled The American Baptist Mission and the Nagas)

Hello!

Traditional Konyak house