Revision as of 09:33, 5 January 2019

In brief

Joshuaproject

Estimated Global Speakers: 28,000

People Groups Speaking as Primary Language: 2

Scripture Status: New Testament

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• An estimate of the number of pioneer workers needed for initial church planting among unreached people groups by country. Estimates are calculated only for unreached people groups and are based on ratio of 1 worker for every 50,000 individuals living in an unreached people group by country. Some workers may already be onsite. Many more workers are needed beyond this initial estimate.

The community

LOWER DIBANG VALLEY DISTRICT- Government of Arunachal Pradesh

Who are Idu Mishmis
From: Naresh Mitra, An Arunachal tribe shows how to save their ‘big brothers’: Tigers, January 2, 2019: The Times of India

The IDU-MISHMI is a major sub-tribe of Mishmi group. Their brethren tribes are namely the DIGARU-MISHMI (TARAONS) and the MIJU-MISHMI (KAMANS). They inhabit the Lohit district, Dibang Valley district and Lower Dibang Valley district. They are of mongoloid stock and speak the Tibeto-Burman language.

The Idu Mishmi is one of the two major tribes of the district. The Idu Mishmis can be distinctively identified among other tribal groups of Arunachal Pradesh by their typical hairstyle, distinctive costumes and artistic patterns embedded on their clothes. People of sober nature still maintain deep-rooted aesthetic values in their day-to-day life with great pride and honour. All pervading goddess Nani-Intaya is the sole creator of the universe for the Idus.

The Idus have their distinct dialect, which falls under the Tibeto-Burman group of languages. Traditionally, Idus believe in animism. They worship several benevolent and malevolent spirits. Nani-Intaya and Masello Zino are worshipped as creators of mankind and universe as a whole. Mythological characters like SINE-RU a first IGU (Idu Priest) still holds high place and reverence in the minds of the people. The prints of his palm on the huge rocks at Athu Popu near Keyala Pass in Dibang Valley district on China border, is supreme and holy shrine. The major festivals of the Idus are ‘Reh’ and ‘Ke-meh-ha’. Reh festival is held during the month of February. It is an occasion for people to relax, enjoy, dance, eat and drink.

The Idus are expert craftsman. The Idu women, in particular, are very good weavers. Their great aesthetic sense is well reflected in the exquisite designs created on the clothes produced on handlooms. The Idu men are well apt in making beautiful basketry items of bamboo and cane.

A well-developed civilization dated back in the pages of history can be found in the region. Remnants of 10th Century AD found at Bhismaknagar, Chidu & Chimri villages in the lower belt of the district prove that the Idus coexisted with great harmony with the people of plains and adjoining states.

Migration

Apparently the Idu-Mishmis migrated towards the south to present habitat from Tibet through Dibang and Lohit Valleys. Some of the prominent migration points from the Tibet indicated by the ancestors are – (i) ANDIKU – the direction towards North-Pole Star, (ii) ASE-ALE – the course of Lohit river and (iii) INNI LON PON – the region where the first rays of the sun falls. There are about seventy-six clans. Some clan counts their genealogy up-to about twenty-eight generations.

Birth Ceremony

Idus believe that to have pregnancy is a great blessing of the Divine mother “INNI MASELO ZINU AYA” or Sun Goddess. After pregnancy is noticed, two cocks are tamed as sacrificial bird to offer their blood to beneficent and maleficent spirits at the time of birth ceremony for the welfare of newborn. During pregnancy the couple follow some taboos. They should not utter any abnormal outcries of birds and animals or imitate the activities of handicap persons, or kill snakes, or offer any kind of articles for burial in the grave, since the exercise of above activities is supposed to lead to deformation of the child at the time of delivery. Food and rice beer is stocked before three to two months ahead for consumption during taboo days. On delivery of the child, the father puts a bunch of shrubs at the entrance gate of the house and goes to jungle to collect the elephant grass-EPONTOH and RONTHEPA- a creeper of thorn species. He places them over the entrance of the room for protection of evil spirit and for welfare of the child. A well versed in hymn and experienced priest is invited to perform A-TA-YE- a ritual ceremony. He propitiates the INNI MASELO and other beneficent and maleficent spirits of parent and grant-father and mother of the child and appeases them with the blood of sacred cock and water adulterated with rice beer.

The members present on the occasion are entertained with food and drink and they abstain from doing hard work for one night. The name of child is decided within five days. Main taboo remains for six to nine days. The parent including members of the house should not do any hard work like cutting with axe, digging of earth, killing of wild animals, touching of poison or irritating objects. Purification of taboo called ANGI ATHON NU is held again one day within the period in between six to nine days with the help of priest. Ritual ceremony is performed as that of A-TA–YE. On this day food and drink are prepared on large scale for entertaining the invitees.

Marriage Ceremony

The Idu-Mishmi society is patriarchal and patrilineal. The property is inherited by the son from the father. The Idu–Mishmis used to practice polygamy, but incestuous marriage is prohibited.Marriage be have through elopement and abduction but the most preferable one is by negotiation or arranged marriage. The younger or elder brother can marry the widow of his deceased brother. A man may marry his step-mother (other than his mother’s sister) after the death of his father. If the step-mother refuses to remarry, she or her parent or guardian has to pay back the bride price. To marry a girl it involves a huge expenditure in cash and kind for the bride price.

Construction of House

An Idu-Mishmi house is a long one like a bus, rectangular size raised above two feet from the ground and supported on wooden posts usually accommodate a joint family. Bamboo, cane, wood and leaves of toku and straws are used for construction. The front is an extension of roof with ground floor to keep the

domesticated animal and next to it is a small veranda/corridor made of bamboo or plank for stepping up from the ladder to enter into house. A house may have a number of rooms with partitioned as per strength of the family members. There is a straight corridor/passage. Each room has a hearth and is used for both cooking and sleeping. The serial allocation of room consists of male room, which is called AGRAH. There may be passages in between two rooms for latrine and husking of paddy. Each room has one window towards the poultry yard and pigsty under the house.

Cultivation and Food Habits

The Idu-Mishmi practice both terrace and wet rice cultivation. Rice, Maize and Millet are the staple food of the Idu–Mishmis. Sweet potato and different kinds of Arum and vegetable are the usual crops. Their main meal is taken twice a day. They are fond of fish and meat. They preserve food by smoking and drying over the fireplace. The home brewed rice beer (YU) is quite popular.

Education

Modern education had a late start among the Idu Mishmis as they didn’t have early contact with the British colonizers. But educational institutions and literacy have multiplied rapidly since independence.

Economy

Idus are expert in handicraft and weaving.

The man makes basketry items out of cane, bamboo for household. The women weaves cloth with different design on both ETONWE (coat) & THUNWE (shirt). Many Idus purchase tractors and other machinery equipment for cultivation of cash crops like ginger, mustard seed and other cultivation of fruits (orange, pineapple, pears etc.), tea and paddy etc. Many literate men and women have joined government jobs, while others also undertake contract/supply works in various departments for earning their livelihood.

Death Ceremony

To die at the old age is treated as normal death but if it is accidental or premature, past acts of the deceased are supposed to have indirect effect. When a person is dead the entire village undergoes taboo for five days. During period of taboo, one does not undertake any new construction work, agricultural activities, fishing, hunting and weaving. The location or house where dead body is kept said to have been origin of taboo, so one can go there but before coming out of house or premises of taboo one must attend the purification ritual of the priest to continue normal life.

They bury their dead body along-with all movable articles. One day before of burying the dead body a well-versed and experienced priest is called to perform ritual ceremony for negotiating with the departed soul! The ritual ceremony is performed according to capability of deceased family members. If there is no custodian of the dead body, purification ritual is held for only two to three hours. The ritual ceremony of BRONCA is held for two days and AYA for four days, which involves a huge expenditure in cash and kind. The kith and kin contribute for burial ceremony. All the movable articles, irrespective of their cost/price, which belonged to or were liked by the deceased, are buried. Hence the burial is quite akin to the old Egyptian Pyramid traditions, except that burial among the Idus requires digging of sufficient rooms for the deceased and his articles.

Festivals

Reh

January 31, 2017: Arunachal24.in

Reh is one of the most important festival of the Idu Mishmis who believe that they are the children of the divine mother ‘Nanyi Inyitaya’.
From: January 31, 2017: Arunachal24.in

Reh is one of the most important festival of the Idu Mishmis who believe that they are the children of the divine mother ‘Nanyi Inyitaya’. None can get her blessings and keep alive the bond of brotherhood and social feeling strong, unless one performs the puja or celebrates the Reh festival.

The Reh festival is generally celebrated for 3 days from 01st to 03rd Feb every year. The first day is called ‘Andropu’. It is observed by offering prayers so that the festival may pass off smoothly. The mithuns are brought and tied near the house. The ‘Naya’ dance is held during the night. Eyanli is the second day and may be termed as the killing day of animals such as Mithuns and buffaloes. The guests are entertained with rice, meat and rice beer. The third day is called ‘Iyili’ and on this day heavy feast is arranged and everybody is entertained. Presents of meal-rice are also supplied to the neighbouring villagers who fail to come to the festival.

The festival requires a number of sacrificial buffaloes for offering to the great mother ‘Nanyi Inyitaya’. Presents such as money in cash and pigs are given to the relatives.

The festival being very expensive, all arrangements and preparations for the festival have to be made four or five years before the actual celebration of the festival. As such a person wanting to celebrate this festival has to take resort to the system locally called ‘Ada’ which is nothing but collection of mithuns, pigs, cash, money etc., even by way of loan from others. When ‘Ada’ is completed a tentative year is fixed about one year ahead of the actual celebration. The preparation of rice beer in large scale locally called ‘Yunyiphri’ is under taken, three to four months before the actual celebration.

After all necessary arrangements and preparations are made, ‘Tayi’ a form of calendar is served to all kith and kin as an invitation to come to the celebration on scheduled dates. The ‘Tayi’ is counted by knots on a string and each knot is cut off as a night passes on, one after another. The invited kith and kin arrive at the place of celebration when two knots remain on the string.

The Reh festival is celebrated for 6 days. The first day is called Andropu’. It is observed by offering prayers so that the festival may pass off smoothly. The mithuns are brought and tied near the house. The ‘Naya’ dance is held during the night. Eyanli is the second day and may be termed as killing day of animals such as mithuns and buffaloes. The guests are entertained with rice, meat and rice beer. The third day is called ‘Iyili’and on this day heavy feast is arranged and everybody is entertained. Presents of meal-rice are also supplied to the neighbouring villagers who fail to come to the festival.

Ilyiromunyi is the fourth day of the festival. There is not much feasting on this day. The priest only performs the rituals in favour of worshiper for bestowing upon him wealth, all round prosperity and for general well-being. Omen is observed by pouring ‘Yu’ rice beer into the ears of a pig, bound and laid on the ground. If the pig does not fidget, it is considered evil and result in bad crops, epidemic etc otherwise it is good.

The fifth day is called Aru-Go. On this day the remaining food stuff and other drinks are prepared for the feast and taken with co-villagers. The sixth day is the concluding day of the festival is known as ‘Etoanu’. On this day the blood smeared seeds are sown in the fields and rice beer is poured at the trunk of the stump for the goddess of the house hold.

History

Was Rukmini an Idu Mishmi?

Written by Adrija Roychowdhury, March 29, 2018: The Indian Express

Indeed, a mythological tale floats around the lands inhabited by the Idu Mishmi tribe that claims to be associated with the Krishna-Rukmini legend. To what extent it is rooted in Hindu mythological traditions is a far more complicated matter.

Rukmini, Rukmini in Arunachal Pradesh, Madhavpur mela in Gujarat, Vijay Rupani, Mahesh Sharma, Gujarat, North East, Arunachal Pradesh, Krishna, Krishna Rukmini legend, India news, Indian Express Popular knowledge of the Krishna-Rukmini mythology states that Krishna, who is believed to have established his kingdom at Dwarka in Gujarat, married Rukmini. (Wikimedia Commons) At the ongoing Madhavpur mela at Gujarat, attended by a large number of ministers from the North East, BJP politicians Vijay Rupani and Mahesh Sharma remarked that the Hindu God Krishna’s wife Rukmini traces her roots to the Idu Mishmi tribe of Arunachal Pradesh. In the process of retelling a popular Hindu mythological tale, they both were clearly attempting to create an important historical linkage between Gujarat and the North Eastern state. Soon After, #EkBharatShreshtaBharat (one India, ideal India) started trending across social media.

While we are yet to tell what the political motivation could be of the statement made by the two ministers, it might be useful to reflect upon whether at all there is any grain of truth in the remark. Popular knowledge of the Krishna-Rukmini mythology states that Krishna, who is believed to have established his kingdom at Dwarka in Gujarat, married Rukmini, believed to be an incarnation of Lakshmi and born to the king of Vidarbha kingdom that was located in what is now Central India. However, digging through academic work on the tribes of Arunachal Pradesh and tribal folklore of the region would reveal that Rupani and Sharma are not wrong when they trace Rukmini’s roots to the state. Indeed, a mythological tale floats around the lands inhabited by the Idu Mishmi tribe that claims to be associated with the Krishna-Rukmini legend. However, to what extent it is rooted in Hindu mythological traditions is a far more complicated matter.

What is the myth of Krishna-Rukmini among the Idu Mishmi tribe of Arunachal Pradesh?

The Idu Mishmi are a tribal ethnic community located in Arunachal Pradesh and Tibet. According to folktale specialist Praphulladutta Goswami, the Mishmis “trace their ancestry to Rukhmavir, elder brother of Rukmini, to carry off whom Krishna came all the way from Dwarka in Gujarat.” Goswami goes on to explain that among these people there exists a springtime love song in the local language that refers to Krishna and his abduction of Rukmini.

“Dear Remseiba, Srikrishna of Mathura carried off Rukmini; I have not gone to carry you off. Even then you do not care for me.”

Rukmini, Rukmini in Arunachal Pradesh, Madhavpur mela in Gujarat, Vijay Rupani, Mahesh Sharma, Gujarat, North East, Arunachal Pradesh, Krishna, Krishna Rukmini legend, India news, Indian Express The Idu Mishmi are a tribal ethnic community located in Arunachal Pradesh and Tibet. (Wikimedia Commons) Reportedly, dances and plays of ‘Rukmini haran’ are common among the members of the tribal community. It is noteworthy that a local nomenclature applied to the Idu Mishmis is that of “chulikata” (chuli-hair, kata- cut). The name is derived from a mythological saying that Krishna asked them to cut their hair as a punishment for not allowing him to marry Rukmini.

“There is a myth and there is a fort and a town called Bhismaknagar associated with Rukmini. But all of these are myths and you can’t prove a myth. Maybe its part of earlier linkages with Assam which created this story or maybe it’s a creation of regional imagination,” Jumyir Basir, Professor of Tribal Studies in Rajiv Gandhi University at Itanagar, told indianexpress.com.

How should we read the myth’s presence in modern times?

Professor Basir explains that the myth of Krishna-Rukmini in Arunachal Pradesh needs to be read in the same way we read variants of the Mahabharata. “The Mahabharata also exists in different forms. There is a Tamil Mahabharata which is very different from the one in the north. There is an Assamese Mahabharata and a Bengali one and all of these bring their entire region with their entire story,” she says. Therefore, the Krishna-Rukmini legend among the Idu Mishmis also needs to be understood as a regional variant of a popular piece of mythological literature.

However, it is also interesting to note how a tribal community has absorbed a Hindu mythological tradition. Explaining the way different religious and cultural systems interact with each other in any social context, Professor of Tribal Studies M C Behera writes in his work that “syncretic traditions have been in existence in many communities of Andhra Pradesh”.

For instance, while most among the Khasi tribe in Shillong are Christians, they still believe in the snake God, U Thlen. In Western Assam, Hindus and tribes, alike worship the snake Goddess Manasa in the rainy season. Similarly, another tribal community of the North East, the Syntengs is believed to have been worshippers of the Hindu Goddess Shakti.

The Idu Mishmi tribe are followers of animism. In other words, they are believers in the religious system that worships plants, animals and inanimate objects. Professor Basir says there has not been much absorption of Hindu traditions among most of the tribes of Arunachal Pradesh because they have their own form of animistic belief systems. However, most of these animistic belief systems can be associated with Hinduism. “For example, most of the communities believe that Banyan and peepal trees are the abode for spirits. So it’s very easy to link it with Hinduism because Hindus also revere the Banyan and Peepal trees but the belief system is different. We feel that most of these spirits are malevolent rather than benevolent and we don’t pray to these trees,” she says. She explains that over time with the institutionalisation of religious practices among the tribes, a mixed form of religion exists among most tribes.

The animistic Idu Mishmi tribe too has absorbed parts of Hindu mythological traditions, to an extent that they trace their origin to the Krishna-Rukmini legend. The myth in Arunachal Pradesh, therefore, needs to be read as a syncretism between local tribal tradition and a popular mythological telling.

Tigers

Conserving tigers the Idu Mishmi way

Naresh Mitra, An Arunachal tribe shows how to save their ‘big brothers’: Tigers, January 2, 2019: The Times of India

The Idu Mishmis Bat For A ‘Cultural Model’ Of Conservation

As conservationists and wildlife authorities grapple with the issue of man-animal conflict around sanctuaries and nature reserves, a tribal community in Arunachal Pradesh is championing a unique ‘brotherhood’ they say helps save the tiger.

The Idu Mishmi community in Arunachal’s Dibang Valley considers tigers to be “big brothers” and holds that killing the big cat amounts to “homicide”. This, they believe is a “unique conservation strategy”, which helps the big cat population to thrive in the area. But lately, the leaders of the community are worried as the area has come under the spotlight with the state forest department planning to declare the area a tiger reserve.

At the heart of the debate between the forest department and one of the smallest tribes in Arunachal lies a significant question: What constitutes good conservation technique?

The presence of tigers in the community forest came to light recently following a camera-trap report of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII). The report notes the presence of tigers at 3,630 metres – the highest in the eastern Himalayas — and says the Mishmi hills have more tigers than the designated tiger reserves of the north-eastern state. This has prompted the government to propose that the 4,149-sq.km Dibang Wildlife Sanctuary (DWS) be declared a tiger reserve.

The Idu Mishmis, however, have contested the government’s ‘one-size-fits-all’ conservation model. They claim it is their cultural belief and practices that have led to a healthy population of tigers in the Mishmi hills. They argue the ‘indiscriminate’ notification of reserves and sanctuaries would harm the community, and consequently, the tiger population.

The Idu Mishmi Cultural and Literary Society (IMCLS) recently wrote to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), saying the cultural practices of the community should be given more importance than any proposal to declare the DWS a tiger reserve. “We believe that just because tigers are ‘discovered’ in a place does not mean that it should be notified as a tiger reserve. There should be an understanding of how and why those tigers have survived in that place,” IMCLS president Ginko Lingi wrote to NTCA.

The IMCLS said Dibang valley called for a ‘new kind of tiger reserve’, to be built around the ‘cultural model’ to help the tigers thrive.

It also pointed out that the WII report did not mention how many tigers were photographed inside the DWS and how many outside. The report said 11 tigers were identified during the camera-trap exercise conducted between 2015-2017 across 336 sq.km of the DWS. In its letter, the IMCLS quoted the findings of Delhi-based ecologist-anthropologist, Sahil Nijhawan, who had conducted a similar exercise in 2013-2015 and had found that the tiger density in community-owned forests was 4.5 times higher.

Ambika Aiyadurai, an expert on the community and a teacher at IIT Gandhinagar’s department of humanities and social sciences, said the government should take the local community into confidence before taking a decision on the DWS.

Arunachal’s principal conservator of forests Ravindra Kumar told TOI that his department had begun consultations with the local community after the NTCA sought a proposal from the state government for declaring DWS a tiger reserve. “The advantage of declaring the DWS a tiger reserve is that it will not only increase the flow of funds for conservation, but also help the local community by opening up employment opportunities,” Kumar said.

Suicide

High suicide rate