All Things Considered

[A Gallong Adi man smoking rice for Apong]

Picture shot at Paia, a village near Along, West Siang District, Arunachal Pradesh.

Our man here is a Gallong Adi tribal preparing the paddy grains to make Apong. Apong is a beer made out of rice. It is atleast 3-month process that includes drying, smoking, fermenting, filtering and finally the concoction is drunk out of a bamboo shoot. Gallons and gallons of apong goes down the Gallong Adis’ throat during Mopin, an Adi festival in the month of March/April. What you see here is the smoking stage when the rice is smoked on fire in damp weather. With that, here is an Apong toast to you! Cheers ! :-)

Picture shot at Sille, East Siang District, Arunachal Pradesh. I also spent about 10 minutes trying to make my lips go the same way, like her gymnastic lips did. No such luck. (Ok, now don’t imagine me doing that!)

Sille (pronounced Silly) is a tribal village lies in between Oriamghat and Pasighat. She is a Sille woman. No, no - She wasn’t silly.

She giggled and blushed, shied like a little girl, clapped hands like a toddler, gestured animatedly when she spoke in the local language (that we didnt understand!). And she is 90-something. She didn’t let me take a picture of her until she’d called everyone in her family , extended family, neighbours (& their extended family),dogs and hens to witness the event. One of them in the congregation said, “Lately there have been people associated with Front (ULFA-ish people he meant?) coming into Arunachal”(Hint.hint). The only Front I can possibly think of being associated to is the ‘Garden Gnome Liberation Front’. Though I didn’t tell him that.

A young monk at NewGompa, Mekchuka. East Siang Dt, ArunachalPradesh.

Mekchuka , amidst those snow-peaked sawtooth mountains, seems really like an end-of-the-world location. But the world continues - into China beyond those mountains. It is the last village on the Indian side near the Indo-Chinese border area, which is approx 20-30 kms away, as the crow flies that is. On foot, the border is a 4-day trek for the Indian Army that goes patrolling in non-winter months. In winter, this route is practically impassable. Mekchuka is also home to two impressive gompas - The old gompa is atop a hill and is about an hours climb. The old gompa has a 10 foot tall statue of I-don’t-know-what that had three devilish head arranged in a deck (amidst other Buddhist masks, Buddha statues, butter idols, prayer wheels, Tibetian scriptures etc). The new gompa is closer to the village and is a quick 15mins climb, although slightly steep. The New Gompa being closer to the village attracts the religious crowd. The New Gompa now houses a school for young monks.

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This post is to my Dad, who has been after me to make a post on the NorthEast ever since I returned from my trip :) Dad: I’m so bored this week, why don’t you write something on your blog ? Me: You are bored and I need to post on my blog ?