Arunachali youngsters put up a slightly plains and non-Arunachal inspired dance and music show for a New Delhi audience... 26th November 2012.
The Adi or Bokar Lhoba people is a major collective tribe living in the Himalayan hills of Arunachal Pradesh, and they are found in the temperate and sub-tropical regions within the districts of East Siang, Upper Siang, West Siang and Lower Dibang Valley and Lohit. Some of them are found in Southern Tibet around areas near the Indian border. The literal meaning of Adi is "hill" or "mountain top". They live in hill villages, each traditionally keeping to itself, under a selected chief styled Gam or Gao Burra (British era development) who moderates the village council, which acts even as traditional court Kebang. The olden day councils consist of the entire village elder and decisions were taken in a Musup/Dere or Village community house on majority verdict. The Sub-groups within Adis include Shimong, Karko, Millang, Minyong, Padam , Pangi, Pasi, Bokar-Palibo-Ramo, Bori and Komkar.
Adi celebrate their prime festival, Solung, between in the first week of September every year for five days or more. It is a harvest festival performed after the sowing of seeds and transplantation, to seek for future bumper crops. Ponung songs and dances are performed during the festival. At the last day of Solung, throne and indigenous weaponry are displayed along the passage of the houses, a belief that they would protect people from evil spirits. Adis dances vary from the slow, rustic and beautifully enchanting style Ponung to the exhilarating, exuberant thumps of Delong. These dances have led to certain forms of dancing which jointly narrate a story, the Tapu War Dance. In the Tapu War Dance, the dancers vigorously re-enact the actions of war, its gory details and the triumphant cries of the warriors. Yakjong is another kind of dance whereby the dancers carry sticks with designs created by removing the barks in certain patterns and then put into the fire for some time, which creates the marked black designs.
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